Glossary     [: Autonomous System (AS) :]     An Autonomous System (AS) is a group of IP networks operated by one or more network operator/s which has a single and clearly defined external routing policy. Exterior routing protocols are used to exchange routing information between Autonomous Systems.     [: Autonomous System Number (ASN) :]     A public AS has a globally unique number, an Autonomous System number (ASN), associated with it; this number is used in both the exchange of exterior routing information (between neighboring Autonomous Systems), and as an identifier of the AS itself. There are two types of Autonomous System numbers; Public AS numbers and Private AS numbers.     [: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) :]     Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the protocol used to determine how to route data from one point on a network to another. At it's simplest, BGP says that a certain IP is controlled by a certain AS, then the router looks to see the closest AS in it's table to get to the end point, the data is handed to that network, and the cycle continues until the end point is reached.     [: Domain :]     A domain name locates an organization or other entity on the Internet. For example, the domain name www.analogx.com locates an Internet address for "analogx.com" at Internet point 63.166.232.200 and a particular host server named "www". The "com" part of the domain name reflects the purpose of the organization or entity (in this example, "commercial") and is called the top-level domain (TLD) name. The "analogx" part of the domain name defines the organization or entity and together with the top-level is called the second-level domain name. The second-level domain name maps to and can be thought of as the "readable" version of the Internet address.     [: IP Address :]     In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP) today, an IP address is a 32-bit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information that is sent in packets across the Internet. When you request an HTML page or send e-mail, the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if more than one is required) and sends it to the IP address that is obtained by looking up the domain name in the Uniform Resource Locator you requested or in the e-mail address you're sending a note to. At the other end, the recipient can see the IP address of the Web page requestor or the e-mail sender and can respond by sending another message using the IP address it received. An IP address has two parts: the identifier of a particular network on the Internet and an identifier of the particular device (which can be a server or a workstation) within that network. Each octet from left to right on an IP address narrows the scope of what it's describing, so the last octet is what uniquely identifies a particular server.     [: Knodes Index :]     Not to be confused with a network Node, our Knodes Index is our measure of how a network provider compares to others - the higher the Knodes index, the better the network. If you're wondering what the name means, it represents the analysis FixedOrbit performs (the Knowledge) with the network topology (the Node), in a sorted order (the Index) - put it all together, and you get the Knodes Index.     [: Network :]     In information technology, a network is a series of points or nodes interconnected by communication paths. Networks can interconnect with other networks and contain subnetworks.     [: Node :]     A network node is machine/device connected to a network. This could be anything from a router to a webserver and can be an endpoint or a hop inbetween.     [: Peer :]     A peer is another network with which a network has made an arrangement to exchange Internet traffic traffic.     [: Peering :]     Peering is the arrangement of traffic exchange between Internet service providers (ISPs). Larger ISPs with their own backbone networks agree to allow traffic from other large ISPs in exchange for traffic on their backbones. They also exchange traffic with smaller ISPs so that they can reach regional end points.     [: Point of Presence (POP) :]     A term originally coined by the Ma Bell, a point of presence (more commonly know as a Pop) is a physical connection point between the real world and a network. Examples of Pop's would be data centers, telephone company switching centers, and virtually any other location that network devices can be installed.     [: Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) :]     IP address allocation is controlled by what are referred to as RIRs. Each RIR is responsible for a specific region of the world; there are currently four RIRs: RIPE, the Europeans IP Networks. AFRINIC, the African Internet Numbers Registry. APNIC, the Asia Pacific Network Information Center. ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers. LACNIC, the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry. Copyright ©2001-2006, AnalogX. All rights reserved.