Knowledge Base

Glossary

Core networking, security, and infrastructure terms used across our articles and tools.

Broadcast Address

In IPv4, the last address in a subnet used to reach all hosts in that subnet.

Also seen as: broadcast

CIDR

Classless Inter-Domain Routing notation that represents an IP network and prefix length, like 10.0.0.0/24.

Also seen as: prefix length

DNS

Domain Name System maps domain names to IP addresses and other records.

Also seen as: domain name system

Firewall

A policy enforcement layer that filters and controls inbound and outbound traffic.

IPv4

Internet Protocol version 4 uses 32-bit addresses, commonly written in dotted decimal format such as 192.168.1.10.

Also seen as: ip v4, ip version 4

IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6 uses 128-bit addresses, written in hexadecimal groups such as 2001:db8::1.

Also seen as: ip v6, ip version 6

Latency

The time delay for a packet or request to travel from source to destination, often measured in milliseconds.

Subnet Mask

A 32-bit mask used in IPv4 to separate network bits from host bits, such as 255.255.255.0.

Also seen as: mask

Throughput

The amount of data successfully transferred over a network in a given time period.

Also seen as: bandwidth throughput

VPN

Virtual Private Network creates an encrypted tunnel between endpoints across untrusted networks.

Also seen as: virtual private network

Wildcard Mask

The inverse of a subnet mask, often used in ACL and routing policy definitions.

Also seen as: inverse mask

Zero Trust

A security model that continuously verifies identity, context, and device posture instead of assuming trust based on network location.

Also seen as: zero trust architecture