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Readers are encouraged to visit frequently that page to check for updates, as Virtual ISP technical team will keep updating it with more and more Q&A to satisfy the needs of our customers (and future customers) to know more. Because as we said - Virtual ISP is more than just Internet!
- What is an IP?
Short for Internet Protocol. IP is the underlying method / language / protocol by which all machines on the Internet communicate with each other. Another such method is IPX - a protocol used by old Novell networks. Now it is almost outdated. For more information, read on the Internet about "TCP/IP protocol stack" or "OSI model".
- What is an IP address?
All computers that wish to communicate over the Internet need an IP address. The address you use on the Internet is assigned to you by your ISP and this can either be static or assigned by DHCP. The machines on your LAN can have public or private IP addresses and this can depend on the service provided by your ISP.
- What does DHCP mean?
Short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. DHCP is a means of assigning IP addresses automatically thus cutting out the possibility of making a mistake when configuring addresses manually. As this has the potential to change each time you reconnect it makes it harder to run your own services but this is possible through the use of a service like that available from www.dyndns.org
- What is a dynamic IP address?
A dynamic IP address will normally change each time you log on to the Internet.
- What is a Private IP address?
This is the IP address of your local machine if you are using NAT. This address is not publicly available and so no direct communication can occur between this machine and the Internet (communication occurs through NAT).
The governing body that controls IP addresses has assigned 3 ranges for private use which you are free to use for any of your machines and routers should not route these addresses on the Internet.
The ranges are:
10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 with mask 255.0.0
172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 with mask 255.255.0.0
192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255 with mask 255.255.255.0
- What is NAT?
Short for Network Address Translation. NAT is a method whereby many machines can connect to the Internet using the same, single public IP address. Most routers can use this to translate the private IP address of your machines on the LAN to the public IP address of the router. When the replies come back these are translated back and sent to the correct machine. This provides a layer of security as the actual address of your PC is hidden by the router.
- What does Default Gateway mean?
An (IP) address that a machine uses to send all requests to, if the request isn't on the same network (subnet) as the requesting machine.
- What does Firewall mean?
A hardware device or software application that sits between your machine and the Internet providing protection for the machines on your LAN. Firewalls can be set to only allow certain TCP/UDP ports through and the direction can be specified. This gives much greater control over what is allowed to use your Internet connection and prevents your network/PC from hostile inviduals on Internet.
- I have much more questions and I can not find the answer here!
You might visit the webpage http://www.dslreports.com/faq/faq. It contains a lot of
Q&A that could be useful to you. Bear in mind that the technical details and specification (cabling, phone systems and others) might differ from the those in Lebanon .
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