Home networking throws novices immediately into a pool of cryptic names and acronyms. Fortunately, home networks are actually fairly easy to build. The first hurdle is little more than becoming familiar with many of those names and letters. Once you learn a little terminology, the rest is often just common sense and carefully following some directions.

One of the first terms you’ll encounter, along with a great many associated acronyms, is the word ‘protocol’. The technical definition of the word and the acronyms can become very complex. But, the meaning for your purposes is really very straightforward.

A protocol is just a set of rules that have been adopted as a standard method for devices to communicate. For example, the HTTP protocol used by Internet browsers specifies a detailed list of methods for passing Internet data back and forth. More fundamentally, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is a method dictating how packets get defined and transported on a TCP/IP-based network.

Note that there are various ways, involving other protocols, to establish networks and their rules. IBM was one of the earliest with its SNA network philosophy, which was in wide use in business for decades. Though commonly replaced now by TCP/IP, it is still in use around the world. And these two are not the only ones that have been widely adopted at one time or another.

While the details are of interest only to professionals and geeks, there are aspects that affect how a home network builder has to proceed. Knowing some of them will help you choose equipment and design your network intelligently.

For example, one of the central pieces of home network gear (as it is for professional networks) is the router. But routers come in various types, each associated with a particular protocol. Wireless routers, for example, may use the 802.11b or 802.11g protocol. The technical definition isn’t important, but knowing that the first is rated at 11 Mb (11 megabits/sec transfer rate) versus 54 Mb throughput impacts your network.

Though the first is rated at 11 Mb, like many things, that’s the rate under idealized conditions. The real throughput is about 6-7 Mb. And keep in mind that there are 8 bits per byte (equivalent to one character of data). So the actual transfer rate, even ideally, is already only 1/8th of what you actually tend to think of when transferring files. Even faster gear that follows the 802.11n standard running at 100 Mb should be available soon.

Similarly, most people have no reason to care about the details of the Ethernet protocol. But knowing that 802.3 is the standard protocol used in Ethernet networks helps remove some of the strangeness from yet another cryptic computer number. At the same time, it’s helpful to know that 10BaseT is more or less a synonym for wired Ethernet networks that run at 10 Mb (10 megabits/sec). 100BaseT is the standard for cabled Ethernet networks that use equipment running at 100 Mbps.

Every week there will be a new acronym and a new unfamiliar set of numbers created. That’s the computer business and network designers are among the geekiest in the biz. But get familiar with a few of these protocols and related items and you’ll soon be barking them out with the best of them.

Related posts:

1. Home Networking Options
2. Home Networking – Wireless Network Pros and Cons
3. Home Networking Is For You
4. How Does Home Networking Work?
5. Home Networking – Firewalls

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