Glossary

ad hoc network: A type of wireless network in which devices directly communicate with each other rather than through a Wireless Access Point (WAP). Ad hoc networks are typically small and simple. Performance on these types of networks can degrade if more than six devices are on the network. Ad hoc networks are also known as “peer-to-peer” networks.

alphanumeric: Alphanumeric strings contain the characters “0” through “9” and “a” through “z.” Alphanumeric strings are case sensitive. Enter “A” is not the same as entering “a.”

authentication: Authentication is a wireless network security strategy. On a network with authentication, devices use a shared key as a password and only communicate with devices that know the key. Unlike WEP, authentication does not encrypt the data sent between wireless devices. However, authentication can be used in conjunction with WEP. Authentication keys and WEP keys can be identical.

device name (IP hostname): An device name, or “IP hostname,” is a friendly (or easy-to-identify) name that can be used in place of the printer's IP address. If a hostname has been assigned and configured on the printer (for example, printer1.marketing.com), you can specify the hostname to identify the printer.

gateway: See Wireless Access Point (WAP).

Hardware address (MAC address): A hardware address, or “MAC (Media Access Control) address” is an address that uniquely identifies each node or device on a network. As defined by the IEEE 802.3 network standards, it consists of a 12-digit hexadecimal number (for example, 001083123ABC). The hardware address is assigned by the device vendor.

hexadecimal: Hexadecimal digits contain the characters “0” through “9” and “a” through “f.” Hexadecimal digits are not case sensitive. Entering “A” is the same as entering “a.”

infrastructure network: A type of wireless network in which devices communicate with each other through a Wireless Access Point (WAP), such as a wireless network hub, router, or gateway.

IP address: An IP (Internet Protocol) address uniquely identifies each device on a TCP/IP network and is assigned by a Wireless Access Point (WAP) or a network administrator. It consists of a four-byte (32-bit) number in the form n.n.n.n, where n consists of a number from 0 to 255.

network name (SSID): A network name is an alphanumeric character string that provides basic access control to a wireless network. A network name is also known as a “service set identifier,” or “SSID.”

peer-to-peer: See ad hoc network.

router: See Wireless Access Point (WAP).

USB cable: A Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable is a common direct-connect cable option.

WEP: Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) provides security by encrypting data sent over radio waves from one wireless device to another wireless device. WEP encodes the data sent across the network making the data unintelligible to eavesdroppers. Only devices that share the same WEP settings as the printer will be able to communicate with the printer.

WEP key: A WEP key, or “encryption key,” is a sequence of alphanumeric characters or hexadecimal digits. A WEP key is either 64 or 128 bits long. The first 24 bits of the key are provided automatically. When creating the WEP key, the person creating the key provides the remaining bits: 40 bits in the case of a 64-bit key, or 104 bits in the case of a 128-bit key.
To create a WEP key, enter the following depending on whether the WEP key is alphanumeric or hexadecimal and how many bits it contains:

Wireless Access Point (WAP): A Wireless Access Point (WAP) is a device through which devices (for example, computers and printers) on an infrastructure wireless network communicate with one another. wireless network hub: See Wireless Access Point (WAP).