Glossary3-10Appendix3rates, the buffer provides a waiting station where the data can wait until the device forwhich it is meant is ready to access it.Subnet MaskSUBNETwork mask. The method used to determine which subgroup, or subnet, an IPaddress belongs to on TCP/IP networks, all devices whose IP addresses have the sameprefix would belong to the same subnet. Dividing a network into subnets is useful for bothsecurity and performance reasons.Switching hubA network connection box to which a number of computers can be connected. Theswitching hub forwards a data packet from the network to the appropriate computeraccording to the packet’s address. Conventional hubs simply send every packet to everyconnected computer. Since a switching hub forwards packets only to their intendedrecipients, it provides greater efficiency.TCP/IPAcronym for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. The protocol used toconnect to the Internet and to wide-area networks.URLUniform Resource Locator. A standard way of specifying the location of an object, usuallya web page, on the Internet. The URL for a web page would look something like this:"http://www.w3.org/default.html". Here, “http:” indicates that a web page is beingaccessed, “http://www.w3.org” is the address of the server containing the web page, and“default.html” is the file name under which the web page is stored on the server.Vector Graphics(See definition for Raster.)WANWide Area Network.