Network addresses are usually of two types:
the physical or hardware address of a network interface card; for ethernet this 48-bit address might be 0260.8C00.7666. The hardware address is used to forward packets within a physical network. Fortunately, network users do not have to be concerned about hardware addresses since they are automatically handled by the networking software.
The logical or Internet address is used to facilitate moving data between physical networks. The 32-bit Internet address is made up of a network number, a subnetwork number, and a host number. Each host computer on the Internet, has a unique address. For example, all Internet addresses at Colorado State have a network number of 129.82, a subnet number in the range of 1-254, and a host number in the range of 1-254. All Internet hosts have a numeric address and an English-style name. For example, the Internet address for UCC's CYBER 840 is 129.82.103.96; its Internet name is csugreen.UCC.ColoState.EDU.
address resolution
Conversion of an Internet address to the corresponding physical address.
On an ethernet, resolution requires broadcasting on the local area network.
administrivia Administrative tasks, most often related to the maintenance of mailing lists, digests, news gateways, etc.
anonymous FTP Also known as "anon FTP"; a service provided to make files available to the general Internet community—-Anonymous FTP.
ANSI The American National Standards Institute disseminates basic standards like ASCII, and acts as the United States' delegate to the ISO. Standards can be ordered from ANSI by writing to the ANSI Sales Department, 1430 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, or by telephoning (212) 354-3300.
archie A service which provides lookups for packages in a database of the offerings of countless of anonymous FTP sites. archie for a full description.
archive server An email-based file transfer facility offered by some systems.
ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) Former name of DARPA, the government agency that funded ARPAnet and later the DARPA Internet.