A thin wire, used to connect your television and Cable Modem to the cable
TV system. You can buy coax from any electronics retailer and many dis-
count stores.

Cross-over

An Ethernet cable used to connect two hubs (or a hub and a cable modem)
together. Also, some Ethernet hubs may have built-in cross-over on one or
more ports (which eliminates the need for a cross-over cable).

DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. An IP protocol used to provide an IP
address and location of services (such as DNS and TFTP) needed by a
device connecting to the network. DHCP allows the cable company to con-
figure your computer’s networking software for you.

DNS

Domain Name Service (Server). An IP service that associates a domain
name (such as www.example.com) with an IP address.

Downstream

In an HFC network, the direction from the head-end to the subscriber.
Some older cable documentation may refer to this as the forward path.