L

Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)

An industry-standard Internet tunneling protocol that provides encapsulation for sending Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) frames across packet-oriented media. For IP networks, L2TP traffic is sent as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) messages. In Microsoft operating systems, L2TP is used in conjunction with Internet Protocol security (IPSec) as a virtual private network (VPN) technology to provide remote access or router-to-router VPN connections. L2TP is described in RFC 2661.

See also Internet Protocol security (IPSec).

See also Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).

See also tunnel.

See also User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

lease

The length of time for which a DHCP client can use a dynamically assigned IP address configuration. Before the lease time expires, the client must either renew or obtain a new lease with DHCP.

See also Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

See also IP address.

Lmhosts file

A local text file that maps network basic input/output (NetBIOS) names (commonly used for computer names) to IP addresses for hosts that are not located on the local subnet. In this version of Windows, this file is stored in the systemroot\System32\Drivers\Etc folder.

See also IP address.

See also network basic input/output system (NetBIOS).

load balancing

A technique used by Windows Clustering to scale the performance of a server-based program (such as a Web server) by distributing its client requests across multiple servers within the cluster. Each host can specify the load percentage that it will handle, or the load can be equally distributed across all the hosts. If a host fails, Windows Clustering dynamically redistributes the load among the remaining hosts.

local area network (LAN)

A communications network connecting a group of computers, printers, and other devices located within a relatively limited area (for example, a building). A LAN enables any connected device to interact with any other on the network.

See also network basic input/output system (NetBIOS).

See also virtual local area network (VLAN).