OUTCOME re A network terminology question

["Mark L. Levinson" <markl -at- gilian -dot- com>]

A while ago I asked about terminology for a pair of
NICs.  I was worried because the NICs were being
referred to as "inbound" and "outbound" though
to me it seemed that the distinction between them
was entirely different.  On behalf of a small
network, one NIC was interfacing with the outside
world for both inbound and outbound traffic, and
the other NIC was interfacing with the small
network itself for both inbound and outbound
traffic.  Sort of like the two doors of an airlock,
come to think of it.

I received a lot of good answers and suggestions,
and I thank everyone who replied.  Suggestions
included LAN/WAN, inside/outside, intra/extra,
a couple of ideas for getting around the problem by 
using numbers or other device-specific identifiers,
and one vote for inbound/outbound.

I had no problem with "outside."  But I was wary
of "inside," "intra," and that whole concept because
it could sound like "inside the computer" rather 
than "inside the small network."  I decided to go
for private/public instead, and our programmers,
having understood that inbound/outbound was misleading,
acceded.

Today one of the programmers came by to say that
he'd noticed that similar configurations are used 
in load balancing, and that there the terminology
is internal/external.  I don't see my quibble
(it's inside the small network, not inside the
computer) as strong enough to oppose established
terminology, so I'm planning to go with internal/external.

Thanks again,

Mark L. Levinson
MarkL -at- Gilian -dot- com