External

1. Term used to describe a hardware device that is installed outside of the computer. For example, a printer is an external device because it is connected to the back of the computer and is outside of the case; where a video card is almost always an internal video card.
2. When referring to a network, external can be used to describe data that is accessible to those inside and outside of the private network. For example, the Internet is an external source of data on a network.
3. In general, external refers to anything outside of a location.

Also see: External bus, Internal, Third-party