Broadband Glossary

DSL

Digital Subscriber Line, the type of phone line on which Broadband is offered.

ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. This is a DSL line where the upload and download speeds differ, namely the download speed is faster than the upload speed.

SDSL

Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line. This is a DSL line where the upload and download speeds are the same, usually reserved for business usage.

Anti-virus software

Anti-virus software provides you with a high degree of protection against computer viruses invading your computer.

Bandwidth

This is a term dictating how fast you can send and receive data using your connection, which for ADSL connections will indicate the download speed.

Broadband

A transmission technology that allows multiple signals to share one cable

Contention Ratio

This describes the maximum number of users sharing the bandwidth on the broadband connection between your local exchange and your broadband provider. The higher the number of users concurrently on a line, the slower the connection is going to be for everyone, in a similar way the traffic slows you down on your journey

Firewall

Firewalls can protect from internal and external threats. It is essentially a computer system that sits between the internet and a computer or network and controls the traffic coming through.

ISP/Broadband Provider

An acronym for Internet Service Provider. This is the company that is supplying you with your broadband service.

MAC address

Migration Authorisation Code - allows you to migrate from one broadband provider to another. If you want to switch broadband providers, then you must ask your current ISP to issue you with one, which you then give to the other ISP to connect you.

Mbps / MBps

MegaBits Per Second, the number indicates the maximum speed at which data transfer can be achieved. Since 1 Byte comprises of 8 Bits, an 8Mbps broadband connection can transfer a file at a maximum rate of 1 MBps (MegaBytes Per Second).

Modem

This is an acronym derived from the words modulator and demodulator by taking the “mo” and “dem” from the words. A modem is a piece of hardware that is used to connect computers to the Internet.

Phishing

This is when users are tricked into giving out confidential or private information they normally wouldn't do, by bogus emails or websites (Bank, Insurer, etc.), where the attacker is pretending to be someone else as to extract the information from the user.

Spyware

Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without they knowledge, usually for advertising purposes.

Wi-Fi

This stands for Wireless Fidelity and means the connection of two network devices wirelessly.

Wireless

This is where two devices connect wirelessly, aka without the need for any cables between them. You need a wireless router and a network card on your PC, in order to establish a connection. Most laptops come with a wireless network card build in, so there's no need to buy one.