Glossary of Terms - Broadband

ADSL

Asymmetric or Asynchronous Digital Subscriber line is a type of DSL. It is called asymmetric because the downstream data (from the exchange to your premises) is transmitted faster than the upstream data (from your premises to the exchange).

Bandwidth

Bandwidth refers to the competence of the Internet connection to receive and transmit data and is measured in bits-per-second. The higher the capacity the faster the connection will be. While dial up connections offer 56kbps speed, broadband can achieve 10 to 40 times faster speeds than dial up.

Cable Modem

Broadband can be delivered via cable television infrastructure to make use of the unexploited bandwidth on a cable TV network. In this case, cable modems are necessary for accessing the digital signals sent.

Contention Ratio

This ratio denotes the number of users using a particular bandwidth. 20:1 means 20 users sharing a single bandwidth and is ideal for businesses. When this ratio gets higher, the quality of your connection deteriorates. Few providers offer 1:1 contention ratio or "Uncontended" bandwidth, which perceptibly means the entire bandwidth is used by a single user.

Dial-up

Dial-up connects you to the Internet through a telephone line but it is not always on and offers very low speeds compared to broadband. One cannot use the telephone while browsing the Internet or vice versa. It is not a dedicated line.

Download (or) Downstream

Date transferred from the Internet to one's computer is called download or downstream.

Upload or Upstream

Transferring Data or files from one Computer to another computer or server through internet.

DSL

DSL is one of the technologies used to connect a computer to the Internet through telephone lines. The telephone line is shared to transmit both voice and data. Unlike dial up, DSL allows a continuous connection (always on) and simultaneous usage of a telephone and Internet.

Firewall

Hardware (in the router) or software (in the computer) that guards a computer or network from unauthorised access and hackers, through the Internet, is called firewall

GB (Gigabyte)

A unit used to measure data size and is 1024 times larger than 1 MB (megabyte).

Hotspot

Hotspots are select public points that permit wireless access to the Internet. This facility is offered by some ISPs

Internet

It is a network of networks. Anyone with a computer and Internet connection can send and receive information to and from this network.

Intranet

Intranet is a private network setup for internal usage of a company or organisation for which access is restricted to authorised users alone.

IP address

An IP address is a numerical address of a computer used to locate it in a network. Eg: 191.246.35.103

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

A company that provides Internet connection is called an ISP.

Kbps (Kilo bits per second)

It is a measure of the speed of data transfer. It represents 1000 bits per second.

Megabit

Megabit is used to measure the speed of broadband. It is one million bits per second and is represented as Mb or Mbps.

Megabyte

Megabyte is the unit of measure of data size. 1 MB is 1024 kilobytes and 1 kilobyte (KB) is 1024 bytes.

Micro filter

This electronic device is connected to the telephone socket and has two sockets in itself; one for connecting a telephone or a fax and the other for a computer or a router. Since a single copper circuit or telephone line is shared for both telephone and broadband (in DSL types) a micro filter is required to separate voice signals and data signals, thereby preventing interference.

Modem

A device used to convert digital signals from the computer to analog signals to be transmitted over telephone lines and vice versa. The former process is called modulation and the latter is demodulation, hence the name - modem - MO (modulation) DEM (demodulation)

Peer-to-peer network

A network of computers communicating with each other (for file sharing) without a central server is called peer-to-peer network and in this way it varies from a client/server network.

Router

It is a hardware device that switches Internet traffic between different computers in a network. It is also called a gateway.

Satellite Broadband

Broadband connection supplied by a satellite.

SDSL

SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a variant of DSL were the upstream and downstream are equal or nearly equal.

Static IP address

An IP address that does not change every time you get connected to the Internet is called as static IP address.

Dynamic IP address

Internet Protocol (IP) address is an address allotted to a computer when it is connected to the Internet. This address identifies your computer in the online network. Dynamic IP address changes every time the computer connects to the Internet.

VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol

It is a type of technology used to send voice signals through broadband thus enabling cheap or free calls over the Internet.

Web space

Web space is the storage space on a server to store emails or host websites and it can be accessed through the Internet.

Wi-Fi

A wireless network system that uses radio signals to connect computers to the modems within the area of the signal is called Wi-Fi.