Digital / I.T. Glossary

Broadband - Broadband is a high-speed internet connection. Before broadband, intern with dial-up connections that were very slow by today’s standards.

The most common types currently available are:

ADSL - ADSL stands for asymmetric digital subscriber line, also known as standard br broadband that provides an internet connection through the same line as your home phone.

It’s the most basic and commonly available type of connection. The other types of fixed-line broadband are cable and fibre broadband

Cable broadband - Cable broadband connects your home/business to a fibre cabinet in your area However, instead of using copper wires, cable broadband uses coaxial cables to connect to the cabinet, giving you a much faster internet connection than the traditional copper phone line cables used for ‘superfast’ broadband connections (up to 60Mbps).

What is a coaxial cable? Coaxial cable consists of a copper wire surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, separated by an insulating material Also known as coax cable, this type of cable is ideal for carrying high-frequency electrical signals with low losses

What is fibre broadband? Fibre broadband is a fairly inclusive term it simply means that fibre cables are used at some point throughout the connection from your provider to your home/business. To achieve a top-end internet speeds, you will need to have fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband. This means your connection is entirely serviced with fibre optic cables, from the exchange to your street cabinet and then also from the street cabinet to your home/business

FTTC (Fibre to cabinet) broadband connection - FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) is the most common type of broadband connection used in UK homes. It uses a blend of fibre and copper cables to deliver broadband into the premises via existing copper telephone wires. This makes it quick and cheap to install, as well as highly available throughout the UK.

An FTTC connection is shared with many other users around your local area This means it’s performance will be hindered during peak hours (when many other people are using it) and as such is not powerful enough for some businesses, especially those that rely heavily on internet use

Mobile broadband uses the mobile broadband network to connect you to the internet. It can be used anywhere there is a mobile phone signal.

Satellite - Satellite broadband connects to the internet via geostationary satellites While it has universal availability the main drawback is cost, which tends to be significantly higher than other types of broadband in terms of both setup and running costs

Broadband speed - Broadband speed will tell you your current internet speed in seconds. You can test your speed using a free Uswitch Broadband Speed Test (there are many others too) : Speed Test | UK Broadband Speed Checker with Uswitch com

Broadband speed will depend on many factors, including:

● Distance from the telephone exchange

● Time of day you go online

● Number of people in your business using the internet at the same time

● Wi-Fi interference from outside your as well as from your own devices

● Software updates & other downloads on your devices (mobile devices & TVs as well as your computers)

● Increased internet usage by others on the same ISP exchange

● Temporary problems with your internet provider

An average download speed in an urban area in Sussex not too far from the exchange and upload around 17Mbps

Why is broadband speed important? When it comes to internet speeds, most people t speeds but upload speeds are increasingly important.

Fast speeds allow for quicker downloads, uninterrupted streaming and also help to reduce the problems caused when a lot of people log on at the same time Faster upload speeds will make it easier to upload large attachments, make video calls, create content for platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and other services

Digital social care has produced a guide to help care providers understand what they need to consider They recommend that:

Care homes have broadband with a download speed of 40Mbps or more.

Care homes with 50 beds or more could benefit from a download speed of over 300Mbps where available.

As a guideline, 100 Mbps is good for multiple users/devices.

Below are examples of different internet activities to see what your internet speed needs might be:

Web browsing, social media and email: 1 Mbps

File downloads: 10 Mbps

Remote employee: 25 Mbps

Video streaming: 3 to 4 Mbps for standard, 5 to 8 Mbps for HD, 5 to 8 Mbps for 4K HD video conferencing: 6 Mbps

As well as broadband speed, you need to consider bandwidth

The list below shows how much upload bandwidth common internet activities use.

Digital social care resource: A quick guide to care home broadband - Digital Social Care

What is network bandwidth? Network bandwidth is a measurement indicating the maximum capacity of a wired or wireless communications link to transmit data over a network connection in a given amount of time Typically, bandwidth is represented in the number of bits, kilobits, megabits or gigabits that can be transmitted in 1 second Bandwidth is not a measure of network speed

Difference between bandwidth and internet speed - An easy way to understand the difference is to use a bath tap analogy:

The rate at which the water flows is the speed, but the amount of water that comes out is the bandwidth If you have a wider tap, more water will come out and fill the bath faster than if you had a more narrow tap You’ll need more water (bandwidth) to flow at the same speed if you’ve got more than one device connecting to the internet

What are bits, bytes, MB, KB, GB, TB etc?

A bit is the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store A bit is either anything in data -a letter, a numeric value, a special character, etc. 1 byte is equal to 8 represented by a capital B letter and bit is always represented by a small b letter. Henc

There are 1000 MB in one GB

There are 1000000 KB in one GB

There are 1000 GB in one TB

There are 1000000 MB in one TB

What is an IP address - An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network IP stands for "Internet Protocol," which is the set of rules governing the format of data sent via the internet or local network.

Your device indirectly connects to the internet by connecting at first to a network connected to the internet, which then grants your device access to the internet

When you are at home, that network will probably be your Internet Service Provider (ISP) At work, it will be your company network

Your IP address is assigned to your device by your ISP.

Your IP address can change For example, turning your modem or router on or off can change it Or you can contact your ISP, and they can change it for you

When you are out and about and you take your device with you, your home IP address does not come with you This is because you will be using another network (Wi-Fi at a hotel, airport, or coffee shop, etc ) to access the internet and will be using a different (and temporary) IP address, assigned to you by the ISP of the hotel, airport or coffee shop.

IP address security threats

Online stalking - tracking down your IP address by stalking your online activity Any number of online activities can reveal your IP address, from playing video games to commenting on websites and forums

Downloading illegal content using your IP address- using the identity of your IP address to download pirated movies, music, and videos or content that could attract the attention of law enforcement.

Tracking down your location - using geolocation technology to identify your region and potentially pinpoint your address

Directly attacking your network- one of the most popular is a DDoS attack (distributed denial-of-service). –creating too much traffic for the server to handle, resulting in a disruption of services.

Hacking into your device - The internet uses ports as well as your IP address to connect There are thousands of ports for every IP address, and a hacker who knows your IP can try those ports to attempt to force a connection For example, they could take over your phone and steal your information If a criminal does obtain access to your device, they could install malware on it

How to protect and hide your IP address

Hiding your IP address is a way to protect your personal information and online identit hide your IP address are:

● Using a proxy server

● Using a virtual private network (VPN)

What is a router? - A router is a device that communicates between the internet and the devices in your home/business that connect to the internet As its name implies, it “routes” traffic between the devices and the internet A router is a key part of your home’s internet network Thanks to it, your laptop, smartphone, smart TV, and other devices can connect to your Wi-Fi

What are the different types of routers? - In order to connect a LAN to the Internet, a router first needs to communicate with a modem. There are two primary ways to do this:

Wireless router: A wireless router uses an Ethernet cable to connect to a modem It distributes data by converting packets from binary code into radio signals, then wirelessly broadcasts them using antennae Wireless routers do not establish LANs; instead, they create WLANs (wireless local area networks), which connect multiple devices using wireless communication.

Wired router: Like a wireless router, a wired router also uses an Ethernet cable to connect to a modem. It then uses separate cables to connect to one or more devices within the network, create a LAN, and link the devices within that network to the Internet

In addition to wireless and wired routers for small LANs, there are many specialized types of routers

LANs and WANs - Most routers pass data between LANs (local area networks) and WANs (wide area networks). A LAN is a group of connected devices restricted to a specific geographic area. A LAN usually requires a single router

A WAN is a large network spread out over a vast geographic area. Large organizations and companies that operate in multiple locations across the country, for instance, will need separate LANs for each location, which then connect to the other LANs to form a WAN

Modem - Although some Internet service providers (ISPs) may combine a router and a modem within a single device, they are not the same

A router forms networks and manages the flow of data within and between those networks, while a modem connects those networks to the Internet Modems forge a connection to the Internet by converting signals from an ISP into a digital signal that can be interpreted by any connected device

If you have a router, but no modem, you will be able to create a LAN and send data between the devices on that network but you will not be able to connect that network to the Internet If you have a modem, but no router you will be able to connect a single device to the Internet (for example, her work laptop), but cannot distribute that Internet connection to multiple devices (say, her laptop and her smartphone)

Servers and Hosts - Hosts are computers that connect to a network Servers, are hardware devices or software that provide services to other computers or programs within networks For example, if you want to download a document from another computer that is in the same network as yours. That computer is ‘hosting’ the document

Network - A network is any number of independent computer systems that are interco exchange is possible Even just two computers connected to each other can be classi are set up to transfer data from one system to another, or to share resources, such as printers on the network. Depending on the size and range of the computer network, yo different network dimensions. The most important network types include:

Personal Area Networks (PAN)

Local Area Networks (LAN)

Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN)

Wide Area Networks (WAN)

Global Area Networks (GAN)Network

WiFi

Wi-Fi is a wireless networking technology used by computers, smartphones, and other devices to connect to the internet or other devices.

VoIP Calling - VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It is a phone technology that allows you to make and receive phone calls using the internet instead of traditional phone lines A VoIP phone or IP phone uses voice over IP technologies for placing and transmitting telephone calls over an IP network, such as the Internet This is in contrast to a standard phone which uses the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) A VoIP phone is a hardware- or software-based telephone designed to use voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology to send and receive phone calls over an IP network.

1,2,3,4 and 5G - 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G are the five generations of mobile networks where G stands for Generation, and the number denotes the generation number

Firewall - A firewall is a network security device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and permits or blocks data packets based on a set of security rules Its purpose is to establish a barrier between your internal network and incoming traffic from external sources (such as the internet) in order to block malicious traffic like viruses and hackers.

Malware - Malware, or “malicious software,” is an umbrella term that describes any malicious program or code that is harmful to systems

Patches - A security patch is a change applied to an asset to correct the weakness described by a vulnerability

Cookies and Browser caches - Computer cookies are small files used by web servers to save browsing information, allowing websites to remember your device, browser preferences, and associated online activity.

Browser caching is a process that involves the temporary storage of resources in web browsers

When you use a browser, like Chrome, it saves some information from websites in its cache and cookies Clearing them fixes certain problems, like loading or formatting issues