What does it mean?
A
ADSL
'Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line', This type of circuit uses copper cabling for its infrastructure, this is slowly been replaced with faster technologies such as FTTC and EoFTTC
B
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C
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D
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E
EFM
'Ethernet First Mile' this type of circuit utilises multiple copper pairs for connectivity.
EoFTTC
'Ethernet over Fibre to the Cabinet' this type of circuit provides symmetrical bandwidth up to 20Mbps, with additional boosts this can push download bandwidth up to 76Mbps total.
F
FTTC
'Fibre to the Cabinet', the term cabinet refers to the green boxes you may have noticed on the pavements, these are the termination points for the fibre optic cables. the remaining part of the FTTC circuit, to your property, is connected via copper cables.
FTTP
'Fibre to the Premises', for these circuits fibre optic cable is used all the way to the premises, this allows for the delivery of much faster speeds than FTTC.
G
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H
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I
iPerf
iPerf is a diagnostic tool used in networking to measure the performance of the network, it is an open-source software often useful when diagnosing issues with your broadband circuit, iPerf3 is the latest version of the tool.
IPsec
'Internet Protocol Security' is a suite of protocols providing security for data traffic across a VPN Tunnel.
J
Jitter
Refers to small intermittent delays in the data flow. It can be caused by numerous things such as Congestion, Collisions and Signal interference
K
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L
Latency
Refers to how much time it takes for a packet to travel to its destination and back. This can be tested from most command prompts with the 'ping' command.
Leased Line
This is a telecommunication circuit between two locations, the circuit is referred to as fixed. It's truly always on and connected unless the carrier signal is disturbed, as such these circuits can be considered the premium choice for connectivity, extremely reliable and when bought from the correct supplier, backed by an excellent SLA.
M
MAC Address
'Media Access Control' An important element of computer networks, MAC addresses are burned in identifications for network interfaces, each device has a unique address and shouldn't be confused with IP Addresses, A typical MAC Addresses format is as follows 00:AA:B1:33:AB:FF (this is an example), MAC addresses can sometimes be found printed on labels attached to devices.
MTU
'Maximum Transmission Unit' this is the size of the largest packet or frame that can be transmitted, efficiency is met when MTUs are correctly set.
N
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O
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P
PoE
'Power over Ethernet' this can be used to power devices using the devices network cable, can be especially useful for Phones and cameras, voltages vary for with this solution and considerations are needed when implementing, device documentation should be used for guidance.
Q
QoS
'Quality of Service' can be applied to reduce packet loss and jitter on your circuit, QoS can be extremely useful if you are experiencing issues with VoIP data, where a guaranteed bandwidth will ensure clear communication.
R
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S
SIP
'Session Initiation Protocol' this protocol is associated with Telephony communications including video and messaging communications. it is used for signalling and controlling the communication.
SLA
'Service Level Agreement', this is the agreement by which we the supplier can guarantee and ensure your services. A connectivity SLA specifically defines acceptable levels of downtime and service quality such as Jitter or Latency.
SMTP
Stands for 'Simple Mail Transfer Protocol', this protocol is used for sending email from applications such as outlook, over the internet.
SSL
'Secure Socket Layer' a suite of protocols providing security and Authentication, when your web browser is displaying 'https' the 's' is using the SSL protocols. can also be used with VPNs
T
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U
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V
VoIP
'Voice over Internet Protocol' this is a set of protocols used to allow telephone communications using the internet.
VPN
'Virtual Private Network' allows access to a local network via the internet, this is achieved using a tunnel connecting two devices, protocols are used to protect the data and provide authentication (SSL or IPsec) are the protocols used to achieve the security.
W
WPAD
'Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol' this is used to direct client machines to the location of the config file which contains the necessary proxy settings, it can be used with DHCP or DNS. The advantage of this being that when devices leave the network they no longer have the proxy set.
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Y
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Z
