..:: Broadband Jargon Buster

By now you should of heard about Broadband. So what do all these silly acronyms mean?

ADSL
Asymetric Digital Subscriber Line - ADSL is a technology that transforms a standard twisted pair of copper wires telephone line into a high-speed always on, internet connection capable of simultaneously carrying voice and data. It is termed 'asymmetric' because data moves in one direction faster than in the other i.e. data is transmitted faster from the exchange to you rather than from your premises to the exchange.

Bandwidth
The capacity of your internet connection to transmit and receive data. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second. Imagine your internet connection is a pipe, the bigger the pipe, the faster the information will flow.

Broadband
A generic term for high speed digital internet connections. Click here for more information.

Contention Ratio
This describes the maximum number of users sharing the bandwidth on the connection between your local exchange and the Internet Service Provider.. A customer with a contention ratio of 20:1 never has to share this bandwidth with more than 19 other users

IP address
Stands for Internet Protocol address, the host computer assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider when you make a connection. A static IP address means your ISP permanently assigns your connection to a particular host computer. IP addresses are numeric, you may have noticed them occasionally in the address bar of your browser. For example, 84.92.1.4 is better known as www.broadband4lhanbryde.co.uk An internet service called DNS (Domain Name System/Service) translates the request for www.broadband4lhanbryde.co.uk into the corresponding IP address.

RADSL
Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line - A broadband technology which extends the outer reach of copperwire DSL from 3.5 km to 5.5 km distant from a DSL-enabled exchange.

SDSL
Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a broadband variant that signifies equal or near equal bandwidth up and downstream.

Contact us if you know of any more which should be added to the list.

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