Jargon Buster

Webopedia defines a WAN as “a computer network that spans a relatively large geographical area.” Typically, a WAN consists of two or more local-area networks (LANs). It is in essence a network that spans multiple locations connecting local area networks (LAN’s) A LAN could be the pc’s in your office in it’s simplest form. The advantages for SME’s or large corporations is that it allows access to shared folders and applications and even monitor usage across multiple offices either nationally or internationally.

• Download speed: This refers to the speed at which information is transferred from the internet to your computer. Better download speeds mean you can get photos, music, and video from the internet faster than if you’re using a slow connection. This is particularly apparent if you are using a lot of video or watch film or online TV. A slow download speed will create pauses (or buffering) for loading.
• Upload speed: This refers to the speed at which information is transferred from your computer to the internet. The faster the upload speed, the smoother the online experience. Upload speeds particularly affect how quickly emails send, post photos on Facebook or upload large videos or batches of photos to sites like YouTube and Flickr.

On typical home broadband, upload speeds are considerably slower than download speeds, so don’t be alarmed if you see a disparity between the two. Providers give ‘downstream’ data priority as most of us are more concerned with how quickly we can download stuff than how long it takes us to upload files.

Service level agreement. This sets out terms of service for the customer. Typically within telecoms it is used to reference the response time such as “SLA 6 hours” meaning that a customers query will be dealt within 6 hours.

FTTC stands for Fibre to the Cabinet. FTTC is a blend of a traditional copper wire cable and fibre optic cable. Fibre optic cables are used to the street cabinet (grey or green cabinets on the street that contain active and passive broadband equipment), and then copper wire to connect the cabinets to businesses. This is because it is incredibly expensive to install fibre optic cables into a business, so copper is used as an economical substitute.

The biggest difference between these two systems is how they are deployed. Cloud-based software is hosted on the vendor’s servers and accessed through a Web browser. On-premise software is installed locally, on a company’s own computers and servers.