DATA VoIP SOLUTIONS: THE FUTURE TO COME

Where Am I > Data-VoIP-Solutions/How Broadband Works

CONTACT PRIVACY   Residential Small Business Corporate HARDWARE SOFTWARE   How Broadband Works “Broadband” is a term given to a fast permanent internet connection, and how broadband works to allow this high speed determines the transmission methods available. Consequently, there various ways of achieving the speed and making the connection to your computer.  The alternative means of transmission are by cable, telephone line, mobile phone or satellite, the most common being what most people associate with how broadband works:  your telephone line using a system called ADSL. ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line and as developed specifically to allow broadband transmissions on existing telephone networks.  Bandwidth in computer terms specifically refers to the data transfer rate.  This is basically the amount of information that can be transferred from transmitter to receiver within a specified period of time.  Bandwidth is typically measured in bits per second, commonly known as bps. The more bandwidth you have, the faster your transfer rate is and the faster your connection speed is. A high bandwidth is essential to how broadband works, though width is not used in the common sense of the word. There is no 'width' as such and in terms of how broadband works, it is more 'speed' than 'width' which is involved. The actual speed you can achieve depends on the following factors: If using ADSL, the distance your computer is from the telephone exchange: the closer you live to the exchange, the faster your connection is likely to be. The condition of your phone line:  the better the condition, the faster the speed.  The same applies to the state of the telephone wiring in your house, and number of cable connectors used to get the wire to your computer. Internet use.  If the signal is being sent at peak internet usage times, the signals will be slowed up. There is also more likelihood of ‘packet’ transmission problems.  Read ’How VoIP Works’ for more information on packets and how they are transmitted and received, and this will give you an insight into how broadband works.  However, irrespective of this, the connection should still be fast and reliable.  And don’t forget:  it is always connected.  Not like the bold days when you paid prime telephone charges while you were connected. Finally hardware.  The quality of your equipment can drastically affect your speed. Although quality has little connection with how broadband works, it has a large effect on efficiency of file transfer and hence apparent speed. Other factors affecting speed are whether or not you have spyware or adware on your computer.  You should make sure that you regularly scan for these and remove them. Xoftspy is excellent, is the one I use.  I have never has a single adware or spyware problem since I started using it.  Also, how efficient is the receiver?  You can have the best broadband system in the world, but if the computer you are in contact with is not of the same quality, don’t expect optimum speeds To use ADSL you will need a high speed modem and a modification to your connection point.  This is simple to achieve, and the beauty of ADSL is that you can use the internet and your telephone at the same time.  No more complaints that callers can’t get through because you are on the internet.   In layman’s terms, the way this works is to send the different signals at frequencies such that they do not interfere with each other. Video and voice frequencies are well apart so that in broadband, video and voice frequencies can be sent in both directions at the same time, so that a telephone voice conversation can take place at the same time as internet digital data.   CABLE BROADBAND   A standard phone line was the first transmission medium to use broadband since it was the oldest, most common and established means of telecommunications.  However, it can also be applied to the other telecom media.  Cable is ideal, and not very different from normal telephony as far as the hard ware goes.  Both use cables though cable broadband can carry many more signals than a telephone line.  If you have cable TV it is likely that you can also receive cable broadband.  Your cable TV provider can tell you this   WIRELESS BROADBAND   Just as wireless network systems and internet connections are becoming popular, so is wireless broadband.  In this case there is receiver, similar to a mobile phone mast, which transfers wireless internet signals which you can receive on your computer.  Most airports and many hotels have wireless points from which you can receive signals if you have the wireless software installed in your computer.  Some receiving devices, or aerials, are internal to the computer, like most modern radios, and others have an external aerial such as the Proxim system.  Wireless is currently relatively new technology and reception is available over a very narrow area, though so was mobile phone reception not so long ago!   SATELLITE BROADBAND   Theoretically, satellite access is available anywhere, and for may it could be the only option. You will require a satellite signal receiver, or ‘dish’, just as for satellite TV. This may be the way of the future and will probably grow at the same rate as satellite TV.   SPEEDS   I layman’s terms, domestic broadband is up to 200 times faster than the normal dial-up modem connections that I was using two years ago.  Speeds in excess of 10MB are claimed, but do not believe that these are actually achievable on your computer