Broadband Jargon buster

ADSL
This is the technology which allows your telephone line to be used to carry both data (through your broadband connection), and voice (through your telephone) at the same time.

Broadband
Fast internet access which is delivered either through a telephone line or cable line. Typically the speed of broadband exceeds 512bps.

Cable Broadband
In the UK, cable broadband is delivered to 12.5 million households (that's a quarter of the total) by Virgin Media. This type of broadband is often faster and more reliable than telephone broadband, you can also receive other services through this method such as your voice calls and television channels.

Dialup
This is a method of accessing the internet. You can expect speeds of up to 56kbps, and works in a similar way as a voice call, meaning that you can not use the internet and telephone at the same time.

Download Limits
This is the limit applied to an individual broadband account. For more information see our guide; How to choose a broadband product for a detailed explanation.

DSL
This stands for 'Digital Subscriber Line', and is the technology behind your broadband connection.

Downloading
Refers to getting information from another source (this could be the internet, CD, DVD, etc) and transferring it to the primary device that you are using. For example, if you are looking at this website, you have downloaded it from another computer. This is the opposite of uploading.

ISP
Interner Service Provider, the company the manages broadband connections, some examples are; AOL, BT Broadband, Tiscali, and Virgin Media.

MAC number
This means 'Migration Authorisation Code', this is the number combination given to you by your current broadband supplier, if you decide you want to switch to another privider. For more information see our guide; How to switch broadband provider for a detailed explanation.

Mb
This is the unit used to describe an amount of computer data, and is short for megabit.

Mb/s
This is short for Megabit per second, and is indicative of speed as it measures how many megabits of data can be moved (or in terms of your internet connection, downloaded) per second. For more information on broadband speeds, see our guide; How to choose a broadband product.

Mobile Broadband
Mobile broadband is the delivery or use of a broadband connection on the go. This may be whilst driving the car, whilst in a shop, or sitting at the beach.

Streaming
This is a method of data transfer which involves a constant stream of data. An example of this is if you are watching a movie or video clip online, the data is being downloaded as you watch it.

Uploading
Refers to getting information from the primary device that you are using, to another source (this could be the internet, CD, DVD, etc). For example, if you wanted to transfer a family picture from your home PC to the internet, you would upload it to the internet.

VoIP
This stands for 'Voice Over Internet Protocol', which is a cheaper (sometimes free) method of making telephone calls over your broadband connection.

Wireless Broadband
This is broadband via a wireless router. The broadband band connection is made wireless allowing you use the internet without your computer needing to be plugged into the router.