Search Results
Showing results for "business" (3712 articles found)
VPN Technology: How Virtual Private Networks Work
VPN is the abbreviation for Virtual Private Network. VPN technology creates a safe, encrypted connection over an unsecured network, such as the Internet. It effectively extends a private network across a public network, letting remote users and offices communicate as if they were directly connected to the same private infrastructure. A virtual private network uses...
Wireless Internet: Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Satellite, and Cellular Explained
Wireless internet uses radio waves instead of physical wires to connect a personal computer, laptop, smartphone, or other device to the Internet. Early wireless technologies lacked the high speed of broadband connections like cable and DSL, but modern wireless technologies have largely closed that gap, and in some cases surpassed it. Wireless Internet Service Providers...
Cable Internet: How It Works, Speeds, and Architecture
Network and Internet access through cable TV is a type of broadband Internet access that uses the existing infrastructure of the television cable system. It provides network edge connectivity from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to an end user in much the same way DSL and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) do, but riding on...
What Is VSAT? Very Small Aperture Terminal Explained
VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal. It’s an important WAN technology for both home users and organizations that need connectivity in remote areas where fiber optic, copper cable, and microwave links simply aren’t available. VSAT creates a private WAN using satellite communications, making it one of the few WAN technologies genuinely usable almost anywhere...
What Is ISDN? Integrated Services Digital Network Explained
ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network. It’s a circuit-switched technology that uses the local loop of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to carry fully digital signals, rather than the analog signals traditional telephone lines were originally designed for. ISDN is a set of communication standards capable of transmitting voice, data, and signaling simultaneously...
What Is Dial-Up? How Dial-Up Modem Connections Work
Dial-up is a WAN connection technique established using a modem and an active PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) line. The modem dials a phone number attached to another modem at the destination end and establishes a connection capable of transferring data, using the ordinary analog telephone line as the transmission medium. Dial-up was, for decades,...
Leased Lines: What They Are and How They Work
A leased line is a dedicated communication channel between two or more locations. It’s usually a pre-established WAN connection running from a customer’s premises to a service provider’s network, reserved exclusively for that customer’s traffic in exchange for a fixed recurring fee. Because the connection isn’t shared with other subscribers, it delivers guaranteed, consistent bandwidth...
Circuit Switched vs Packet Switched: WAN Technologies Explained
Every wide area network connection relies on one of two switching methods: circuit switching or packet switching. The earlier article on WAN devices covered the hardware routers and modems use to reach a WAN, but that hardware only tells half the story. The switching method chosen by your WAN access technology determines how data actually...
WAN Devices: Roles, Verification, and Selection
A WAN connection rarely involves just a router. Between the customer’s equipment and the provider’s core, a small set of specialized devices each handle a distinct job — converting signals, providing clocking, switching carrier traffic, or forwarding at the speeds a provider backbone demands. Knowing what each device actually does, and how to verify it’s...
Wireless Antennas: Types, Gain, and How to Choose the Right One
A wireless antenna is the component that actually radiates and collects radio frequency (RF) energy — it’s the physical interface between an electrical signal inside a device and a radio wave traveling through the air. Antennas connect to radios through low-loss coaxial cable, or in many consumer devices, directly to the radio chip inside the...