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How to kid-proof your tech?

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These tips could help prevent sticky fingers accessing controversial content or spending big in the app stores.

While tablets, smartphones and streaming technology are still a relatively recent development for those of us over the age of 20, for the younger generation they have always been part of daily life.

Children love the bright colours, the games and the easy functionality of technology.

They also love exploring websites, content and apps, some of which aren’t necessarily suitable for them, either because of the nature of the content or the danger to your wallet. And don’t forget that many devices are physically pretty fragile.

To help gain more control over your kids’ use of technology, here are some tips and tricks.

On your mobile device

Invest in a child proof cover

Too many parents know the horror of having a smartphone or tablet chewed on, dropped, or flushed down the toilet. But these ‘tragedies’ can be avoided!

Waterproof, bounce-proof covers for your mobile devices can be pricey, but they are a worthy investment to save your tech from being doused in cereal milk or shattered after being hurled by a rambunctious two year old.

Set up a quick password

This goes for your desktop computers and online accounts as well as your smartphones and tablets.

Adding a password or PIN via ‘Settings’ means that only those who know the password can access your device at all.

If a password sounds like a hassle, try to make it as simple as possible, or investigate if your device has other security options like a fingerprint scanner or alternatives to traditional PINs.

If your little one is adept at cracking codes, another tactic could be to disable mobile data when they are around. That way they can’t as easily smash through your monthly allowance by streaming online videos or playing Pokémon Go.

Add access restrictions to your devices

iOS devices allow you to restrict a number of actions, including installing and uninstalling apps, accessing the iTunes store and even chatting over FaceTime.

You can also activate a setting that will request a password before any in-app purchases can be made – a godsend for the parents of children who like to play games. iPhone and iPad owners can also restrict movie, TV show, books and app content to certain ratings or age groups.

To take it a step further, you can limit access to adult websites or restrict your device to accessing a few specific websites only – a good idea for young children who have their own phones.

Android has similar features, offering ‘Screen Pinning’ that prevents a child from exiting an app on a phone they are given to play with.

Some Android tablets and phones allow for restricted profiles that give different members of your family different access.

Otherwise it can be a good idea to install a ‘Net Nanny’ type app that blocks adult content and allows you to set up web filters.

Online

The world wide web is a wonderful place, but not always for children. Once they get older and can surf around on their own, they’re likely to encounter some less than savoury content and people.

Here are just some of the steps you can take to protect their online accounts and activity:

Set up spam filters

When your child is ready for an email account, make sure spam filters are in place so they are only receiving emails from people they know.

You can approve certain addresses so that your child isn’t bombarded with adult content.

Block unsuitable websites

Your PC or Mac will allow you to install parental control software or may even have it inbuilt via ‘System Preferences’.

This software lets you limit the amount of time spent in a particular online session and can set up filters that block access to ‘adults only’ content and websites.

Monitor usage

Software like Net Nanny and WebWatcher also lets you keep a record of what your child has been up to online – including giving you access to the content of their emails and to what they have been typing.

These systems are advanced enough to integrate with mobile devices in some instances.

They will also send you as the parent notifications when certain words come through your child’s email, or even if they perform a search for things they shouldn’t be looking at.

On your streaming services

Choose child friendly channels

YouTube is endless fun, but also a hotbed of advertisements, troll commenters and inappropriate content for children.

Restricting what your children see is a losing battle, so why not switch to YouTube Kids? This channel, which you can also view on Apple TV or with the help of your Google Chromecast, only streams child friendly content and allows parents to cap the amount of time spent on the app.

There are other options for free streaming such as the ever-popular ABC Kids app, which brings your little one’s favourite shows together to be watched on demand.

Set parental controls within apps

As with your computer, Netflix, Stan, Foxtel, Presto and other services allow for parental controls.

Foxtel allows you to block entire channels, to set up viewing restrictions based on classifications, and to put PIN protections on movie rental purchases.

Streaming services like Netflix come with the bonus of not showing any ads, let alone inappropriate ones.

Most of these services can be child-proofed, either by allowing you to set up a specific profile for your young viewer, or by letting you restrict content to a specific classification so that R18+ or other mature content can’t be accessed without a PIN.

Lastly, an important and often-effective way to keep your child safe in a tech-enhanced world is to maintain an open conversation.

Have a talk about the cost of your devices, the benefits and the drawbacks of their actions, and remind them of the potential dangers involved so that they can know to be careful.

Technology is always changing and, while kids may find it easy to keep up, sometimes it’s handy to have a bit of insight into what’s coming next. Check out these future tech trends and gadgets, and maybe get a mental head start on how tech might be changing your life in the next few years.

Original content published at NBNCo

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Behind the scenes of your home network: Understanding NAT

How To's, Technology 16,070

There’s a lot of technical wizardry behind the usually-simple act of connecting your devices to the internet via a home network.

One of the more fascinating behind-the-scenes systems is a networking protocol called Network Address Translation (NAT).

What is NAT?

While there are technically different types of NAT, the term is most commonly used in regards to the specific type we’ve detailed below. And there’s a very good chance your home network is utilising it.

NAT separates networks into private and public spaces.

The private space refers to your connected local devices – computers, game consoles, phones, etc. – that likely connect to a modem or router.

The modem/router is used to connect your home (private) devices to each other in a local network, and then connects those devices to the internet (public).

Locally, every device on your home network requires a private internet protocol (IP) address to communicate with the modem/router and other devices on the same network.

Externally, your home network connection uses a single public IP address to connect to the internet.

Understanding NAT

An easier way to think about NAT may be as if it were a receptionist taking incoming calls from a single external phone number and directing them to the right internal phone extension.

If someone within that hypothetical business wants to make a phone call, they might get the receptionist to dial out from the company’s single external phone number and then connect the call to the person who requested it.

The phoned person would receive the company’s call from the same phone number that could be dialled to reach the business.

In this analogy, the business phone number is your home network’s public IP address (used for connecting to the internet), and the company’s internal phone extensions are your home network’s private IP addresses for various connected devices (used to connect locally).

NAT is the receptionist answering, making and redirecting calls.

The same is true when someone calls the business (your modem/router’s public IP), at which point the receptionist (NAT protocol) uses a specific device’s extension number (private IP) to forward the ‘call’.

Why networks need NAT

Public IP addresses have traditionally been in limited supply.

When the IPv4 protocol – the one that controls most current internet traffic – was established back in the 1980s, it was limited to just over 4-billion public IP addresses.

Given the exponential growth of the internet in recent years which, in turn, necessitated the creation of new internet connections, the NAT protocol was used to address the public IP address shortage.

Because of this shortage, the numerous NAT-controlled private IP addresses (millions across three address ranges) allow multiple local home network devices to connect the internet through a single public IP address provided by a retail service provider.

Ultimately, the newer and upgraded IPv6 protocol has been designed to complement (in the short- to mid-term) and may even potentially replace IPv4.

Given the massive number of public IP addresses available under IPv6 (340 undecillion), the NAT protocol will no longer be required if IPv4 is fully retired. For now, however, it is still very much needed.

Benefits of NAT

The most obvious benefit of NAT is that it removes the requirement for every device on a home network to have a public IP address, which have been in short supply thanks to the limitations of the IPv4 protocol.

Another implicit benefit is NAT security.

Local devices use private addresses on your home network and are generally hidden, unlike the public address of your internet connection.

An external IP address must be public so your devices can send and receive data from websites, email servers, streaming services, online gaming networks, etc.

Modem/routers tend to use something called Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to automatically assign private IP addresses to devices that connect to your network via wi-fi or Ethernet cable.

This means connecting devices to a local network with DHCP enabled is generally straightforward and fast.

If DHCP is disabled, private IP addresses must be manually inputted on each device, based on the accepted local IP address range of the modem/router.

Drawbacks of NAT

By keeping private devices hidden behind the NAT protocol, it can cause issues with peer-to-peer (P2P) connectivity. P2P is not as common as it once was, but there are still some uses.

P2P connects devices directly to each other, bypassing the need for a traditional peer-to-server connection, in order to make phone or video calls (VoIP), exchange files, or play online games.

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) networking protocols on modem/routers are kind of like DHCP for the internet.

When active, the UPnP protocol dynamically opens ports to facilitate online P2P connectivity for devices on a local network.

In terms of online gaming, if a home network has multiple gaming consoles attempting to play online at the same time, UPnP is required to ensure smooth connectivity.

If UPnP is disabled, the other option for ensuring P2P connectivity when using a NAT is to manually open ports (called port forwarding) and assign them to a specific local device.

Port forwarding permanently (until disabled) leaves designated ports open, and it’s advisable to only use either UPnP or port forwarding (in that order).

Where applicable, you should also keep your modem/router firmware up to date to ensure that networking protocol features such as UPnP are functioning properly.

You might not even know you have NAT problems until you encounter connectivity issues with P2P systems, because normal usage – web browsing, sending/receiving emails, instant messaging, etc. – isn’t generally impacted.

NAT is essential given the current limitations of the IPv4 protocol, whose stopgap pros currently outweigh the potential P2P cons (which will change once IPv6 becomes more commonplace).

Ever wondered how video streaming actually works? You can learn all about it here.

Original Content published at NBNco

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What exactly are cookies?

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Tracking down the crumbs that lead to understanding the role web cookies play in surfing the net.

When it comes to surfing the net, you’ll likely encounter the term ‘cookies’.

They can wear many names, including ‘HTTP cookies’, ‘internet cookies’, ‘browser cookies’, and ‘web cookies’.

Regardless of the name, cookies (in a web-browsing context) refer to small pieces of data that are sent from websites and stored on the web browser of your connected device.

Let’s take a closer look at the role that cookies play when browsing the internet

A history of cookies

The term ‘cookie’ was reportedly taken from the Linux programming term ‘magic cookie’. There are more than a few stories and theories about why this terminology was created and adopted, but no single story appears to offer clear evidence for all its claims.

In the early days of the Web, cookies were generally implemented as a straightforward way for websites to store things like online shopping carts within the browsers of website visitors.

Cookies were also originally used to track browsing activity to help understand how users were interacting with a website or specific webpages, to refine the user interface and online experience.

Since then, cookies have evolved to perform many different functions.

The purpose of cookies

Today, cookies can be used to remember our individual information and personalise a website experience for us as individuals, rather than for users as a whole; offer targeted advertising, once again to individual people, potentially based on a number of factors such as their age, gender, relationship status, or even browsing history; auto-fill online forms; or control online features such as our preferred audio volume on content-streaming services.

Websites use cookies because web servers don’t tend to store all of the specific information for every visitor.

This means it’s more efficient for websites to store personalised information on the client-side (your side) browser of a connected device.

Cookies operate exclusively within the specific browser you’re using. If you switch browsers or devices, even when you’re on the same internet connection, website cookies on a new browser or device will be treated as a new connection.

Cookie types

There are two main types of cookie: first-party and third-party cookies.

First-party cookies

First-party cookies are the ones whose domain information matches the website domain you’re currently visiting (which you can see in the address bar). Basically, they’re cookies that belong to the site you’re on at a specific moment.

Without first-party cookies, a website would not be able to track things like the items added to your shopping cart. Each time you loaded a new page, or if you left the website and returned, your cart would empty, or it would be treated as a separate purchase.

An example of a first-party cookie would be ‘session cookies’. These only exist for as long as you visit a website, and do not have an expiry date. Once you close the browser, session cookies will normally be deleted.

Third-party cookies

Third-party cookies belong to a different domain than the website you’re currently visiting. Browsers often allow the option of blocking third-party cookies and some disable them by default.

An example of a type of third-party cookie would be ‘persistent cookies’, also known as ‘tracking cookies’.

These cookies communicate with the web server whenever you visit the website they are associated with, or whenever you visit a website that’s linked to the original site (such as an external site with ads for the cookie-associated site).

Tracking cookies can follow you around the internet, offering you targeted advertisements for products that you have looked at, or even those you have already bought. These cookies mean your online purchases aren’t totally discreet, so if you are planning a surprise – consider browsing ‘incognito mode’ to ensure your secrecy.

Persistent cookies can be manually deleted via your browser or app, or reset automatically when they hit their expiry date.

Managing cookies

Web browsers each have their own default state for accepting cookies, but this can also be managed manually.

Generally speaking, browsers may give you the option of blocking or restricting third-party cookies, blocking first-party cookies, or accepting/blocking all cookies.

You can look at these links for browser-specific information on how to manage cookies within Google Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Opera

Ultimately, cookies can make web browsing more personalised and convenient, but some persistent third-party cookies can open you up to targeted advertising based on your browser’s surfing habits if they’re not restricted or manually cleared within your browser.

If you’re concerned about cookies, you can read more about how or when to block them here.
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Network Topology Types with Diagrams

How To's, Technology 22,623

What is Topology

Network topologies describe the ways in which the elements of a network are mapped. They describe the physical and logical arrangement of the network nodes. The physical topology of a network refers to the configuration of cables, computers, and other peripherals

Types of Network Topology Diagram

Types of Network Topologies with Figures

A network topology is the arrangement of a network, including its nodes and connecting lines. There are two ways of defining network geometry: the physical topology and the logical (or signal) topology

1. Bus Topology

Bus Topology in which all of the nodes of the network are connected to a common transmission medium which has exactly two endpoints (this is the “bus”, which is also commonly referred to as the backbone, or trunk) – all data that is transmitted between nodes in the network is transmitted over this common transmission medium and is able to be received by all nodes in the network virtually simultaneously.

The two endpoints of the common transmission medium are normally terminated with a device called a terminator that exhibits the characteristic impedance of the transmission medium and which dissipates or absorbs the energy that remains in the signal to prevent the signal from being reflected or propagated back onto the transmission medium in the opposite direction, which would cause interference with and degradation of the signals on the transmission medium.

Advantages of Bus Topology

  • It is Cheap, easy to handle and implement.
  • Require less cable
  • It is best suited for small networks.

Disadvantages of Bus Topology

  • The cable length is limited. This limits the number of stations that can be connected.
  • This network topology can perform well only for a limited number of nodes.
Bus Network Topology Diagram

2. Star Topology

Star Topology in which each of the nodes of the network is connected to a central node with a point-to-point link in a “hub” and “spoke” fashion, the central node being the “hub” and the nodes that are attached to the central node being the “spokes” (e.g., a collection of point-to-point links from the peripheral nodes that converge at a central node) – all data that is transmitted between nodes in the network is transmitted to this central node, which is usually some type of device that then retransmits the data to some or all of the other nodes in the network, although the central node may also be a simple common connection point without any active device to repeat the signals.

Advantages of Star Topology

  • Easy to manage
  • Easy to locate problems (cable/workstations)
  • Easier to expand than a bus or ring topology.
  • Easy to install and wire.
  • Easy to detect faults and to remove parts

Disadvantages of Star Topology

  • Requires more cable length than a linear topology.
  • If the hub or concentrator fails, nodes attached are disabled.
  • More expensive because of the cost of the concentrators.

Star Network Topology Diagram

3. Ring Topology

Ring Topology in which each of the nodes of the network is connected to two other nodes in the network and with the first and last nodes being connected to each other, forming a ring – all data that is transmitted between nodes in the network travels from one node to the next node in a circular manner and the data generally flows in a single direction only.

Advantage of Ring Topology

  • Very orderly network where every device has access to the token and the opportunity to transmit.
  • Easier to Mange than a Bus Network
  • Good Communication over long distances • Handles high volume of traffic

Disadvantages of Ring Topology

  • The failure of a single node of the network can cause the entire network to fail.
  • The movement or changes made to network nodes affects the performance of the entire network

Ring Network Topology diagram

4. Mesh Topology

Mesh Topology in which each of the nodes of the network is connected to each of the other nodes in the network with a point-to-point link – this makes it possible for data to be simultaneously transmitted from any single node to all of the other nodes.

The physical fully connected mesh topology is generally too costly and complex for practical networks, although the topology is used when there are only a small number of nodes to be interconnected.

Advantage of Mesh Topology

  • No traffic problem as there are dedicated links.
  • It has multiple links, so if one route is blocked then other routes can be used for data communication.
  • Points to point links make fault identification easy.

Disadvantage of Mesh Topology

  • There is mesh of wiring which can be difficult to manage.
  • Installation is complex as each node is connected to every node.
  • Cabling cost is high
Mesh Network Topology Diagram

5. Tree or Hierarchical Topology

Tree (or hierarchical) Topology in which a central “root” node (the top level of the hierarchy) is connected to one or more other nodes that are one level lower in the hierarchy (i.e., the second level) with a point-to-point link between each of the second level nodes and the top level central “root” node, while each of the second level nodes that are connected to the top level central “root” node will also have one or more other nodes that are one level lower in the hierarchy (i.e., the third level) connected to it, also with a point-to-point link, the top level central “root” node being the only node that has no other node above it in the hierarchy – the hierarchy of the tree is symmetrical, each node in the network having a specific fixed number, f, of nodes connected to it at the next lower level in the hierarchy, the number, f, being referred to as the “branching factor” of the hierarchical tree.

Advantages of a Tree Topology

  • Point-to-point wiring for individual segments.
  • Supported by several hardware and software vendors.
  • All the computers have access to the larger and their immediate networks.

Disadvantages of a Tree Topology

  • Overall length of each segment is limited by the type of cabling used.
  • If the backbone line breaks, the entire segment goes down.
  • More difficult to configure and wire than other topologies.
Tree network Topology diagram

6. Hybrid Topology

The hybrid topology is a type of network topology that is composed of one or more interconnections of two or more networks that are based upon different physical topologies mentioned above

Advantages of a Hybrid Topology

  • It is extremely flexible.
  • It is very reliable.

Disadvantages of a Hybrid Topology

  • Expensive
Hybrid Network topology diagram

 

Original content published @ Telecom NEWs

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Latency: What’s the Differences Between Fiber and Copper?

Business, How To's, Technology 24,254

Fiber optic communication has development rapidly in recent years. And in many applications fiber optic cable has replaced copper cable for higher speed and higher bandwidth applications. Therefore, numbers of people claim that fiber optic lines have lower latency than copper connections, while others do not think so. Then what’s the latency differences between fiber and copper?

fiber-vs-copper latency

Latency in Fiber and Cooper

Before comparing the latency differences between fiber and copper, latency refers to a time delay between stimulation and its response. Usually, it’s caused by velocity limitations in a physical system. Put it in simple terms, latency is the time it takes for a signal to travel from one place to another place. And there are diverse types of latency: network latency, Internet latency, audio latency, WAN latency, etc. No mater in a fiber optic network or a copper network, latency can be described as distance and speed. In addition, latency does exist. It’s just a question of fast or slow. One key factor that affects the latency is the signal speed in transmission media. Fiber and copper are two of transmission media. The type of media used in communication system depends on the bandwidth and transmission distance required by the application.

Fiber Latency

As we know, the speed of light in free space is about 3×108 meter per second. While the speed of light in air is slower than that in a vacuum. So does in the glass. Therefore, when an optical signal travels in a fiber link, there are five latency contributors: two are created when the signal moves from the electrical domain to the optical; another contribution occurs as the signal goes through the optical fiber; and as the signal is converted from the optical domain to the electrical, latency occurs.

fiber latency

Copper Latency

Signals in copper cables are easy to be interrupted by around environments, especially in longer distance transmission. The signals will attenuate as distance increases, which will lead to data transmission error, page error and make users feel slow speed at the moment. Actually the transmission speed doesn’t slow slow down. Besides, alien crosstalk also would cause transmission errors and latency.

copper latency

Fiber vs Copper: What’s the Latency Difference?

Signals are transmitted at 2/3 the speed of light in fiber optic cables. In copper it can be faster than that. However, this cannot account for system latency. In longer distance, latency in fiber optic system is lower because of less need for processing and repeating of the signals. While signals in copper are affected by electromagnetic interference and are prone to higher rates of loss over long distances.

In addition, no mater in a fiber optic network or a copper network, latency can be described as distance and speed. In addition, during the whole transmission process, serialization delay that shows how fast a data pocket can be serialized onto the wire, has far more impact on shorter distances. For example, it will take 8ms to serialize a 1500-byte packet on 1.5Mbps link, while it will only need 1.2us on 10Gbps, or less on higher speed. That shows speed makes a significant difference.

Summary

In a word, the latency differences between fiber and copper are influenced by transmission distance, speed and environments. For shorter distance, copper cables can be the first choices, for the delay in it does not mean much and its low cost. For longer distance transmission, fiber cable offers lower latency for the whole network and can be an optimal choice.

Related Article: What Is Copper Trunk Cable and How to Use It?
Related Article: Fiber Optic Cable vs Twisted Pair Cable vs Coaxial Cable

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Data Switch vs Hub in a Home Network

How To's, Technology 15,546

Data switches and hubs are common networking devices used to regenerate degraded signals and split a signal into multiple signals. They are handy for splitting up an internet connection to your home network. But do you know how they work in a home network? If they both accomplish the same thing, what’s the difference between a data switch vs hub?

What Is a Data Switch?

A data switch is charged with the job of connecting smaller segments of a single network into a connected whole. It transfers data across a network segment using MAC addresses for reference. Data switches are extensively used in Ethernet local area networks. A data switch operates on the Data Link Layer of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model. This means that data switches are fairly smarter than hubs, as they can route data on a dynamic level. If information is destined for a certain computer, the data switch will only send the data to this computer. This addresses our collision problem as switches use what is called micro-segmentation, which will be elaborated later in this article.

What Is a Hub?

Hub is a network device which controls number of switches and router for the whole network. A hub is a “dumb” device in that it broadcasts whatever it hears on the input port to all the output ports. The good thing about “dumb” devices is that they don’t need much configuration or maintenance. But this leads to collisions between data packets and a general degrading of network quality. If you have a hub set up between your router and the rest of your network, you’re setting yourself up for a huge headache. A hub looks just like a switch, but works differently on the inside. You connect devices to a hub using Ethernet cable and any signal sent from a device to the hub is simply repeated out on all other ports connected to the hub.

Data Switch vs Hub in a Home Network

Data switch vs hub? How do they differ from each other? Hubs are considered Layer 1 (Physical Layer) devices whereas data switches are put into Layer 2 (Data Link Layer). This is where hubs and switches mainly differ. The Data Link layer of the OSI model deals with MAC addresses and switches look at MAC addresses when they process an incoming frame on a port.

switch vs hub

Moreover, a data switch is much smarter but pricier than a hub. A data switch can actively manage the connections between the input port and the output ports, so you won’t run into the collision problem or any of the other issues that plague hubs. As you can see below, there are multiple collision domains or segments for the switch network. If computer A and computer B sent data to each other at the same time, you would have a collision. Computer A and computer C or D, however, will not experience a collision in the process. In comparison, for a hub network, there is just one collision domain, which means that if one computer transmits data, it would be interrupted by any of the other computers in the network. Thus, the more devices you connect to the hub, the more collisions there will be in the whole network. The following figure illustrates a data switch vs hub in collision domains.

switch vs hub in collision domain

Conclusion

Data switch vs hub, which one should you choose for a home network? If you purchased the device in question within the last few years, the chance is almost zero that it’s a hub. Historically, switches were expensive and hubs were cheap, but advances in technology have made switches so cheap that they don’t even bother making hubs anymore. Thus, nowadays data switches are higher-performance alternatives to hubs in a home network. FS provides a full set of high performance data switches, including gigabit ethernet switch, 10gb ethernet switch, 100gbe ethernet switch, etc. If you have any requirement, please kindly visit www.fs.com.

Related Article: What’s the Difference: Hub vs Switch vs Router

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How to Properly Test your Internet Connection Speed?

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Testing the speed of the Internet connection is a relatively simple and easy task, but the real question is whether we do it optimally, thus ensuring that external factors do not affect it.

The Internet connection speed limit

Internet connection speeds can be compared to the way water flows in a pipe. No matter how large the source tank is, or how fast water is being pumped from the source, it is still going to be limited to what the destination pipe (along with all intermediary ones) can allow through it. Similarly, the maximum attainable speed of any Internet connection is going to be limited at the customer’s end, based on the modes of connection opted for, by the end user.

Wireless vs Wireline (wired)

Wireless connections have revolutionized the ease of use as far as connecting to the internet is concerned, but they are, unfortunately, negatively affected by several different situations:

  1. The distance between the source (router, for example) and the destination (your laptop, desktop or smartphone);
  2. Physical obstacles – these could be any solid objects like walls, buildings, or even people;
  3. Other wireless signals nearby, operating at similar frequency, can cause interference with each other and negatively impact the performance of the network;
  4. Wireless network connections signal sharing.

These are just a few main examples of situations which might affect the speed of your wireless internet connection, regardless of the terms of the plan you subscribed to.

Wireline connections, or wired connections as commonly known, are comparatively superior as far as reliability is concerned, along with being far more resilient to other, nearby wired or wireless connections. Wired connections are therefore the primary method of broadband Internet service delivery, to ensure that customers get the speed that they are paying for.

Testing speeds via a wired Ethernet connection

This is the most trusted and reliable method for performing a speed test. It ensures that the speeds being tested are more or less what is actually being received at the customer’s end without being negatively affected by undesirable factors.

It is also important to ensure that we are NOT connected to a VPN connection while performing a speed test. A VPN connection routes internet activity via a third party server, which has a high probability of severely impacting the internet usage experience, as perceived by the end user. Therefore, any active VPN connections should be disconnected before performing a speed test.

Using a wired connection, there are two primary ways to connect your device to the Internet:

  1. Ethernet cable from Distribution Point (DP) => Router => Ethernet cable to PC / Laptop
  2. Ethernet cable from Distribution Point (DP) =>  Direct to PC / Laptop via a Dial-Up Connection

Using a wired Ethernet connection to a router, the different aspects to analyze, before testing the connection speed, are:

  • No active VPN connections – It is important to ensure that the internet connection is being used directly and that there are no intermediary VPN connections being used.
  • Avoid simultaneous usage – It is important to ensure that the device performing the speed test gets an exclusive, 100% access to the entire speed capacity available on the existing plan. Therefore, it is desirable to ensure that no other devices (other than the one performing the speed test) is connected and using bandwidth resources simultaneously on the same internet connection. This problematic scenario is more probable wherein a single household has multiple family members sharing and using the same internet connection at the same time.
  • No background tasks – Ensure that the device performing the speed test has no background or simultaneous tasks/applications actively using the internet connection.

Steps to properly perform a speed test using (Ethernet cable from router to the desktop PC or laptop):

  1. Close all background tasks / processes / applications actively using the internet. Also ensure that no other device(s) are using the internet connection, simultaneously.
  2. Ensure that the desktop PC or laptop is connected directly to the router using an Ethernet cable without any active VPN connection(s).
  3. Open the latest version of a popular web browser. A few good examples of which are: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge.
  4. Visit http://beta.speedtest.net/ – This is the beta version of the popular speed test facility provided by Ookla. It uses HTML v5 and does not require Flash to be installed.
  5. Select a server situated close to your location (using the “Change Server” option), or proceed with the default (best) selection.
    Tip: Selecting the “UNIFYDOT” server would normally be the best choice.
  6. Initiate the speed test by clicking on the “GO!” button.
  7. Wait until both the download and the upload speeds are measured.
  8. Compare your speed test result with the speeds offered on the plan you are paying for.
PLEASE REMEMBER, YOU ARE A BROADBAND SUBSCRIBER, WHERE YOUR SPEED IS VARIES SOMETIME AS IF YOU PREFER YOU GET FULL MENTIONED SPEED INSTEAD OF "BROADBAND UPTO" SPEED, YOU SHOULD CONSIDER TO GET DIA LEASED LINE, WHICH WILL PROVIDE GUARANTEED 1:1(UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD) SPEED 24X7X365 DAYS.

The Conclusion

Having discussed the pros and cons of wireless and wired connections alike the question is, should we completely abandon Wi-Fi connections?

No, we shouldn’t.

Wi-Fi connections as we know it, have revolutionized the ease of use factor of our daily internet usage requirements. It may not even be possible to be connected via a wire in certain situations.

Potential solutions to such situations involves, primarily, the understanding of the trade-off between speed and ease of use and thereafter, the possibility of upgrading the router in use. A better quality router would definitely make a difference in this regard. However, depending upon the number of wireless connections near your location, it may be a good idea to opt for a 5 GHz router, which works on a different band entirely, thus having a lower probability of interfering with, or being affected by surrounding wireless networks operating on the 2.5 GHz band.

Irrespective of the chosen speed package, the actual achievable speed is still going to be affected by the mode of connection chosen by you (Wi-Fi / Ethernet), as a customer. Therefore, it is imperative to differentiate between the speed made available to you at the last mile connectivity, by us, as UCPL, and the speed achievable via Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) on the router that is being utilised.