Help for Cable customers

Broadband – A fast data connection to the Internet. Before broadband connections were around, the Internet was a very slow place to be. But thankfully that’s no longer the case, so you can do fun things like watch videos and share photos without waiting for ever.

Browser – You’re using a browser right now. It’s the program you use to look at web pages. Popular browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome.

Cookie – Cookies are small bits of data which are stored by your browser to help websites figure out what you’re doing. They’re sometimes used to recognise you when you come back to a website you’ve visited before, so it can remember how you personalised it last time.

Dial-up – This is how almost everyone connected to the Internet a few years ago, using a modem. It’s much slower than a broadband connection, and often you need to pay for the time you’re connected so it can get expensive.

Domain – This is the address of a website. www.virginmedia.co.uk is a domain name for example, and it’s used by your browser to get to our website.

Download – This is what you’re doing when you get something from the Internet like a web page, or a music track for example.

Gigabyte (GB) – A Gigabyte is 1024 Megabytes (MB).

Bandwidth – This is a word used to describe the speed of your data connection. Wide (or broad) bandwidth means a connection can carry a lot of information quickly, narrow bandwidth is slower.

BIT – Apart from lumps in your orange juice, a bit is a unit of computer data – it’s short for Binary Digit. There are eight bits in a byte.

Blog (web log) - is an online diary used by someone to share information, maybe about their travels, or their working life for instance.

Bookmark – Your web browser will allow you to keep the addresses of some of your favourite sites. This is called a bookmark, or Favourite in some browsers.ADSL - It stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, but that’s probably not what you wanted to know. The important thing is that this technology means you can download data quickly over a normal phone line. Upload speeds are usually slower than download speeds (that’s where the asymmetric part comes from). ADSL speeds get slower the further you are away from your telephone exchange.

Most broadband suppliers in the UK use ADSL, and so do we if you don’t live in a cabled street.

But where we can, we use our superior Fibre Optic network, which means we can give blindingly fast speeds up to 50Mb and, unlike ADSL, it doesn’t get slower if you’re not near the phone exchange.

ADSL 2 - Remember Police Academy 2? Rubbish, wasn’t it.

Apart from some notable exceptions, like Terminator 2 for example, films normally get worse with sequels.

But with ADSL that’s not the case. ADSL2 works in the same way as plain old ADSL, it’s just faster (but still not as good as our fibre optic network, just so you know).

ADSL modem – These types of modem translate the high frequency broadband signals carried down your phone line. If you’ve got our National broadband service (that’s when your broadband is delivered through your phone line) you’ll have an ADSL modem. 

Cable modem – This type of modem translates the broadband signals carried by the cable TV network. If you’ve got our fibre optic broadband service (that’s when your broadband is delivered via fibre optic cable) you’ll have a cable modem. 

Encryption – This is what’s done to sensitive data to change it into a code and keep prying eyes away. We use a type of encryption called SSL in our online checkout to make sure all your personal information is safe and secure.

Fibre optic – Fibre optic networks are made of very thin glass tubes and use light to transmit loads of information super fast. At the speed of light in fact, which is pretty quick.

We use a fibre optic network for your TV and Broadband if you’re in a cabled street.

Filter – A filter is used to insulate your broadband line from interference from things like phones and fax machines plugged into other phone sockets in your house.

If you use our National service, and get your broadband through a BT phone line, then you should make sure you have a filter plugged into every phone socket in the house.

Crossover cable – A special Ethernet cable used for networking two computers without the use of a hub.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) – A simple way of getting an IP address and connecting to a network.

Ethernet – International standard technology (including specially designed cards and cables) used to connect computers to a network. Ethernet is superior to USB, it offers faster downloads and greater reliability.

Hub – Hardware that contains a number of ports used to connect computers to a network. Usually equipped with a number of Ethernet sockets, hubs channel data sent from machines on the network.

IP address – A sequence of numbers assigned to each computer or device on a network. An IP (internet protocol) address allows every computer on the internet to be identified uniquely. The most common IP addresses are written as four sets of numbers separated by full stops, e.g. 194.168.4.100

LAN (Local Area Network) – A group of computers that are connected together, typically in the same office or building, enabling them to share an internet connection, printers etc.

MAC address – A series of letters and numbers used to identify network devices such as a NIC (see below for info on NIC). MAC (Media Access Control) addresses are usually written in pairs, separated by colons. This is how a MAC address might look:

04:1F:64:EF:A9:4D

Network – A group of computers and devices that are physically or wirelessly connected to each other and that can communicate with each other.

Router – Connects all the computers in a network to a broadband modem, sends data around and allows them to use the internet. Home networking routers can also act as firewalls or gateways.

Passphrase – Your password for connecting to your WPA-protected wireless network, and also known as a 'network security key'.

The more complex and lengthy your passphrase is, the less likely it is that someone you don’t want to access your wireless network will be able to gain access. WPA passphrases can be up to 63 characters long.

Switch – A type of hub that transmits information to the correct destination on the network. You need a switch with at least one port for each computer. A switch is similar to a hub but uses broadband bandwidth more efficiently.

Wi-Fi – Refers to all products that can connect to a wireless local area network (LAN). This means users can access the internet without cables. Access points for Wi-Fi, sometimes called 'hotspots', can often be found in public spaces, cafes and on trains, etc.

NIC (Network Interface Card) – A physical adapter card that allows computers to connect to other computers and network devices. NICs can operate at a variety of speeds: 10 Mbps (Ethernet), 100 Mbps (Fast Ethernet), and 1,000 Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet).

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) – A way to secure wireless networks, this has mostly been replaced by WPA, which provides better wireless security. If WPA is available, using WEP isn’t recommended. But it’s better than using no wireless encryption at all.

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) – Secures wireless networks with strong, sophisticated encryption techniques. Wireless networks secured with WPA encryption require the use of a passphrase to gain access.

Backbone – An ultra fast data link connecting different parts of the Internet to each other. It’s also your spine.

Bundle – This is what we call a collection of packages, so you can get TV, Broadband and a phone all on one bill and save money compared to buying them separately. You can build your own bundle on this site, or see some we made earlier.

Byte - This is a unit of computer storage space. There are 1024 bytes in one kilobyte (1KB), 1024 KB in a megabyte (MB) and 1024 MB in a gigabyte (GB).

Cable TV – This means we can send your TV signals to your house through a cable, instead of an aerial or a satellite dish.

This means your TV signal never gets affected by the weather (unlike satellite TV), and it’s great for TV On Demand

Package – All our products come in packages. For example, we have 3 TV packages which give you between 65 and 160+ TV channels to watch depending on what suits you.

Packages can be combined into bundles to give you a mix of TV, Broadband and phone to save you money.

Firewall – A firewall sits between you and the Internet and helps to stop anyone else connecting to your computer without you knowing.

Virgin Media Secruity, our award winning Internet security package which comes free with our broadband packages, includes firewall as well as anti virus software and much more to keep your data safe and secure.