Chapter 15 - Communications

• 1. List 5 communication technologies used in Brunei apart from mobile phone.
  (i) telephone (ii) fax (iii) e-mail (iv) radio (v) cell phone (vi) LAN (vii) WAN
• 2. What are the characteristics of a LAN? Use the internet to download
  information about different types of LAN and the required hardware and software.
  A LAN allows communication between computers. LANs connect computers in a small geographical area. Generally, network cables between computers are limited to a maximum length of around 100m, depending on the type of cable. LANs are generally fast, with much greater bandwidth than most WANs – which must use a relatively slow public telephone system.
• 3. What are the advantages of using fibre optic instead of copper wire?
  There is no special performance advantage in terms of bandwidth. CAT 5E cable is able to transmit data at 1Gb/s – the same as common fibre optic cable. However, fibre optic cable is less prone to electrical interference. In an electrical storm a fibre optic cable is not going to be affected by moisture or lightening.
• 4. What does asynchronous mean?
  This means there is a difference between the upload bandwidth and the download bandwidth in a communications network. E-Speed in Brunei uses ADSL. It allows for fast downloads from the internet by having more bandwidth set aside for that. It then allows a much smaller bandwidth for uploading information to the internet. This seems like a reasonable thing to do since people mostly download pages to their computer when they are browsing and do not upload much.
• 5. What does ADSL mean and how does it work?
  Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line. This is a technology for using the telephone line between your house and the telephone substation for carrying both digital (computer) data and also analog voice information. It means that a telephone line can be used to carry data and be used for a telephone conversation at the same time. The reason for being able to do this is that a telephone line has much more bandwidth than is necessary for voice communication. Surplus capacity is used for carrying computer transmissions. ADSL requires that the telephone switching system is not too old. This is why some parts of Brunei must wait for the telephone system to be upgraded before they will be able to get E-Speed.
• 6. What is a WAN
  A WAN is a network that allows computers to connect to each other. It is a network that covers a large geographical area. The distance between computers is commonly several to thousands of kilometers.
• 7. What is the difference between the Internet and the WWW?
  The internet is a WAN. The World Wide Web is the network of computers that use the internet but transmit pages to each other that have been prepared using HTML. (hypertext markup language). We use a software package called a browser to view web pages.
• 8. What is a homepage?
  This is the main page of a website. Each html page has a name. The name of the home page is always index.htm
• 9. What is a URL?
  Universal Resource Locator. Each site on the internet has its own unique address. http://www.brunei-bay.com is the URL of your teachers web site. There are no other sites in the entire world with this same address.
• 10. What is a bulletin board?
  A place on a network where people can post messages that other people can look at and respond to. Message boards are commonly used by groups of people who have a common interest.
• 11. What are some advantages of E-mail over post?
  (i) E-Mail is rapid, post is not. (ii) It costs less to send an E-Mail than to write a letter, put in an envelop, go to the post office, buy some stamps and post it. (iii) Usually a message is sent back to the E-mail sender to tell them that their message has been received successfully. (iv) E-Mails are date and time stamped – which is quite useful at times. (v) Anything can be sent as an attachment.
• 12. What are some ways that a business can take advantage of communications technology so that they can be more competitive?
  (i) use tools for OA (office automation) to empower workers, making them more valuable to the organization and making the organization or business more efficient. (ii) Use EDI (electronic data interchange) to communicate with suppliers and customers efficiently (iii) Use technology wisely so that customers receive better service than they would receive from your competitors (iv) use the technology to lower costs – which are passed onto customers as lower prices (v) offer alternative services to customers such as online payment. This will attract new customers since the new service is convenient.
  
• 13. What is an intranet?
  This is a network that is limited to a single organization. It could be a LAN but is more likely to be a number of LANs that are linked together in a WAN. Brunei Shell has an Intranet for internal communication. Customers can not access this network.
  
• 14. What is an extranet?
  This is a network that belongs to a business and is for the business, but it does allow access to some parts of the network by people such as customers. A web page might advertise products – obviously it would be a good idea if customers could access this to find out about items they might like to purchase.