RUCC DSL

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What does my 12 month RUCC ADSL service include?
2. What are the benefits of ADSL?
3. What is DSL?
4. What is ADSL?
5. What is meant by 'business grade ADSL'?
6. What ADSL router (modem) do I need?
7. What is DataLink?
8. How does ADSL compare to ISDN?
9. What is the difference between DSL vs Cable?
10. What is an IP address?
11. What is a DSLAM?
12. How secure is my DSL connection?

What does my 12 month RUCC ADSL service include?

ADSL Internet connection with static IP address

Business grade unfiltered Internet access

Service Level Agreement

Up to 100 Email accounts

Delegation and DNS set-up

Secure Web mail - access your mail securely through a browser

7-day Telephone Support

24/7 monitoring of your connection and router

Fast lead time for installation - around 21 working days

Web hosting discount - 20%

Installation Manager to co-ordinate the migration process

What are the benefits of ADSL?

Very fast - up to 100 times faster than a modem

Always on - no dial-up delays, engaged signals or line drop-outs

Lower cost than current services such as ISDN

Reliable, business grade performance

Access new services such as videoconferencing

Multiple user access - up to 254 users

Works over your existing phone lines

Cost savings and productivity gains

What is DSL?

DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, is a family of digital telecommunication protocols designed to allow high speed data communication over the existing copper telephone lines. DSL provides much higher speeds over existing copper lines than users have traditionally had with technology like dial-up modems, ISDN and even E1s (Megalinks). DSL is ofter referred to as xDSL to accomodate the variety of DSL technologies the name covers, including ADSL, SHDSL.

DSL technologies make use of your existing telephone line. It splits the signal into two, one for voice communications and the other for the high speed data connection. The data line uses a range of frequencies not used in normal voice communications:

0 kHz - 20 kHz - Voice
25.875 kHz - 1.104 MHz - Data

What is ADSL?

ADSL, or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, is a form of DSL in which the bandwidth available for downstream connection is significantly larger than for upstream. For example a speed of 384/128 Kbps allows you to download data at a maximum rate of 384 Kbps and upload at 128 Kbps.

What is meant by 'business grade ADSL'?

Reliability

Cisco Powered Network including Cisco router

Low contention ration 1 to 12 (not like Telstra which can be over subscribed 1 to 100+)

Fully Managed

The installation of the service is managed end-to-end

Monitoring of the network, your connection and router 24/7

Service Level Agreement

Your ADSL service is backed by a SLA with a promise of better than 99.7% availability as well as service restoration targets

What ADSL router (modem) do I need?

We provide a preconfigured adsl router. If you would prefer to provide your own router please call rucc to comfirm compatability.

What is DataLink?

DataLink is inter-office data service using DSL technology. It offers speeds of between 64Kb/s and 512Kb/s between sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane as well as inter-city locations

DataLink delivers:

Seamless connectivity - It is designed to connect your separate office networks as if they were one.

Affordability - It offers great value - especially when compared to the alternatives (eg. ISDN and Frame Relay services).

Simple pricing - It has a simple price structure - a fixed monthly fee that relates to the speed you select and the distance between your offices.

Reliability - The service is backed by a service level agreement that guarantees 99.5% availability.*

Flexibility - requestDataLink makes it easy for you to increase or decrease the speed of your service, to match performance and budget requirements.

Always monitored - It is monitored and managed, end-to-end, round-the-clock, including remote monitoring of the router in your business premises. A service response is initiated by us if a fault alarm occurs.

Easy to connect - Connect your network to the router using ethernet.

Fast delivery - This is a completely managed installation process, and is normally available within 21 business days from order.

How does ADSL compare to ISDN?

ADSL offers a cheaper and faster service than ISDN. ISDN works by providing two voice channels or a 128 Kbps data channel while ADSL is predominantly a data pipe providing an asymmetrical bandwidth of up to 6 Mbps downstream and 640 kbps upstream. However, the ADSL network is an overlay network and therefore does not require the expensive and time-consuming switch upgrades that held ISDN back for so long.

What is the difference between RUCC DSL vs cable?

The main benefits that RUCC DSL services have over cable are:

Cable is a shared medium so gets slower as more users are connected. DSL is not shared. It is a 1 to 1 subscription up to the POA. (Point of aggregation.)
Our service allows for better security and is provided using a dedicated, preconfigured router (recommended) instead of a card or modem plugged directly into a computer that relies on installed software to function.
RUCC DSL more easily supports custom routing, static addresses, port and network address translation and select protocol configuration.
Supports multiple services to the same router including Internet access, VPN access and future services.

What is an IP address?

An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is basically your address on the internet. Each packet of data on the internet contains the source and destination IP address, so information can be routed accordingly (can be delivered to its destination)

Note: Some IP addresses are internal to your local network, and not routable to the Internet. The following 3 blocks of the IP address space have been reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for private Intranets:

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 (10/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 (172.16/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix)

If your PC is assigned an IP address in one of the above ranges, it is most probably behind a firewall, running NAT or SOCKS. In this case, the IP packets sent to the internet are addressed from the firewall, and not from your PC.

RUCC supplies all DSL customers with a static IP address. Static IP addresses are assigned to a specific computer or other network device on a permanent basis until manually changed.

What is a DSLAM?
A DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) is a network device at a telephone company central office or exchange, that receives signals from multiple customer DSL connections and puts the signals on a high-speed backbone using multiplexing (high speed switching).

How secure is my DSL connection?

Inter office connectivity (DataLink)
If you are directly connected to your other offices using DataLink, your security is enhanced as your information travels over a private network that offers a connection analogous to a leased line. Your information does not travel over the public Internet consequently the service provides an inherent security advantage.

All Internet connections carry some degree of risk regardless of which Internet provider is used. DSL is carried over private telephone lines and so carries less risk than Internet access over a shared network. RUCC recommends that a number of precautions are taken to protect your valuable business data;

Consider the use of a firewall as well as other hardware and software solutions

Turn off "file and printer sharing" on all computers on your network. If you leave sharing enabled, be aware of the increased potential for unauthorised access to and/or manipulation of your data.

Install anti-virus software on all computers. Ensure that the software is regularly updated.

Conduct regular backups of your data - especially those files which cannot be restored from CD-ROM. Archive your backup media (tapes, etc) securely in an off-site location.
Ensure that you retain backup media over a reasonable number of months; it may take time to detect an intruder.

Be careful about opening e-mail (especially attachments), particulary when you do not recognise the sender. E-mail is a popular method of distributing viruses and trojans.

Regularly check for security/critical updates to your operating system (Windows, MacOS as applicable).

If you are a business or organisation, make security a key management issue. There are many factors to consider - router firewalls, password policies, user behaviour, and many more.

RUCC Pty Ltd
ABN 71 059 959 616
PO BOX 6195 St Kilda Road Central
Victoria Australia 8008
Email: info@rucc.net.au
Phone: (03) 8685 8378
Fax: (03) 8621 0008
© 2007 RUCC Pty Ltd