broadband explained

Technology lingo can be confusing, so consider this page as your own personal guide to making sense of it all. Choose a term to find out more.

broadband filters
broadband modems/routers
broadband speed
web space and email
computer requirements
Apple Mac users
usage allowance

fair use policy
broadband costs
security
switching providers
second line
traffic management

broadband filters

These are small plugs you need to put into your phone sockets so your broadband and telephone signals don't interfere with each other.

You get two free filters when you join Orange Broadband, but you can buy more. And if you've had broadband before, you may already have some filters on hand.

broadband modems/routers

To use broadband services, you need to hook up a special digital modem (as opposed to a dial-up or 'analogue' modem).

All Orange Broadband packages come with a standard wireless router except Home Ultra, which comes with a Livebox wireless router.

Both let you connect wirelessly to more than one computer from anywhere in your home and connect directly to the router using the Ethernet cable provided with it. Plus, you can use your wireless router or Livebox to attach your Xbox or PlayStation to play online video games.

If you join Home Ultra, you'll need the Livebox to use your second line.

IMPORTANT: If there is a power cut, or a power failure, you will not be able to make or receive any voice calls using your Livebox, including calls to emergency services numbers 999 or 112.

broadband speed

Broadband speed is a measure of how fast data moves along phone lines and into your computer. This speed is measured in megabits per second (Mbps) and is usually shortened to Mb or ‘Meg’.

Speeds faster than 2Mb are only available in some areas, and top speeds can vary quite a lot, especially if you live far from the telephone exchange. If your line won't support our fastest broadband speed, we'll always give you the fastest available.

The estimate that we give you is an estimate on your Access Line speed. This is different to the actual speed you receive on your desktop computer or laptop, known as "throughput speed".

If you are in an Orange broadband network area, our fastest speeds are up to 20Mb. Outside these areas, our speeds are up to 8Mb.

The Access Line speed is the speed your line is capable of from the exchange to your house and is the headline speed you'll see in adverts. Once inside your house your throughput speed can be affected by a number of issues, including the following:

quality of your internal wiring
your router not being plugged into the main BT socket
the time of day (we and most other internet providers sometimes have to restrict speeds a little at peak times to ensure everyone has stable access to the Network - click here to learn more and see below section on Traffic Management)
having more than one pc connected to one internet connection
even things like having your router near magnetic/electrical equipment
and sometimes even the weather

For Orange network customers we now offer superfast broadband (up to 20Mb / sec). Not everyone will be able to achieve higher speeds than they already experience for some of the reasons explained above, however, many of you will be able to enjoy ‘superfast’ speeds up to a maximum of 20 Mb / sec

Speed vs stability

Line ‘stability’ is also an important factor that will affect the quality of your broadband experience. The right balance of speed and stability will ensure you experience the optimum performance when using our broadband service.

Higher broadband speeds can cause an environment whereby the stability of your broadband line is affected. We want to give our customers the fastest and most stable connection possible. To do this, we use a line management technique called Dynamic Line Management (DLM). This provides a fantastic benefit to you as it will ensure the optimum performance of your broadband line in terms of speed and stability.

DLM takes between five and ten days to ‘settle in’. During this period it is getting to know your broadband line and collecting data to be able to make recommendations about how it will optimise the performance of your broadband line. You may therefore not notice an increase in download speed or performance during this period after your service has been activated, however, after this you will have the best performance possible your line can achieve.

Orange has signed up to and complies with Ofcom's Code of Practice on broadband speed, to learn more about it click here.

computer requirements

For all Orange Home Services packages you need:

CD-Rom drive
Check you can insert CDs in your computer. You'll need this to run the installation program.
One of these operating systems: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Apple Mac OS X (except for Intel Base Apple Macs for Home Starter customers)
an ethernet port
a wireless-enabled computer or a wireless adaptor
Check your computer's user guide to see if it's got built-in wireless capability. If it doesn't, you'll need to buy a wireless adaptor. You can buy one from us when you join.
Electrical surge protection
Electrical surges happen a lot, although you may have never had one in your home. Everyday activity like turning appliances on and off can create small surges, which, added to other small surges, could damage your electrical equipment. You can prevent damage with a surge protector (which looks a lot like a normal extension lead). They're available from most high street and online retailers and cost £10 to £20.

We also recommend that you keep your computer up to date with software upgrades from your operating system plus anti virus updates to give you optimal performance and maximum security protection.

Apple Mac users

We offer full technical support for our customers with Apple Mac OS X.

Unfortunately the wireless adaptor we sell doesn't work with Apple Macs.

All of our wireless routers work with Airport.

usage allowance

Broadband use is measured in gigabytes (GB) and is based on the amount of information moving in and out of your computer.

All of our products come with unlimited usage allowances which are subject to our fair usage policy.

FAIR USE POLICY
To make sure that everyone has an equal right to quality of service, we have a fair usage policy for our broadband, home phone and second line services. This can be viewed here

Broadband Costs

Unlike other providers Orange won’t charge you if you move house.
If you cancel while still within your contract, you can expect to pay a cancellation fee.

web space and email

Orange broadband comes with a special website building service, so you don't need any web-building skills. You can load your site with videos, audio and photos, and get your own dedicated web address.

You'll also get an email address that you can access from the Orange homepage using any computer with an internet connection. With this comes 500MB of email storage space and free anti-virus and anti-spam filters.

security

Orange Broadband comes with McAfee® Privacy Service.

choose what your kids can do and see online
keep your computer free from spyware
protect your personal data

If you'd like even more security, you can buy McAfee® Internet Security Suite for just £39.99 – that's £9.99 off the regular price.

anti-virus protection
protection from hackers and identity theft emails ('phishing')
better computer performance
scam and spam email protection

Sorry, but McAfee® Internet Security Suite software doesn't work with Apple Macs.

switching providers

If you're switching to Orange, you'll need to get a migration authorisation code (MAC) from your current provider. Simply enter the MAC when you register for Orange Broadband, and we'll switch you over within 10 working days – there is little or no disruption to your existing broadband service on the day of switch over. Find out more.

second line

With Home Ultra you pay line rental to Orange (£10.50 per month) that's cheaper than BT's £11.25 line rental and you will get only one bill for landline and broadband instead of two. You can also make anytime calls to all UK landlines (01, 02 and 03 numbers). Download full price list for Orange home phone services.

International calls to 30 countries via the second line are included in the package price. You also have inclusive calls to other second line customers and anyone with a UK landline (01, 02 and 03 numbers). Find out more about second line.

traffic management

Traffic management is where we sometimes apply restrictions to the amount of network capacity a customer can use, which can affect your speed. We do this to stop a small number of customers who excessively download during peak times (6pm to midnight) as this affects the quality of the service we provide to all other customers.

It also means that we are able to prioritise certain types of internet traffic on time-sensitive applications such as our second line phone service or gaming.

We believe we are protecting our customers by doing this and helping to stop a handful of people affecting your service.

more information about Traffic Management Policy

Orange traffic management policies:

Unlike other ISPs, Orange will only restrict peer to peer (P2P) traffic at peak times. Peak times are defined as being between the following times:

6pm-midnight every day of the week

For certain very high users, Orange may restrict their usage at peak time for all applications. These customers will be notified in advance.

Principles of Orange network management policies

to make sure that important applications (like for gaming) are always treated as a priority to ensure fantastic response times when they are being used
to ensure that interactive applications like web-browsing are not caught up with other more time consuming web activities (such as the downloading of music and videos)
to ensure a more flexible network than other ISPs (especially in the event of unusual demands in traffic or disaster situations such as a network failure)

Frequently asked questions about traffic management policies

What is meant by peer to peer (P2P)?
P2P (file-sharing applications like BitTorrent and Kazaa) by their very nature are "dirty" protocols. This means they will consume as much of the available bandwidth that is available give them an inch and they will try to take a mile! This has driven up total bandwidth consumption worldwide, as shown in the earlier diagram. Furthermore, the saturating effect of these applications will detrimentally impact the quality of all other traffic being consumed on the network at the same time. P2P is predominately a consumer-orientated service, currently used to download music, videos or software (both legally and illegally).
We want you to experience optimum levels of service from your broadband
At Orange we want all our customers to get the best service possible from their broadband. That means a speedy web experience for all users – not just a few. When someone is downloading and/or uploading a particularly large amount of information over a long period of time, it can slow down the broadband speed for other users who might just be checking their email or browsing online. So to make sure our service is fair for everybody, we sometimes moderate the speeds for our very heavy users who are downloading and/or uploading an unusually large amount. This makes sure that the service doesn't get blocked up with people using more than their fair share – which means a better service for you.
What are the traffic management policies Orange apply to the heaviest users?
It's important to remember that Orange traffic management policies only apply when the speeds are likely to be affected by people using more than their fair share. In fact, the policies affect less than 3% of all users on a daily basis – those whose usage of the service would affect other users if they weren't managed. To make sure all customers get the most from their connection, we may reduce the speed of the heaviest users at peak evening times – between 6pm and midnight every day. We will contact these customers in advance.
Why does Orange have a traffic management policy?
Orange believes in making sure all our customers can use Orange Broadband without being slowed down by high users. So our traffic management policy is there to keep things fair.
Will the policy change again?
The way our customers use their broadband is changing all the time, so it's possible that in the future we may increase or decrease the thresholds or modify other settings. Don't worry though, we'll always let you know on our website if we're going to make any changes, and we don't expect the thresholds to change very often.