- What are Routers?
Routers are connectors that are used to link different networks together. Routers can direct, or route, information to the correct destination.
To find out more about routers, please refer to the following links for reference :
For assistance on router configuration, please contact your vendor.
- What is a network firewall?
A firewall is a system or group of systems that enforces an access control policy between two networks.
Most buildings are constructed with special walls designed to stop or slow the spread of fire through a building. A network firewall follows the same principle. It is designed to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing a private network.
To find out more about firewalls, please refer to the following link for reference :
- Why do you need a Personal Internet Firewall ?
You need it to protect your system from unsolicited scans coming from the Internet and offer outbound control. An inbound scan may be looking for a Trojan horse on you system. Outbound controls watch for a Trojan horse or spyware trying to call out from your system. There are about thirty personal firewall products available. The top payware products are Sygate Pro, ZoneAlarm Pro, and Norton Personal Firewall. The top freeware programs are Kerio, Sygate and ZoneAlarm. After installing a firewall, test it with an online security service to make sure that it is working correctly.
To find out more about the firewalls , please refer to the following links for reference :
- What is NAT?
NAT is an abbreviation for Network Address Translation. It operates as a solution to having multiple, global IP addresses. If you intend to connect your current LAN to The Internet, it is likely that you will use a form of NAT so that each computer does not require a global unique IP address, but instead can use private addressing in the following ranges:
10.0.0.0 -> 10.254.254.254
172.16.0.0 -> 172.31.254.254
192.168.0.0 -> 192.168.254.254
All traffic to and from the Internet goes through one external host - usually a router.
NAT is often built into routers. If router or NAT receives each packet from the internal private network and modifies the IP header to match the global IP address of the router, before transmitting the packet to the Internet. The router stores the internal IP address, destination IP address and port number in a routing table so when a request is returned on the same port, the NAT can match the internal IP address that originated the request, and then modify the IP header to match that of the internal address.
NAT saves on IP allocation. You can use an IP address from one of those in the ranges stated above for all the internal hosts on your LAN, but still connect to the Internet using NAT. Each IP address costs money, so NAT will help reduce costs.
- What is a VPN?
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) enables a specific group of users to access private network data and resources securely over the Internet or other networks. Although often using public networks, a VPN inherits the characteristics of a private network, hence the abbreviation of "Virtual" Private Network. It's the concurrent use of tunneling, encryption, authentication, and access control over a public network that basically characterizes a VPN.
VPNs may connect an individual machine and a private network (client-to-server) or a remote LAN (Local Area Network) and a private network (server-to-server). To do so VPNs need: a routed network (to transport data packets), optionally a tunnel switch (to increase security and versatility) , and tunnel terminators (acting like virtual cable terminators). Back to FAQ
VPNs create "virtual" point-to-point connections using a technique called 'tunneling'. As the name suggests, tunneling acts like a 'pipe' which bores through a network cloud to connect two points. Typically started by a remote user, the tunneling process encapsulates data and encrypts it into standard TCP/IP packets, which can then safely travel across the Internet.
- What is Virus and Worm ?
Refer to http://www.singnet.com.sg/help/security/othersIAFaqVirus.html.
To find out more about the virus , please refer to the following links for reference :
- What is Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) , Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) and Spam ?
Refer to http://www.singnet.com.sg/help/security/othersIAFaqSpam.html.
- What is Hacking ?
Refer to http://www.singnet.com.sg/help/security/othersIAFaqSpam.html.
- Does SingNet support all the above ?
No, we don't support them except Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) , Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) and Spam. Please refer to respective hardware / software for the support.
- Does SingNet perform any network management activities?
SingNet undertakes network management activities from time to time to optimize its network performance to deliver a consistent broadband experience to all its residential subscribers. This ensures that the network operates at optimal efficiency and that the quality of access to the Internet by its subscribers is not affected.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic tends to take up the largest amount of bandwidth available on the broadband network. A P2P network is formed when two or more peer nodes (each peer node is an end-user's computer) are interconnected over the Internet to transfer and/or receive content simultaneously. Based on the design of the P2P protocol, as more peer nodes interconnect, bandwidth consumption increases dramatically. Bandwidth consumption by P2P traffic for all interconnected P2P peer nodes on the SingNet broadband network is much higher compared to the overall bandwidth consumption by other activities such as web browsing, email and streaming. If network management is not practiced, the surge in P2P bandwidth consumption will eventually affect other end-users on the SingNet broadband network.
SingNet employs a fair use policy that ensures no single traffic protocol monopolizes all available bandwidth at the expense of other traffic protocols. Network management activities are carried out only for the P2P traffic protocol by ensuring that P2P traffic does not consume more than 10% and 25% of the total available bandwidth during peak and off peak hours respectively. Peak hours may vary but are generally between 11am and 2am when most subscribers are on the Internet.
Network management is practiced by queuing the delivery of the P2P data packet to the end-user's computer when a certain network utilization level is reached, which may delay delivery, but will not drop the data packet from the network. This activity identifies traffic based only on its Internet protocol such as P2P, HTTP and SMTP. It does not scrutinise the end-user's Internet activity or content. This fair use policy ensures that subscribers using the Internet for other purposes like web browsing, e-mails and streaming etc will not be affected by any surge in P2P traffic protocol in our network.
Subscribers using P2P applications, which typically run in the background, may experience up to three times slower download speeds should the P2P bandwidth consumption reach the network utilization limit during peak hours. It is important to note that as network management activities are applied on an overall network basis, the experience by individual subscribers using P2P applications may also vary depending on a multitude of other factors including but not limited to the subscriber's hardware/software setup, the configuration of the P2P applications, the websites/files being accessed by the P2P application etc. End-users performing other tasks will not be affected by this network management activity. In fact, end-users accessing other applications enjoy more bandwidth during peak hours as a result of network management which ensures that the end-users' Internet experience is consistent throughout the peak and non-peak hours.
