ONT – Optical Network Terminal or Termination…the box on the wall with lights on that connects you to a full fibre FTTP connection. Also sometimes called an ONU.
FTTP – Fibre to the Premises. A “Full Fibre” connection, optical fibre to the house. FTTC/VDSL is Fibre to the Cabinet/Very high data rate Digital Subscriber Line. A hybrid fibre connection. Optical fibre to the street cabinet, then the old copper phone line from there to the house. Your router connects to the old master phone socket. Referred to as just “Fibre”, (to confuse everyone). ADSL...Aysymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. The old copper phone line all the way back to the exchange. Fairly rare now.
WAN – Wide Area Network…Your connection to the outside world. (A LAN is Local Area Network…the network inside your house). Port 4 on the SH2 can be switched to act as the WAN port.
RJ45 – Registered Jack 45…what everyone today refers to (incorrectly) as an ethernet plug/socket. The socket ethernet cables plug into to connect your devices to the router.
RJ11 – Registered Jack 11…smaller than an RJ45. The socket/plug to connect your router to the phone socket or filter. (As far as phones go, BT opted for their own design, the BT 431A or 631A plug…your typical phone plug. Internationally the RJ11 is more common and this tends to be how equipment connects to the wall socket).
SH2 – Smart Hub 2…BT’s latest router.
