IT explained
IT terms and tasks, explained without the jargon
Precise, vendor-neutral definitions and practical procedures for the terminology that turns up in security documents, licensing discussions and support tickets. Each page answers the question in its first paragraph, then gives the detail an IT team needs to act on it: what the term means, where people get it wrong, and what to do next.
6 min read
What is an endpoint?
An endpoint is any device that terminates a network connection and can be managed, monitored and attacked: laptops, desktops, servers, tablets, phones, tills and kiosks. What counts, what does not, and why the count matters commercially.
7 min read
What is bandwidth?
Bandwidth is how much data a connection can carry at once, measured in megabits per second. It is not speed, and it is not the reason most remote sessions feel slow. What bandwidth is, how it differs from latency, and how much a remote session actually needs.
6 min read
What is a node in networking?
A node is any device with a network address that can send, receive or forward data: computers, servers, phones, printers, switches, routers and cloud gateways. What counts as a node, how nodes differ from endpoints, and why node counts appear on invoices.
8 min read
How to reset network settings
A network reset clears learned network state and rebuilds it from defaults. What a reset actually clears, the exact steps on Windows, macOS, iPhone and Android, what you lose, and the cheaper checks to try first.
8 min read
How to check SSD health
How to read an SSD's own health data on Windows, macOS and Linux: percentage used, total bytes written, spare blocks and reallocated sectors. Which numbers predict failure, which are noise, and what to do when a drive starts wearing out.
8 min read
What is a data breach?
A data breach is unauthorised access to information you hold. How breaches actually begin, the four stages they follow, why detection takes so long, the first hours of response, and the controls that reduce the damage most.
7 min read
What is a botnet?
A botnet is a network of compromised devices under one operator's control, used for DDoS attacks, spam, credential stuffing and crypto mining. How devices get recruited, why infections go unnoticed, and the signs worth watching for.
7 min read
What is patch management?
Patch management is the process of finding, testing, deploying and verifying updates across an estate. The five-stage cycle, deployment rings, realistic timescales, and why verification is where most patching programmes actually fail.
7 min read
What is RDP?
RDP is Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol, built into Windows for remote sessions. How it works, what it is genuinely good at, why exposing it to the internet is dangerous, and where brokered remote support tools fit instead.
Why these pages exist
Remote support, monitoring and management sit on top of a stack of ordinary concepts: addresses, bandwidth, endpoints, drives, patches and protocols. Most explanations of those concepts are written either for exam candidates or for search engines. These are written for someone with a machine in front of them and a decision to make, and they say plainly where a product would help and where it would not.