How To Choose The Best Internet Service Provider

In this article I’m going to discuss some of the differences between various options for methods to connect to the Internet.

First off, let me explain the two primary types of Internet connection before getting more in-depth about some of the more specific methods inside these two general categories.

When looked at as basically as possible there are two commonplace computer terms describing different Internet connections: dialup and “broadband”.

Dialup is, as you may know, the outdated way to connect to the Internet, where you use a dialup modem. Dialup modems have been around far longer than most people know: I bought my first one around 1986 and they date back to long before that.

It was a “1200 bps” (bps is a measurement of speed) modem that I paid about   $200 for back in the day. Dialup modems hit a maximum speed of 56K bps back in the late 1990s, and now go for less than   $10 if you know where to look.

So in other words that’s around 46 times faster, and twenty times less expensive.

Now you may be thinking “I think I read somewhere that my computer has a 56K modem in it. That must be pretty fast then!”

If you’re thinking that, you’re wrong.

Dialup is very outdated technology, and hasn’t been upgraded in about ten years, which means it’s something like 150 years out of date relatively speaking!

So the bottom line is, dialup = slow.

Many computer users are stuck in the world of, either because they don’t see any reason not to, or they don’t have any other option where they live.

But what I want to tell you is that even if you are still using dialup and are thinking “I’m not upgrading; what’s the point?” — you are making a mistake.

I’ll tell you why in a moment.

First, let me clarify the general alternative to dialup. I’m talking about “broadband”, which generally just means “fast Internet”.

Broadband is delivered in a variety of different types, covering a range of speeds, all of them a lot better than dialup.

Beyond a lot better, broadband generally doesn’t tie up your phone line, so people don’t get busy signals if they call you, and you can place phone calls while you’re online.

The two most used different types of broadband are cable and DSL. Cable internet comes over the same wire as cable TV, and is available from many different companies with a variety of different brands — Roadrunner is one example of cable internet.

DSL actually comes over your phone lines much like dialup, but is quite a bit faster and, much like cable Internet, you can place phone calls while you’re using the Internet.

You’ve got less-used options including satellite, which gives you fairly speedy connections to the Internet using a satellite dish in the same way as satellite TV. It is pretty slow for broadband, but quite a bit faster than dialup. It’s mainly used by people in rural areas who don’t have a better choice.

What I suggest to most computer users is to get DSL, if they can get it where you live. In most cases it’s only a little bit pricier than dialup is, and in a lot of cases it’s the same price or even cheaper!

It’s not generally as fast as cable Internet, but it’s still plenty fast for most people, and lets you do a lot of things that just aren’t possible (or are very very annoyingly slow) on dialup, for example, viewing videos on YouTube or elsewhere, or downloading big files.

Which brings me to one of the most significant reasons I strongly suggest people stop using dialup and upgrade to some variety of broadband — downloading large files.

You maybe be under the impression that you never do that, but on the other hand… Maybe you do (or should be) and don’t realize it.

Here’s why: people are sharing big pictures (or several smaller pictures), or even videosby email constantly now.

If you’re on dialup and you tried checking your email and it never seemed to be able to get the new messages, or it took forever to do it, you may have become a victim of this.

So that’s one reason.

But there’s an even more important one: computers need things called “security updates” or “patches” which are incredibly important to download. It’s important for both Windows or Macintosh computers.

Unless you have these patches, your computer is almost guaranteed to be vulnerable to attacks from viruses, worms, and more.

But these security updates (like Windows Update, or OS X’s Software Update) sometimes can be very large files.

So big that it can take hours and hours, or even DAYS to download. And if you don’t download them, your computer is left at risk.

Which leaves you left high and dry if you’re still using dialup.

So think about switching if you haven’t already, and forward this to your friends who haven’t. And remember there are lots of good sites out there where you can discover Apple Mac training , so it’s OK to seek help if you need it.