There are two ways to connect to the Internet: dial up and broadband.
A dialup service connects to the Internet through your phone line. The modem in your pc dials up an Internet Service Provider and connects with a maximum speed of 56K bytes per second. Each time your pc dials into the ISP, it is assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address, which you can think of as an "Internet address."
When you connect to the Internet via a broadband your pc connect to the ISP through a cable, satellite or DSL connection (upgraded phone line). It is connected all the tme until the cable box or DSL line is disconnected, power turned off or physically unplugged. Hence the “Always On” name. A DSL connection runs through unused wires in your existing phone line without disruption and can translate data at 5 million bytes per second, or 5Mbps.
Connection speed is the most important element to any user who wishes to take full advantage of today’s Internet offerings. Dialup is the slowest, DLS faster and broadband through cable is the fastest. Dialup connection speeds make it more difficult to use some types of media, such as video, animation, voice, and it takes a long time to download and open email attachments, such as photos. The advantage is lower monthly cost (can be as low as $9.99/month). Broadband services cost anywhere from $30-$60 per month.
Broadband Internet connection allows you to access the internet anytime and take full advantage of all that the Internet has to offer. You can receive much larger files and attachments as the bandwidth is much greater.
More and more users are switching from dialup to the broadband connection especially as wireless internet has found its way to the home. Wireless connection is achieved by having a router connected to your cable/dsl modem and “broadcasting” internet around your house/apartment. If you have a laptop equipped with a wireless card, you will then be able to connect to the Internet from the comfort of your sofa in the living room, or bed in your bedroom. This also allows multiple users to connect to the Internet simultaneously.
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