How To Choose The Best Internet Service Provider

In this article I’ll explain a few of the differences between different choices for ways to connect to the Internet.

To begin with, let me explain the two general types of Internet connection before I get more specific about some of the more specific types inside these two larger categories.

When when one looks at it as simply as possible there are two common computer terms which describe different kinds of Internet connection: dialup and “broadband”.

Dialup is, of course, the outdated way to get on the Internet, where you utilize a dialup modem. Dialup modems have been around for a lot longer than most people realize: I bought my first one around 1986 and they were originally introduced decades before that.

It was a “1200 bps” (bps is a way to measure of how fast it works) modem that I bought for about  $200 for back then. Dialup modems hit a maximum speed of 56K bps a good ten years or more ago, and now sell for under  $10 if you know where to look.

Basically that would make it about 46 times faster, and 20 times cheaper.

Now you might think to yourself “Wow! That sounds really fast!”

If that’s what you think, you’re mistaken.

Dialup is obsolete technology, and hasn’t really been improved on in about a decade, which means it’s around 150 years out of date in relative terms!

So the simple way to think of it is, dialup = slow.

A lot of computer users are using dialup still, either because they don’t don’t know any better, or they have no choice where they are.

However,even if you are still on dialup and are thinking “I’m not upgrading; what’s the point?”– you’re making a mistake.

I’ll tell you why in a minute.

First, I’m going to discuss the main alternative to dialup. I’m talking about”broadband”, which simply just means “fast Internet”.

Broadband comes in a variety of different types, covering a range of speeds, even the slowest lots faster than dialup.

Aside from much better, broadband generally doesn’t tie up your phone line, so people aren’t annoyed by busy signals if they try calling you, and you’re able to place phone calls even when you’re online.

The two most commonplace varieties of broadband are cable and DSL. Cable internet comes over the same wire as cable TV, and is offered by many companies under a variety of different brand names– Roadrunner is one example of cable internet.

DSL actually comes over your phone lines just like dialup, but is much quicker and, much like cable Internet, you can place phone calls while you’re connected.

You’ve got less-used varieties including satellite, which gives you fairly fast connections to the Internet using a satellite dish like satellite TV. It’s slow for broadband, but a lot faster than dialup. It’s mainly used by people in less developed areas who don’t have a better choice.

What I tend to advise to most people who ask is to get DSL, if you are able to get it where you live. In most cases it’s just a little pricier than dialup is, and in many cases it’s the same price or even costs less!

It’s not always as speedy 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 sluggish) on dialup, such as viewing videos on YouTube or elsewhere, or downloading big files.

Which brings me to one of the most important reasons I recommend people stop using dialup and upgrade to some flavor of broadband — downloading big files.

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

Here’s why: computer users are sending around big photos(or several smaller images), or even videos by email all the time now.

Maybe you’re using dialup and you’ve tried checking your email and it never seemed to arrive, or it took forever to do it, you may have become a victim of this.

So there’s that reason.

But there’s an much more critical one: computers need things called “security updates” or “patches” which are absolutely important to get. It’s important for both Windows or Apple’s Macs.

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

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

So big that it can take many hours, or even DAYS to receive. And if you don’t download them, your computer is vulnerable.

Which leaves you up a creek if you’re still using dialup.

So seriously consider 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 that give you Apple basics and Windows basics, so make sure you take advantage of them if it will help.