How to Choose the Best Internet Service Provider For Your Needs

difference between dsl broadband

In this article I’ll discuss some of the differences between various options for ways to get on the Internet.

Initially, let me discuss the two primary types of Internet connection before getting more specific about some of the more specific ways inside these two general categories.

When looked at as simply as possible there are two frequently used computer terms for different kinds of Internet connection: dialup and “broadband”.

Dialup is, of course, the outdated way to connect to the Internet, where you utilize a dialup modem. Dialup modems have been around far longer than most people realize: I bought my first one around 1986 and they were first invented in the 1960s.

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

So in other words that’s around forty-six times faster, and twenty times cheaper.

Now you might be thinking “Wow! That sounds really fast!”

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

Dialup is very outdated technology, and hasn’t really been upgraded in over ten years, which means it’s something like one hundred fifty years out of date in relative terms!

The bottom line is, dialup is very slow.

Lots of computer users are trapped in the dark ages of dialup, either because they don’t see any reason not to, or they don’t have any other option where they are.

What you may not realize is that even if you are currently using dialup and think “it’s good enough, so why bother upgrading?” — you are making a mistake.

I’ll get to why that is in a moment.

Before I do, I’m going to explain the primary alternative to dialup. I’m talking about “broadband”, which basically just means “fast Internet”.

Broadband can be found in a variety of varieties, with a range of speeds, all of them much better than dialup.

Beyond way faster, broadband generally doesn’t tie up your phone line, so people don’t get busy signals when they call you, and you’re able to place phone calls even when you’re online.

The two main flavors of broadband are cable and DSL. Cable internet comes over the same wire as cable TV, and is available from a variety of companies under various different brand names — Roadrunner is one example of cable internet.

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

You’ve got less-used varieties such as satellite, which gives you fairly speedy connections to the Internet using a satellite dish like satellite TV. It’s slow for broadband, but a lot faster than dialup. It’s primarily used by people away from population centers who don’t have any better choice.

What I suggest to most people is to get DSL, if you are able to get it where you live. In most cases it’s only slightly pricier than dialup is, and in a lot of cases it’s the same price or even cheaper!

It’s not generally 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 extremely agonizingly sluggish) on dialup, such as viewing videos on YouTube or elsewhere, or downloading large files.

This brings us to one of the main reasons I think people should stop using dialup and switch to some variety of broadband — downloading big files.

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

Here’s why: people are sharing large pictures (or several smaller pictures), or even videosby email all the time these days.

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

So there’s that reason.

But there’s an even more important one: computers require something called “security updates” or “patches” which are absolutely important to get. It’s important for both Windows PCs or Macs.

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

But these security updates (think Windows Update, or Macs’ Software Update) more and more frequently can be very large files.

So huge that it can take hours and hours, or even DAYS to download. And if you skip downloading them, your computer is vulnerable.

Which leaves you between a rock and a hard place if you’re still using dialup.

So think about upgrading if you haven’t already, and let people know about this who haven’t. And remember there are a good selection of good sites out there that give you how to computer instruction, so it’s OK to seek help if you need it.