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July 20th, 2008

Internet Connection Basics

There’s a lot to be concerned with nowadays when looking for an internet service provider. You first need to decide what type of connection you want, and how much you’re willing to pay for it.
Depending on your requirements, and how many features you want, you’ll eventually find just the perfect access plan.

There are two broad classifications of internet access, which are:

1) Dialup access
2) Broadband access

A few comments on each of these internet service types: dialup access is a slow form of internet access which has been losing market share for many years. The problems with dialup access are many: namely, slow connection speed compared to broadband and many disconnects or “drops”. Add to these disadvantages the fact that dialup is not much cheaper than comparable broadband access, and you’ll see why dialup internet access is losing out to faster connection types.

Broadband is the next major category of internet access, and can be classified in the following main groups:

1) Cable internet access - very fast access offered through your cable television company
2) DSL - Digital Subscriber Line access - offered through your local telephone company
3) Fiber Optic access - if available - offered through your telephone company
4) Satellite internet access - used primarily in rural areas where cheaper alternatives are not available
5) Wireless internet access - offered through a PDA or cell phone, a rapidly growing area of internet service

Currently, the recommended internet access for most home users is either cable or DSL access. Depending on how much you travel, or how often you need fast internet access away from your main terminal, you may very well also have a Wi-Fi account, or use Wi-Fi hotspots to log in.

Right now telephone companies, most notably Verizon, are rolling out Fiber Optic cable connections which offer 30mbps connections for under $50 per month. This is a truly incredible combination of features and options which promises to obsolete the various current high-speed connections mentioned above. The best part about Fiber Optics is the introduction of Video on Demand, which will allow subscribers to download and save popular video. Fiber Optic connections also excel in the area of high-definition television, so your HDTV will have plenty of channels to choose from.

If you’re still on dialup, you should make the leap to one of the available broadband technologies available to you. The more reliable and faster connection will help get you acquainted with a side of the Web that’s just not available to you as a dialup subscriber. Recently, a conference was held in San Franciso, that included all of the luminaries of the online access and content industries. At this meeting a broad vision called Web 2.0 was outlined. In this vision of the internet, completely free individuals, enabled by massive amounts of bandwith would be able to run small businesses from their homes and the internet would become a collaborative market that changes the way we all live forever. Take your first step towards that vision today.

Darren McLaughlin is the President of http://www.nccw.net

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July 8th, 2008

The History of High Speed Internet Access

High speed internet access, also known as broadband internet, is a high data-transmission rate internet connection. High speed internet has revolutionized the way that people utilize the internet. Before broadband internet, people spent more time downloading content than enjoying it.

The fastest that dial-up internet access can deliver downloaded files is at the rate of 56 kilobits per second. High speed internet, on the other hand, typically transmits at nine times the speed of a conventional dial-up modem. There are also broadband service packages that can transmit up to 20 Megabits per second.

Broadband internet access refers to DSL (digital subscriber line) and cable modem access. DSL is the most commonly used high speed internet, with cable running a close second in terms of popularity. There is also satellite internet access, but there is a high latency problem caused by the distance the signal must travel to and from the satellite. Currently there is also a new service called power-line internet that is being tested. This internet service may eventually allow high speed internet data to travel along standard high-voltage power lines. However, this data transmission system has several issues that will need to be resolved before the feasibility of power-line internet is determined.

High speed internet access became an extremely rapidly developing market in many regions in 2000. Studies found that broadband internet usage in the United States grew more than 24% between 2000 and 2003. One of the challenges of this age of broadband is the ability to provide high speed service to customers located in rural areas. This is because in urban areas service providers are easily able to recover the cost the new equipment required to offer broadband. For this reason, many rural inhabitants still use dial-up or ISDN, which typically delivers data at up to 128 kilobits per second.

In some markets, especially those outside of the United States, there are some internet service providers that are taking advantage of the current lack of industry definition as to what constitutes as broadband internet. Currently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has defined high speed internet access as 256 kilobits per second in at least one direction (upload or download), though average consumer broadband speeds far exceed this rate of data transfer. Thus, some internet service providers take advantage of lacking industry standards and market lower bitrate connections as high speed.

With the innovation of high speed internet it has become possible for users to download and watch videos and music files in just minutes, if not immediately. Anyone that’s used dial-up to download these larger types of files knows the frustration of waiting hours for a download that may never even complete. Without broadband internet access, the popularity and convenience of peer-to-peer file sharing would not have been possible.

As the rate of data transmission increases, the market expects that streaming video and streaming audio services will become increasingly popular. Interestingly, video encoding formats such as MPEG-4 are making top quality video streams accessible at even lower bandwidth rates. Innovations in video formats are converging with the increasing end user bandwidth speeds to provide unprecedented video access over the internet.

As data formatting innovations combine with increasing access of high speed internet to users around the world, we will continue to see improvement in the delivery of various media types as well as improved connectivity and communication, in general, between people all around the world.

To find out more information about this topic, please visit High Speed Internet

Charlotte Alice represents UK Dropshipper and Online Web Publisher

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