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June 7th, 2010 
In this article I’m going to discuss some of the differences between various choices for methods to get on the Internet.
First off, let me explain the two main types of Internet connection before getting more specific about some of the more specific types within these two larger categories.
When when one looks at it as basically as possible there are two commonplace computer terms that describe different kinds of Internet connection: dialup and “broadband”.
Dialup is, of course, the older way to get on the Internet, where you utilize a dialup modem. Dialup modems have been around far longer than most people know: I bought my first one around 1986 and they were originally introduced 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 capped out at 56K bps a good ten years or more ago, and now go for under $10 if you go to the right place.
In other words that would make it approximately forty-six times faster, and 20 times less expensive.
At this point you could be thinking “Well that must be pretty fast then!”
If you’re thinking that, you’re mistaken.
Dialup is obsolete technology, and hasn’t been improved on in over a decade, which means it’s about one hundred fifty years out of date relatively speaking!
So the bottom line is, dialup = slow.
Lots of people are stuck in the dark ages of dialup, either because they don’t understand why to upgrade, or they have no choice where they live.
What you may not realize is that even if you are currently 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.
Before I do, I’m going to talk about the general alternative to dialup. It’s called “broadband”, which simply just means “fast Internet”.
Broadband can be found in a variety of different types, covering a range of speeds, all of them lots faster than dialup.
Beyond way better, broadband generally doesn’t tie up your phone line, so your friends or family aren’t annoyed by busy signals when they call you, and you can make phone calls while you’re connected to the Internet.
The two most used 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 with a variety of different brand names — Roadrunner is one example of cable internet.
DSL actually comes in through your phone lines just like dialup, but is much faster and, just like cable Internet, you can make phone calls while you’re using the Internet.
You’ve got less-common options such as satellite, which gives you fairly speedy connections to the Internet by sending the signal through a satellite dish like satellite TV. It’s slow for broadband, but much faster than dialup. It’s mainly used by people away from population centers 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 really only a bit pricier than dialup is, and in a lot of instances it’s the same price or even costs less!
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, for example, watching videos on YouTube or elsewhere, or downloading big files.
This brings me to one of the main reasons I recommend people stop using dialup and switch to some kind of broadband — downloading large files.
You might make the mistake of thinking that you never do that, but not so fast… Maybe you do (or should be) and don’t realize it.
To start with, computer users are distributing big photos (or several smaller pictures), or even videosvia email constantly now.
If you’re on dialup and you tried getting 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 by viruses, worms, and other threats.
But these security updates (like Windows Update, or Apple’s 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 don’t download them, your computer is very much at risk.
Which leaves you up a creek if you’re stuck using dialup.
So seriously consider about upgrading if you haven’t already, and let people know about this who haven’t. And remember there are quite a few good sites out there where you can find Windows training cds or Apple Mac training cds , so make sure you use them if you need them.
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