Broadband: Understanding the Jargon and How to Get the Best Plan
By: Karen Vosjan
If you find yourself reading this article online, then odds are you are no stranger to the vast wilderness that is the internet. Uploads, downloads, blogs, videos, podcasts, pictures, forums, games, news, email, animation, flash, webmail, webcams and music can all make for a vast and limitless real-time environment that is constantly changing. It is often the seemingly inexhaustible amount of resources that has many net users tearing out their hair due to strolling performance and extended loading time for content. However, in many cases, the real culprit is not the content or the website itself, but rather the combination of an ill-equipped connection speed and an internet plan that does not adequately address specific user needs.
Before roaming free in the World Wide Web, every internet user must first choose a connection plan and connection speed that will be able to accommodate both their budget and their user needs. The following article seeks to outline some of the basic areas that novice users should address when deciding to connect to the internet. For some, it may seem like commonsense, but for those suffering easily avoidable headaches and long load times it may just make a world of difference.
Connection Speeds
Before beginning it would first be wise to explain the two types of connection speeds and how they fundamentally differ. All methods of internet usage around the globe only use either one or the other of these types of connections.
Kbps: Is the common acronym for ?Kilobits per second?. A Kilobit is one thousand bits of data ? a ?bit? being the most fundamental form of binary code that makes up all information available both online and on your home PC. Essentially, a ?bit? is the building block of all computer technology and communication. In layman?s terms it is simply the combination of 1s and 0s that form the language of computers.
Mbps: A much larger unit of data, Mbps refers to the term ?Megabits per second?. A Megabit is one million ?bits?. This form of data transference is used by every internet connection above Dial-Up speed.
Types of Connection
Dial-Up: The most basic connection available, a Dial-Up connection uses the existing phone line in a business or household to transfer data at around 56Kbps. This is the slowest connection currently available in Australia and is in the process of steadily being outdated due to faster connections being more widely and readily accessible for a lower cost.
ISDN: Is anIntegrated Services Digital Network and is twice the speed (at 128Kbps) of Dial-up. It can be difficult to obtain due to its reliance on what is fast becoming outdated technology. ISDN was essentially the technological stepping stone between Dial-Up and ADSL.