PPLAC Komputer
Korner
PPLAC Komputer
Korner
Dialup, Broadband, Wireless…. Do you get confused by the technical terms? Well, here is a very basic primer.
Bandwidth – a term of no importance to most people. Broad means fast, narrow means slow.
Dialup – a slow means of connection to the Internet, with the transfer of data rated at up to 56 Kilobaud or 56,000 ‘bits’ of information per second, but in practice, up to a maximum of about 40-50 Kbd (if you are lucky). It uses your ordinary telephone to connect to your ISP, costing you a phone call each time you connect, and depriving you of the use of your phone for other purposes when you are online. Connections are infamously unstable and incoming calls, minor power spikes and just plain bad luck frequently results in drop-outs and the need to reconnect (costing you another phone call, of course). The big advantage of dial-up connections is (or was) that they were much cheaper for low-usage customers than broadband plans (if you ignored all the extra phone calls).
Broadband – much faster and does not interfere with your use of the telephone line for voice calls or fax transmissions, etc – although you may need a $20 filter on the line. You can buy a range of plans from a plethora of ISPs, depending of how much you need to download each month (from about 250 Megabits up to no limit – but see section on shaping) and how fast you want your downloads (and uploads) to be. Uploads are often about one-quarter of the download speed, but that suits most people because we don’t usually need to upload much. According to your plan, download speeds vary from not much better than dial-up to 8 megabaud (8 million bits of information per second) for households – and much faster if you want to mortgage your house for the monthly charges. How much do you need? That depends on what you need it for and everyone is different. For online games, music or video downloads, lots of browsing with graphic-rich pages, you need fast access with no download limit: For email and checking the weather and movie programs, the cheapest plan will probably be fine.
Three types of Broadband service often get mentioned in the advertisements: ADSL, ADSL2+ and Cable. All are quite ‘location-dependent’, but for a (slightly dated) description of the pros and cons, a useful article is at http://www.broadbandbuddy.com.au/adsl/which-type-of-internet-suits-you.
Wireless – a type of broadband service, perhaps not yet quite what the name suggests, but still very convenient. You need a different sort of modem and Internet service (although the plan may not cost any more) and a wireless-enabled Notebook – but all newish PCs are now enabled. That lets you wander the house and maybe the garden with your PC and access your favourite website or send email within 20 or 30 metres of the modem, perhaps further, depending on the environment. You can use this at many cyber-cafes too, for a small fee, as well as airports, some shopping malls and so on. Great, but many of the services won’t allow you to do so while driving (as a passenger, please!) down the highway – although some premium services operate wherever a mobile network is reliably accessible. Good security is paramount if you don’t want your neighbours using your service too and perhaps accessing your PC too. Without good security, it is theoretically possible to be hacked or infected with a virus or Trojan just by passing someone with a malicious PC, provided both are turned on at the time.
Shaping. Many plans offer shaped services – and unless you are sure of your likely usage or don’t mind getting stung at premium rates if/when you exceed the specified download limit in any month, look for a shaped plan. Such plans allow you to download as much as you like, but slow your access (sometimes dramatically) when you reach your nominal limit for the month.
Megabits and Megabytes. Eight bits make a byte, roughly one character. So calculating the size of a text email is relatively easy (although quite a lot of ‘housekeeping code’ sits behind an email that you can’t see) but if it contains tables, graphics, attachments, etc., it can get a bit more hungry. Of course, a webpage rich in graphics that shows a video-stream with music and voiceover is another issue again and may require very fast access speeds or you will get stop-start video that pauses regularly while the next few seconds are captured and buffered to play on your PC. And a tip! No matter how sure you are that you will only ever send 10 emails a month, by the second month, that will be 250 and you will be browsing all sorts of exciting things for an hour a day! Don’t underbuy to save a couple of dollars – you will pay a lot more than that to enjoy what you discover to be utterly captivating. Bite the bullet and invest a tad more from the start and enjoy all the riches available to you at no extra cost.
A final word on getting the best deal to suit your needs! When looking for a broadband plan, you might also think about your ordinary phone service at the same time. Depending on who your current phone provider is (for either mobile, local or STD/International calls), ‘bundling’ might be the way to go. Many providers offer much more attractive plans if you combine your broadband service with at least some land-line services! That is called ‘bundling’ and changing your telephone service provider, or matching your broadband ISP with your existing provider, might save you some money on your phone bill as well as your Internet service.
Good security is even more important when you are using broadband. If you are ‘always on’, the bad guys have more time to launch their evil attacks on your PC. Make sure you have good protection installed and that it is always right up-to-date. Most virus software now protects you against a wide range of online risks and it is easy to keep it up to date – so spend a little money on McAfee or AVG or Nortons or Microsoft’s Onecare or even ZoneAlarm and rest easy.
Comparing services and plans Probably the best site for comparing all the services and plans available in Australia is http://whirlpool.net.au/ (and for phone plans, check out http://www.phonechoice.com.au/).