Feeling a bit perplexed at all the Internet access options being thrown around by service providers? There are so many ways to connect to the Internet that the choices may leave you baffled as to which one suits your needs. It basically boils down to two questions:

Do You Need a High Speed Connection?  If you are a home-only user whose primary interest is checking e-mail, or occasionally surfing the web, regular dial up modem connection may be sufficient you. If you are in a business which does not rely on the Internet, and where the speed of connection is of no consequence, again, modem may be the way to go. However, high speed Internet connection is definitely worth the money for businesses who rely on the Internet for transferring information and for establishing a common meeting ground between themselves and their clients, and where the speed of access is of utmost relevance. 

Here is an in-depth look at each type of Internet connection.

MODEM. Most phone lines were designed to transmit analog information for voice transfer, while computers and their devices were designed in digital form to transfer pulses. A MODEM is the converter which modulates or converts digital information to analog on the sending end and demodulates the analog information into digital information at the receiving end.

ISDN. Integrated Services Digital Network is a method of sending voice, video, and data over digital telephone lines. ISDN supports data transfer rates of 64 Kbps. Most ISDN lines offered by telephone companies give you two lines at once. You can use one line for voice and the other for data transmission, or you can use both lines for data transmission to give you data rates of 128 Kbps. This version of ISDN employs baseband transmission, which is a type of digital data transmission in which each wire carries only one signal at a time. Not widely available is the B-ISDN, which uses fiber optics and supports transmission rates of 1.5 Mbps. This transmission mode uses broadband transmission, which enables a single wire to carry multiple signals simultaneously. The main disadvantage of fiber optics is that the cables are expensive to install, and are more fragile than wire.

DSL. Many phone companies are offering DSL (digital subscriber line) technology, which uses the same copper wires that carry your phone calls. One limitation of DSL is that your home or office must be located within 15,000 feet of the phone company's central switch.

With connections that can continuously be “on” and IP addresses that do not change, DSL presents a unique security challenge as prime targets for hackers. Dial-up users, who are dynamically assigned an IP address upon connecting, are somewhat less vulnerable since they are difficult to track. The best steps to take to prevent intrusion are either to establish a personal firewall for your PC or to turn off the file-sharing functions for important data on your machine.

The two types of DSL are asynchronous (ADSL) and synchronous (SDSL). In ADSL, the downstream rate, information being delivered to the user, is faster than the upstream rate, information leaving the user. In SDSL the downstream and upstream rates are the same.

ADSL. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line uses multiplexing technology, which allows an existing telephone wire to carry more than its natural carrying capacity, over standard copper telephone wires. The line can be used simultaneously for both voice telephone conversations and continuous Internet connection. ADSL requires a special ADSL modem.

SDSL. Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line works by sending digital pulses in the high-frequency area of telephone wires. SDSL can operate simultaneously with voice connections over the same wires because these high frequencies are not used by normal voice communications. SDSL requires a special SDSL modem.

T1 CARRIER. A dedicated phone line, the T1 connection supports data rates of 1.544Mbps. A T-1 line actually consists of 24 individual channels, each of which supports 64Kbps. Each 64Kbps channel can be configured to carry voice or data traffic. T-1 lines are a popular leased line option for businesses connecting to the Internet.

Back to Top