Broadband Internet FAQ

20th January 2008

The term broadband is quite generic, but often refers to an internet connection that is many times faster than standard dial up, always on and charged at a flat rate.

As a minumum you will require a modem, which is sometimes supplied for free by the service provider. This should come with all software, and interconnecting cables needed to get started. If your internet connection is to be an ADSL one, you will also require a micro-filter, which you will connect between the modem and you landline. Depending on your modem, you will be connecting it to your PC either via a USB, or RJ45 cable, and you will need to check your PC supports the required connection. Most modern PCs come with several USB sockets, and built in RJ45 network ports, but for older machines you may need to purchase and a expansion card or HUB.

Yes, you will require a standard BT analogue land line to use ADSL, and you will need to confirm with BT that your local exchange is ADSL enabled. Often your potential ADSL supplier will be able to confirm these details from you telephone number.

The most common type in the UK is ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), which connects to you landline. Where ADSL is not available, some suppliers also offer Cable or Satalite connections as an alternative.

Typical broadband packages cost between £15 and £30 a month, although you can often find them cheaper or even free as part of another media package, such as your satalite TV, mobile phone, or landline. You often get what you pay for, with the more expensive packages offering higher speeds, greater data transfer allowances, and better customer services.

Broadband is generally measured in megabits a second (Mb/s), with 1Mb/s being about 20 times faster than a standard dial up modem. Common speeds range between 0.5 and 24Mb/s, although the technollogy is still growing and speeds still increasing. It is very common that customers will never experiance their connections maximum quoted speed, due to line-interferance, contention, and your distance from the nearest exchange.

It really depends on how you use your computer, as people who just want to browse a little bit of the internet now and then, may only ever need between a 0.5 and 2Mb/s connection. If you use your computer for work, or heavy internet usage maybe between 2 and 8Mb/s, and if you want to download large files, stream media, or play online games you may want to consider anything from 8Mb/s onwards.

A contention ratio refers to the maximum amount of users that may be trying to use a single piece of bandwidth at one time. Say you have an 8Mb/s broadband connection with a contention ration of 50:1, this means at any one time up to 50 users may be sharing the 8Mb bandwidth, which would equate to 0.16 MB/s each. This sounds very low, considering you've just paid for a 8Mb connection, but it reality it's unlikely all 50 users will ever be using it at the same time. Generally the lowest common ration availble is a 20:1 and this is recomended for Buisness and heavy users.

Often broadband suppliers will limit users to a certain amount of data transfer each month to protect their networks from being overloaded. You should be warey of any limits applied to your account before signing up, as even "Unlimited" contracts generally have fair usage aggreements.