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Networking Insider:
Having High-Speed
Whether you live in the middle of the city, in a rural suburb, or high on a mountaintop, high-speed Internet access awaits you.
In the United States today, over 12 million homeowners enjoy broadband (high-speed) Internet access. That number is expected to grow to over 30 million subscribers in the next three years.
If you're one of those 20+ million potential new subscribers, you're probably wondering which type of broadband Internet service is best suited for you and your family: cable, DSL, satellite, or fixed wireless Internet broadband service? Here are the pros and cons of each service:
Cable Modem Broadband Service
Claim to Fame: Download speeds that are 20 times as fast as that of a traditional 56K (dial-up) modem.
Cable companies across the country offer high-speed Internet access to complement the video services they currently provide their customers. The benefit of this service is that your Internet feed arrives on the same cable that feeds the video channels to the televisions in your home. The Internet service occupies a frequency band that doesn't interfere with your television reception and allows you to enjoy download speeds usually in the range of 1.2Mbps (megabits per second) and upload speeds of 128Kbps (kilobits per second). Putting those numbers into perspective, you can download files over 20 times as fast as with a typical 56K (dial-up) modem, and upload files at between two and three times the speed of a dial-up modem. If your primary objective for purchasing high-speed Internet access is to enjoy enhanced download speeds (e.g., Web-surfing or downloading music), then this service may be your best choice. On the other hand, if you have significant requirements to upload large amounts of data (e.g., uploading digital images for distribution, or printing or sending large video files), then you may want to consider a service that has upload speeds equivalent to the faster download speeds, such as those provided by DSL broadband services.
DSL Broadband Service
Claim to Fame: Faster upload speeds than high-speed cable modem service.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) broadband service is provided by your local telephone company. Information is fed into and out of your home via your home's existing telephone line. In the same way that cable modem service operates at a frequency that doesn't affect your channel viewing, DSL operates on a frequency band that shouldn't disturb your voice or fax calls.
DSL comes in a variety of speeds, from 384Kbps to 7.1Mbps download speeds, and 384Kbps to 768Kbps upload speeds. The actual speed you receive at your home depends on the plan you purchase (the higher the speed, the pricier the service) and the distance your home stands from the telephone company's central office (the further your home is from the central office, the slower the speed). If your home is more than three miles from a phone company's central office, you are too far away to qualify for most DSL services. However, you might be an ideal candidate for a wireless broadband Internet service (described below).
Satellite Broadband Service
Claim to Fame: Available to any home in the U.S.
Satellite service is available to anyone in the United States who lives in a home with an unobstructed view of the southern sky. As you might expect, the distance that the data has to travel between your home and the orbiting satellite affects the Internet speed. Satellite providers commonly offer 400Kbps download service (still about 8 times as fast as a standard modem) and about 50 to 80Kbps upload speeds.
If you'd like all the computers in your home to be able to access the same high-speed satellite service, setting up a network can prove difficult. Networking computers to share a DSL modem or cable modem, on the other hand, is relatively easy.
Fixed Wireless Service
Claim to Fame: Faster upload and download speeds than satellite service.
In some parts of the country you will find radio towers on mountaintops that can provide high-speed Internet access to homes that have a line of sight to these radio towers. This service can be as fast as cable or DSL, but is prone to interruptions in service due to the weather, and requires mounting a dish on a long pole (up as high as 30 feet). Generally, this alternative, when available, is best for homes without access to cable or DSL service, and that require faster upload and download speeds than a satellite-based service can provide.
Gordon van Zuiden is the founder and president of cyberManor (www.cybermanor.com), a Northern California company dedicated to providing high-technology data, video, and audio solutions for residential clients.
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