Section 8.1. Broadband Connections (Cable Modems and DSL)

8.1. Broadband Connections (Cable Modems and DSL)

A growing fraction of the world's Internet citizens get online over broadband connectionsthat is, high-speed connections like cable modems and DSL boxes. These contraptions offer gigantic advantages over dial-up modems. For example:

• Speed . These modems operate at 5 to 50 times the speed of a traditional dial-up modem. For example, you might wait 5 minutes to download a 2 MB file with a standard modema job that would take about 10 seconds with a cable modem.

• No dialing . You're hooked up permanently, full time, so you don't waste time connecting or disconnectingever. You're always online.

• No weekends lost to setup . A representative from the phone company (DSL) or cable TV company (cable modems) generally comes to your home or office to install the cable modem or DSL box and configure Windows to use it.

• Possible savings . At this writing, cable modems and DSL services cost $30 to $45 a month. That includes the Internet account for which you'd ordinarily pay $20 if you signed up for a traditional ISP. And since you're connecting to the Internet via cable TV wires or unused signal capacity on your telephone lines, you may save even more money by canceling the second phone line you were using for dialup.

Virtually all cable TV companies offer cable modem service, and most phone companies offer DSL (depending on how far you live from the central office).

So how do you get online once you've got one of these services? You don'tyou're already online, always and forever (except when the service goes out). Just open up your Web browser, email program, chat program, or whateverand it just works.