Should I go Broadband?

David Dorn examines the pros and cons of Broadband, so that you can make an informed decision to change - or not.

First off, what on earth is ADSL?

The Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is a relatively new technology that allows lots and lots of modems within a box at your end of a link talk to lots and lots of other modems at the other end in a very fast manner. Or, to put it another way - it's a super-fast link to the Internet! More than that, it has some benefits that a modem link doesn't:

1. Always on; an ADSL link is always on, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. It's not like dial-up modem connection which times out every so often - it's always there. Very handy
2. No Call Charges; You can be active two minutes, two hours or twenty hours a day - it doesn't matter, there are no charges for calls whatever.
3. No extra installation; ADSL is a full-time Internet connection, but it piggy-backs your existing telephone line and doesn't stop you from using your phone at the same time as you're using the Internet. There's no need to get any more wires connected to your home from a telephone company.
4. Applications like Instant Messaging are always there; You already know about Instant Messaging and your Buddies list - trust me, having IMs constantly available, and your buddies list permanently open onscreen is an absolute godsend.

Money

Of course, one of the prime factors in deciding whether Broadband is the way to go revolves around cost. An AOL Broadband subscription is £34.99 a month, which seems a tad expensive, until you do the sums.

For instance, your current AOL subscription is £15 a month - so the ADSL portion of the new sub actually costs you £20, or, to put it another way, 65p a day, or 0.045p per minute or 2.7p per hour. People using 0845 numbers to access the Internet are paying way more than that in pure telephone time!

Speed

It's fast - with a downstream rate (to you) of >500kbps, file downloads and websites are very much quicker than modem rates ' in the order of ten times as fast. An upstream rate (from you) of 256kbps is also very quick - better than eight times the speed you'd get from the very best modem link you could possibly make, which makes emailing large files an absolute dream.

In truth, you get used to the speed very quickly. Web sites load in a flash, and you never think twice about downloading that 20 Meg game, or updating your drivers with a 30 meg download. In fact, download-wise, you're looking at a three Megabyte download happening in just under a minute - a download that would take you perhaps ten or fifteen minutes with a modem.

People nowadays routinely download complete movies over the Internet using ADSL - not strictly legal, but they do do it!

Always on

You know the scenario - Number One Son is doing his homework, and needs to research a question. He needs to get onto a Search Engine to do a search on <insert whatever you want here!> With a modem, there's a wait of half a minute or more while the various squawks and crackles sort themselves out, and then a wait until the search engine of his choice loads.

With ADSL, you drop a link to your favourite search engine onto your desktop. You double click it, and in an instant, it's there, ready to use - it's as immediate as that, because the link is permanently established.

I use AIM - AOL Instant Messaging - as does the rest of the PPC crew. If I need to chat with, say Ian Waugh, another ADSL using member of the team, I simply send him an IM - we swap notes, do what we need to do, and then close the IM window. Aside from saving loads of money - no telephone call required, you see - it's immediate, and we can send Web links to each other no problem. Fantastic!

You could do that sort of thing with your family, no matter where in the world they are, saving cast quantities of money on international phone calls - in fact, you can use Voice over IP with AIM as well, which makes it a phone call, if you like, but for free, effectively!

Cons

There's only one major drawback that I've found with ADSL, and that's the need to have a firewall of some sort running. Until a added a router to the setup, I'd been using Zone Alarm, which does the job very nicely, and keeps you pretty safe. But I'd advise everyone to use Firewall when they're connected to the Internet, no matter what - the kind of kiddies that want to hack your machine are very quick to spot an open port, and a personal firewall is a must to keep them out. The always on nature of an ADSL connection makes it imperative that you have Zone Alarm, or some sort of personal firewall loaded at all times.

So, if that's the only real drawback, it's no real drawback at all.

Should you get it?

If you dial up once a day to grab your email, and do nothing else with your Internet/AOL subscription, then ADSL is probably not for you - and you're probably not reading this anyway. But, if you're reading this, then I'd say that it's for you - the advantages are major, and the drawbacks almost non-existent.

Of course, your exchange may not be ADSL enabled, or you may be too far away from it. If that's the case, I apologise now for whetting your appetite for something you can't have yet. But get thee hence to keyword "Broadband" and check whether you can get it, and then sign up if it's available to you - you won't regret it. I could certainly never go back to a modem connection. Ever. No way!

 

David Dorn