How Do You Connect To The Internet? – Elf Knows It [ARCHIVED]

With so many ways these days to connecto to the web, how do you do it? Are you using wireless because the phone lines out your way can’t take broadband? Maybe you have to use 3G mobile broadband because nothing else is out your direction. Which do you use?

Common internet connection types you might find at home:

Analogue (up to 56k)
    Also known as dial-up access, this type of connection using the phone lines by dialling a given number assigned to an ISP, and using an analogue signal receives data over the phone line, by sound.

 Speeds range from 2400 bps to 56 Kbps.

ISDN
    Think dial-up only fancier!, This is the same idea as dial-up but it uses digital signals over the telephone lines to the data is much clearer.

  Speeds range from 64 Kbps to 128 Kbps.

DSL
    DSL is also called an always on connection because it uses existing 2-wire copper telephone line connected to your house and will not tie up your phone as a dial-up connection does. There is no need to dial-in to your ISP as DSL is always on. The two main categories of DSL for home subscribers are called ADSL and SDSL.

• ADSL is the most commonly deployed type of DSL. Short for asymmetric digital subscriber line ADSL supports data rates of from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate). ADSL requires a special ADSL modem.
• SDSL is still more common in Europe. Short for symmetric digital subscriber line, a technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines (POTS). SDSL supports data rates up to 3 Mbps. SDSL works by sending digital pulses in the high-frequency area of telephone wires and can not operate simultaneously with voice connections over the same wires. SDSL requires a special SDSL modem. SDSL is called symmetric because it supports the same data rates for upstream and downstream traffic.

   Speeds from 640 Kbps to 16 Mbps.

Cable
    Through the use of a cable modem you can have a broadband Internet connection that is designed to operate over cable TV lines. Cable Internet works by using TV channel space for data transmission, with certain channels used for downstream transmission, and other channels for upstream transmission. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access.

  Speeds range from 512 Kbps to 20 Mbps.

Wireless Internet Connections
    Wireless Internet is still considered a new technology, a lot of playing around has yet to be done to offer a completely stable service, wider coverage and better usage.

How do you connect to the internet at home? Let me know with a comment.