Only a few short years ago broadband internet service was something we heard only when referring to connectivity for Wall Street hot shots and huge corporate conglomerates. It seemed a hasty, almost overnight transition for service to span from Wall Street to Main Street. When it comes to broadband, are you maximizing your speed?
Broadband is internet service at the speed of light. Hundreds of thousands of fiber optic cables running beneath our feet are what gives us high download speeds in our homes, allowing us to watch YouTube videos, play video games with our friends or compete in stock trading on a global scale. Thanks to the advancements in broadband technology for the end user, many households enjoy lightning fast internet, with a lot more bells and whistles than they might imagine having.
Does everyone have the same broadband speed?
Unfortunately no, all broadband service isn't created equal. The speed of your download is in direct proximity of your location to the service terminal, and how many people are on your connection. Since broadband is a shared connection between all of the end-users on the network, those that live closest to the network receive preferential download speeds.
How much speed do I need anyway?
Your need for speed is really going to be based on what you goal is each time you access the internet. Many of us remember the days on a dial-up 56k connection where we would begin downloading a file or document and simply leave our PC on all night while we drifted off to sleep. Since broadband connectivity will offer speeds ranging from 1.5Mbit/s or higher, those days have long since passed us by. However, if you are downloading content that is exceptionally large -movies or music files, for example- you will probably benefit from having connectivity in the 6Mbit range.
On the other hand, if you use the internet simply to access social networking sites, or peruse the latest news, you might not even need broadband at all.
Why wouldn't I want broadband serviceisn't it the best thing since sliced bread?
Of course major marketing efforts would like you to believe that broadband is the new face of internet connectivity, and everything else is nothing more than fossilized data streams, but this might not be completely true.
Because you are on a shared network with your high-speed broadband service, peak times of the day will render your internet speeds slower than dial-up service in highly populated locations. On the other side of things, if you live in a rural area, the speed of "high speed" might be just about as good as your dial-up alternative.
To combat the obstacle of shared service, most online connectivity peddlers are creating sub networks, where you pay a larger service fee, to be on a less populated network. Thusly allowing you to get higher rates of download and better connectivity. While this might be good news for internet gurus, the average end user doesn't really need to expend the added $20 or more per month to increase their download speed to corporate dedicated levels.
Aren't we getting ahead of ourselves, can my PC even handle broadband?
Chances are if your PC is only a couple of years old it has the capability for broadband built in. Since broadband has less to do with your PC itself and more to do with your processing capability, an Intel processor or greater is enough to get you by. Since there are so many flavors of high-speed broadband service, if you aren't sure whether or not your PC can handle it, it's best to look up your particular PC on the internet, and find out if it's time for an upgrade.
At the end of the day, broadband for most suburbanites and city dwellers is a great way to go since most cable providers will offer a stellar deal on bundled packages, whether it is DSL or higher connectivity. When selecting a service provider for your high-speed service however, always read the fine print and make sure you know what you're getting into. Believe it or not when it comes to high-speed connectivity sometimes less is more.