Cable or ADSL

[awibble]

Many people ask about the choices they have when it comes to there insternet connection, in the uk there is basically 5 main choices, some of which dont really apply, but i will discuss all of them.

Lease Lines
Lease lines are normally used by businesses rather that home users, there deliver a reliable highspeed connection (upto and above 100Mbps). Thease lines can be provided by many providers, however the cost can run to litrally £1000's of pounds per month. Typically thease are not used in the home, except in extrame cases where people have money to burn.

Different providers can deliver to different areas, some areas are not covered at all, while other areas have a choice of 20+ suppliers.

Although lease lines are reliable and fast, due to the cost they are not really suitable for home use.

Satalite connections
Satalite internet connections are avlaible in the uk, they can be slow and un reliable in bad weather, however for some areas they are the only option. The cost is very expencive, anywhere around £4000 for just 5Mbps can be expected with satalite internet connections.

Thease are typcially used for work places that need a backup connection, as they are not affected by people cutting cables underground, but due to the cost (and size) are not suitable for home connections.

Dial up
Dialup connections are still avlaiable, in most cases there is 2 options with them, either a monthly fee with access to a 0800 number or without a monthly fee on a 0845 number. With speeds at a maximum of around 56k they are very slow, but if you only check your email once a week, they can still be the most cost effetive way to go.

Theres very little requirements, you will need a phoneline (BT, Virgin, Kc etc) and a modem for your computer and you can get online very quickly.

Cable
Cable is one of the residencial broadband options, it is avlaiable in certain areas only, and again does not have any special requirements, other that been in a servicable area.

Virgin Media are the major cable company in the uk, however there is a few other smaller providers avaliable, such as WightCable, Smallworld and Kingston Communications (Note: Kc's broadband connections is offered over their ADSL network, not their Cable network).

Cable has the advantage that in most cases you are not effected by the distance from the exchange, but you are effected by the number of users connected to your local UBR and the usage on that UBR.

ADSL
ADSL is avaliable in most of the UK, but deos require that you have a BT phoneline (there are some exceptptions, such as Kingsotn communications and TalkTalk who offer the phonelines themselfs), you will be required to have somesort of phoneline, either provided by BT, or provded by the ADSL provider (where LLU services are avlaible).

ADSL can give good performace, but the further you get from the exchange, the slower your speed is likly to be.
A few examples, on the upto 8Mb service, a person (this is based on personal expence) aproximately 1000yards away from the exchange only recived 6.5Mb.

The speed can go almost as slow as dialup depending on the distance from the exchange.

Been close to the exchange is no guarentte of speed, as if the exchange is oversubscribed you will not be able to use the speed that you maybe connected at.

Review
If you are in a On-Net area (cover by cable) it is worth speaking to your neibours and seeing what speed they achive with their cable service, as in some areas it is very oversubscibed. If you are off-Net (not covered by cable) your only real option is to go with ADSL.

If you are unsure what speeds to expect the best way is to speak to your neibours.

All providers advertise upto speeds, but thease are not very realistic.
From personal experence, upto 20Mb from Virginmedia delivers me 18.5Mb and upto 24Mb via Be* at my next door neibours only delivers around 1Mb.

However at my in-laws, there upto 16Mb service delivers them a 12Mb but when there where on cable, they only recived around 2Mb from a 4Mb service.

It is always worth checking out your options, and finding out what people in your street think of what they have got.

I have by no means exhusted the research that can be done, if you choose to use ADSL, there are 100's of providers avalaible.

One thing that you must never do is call the company and ask what speed you will get, they want to get you to signup and locked into a contract and will always claim there upto speed.

http://www.samknows.com is a good site for checking what is avlaible in your area.

[LSainsbury]

Is this a cut 'n' paste job or written in your own words? * Goes Googling...*

Even so - nice bit of info - deserves a sticky?

[awibble]

no wrote it myself... used wikipedia to check some infomation, and i know ive missed some options like SDSL, but i think the main parts are covered

[dragon]

Originally Posted by awibble

no wrote it myself... used wikipedia to check some infomation, and i know ive missed some options like SDSL, but i think the main parts are covered

and VDSL but I don't think thats available to many people and probably costs a lot.

[Rob]

There's probably the makings of an article in from this post

I'd have liked to have seen reference to ADSL2 as the new generation of phone line based broadband, and perhaps a more specific reference to LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) offered by the likes of Sky, Be that provides the "up to 24 Meg" (but never achieved) speeds. Indeed maybe a reference to ADSL, and ADLS Max - the latter being how up to 8 meg speeds might be obtained.

For an item referencing advantages and disadvantages, some more detail is needed generally on the types of speeds the different services can supply. If criticism is levied at some for cost, speed and capacity is also an issue.

OK one doesn't want to go overboard with jargon, but a little more detail will provide long term reference.

[awibble]

If i get some time later on today rob, i will look at adding some more infomation to it, and going into a little more detail. I was trying to keep it short and sweet for people that done want to go too technical, but i guess i could split each section into 2 so there is the normal infomaiton and the "techy" infomation.

Is there anyway you can give me rights to edit the post even tho its past the time?

[ian@huth]

A simple copy and paste will give you the option to edit the original in a new location.

[awibble]

well, yeah but i dont want to have 2 threads / posts with half the same infomation