Frequently Asked Questions

Broadband

Q1 What exactly is Broadband?

A1. Broadband is a word used to describe any method of connecting to the Internet that is faster than a dial-up connection. Dial-up can be described as narrowband and anything faster is broadband. ISDN2 which runs at 128K bits per second is really the first broadband service. The most popular broadband service in available the UK today is known as DSL or Digital Subscriber Line. There are a few variants of this type of service and the one most people have is called ADSL or Asymetric DSL. There are other options incuding:

• Virgin Media Cable (Formerly NTL
• 3G/GPRS mobile phone broadand
• SDSL (Symetric DSL)
• Satellite Broadband
• Wireless Broadband
• WIMax
• Dedicated Circuit connections (High speed, High spec, high cost)

Q2 What do I have to do to get an ADSL broadband internet connection?

A2. The first thing you need is a standard BT analogue phone line. It has to be a BT line and cant be provided on any of the following lines:

• ISDN2, ISDN30, BT Highway
• RedCare Alarm lines
• PBX lines
• BT VideoStream / BT DataStream
• Pulse / payphone / coinbox metering facilities
• Lines with outgoing calls barred

Then you select an Internet Service Provider and sign up for the package that suits your needs and budget. It takes a minimum of 5 working days to active broadband on your line. Your provider will send you details of your broadband service including a username and password. You then use either a modem (if you only have one computer) or a router (if you have multilple computers) to connect your computers to the Internet.

Q3. Do I have to get my broadband from BT?

A3. No you dont. This is a popular misconception, there are at least 100 broadband providers in the UK and they offer a range of service levels, support and prices.

Q4 How do I decide which broadand service is right for me?

A4 the first thing to do is to decide what kind of service you require.

Business Users
If you are a business user then go for a business package. You will pay more for it compared to a residential but resist the temptation to save some money by using a low cost residential package for a business.

Home Users
As a residential user you need to decide

Q5.