I'm a Dummy about Broadband - Help

Helen_from_yorkshire

I currently use dial-up and my ISP is AOL, however I am considering getting broadband for several reasons:

It will be quicker to retrieve pages from the net, rather than sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to load.
My son can use the internet at the same time as me.
The phone line will be freed up.

Difficulty is I hardly know anything about broadband although I do believe the connection is always on and your virus/firewall software has to be top notch.

The questions I have are:

Do you have to buy any hardware to fix to your computer to use broadband.

Can you just subscribe to broadband and are able to use it immediately.

If I was to use broadband from another supplier, would I keep AOL as my ISP?

I do hope someone can help.

Thanks.

Mr_Skint_2

If you get Broad Band with Telewest Blueyonder They will fit it free
and all the modem cables etc will be done for you, its £17.99 a month for existing
customers £9.99 a month for completely new customers of Telewest
for a 512kbps Quite a good speed. Now if you go for that they will be upgrading
that service for free to 2mbps A lot faster, There are no hidden charges
and no capping on what you download.

Firewall I reccomend Sygate, and for Antivirus AVG Free
Adaware aswell for Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components.

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 AVG Free
http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm Sygate Firewall
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Free Adware removal


Click here for info http://www.blueyonder.co.uk/blueyonder/getContent.jspx?page=serv_signup

P.S AOL is naff I used to work for them, Good Company, Bad Software.

smcicr

ok,

1. Hardware - not necessarily

depending on the type of connection to your pc required by the modem you get given you may need to buy additional hardware.

the connections will either be USB or Ethernet.
your pc will probably have USB already and may have an Ethernet connector on the motherboard or a NIC ('Network Interface Card') installed seperately. you can check by looking at the back of the pc and seeing what connection sockets you have - look for a symbol like this http://www.housing.wisc.edu/resnet/images/rj45-1.jpg - if you have an empty port next to this symbol then you may well have a network connection available.

2. Immediate use - No.

In pretty much every case you will need to wait for hardware to be sent out - whether it is the modem and bits of equipment to plug into your telephone socket (called filters) or in some cases an installation of cabling (eg: for NTL broadband) and a modem.

3. ISP - Yes and No

In theory you could keep AOL as your ISP for the dial up connection and have the new supplier as your ISP for the broadband connection. AOL would not be your ISP for the broadband connection though.

you kind of ask about the connection being always on too. it is but it doesn't always need to be switched on at your end. what i mean is that at the moment you need to physically make the connection to get on the internet - with broadband all i do is plug my modem in and the connection is there and ready.

feel free to ask anything else or ask for clarity - it is late after all

Mr_Skint_2

Thats why Blueyonder is so easy you dont have to worry about any of the above.

Helen_from_yorkshire

Many thanks for the advice. I think I'll read your posts again tomorrow when I am more awake and hopefully it will make more sense then.

Fran

I have moved your thread to the Internet Access board. There is a broadband article (see above on the dark blue) that you can link to and there is loads of info about different providers.

Rex_Mundi

There are a couple of drawbacks with the Telewest Blueyonder offer.

You can only get it if you are within their cable area.

They have to install a cable service to your home.

It's a 12 month minimum term offer. Lots of companies do a 1 month minimum term now.

It's only £9.99 a month if you also have a telephone service with this company. If you only take the broadband, it's £14.99 a month.

...................................................................

It's worth having a good look around. Most companies offer broadband on a BT phoneline. If you have a BT phone now, you have a massive choice.