Most of us have heard of Broadband internet, but how many of us have actually sat down and thought what was best for our job, rather than just ‘handiest’, or ‘cheapest’?
We install Broadband on an almost daily basis, for business and domestic customers, and we have found that most people have no idea about what they are actually getting for their money.
A good Broadband comparison site can be found HERE.
Let’s examine some of the more important things you should be considering:
1) Broadband type
The type of broadband that most of us are familiar with is the one over the normal telephone line. This is referred to as ADSL (no need to go any deeper than that really).
No matter who we use for our ADSL link, we are normally provided the link across a telephone line owned by BT. So, if you use another ISP (Internet Service Provider), you will still be provided with their service across BT’s line, and that ISP will be paying BT a fee for having you use the broadband service, as the BT infrastructure will be used.
There are others available:
- Cable – only available in certain areas and by far the best value for money
- Mobile – via a mobile broadband dongle
- Wireless – not really prevalent in NI, but beginning to appear on the mainland UK
- Satellite – only really used as a last resort for people who live very remote
- SDSL – a much faster option on a dedicated line used by businesses who require specialist services
- LLU – equivalent to ADSL really, but a service which does not use the BT exchange
So, most home users will have ADSL (of varying speeds) but cable would be the other main option in more urban areas.
2) Broadband Connection Speed
Different ISP’s will offer you differing broadband connection speeds, so you should always be aware of what is being offered from the outset.
Many will tell you that you are getting, for example, 8Mbps broadband, when in fact your line will not support that and you are more than likely getting less than that.
When we were all using ADSL modems (such as the BT Voyager 100/105), it was quite easy to see what line-speed we were supposed to be getting as there would be a little icon on our taskbar which, when hovered over, would tell us our broadband speed.
The onset of routers has done away with this, and we now need to go into the setup of our router to see the line speed, which most people do not bother with.
Realistically, unless you have cable in your area, the maximum connection speed you can hope for is 8Mbps, but the majority will not get anywhere near this. The quality of your line, the distance from your exchange, plus the equipment actually at your exchange will determine this.
One thing we would ask our customers to be on the lookout for is the ISP’s who are charging for ‘up to’ 8Mbps, but who are actually unable to provide anywhere near that. If you are constantly getting a slower connection speed, then you should maybe switch providers, or reduce your package with your current ISP so that you are only paying for a reduced speed.
One thing we will tell you though – no matter what ISP you use, if you are on a BT line, then the fastest broadband available to you will nearly always be available from BT themselves.
3) What speed do you actually require?
Any of the broadband speeds, from 512Kbps (½Mbps) to 8Mbps will suffice to view the majority of web pages at a reasonable speed. It is only when you start to perform downloads, or want to watch video across the web that you will begin to see the difference.
We would offer the following as a rough guide for our customers in Northern Ireland (suffices as a decent guide for the rest of the UK).
0.5Mbps is only really suitable for internet browsing, and minimum downloading of small files (music tracks for an example). You can stream video across this, but it will be jumpy and of poor quality usually.
2Mbps is the minimum required if you want to watch video at a reasonable quality, or if you are downloading on a semi-regular basis. You can also get involved in online games with a minimum of 2Mbps.
4Mbps and 6Mbps are good for downloading, and you can watch the majority of video across these connection speeds (obviously 6 is better than 4 in this case). For online gaming, these are much better.
8Mbps is required if you want high quality video or if you are downloading large files, etc. For online gaming, this is the best connection without moving to cable.
4) Download limits
This can be referred to as a ‘usage allowance’ by some ISP’s.
Some ISP’s will tell you straight up what your limits are, others will ‘sell’ their service as unlimited. There is no such thing as ‘unlimited’, so they will have what is commonly referred to as a ‘fair usage’ policy, and it will determine your download limit per month.
You are unlikely to ever exceed your download limit by just browsing web pages. It is when you are downloading songs, files, software, etc or streaming video content from the web that you need to ensure you get a sufficient limit.
If you are unsure of the download limit being offered by your ISP, then ensure you ask prior to signing up with anyone. For those who tell you it is ‘unlimited’, they are using sales talk, and you should ask them what their ‘fair use’ policy places on you as a limit.
5) Internet Security
Most of the ISP’s now offer Internet Security as a part of their overall package. We have found that the majority of these are not great, and can make some PC’s run very slowly in normal operation.
Our suggestion is to have your own Internet Security product running, and forget about the one on offer from your ISP.
For home users, AVG 8.0 Free is available (completely free of charge), and it will cover almost all of your security issues. For businesses, you will have to purchase a product, and we would recommend AVG Internet Security 8.0, which will cover all aspects. The free version is for domestic use only.
6) Wireless connectivity
Most ISP’s now offer a wireless router with their service, allowing you to have wireless connectivity throughout your home or business (within a certain range). If they do not offer this as standard, it can usually be purchased for a small one-off fee.
The majority of the ‘wireless routers’ on offer are fit for purpose, but we are fans of the BT Home Hub (domestic customers) and the BT Business Hub, or 2-Wire (for business use). They are excellent pieces of kit, and we see very few breakdowns.
7) Cost
Obviously, cost will be a factor for anyone when trying to decide which ISP to go with. We would ask that you consider the cost of the service alongside all of the other factors already mentioned before you decide who is giving you the best value for money option.
If you are providing your own Internet Security product to handle Anti-Virus, Anti-span, etc, then ensure you do not pay for an option which includes this.
Conclusion
We setup broadband on an almost daily basis for our customers, and we would recommend BT as the main ISP for anyone who asks (domestic or business).
There are some great deals from Sky for those domestic customers who have subscribed to the full Sky Satellite package, though their customer service may not be just as good as BT’s.
You have to look at aftercare, and BT have a great service. Most of the actual telephone lines belong to BT, so they are very quick to sort any line faults, which are a large number of the problems we come across.
If you can access cable in your area, then we would advise that you look towards this as your service. It is great value for money and much more resilient than the normal ADSL service. It is also much faster, and some great deals offering very high connection speeds are available.
BROADBAND FAULT - TIP
For those of you who are having problems with your broadband connection, we would ask that you follow these tips first. They may save you having to call someone out to look at it.
Always check the broadband light on your router (refer to your manual if you are unsure which light this is, or give us a call and we will tell you).
If your light is not on, then power the router off, leave it for 10 seconds, then power it back on again. The router will go through a self-test procedure, taking up to 2 minutes in some cases.
Once it has completed this, check your broadband light again. If it is still not working, then you either have a setting problem with your router, or the problem lies with your telephone line.
In this case, telephone the technical support of your ISP first, as they may resolve this quickly and you have no callout charges to pay.
