| These days most households have the Internet with | | | | your signal, as well as other factors such as the |
| most of them getting a DSL line or Broadband for | | | | quality of the cabling in your area, the majority of |
| their homes. Broadband suppliers are like electricity | | | | internet cabling in the UK is still copper wiring which |
| suppliers, over the years the range of competitors all | | | | can lose signal strength over distance and time. The |
| vying for your business has grown massively. In a | | | | UK telecommunication companies such as Virgin Media |
| test with one postcode I was able to find seven | | | | are trying to get new Fibre-Optic cabling rolled out |
| different broadband suppliers in my area, all offering | | | | over the country to reduce the degradation in speed |
| different packages and extras for different prices | | | | and allow for even faster broadband. |
| depending on however much I wanted to spend per | | | | How much power is too much power? |
| month. | | | | As well as checking how fast your connection is, |
| Broadband is provided under contracts similar to | | | | before you commit to a particular package you |
| Mobile Phone contracts, they tend to be 12 month | | | | should consider how much speed you will actually |
| agreements after which you can carry on with your | | | | need, whilst there are £50/month packages offering |
| supplier or make the jump to another, a lot of the | | | | upwards of 10MB speeds you may find that for your |
| time with contracts like this people have an | | | | household you won’t actually need that much |
| overwhelming feeling of apathy and stick with their | | | | speed and could make a valuable saving by selecting |
| current supplier to avoid any hassle, providers rely on | | | | a lower speed. |
| this to retain your business and you could get better | | | | The majority of UK households only use the Internet |
| deals elsewhere if you looked around. | | | | to check emails, social networking sites and bid on |
| This guide is going to go through what to look for if | | | | EBay a little. An entry level connection of 2MB would |
| you have had enough with your current supplier and | | | | be more than sufficient for this, it could even handle |
| want to explore pastures new, however if | | | | two or three computers through a wireless router as |
| you’re happy with your service then it is still | | | | long as all three aren’t being used for prolonged |
| worth reading on as you never know you may find | | | | periods of time or for more bandwidth hungry |
| an area where you could save money or get a bit | | | | services like file sharing or online gaming. |
| extra from your provider. | | | | The higher end connections are more suited to |
| How fast are we going? | | | | so-called “power users” the type of people |
| First of all you should consider how fast your | | | | who download music and videos a lot as well as |
| connection is at the moment, this can be done by | | | | people who have lots of machines on their home |
| using an online broadband speed test, these websites | | | | networks. People who play online games like Internet |
| get two figures: your upload speed and download | | | | Poker or World of Warcraft are more likely to need |
| speed, the latter normally being considerably larger | | | | a speedy connection, as well as the growing number |
| than the former. It’s the download speed which | | | | of games consoles that connect to the internet like |
| is normally referenced in the adverts and brochures | | | | the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. |
| of the speed you can expect when you sign up. | | | | By now you should have a good idea of how fast |
| Now the number you get back may be vastly | | | | your current connection is (if you already have one) |
| different from the advertised speed, say you signed | | | | and have a better understanding of what speed you |
| up for a speedy 8MB speed connection it isn’t | | | | need, at this point you should know whether you |
| uncommon for the download speed to actually be | | | | need more or less speed and have your first criteria |
| less than half of that number. Before you go | | | | for when you want to look at the many suppliers on |
| complaining to your supplier there’s no point, | | | | comparison sites or when looking at the broadband |
| whilst they are not exactly clear if you look at the | | | | suppliers brochures. The next part of this guide will |
| detail it says “up to” before the stated | | | | cover the actual usage of your Internet, the |
| speeds, a nasty trick you’ll probably think | | | | customer services for when/if your service drops |
| especially if you never actually get the full fat speed | | | | and discuss cheap broadband package deals where |
| you pay for. | | | | you could save money by getting your telephone, |
| The reason for this is that the distance you are from | | | | TV and broadband all from one supplier. |
| the local telephone exchange affects the strength of | | | | |