Okay, so you are finally tired of those slow dial-up internet connections, and you want to go broadband. Good deal. But first, you may be wondering which type of broadband connection is best- DSL or Cable? Or, at least, which of the two gives you more speed for the price? Here we take a look at these two popular broadband connections and try to determine which one is better: DSL vs. Cable.

Cable Speed vs. DSL

The most common question that comes up is which type of connection is faster, DSL or Cable? To answer this, it is important to compare both upload and download speeds. Now, so you have something to compare these speeds to, your average dial-up connection is about 28 – 56 Kbps. Most often, however, you won’t be able to get 56k through dial up, as most services can not handle this speed.

The average speed of a DSL download is 1.0 – 1.5Mbps. That’s megabytes per second – about 20 times as fast as the fastest dial-up connection. This is fast, but consider Cable, which can give you up to 2 – 3Mbps. Thus, at least for downloading, cable can give you almost twice the speed of DSL – that’s impressive. On the upload side, however, cable and DSL are pretty evenly matched. They both provide about 100Kbps – 400Kbps. It seems that cable has won this battle.

What about Price and Quality of Service?

There is more to discuss here besides the speed of the connections. Take price for one. Cable and DSL connections are both going to be more expensive than dial-up. But, DSL seems to be the cheaper of the two at the moment. You can get a good DSL internet connection for about $35 – $45 per month. Cable modem will cost you about $45 or $50 (this price may be included in a cable TV package). These prices, however, are really close and they change almost from month to month.

DSL is nice because you can talk on the phone and be online at the same time. In addition, business-level DSL service provides guaranteed data rates, so your connection speed is never a surprise. On the other hand, DSL speed tends to decrease the further you are away from the data center, and it is typically not as widely available as Cable. Cable speeds are not dependent on distance from the data center, and is occasionally cheaper than DSL when included in a cable TV rate. A cable modem, however, may require costly professional installation, and there may exists some limitations on downloads and uploads. All of these factors should be taken into consideration when choosing either broadband service.

Bradley James is a senior editor at SciNet.cc, a website containing many helpful consumer electronics review articles. For more information on DSL and Cable technology, please visit our DSL vs Cable webpage.

I expect I’m part of the majority when saying my communication costs seem to have grown exponentially. Expenses for phone, fax, cell phone, high-speed internet, cable, satellite, etc., have all combined to seriously raise the bar on what I can get done, but at a correspondingly higher cost. Seems like I ought to be able to get rid of something! I could get rid of my phone bill (landline) by relying on my cell phone. A lot of folks do just that and it works great for them. However, some of us still need something like a landline – usually for business.

Another alternative I’ve been watching evolve, is Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP for short. This basically means using the Internet to talk on the phone. This has been around for a while now, but until recently, required one or both parties to be logged onto a computer. It was kind of novel, and having free long distance was a definite plus, but for day to day use, was obviously a pain.

However, VoIP is finally coming into the mainstream, offering serious competition to traditional carriers by providing VoIP using your regular hand-held phone. Keep in mind you need a broadband connection to utilize these services – either DSL or cable, but since I’ve already got cable, it’s a no-brainer. Savings over my last phone bill is $64 a month, which goes way past what I need to satisfy my Starbucks habit! Even better, is since I bundled high-speed internet service with my existing cable, I cut that cost by about $30 a month. Yes, life is good!

Several providers offer their broadband service starting at about $15 a month for their basic plan. That usually includes about 500 minutes of local and long distance calling throughout the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, along with all the expected features like caller id, call waiting, call forwarding, yada, yada, yada. For unlimited calling, premium plans cost about $25 a month. Plus, most offer decent international rates, and no contract commitment.

There are several players to consider, including Vonage, Verizon VoiceWing and AT&T CallVantage. They all have similar plans in the same price range, some with additional features. Existing customers of specific providers can sometimes save more costs by combining other services. As you’ll observe when researching, most of the major players, are now starting to compete in this space, and they bring serious credentials, which will translate into stability and reliability going forward.

One of the biggest motivators for me, after price and reliability of course, is that all these providers disclose all the taxes and fees up front on their websites – try getting that out of “ma bell” – like pulling teeth. And, those taxes and fees are minimal – like a couple bucks compared to over $10 with the “other guys”. Do yourself a favor and take a look – you might save some bucks.

John Allen writes on a wide range of topics. Visit his blog to read more or obtain feeds. He can also be reached through his website which focuses on finding unique gifts.

Telecommunication cost is always an obstacle for small business owners,
especially if you need to call domestic or international long distance. The long distance cost factor alone, depending on the type of business you’re in, can make the difference in the success of any small business.

The telecommunication market today is one of the most competitive. Rates for
both local, domestic long distance or DLL (long distance in the same country) and
international long distance (ILD) are going down every day. The new player in small
business phone systems, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), adds a whole new
dimension when it comes to choosing a phone system for your small business or
home based business.

There’s so much hype today about VoIP, or Voice over IP, or Voice over
Broadband, whatever you want to call it. Everyone’s saying that VoIP is the “future of
communication” and that VoIP will replace regular analog phone calls. Is all this
true? If it is, how do you, as an entrepreneur, decide how to choose and invest in
what’s best for you?

There are two things you need to consider:

1) Level of investment

2) Cost vs. Quality

To go full out into using VoIP, you’ll need to invest in IP phones, and possibly
even in IP PBX. Otherwise, you should go for IP phone adapters, which allow you to
maintain whatever system you already have, but also gives you the option of
converting some of those phone lines to VoIP. Most entrepreneurs are reluctant to
go 100% into VoIP, and yet they still want the benefits that come from it. That’s why
IP phone adapters are so popular today.

When is comes to quality vs. cost, the direction is pretty clear. Before choosing
the proper VoIP phone system for your business, you need to figure out exactly
what your business needs. If your business relies heavily on the phone for
prospecting customers, providing customer support, or giving out important
information through the phone, then you should definitely opt for better quality.

If you use the phone for short communication with your business partners or
agents, or any other reason which is NOT your main business function, it would be
better to save a little and go with the low cost option. The difference in quality is not
very apparent in most cases.

If you are just starting your small business, VoIP phone cards also provide
some sort of temporary solution until you can get enough financing to develop a
better system. Phone cards usually let you dial international and national long
distance at a lower cost because they use either VoIP as the back end provider or
through a special promotion or arrangement between telecommunications
companies.

Today, you can even get “virtual phone cards” which allow you to make phone
calls by dialing a toll-free number in a long list of countries. This is especially useful
if you spend more time travelling and doing business overseas than you are at
home.

Regardless of which VoIP phone system you choose for your small business,
make sure you are getting the most out of the money you spend for these long
distance or international plans. Forget the bells and whistles. The purpose of having
a good phone system is, and always should be, to communicate and express
yourself.

Copyright © 2006 Gobala Krishnan

Gobala Krishnan is a small business entrepreneur, author of the revolutionary
“Internet Telephony Secrets” book at http://www.InternetTelephonySecrets.com/2/
and publisher of the “VoIP and Me” newsletter at
http://www.MyBusinessVoIP.com Visit his sites to learn insider tips and tricks on using
VoIP for your business.

Placement of your wireless access points is the first layer of security for your wireless network. If your wireless access points can be physically touched by a passerby you have major problems.

The easiest way to hack a wireless access point is walk up to it and press the reset button. This will make it default back to an open network and poof you have keys to the kingdom

When placing your wireless access point the only thing you should be able to see is maybe the antenna. You can purchase access point antennas that look like ceiling panels or fire alarms.

If a hacker is in your building probing your wireless network he is going to look for access points. If he can determine the make and model of your access point he can search the Internet for default passwords and vulnerabilities for that access point.

Finally when placing your wireless antennas outdoors try and make them blend into the building as much as possible. You should use a wireless directional antenna that is flat against a wall rather than a Yagi antenna which screams look at me.

Wireless access points can be hacked in 20 seconds or less if they are mounted in the wrong place. The most secure wireless network is the one nobody knows about.

Anyone who has switched from a dial-up modem to broadband DSL knows the advantages of DSL internet access. The differences between the two are truly astounding. When people begin surfing the internet using broadband DSL after struggling with a dial-up modem, they never want to go back to a slow and often unreliable dial-up connection.

Broadband DSL connection speeds vary, but the average DSL connection rate ranges on average between 128 kilobits per second all the way up to 1.54 megabits per second. Typical dial-up modems can’t even come close to reaching typical broadband DSL speeds.

The remarkable speed of broadband DSL has made internet use more convenient, and DSL has improved the quality of many existing online activities such as shopping, banking, downloading audio and video, and gaming. Besides a notable increase in connection speed and website navigation, with broadband DSL, internet users are always connected to the world wide web. DSL provides valuable information and online activities that remain just a few keystrokes away.

Broadband DSL saves money as well as valuable time. Broadband DSL eliminates the need for additional phone lines. People using broadband DSL are able to talk on the phone while browsing the net, and all computers within a household can surf the web independently with the use of wireless routers.

Security is another plus for broadband DSL users. Broadband DSL subscribers use their own private telephone lines to make contact with their DSL service provider. Cables and lines are not shared by other internet subscribers, and therefore user access is private and very secure.

Broadband DSL is constantly improving as new technology is discovered and implemented. When considering the cost of broadband DSL versus the cost of dial-up, there is no comparison. The benefits of broadband DSL are immeasurable. Broadband DSL is truly the solution for businesses and consumers wanting quick and reliable internet connectivity.

Stephen Kreutzer is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides information on broadband at 123 Broadcom!

You’ve probably at least heard of the word “VoIP”, even if you didn’t quite understand what all the excitement is about. VoIP stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol” and is going to change the way you think about making long distance phone calls. Basically, VoIP technology turns analog audio signals (i.e. the sounds you hear when talking on your regular telephone) into a digital signal (which is then transmitted over the Internet.)

So why is VoIP revolutionizing the industry?

Because it means that by getting your hands on some of the free software that’s available right now, you can totally bypass your telephone company, and start making long distance phone calls for free! This revolutionary technology has the ability to totally change the phone system of the entire world! Perhaps you’ve seen television commercials for one of the pioneers of VoIP – Vonage. Vonage brands itself as the “broadband telephone company” and offers enticing perks to customers who switch to it’s VoIP service such as low-cost 800 numbers and very cheap international rates (fees are waived from the U.S. to Canada, and international calls are as low as .03 cents a minute to overseas locations such as Paris). But Vonage isn’t the only company who is interested in harnessing the power of VoIP. AT&T is setting up VoIP calling in several areas of the U.S. and there are other major VoIP players on the scene as well, such as Skype, who is relying on viral advertising to get the word out. Even some regional cable television companies are now offering VoIP telephone service at deep discounts to their customers.

One of the interesting components about VoIP is that there’s not just one way to make a VoIP call. There are actually three ways to make a VoIP call:

1) VoIP via ATA: is the most commonly used VoIP method right now. Using the ATA (analog telephone adaptor), you connect your regular telephone to your computer or Internet connection. The ATA is an analog-to-digital converter and it takes the analog signal from your phone and converts it into digital data and transmits it over the Internet so you are able to make VoIP calls. This is how Vonage and AT&T’s CallVantage handle VoIP calls. The ATA is free with their services. And using an ATA for VoIP is so simple that anyone can do it. Open the box, plug the cable from your phone into the ATA instead of the wall socket, and you’re ready to begin making VoIP calls. Depending on your computer, where you live, and what type of Internet connection you have, you may need to also install VoIP software onto your computer, but this shouldn’t be too difficult for most people.

2) VoIP via IP Phones:VoIP phones look just like a standard telephone. They have a handset, cradles and buttons. But an VoIP phone uses an RJ-45 Ethernet connector instead of the standard RJ-11 phone connectors. VoIP phones connect directly to your router and all the hardware and software is already built inside to handle your VoIP calls. Look for Wi-Fi IP phones to be available in the near future, which will allow you to make VoIP calls from any Wi-Fi hotspot. This will allow you to take your VoIP phone with you when you travel, and stop in at any Internet caf

Are you a salesperson who works at of your home and often uses the telephone to set up appointments, make deals and do cold calling? If so, it you may wish to check your bandwidth if you end up switching to voice IP because otherwise you may not have the proper bandwidth to carry on a conversation in the middle of the day when all the Internet lines are being used at maximum peak.

There’s nothing more aggravating to listen to someone using voice IP who is trying to explain something and the communications is coming out broken. If you are a salesperson and doing this you might be aggravating your customers or even frustrating them and certainly that is no way to open a dialogue or begin the sales process.

Make sure you have the proper bandwidth for your voice IP home office otherwise you are better sticking to regular phone service. Trying to explain to a customer why you’re so frugal that you wanted to only pay $19 a month and still call all over the country to very important clients may not make sense to them.

In fact if you think about it; it probably does not make any sense to you either. If you are a good salesperson and make a lot of sales on the phone then you need the best phone service possible and if voice IP is not doing it for you then you shouldn’t be using it.

How bad is this problem? Well, I have been talking to quite a few people who are consultants who work out of their home and they have tried VoIP and they had to switch back. It just wasn’t working out for them. Perhaps you will consider all this in 2006.

In the beginning, when the Internet Protocol was first designed, no one was thinking about the possibilities of sending audio and video. Real time communication was not an issue.

Perhaps the greatest single problem is that the Internet Protocol (the IP part of VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol) wasn’t designed to ensure that the packets are delivered in the correct order. When information is transmitted using IP, the data is broken up into information packets, each of which is sent separately. The correct sequence of packets is part of the information in each packet, but nothing specifically exists to make sure that the packets are delivered, and, therefore, received in the proper order.

Now this isn’t usually a significant issue for web pages, email, etc. Why? Because these aren’t real-time applications. Audio and video however, especially live audio and live video are definitely real-time applications. For a real time conversation to work, the packets have to arrive – pretty much in order and also within certain time limits.

The first, and one of the major challenges then, is to restructure incoming packets into the correct order and to somehow cope with lost and/or trashed packets. Face it, the internet does not provide a quality of service guarantee. If enough packets are lost, an audio or video stream rapidly turns into a useless mess. While packets can be resent – the standard way lost/trashed packets are dealt with – real time communication means that you just can’t wait around forever. After a certain time, it’s simply too late to maintain a coherent stream.

What we’ve seen over the last few years is a gradual and now nearly explosive growth in the use of VoIP, and streaming audio and video. The reason is decline of dial-up and the growth of ISDN, DSL, ADSL, cable and other high speed, high bandwidth access modes. Bandwidth is the answer to most of the problems posed by IP. End-to-end high speed links can ensure high quality sound. The sole remaining problem is latency.

For most this is not an issue when they have high speed internet access, however, it can become a problem with satellite links or any other system where unusually long distances and many hops are involved.

On private networks, there is rarely a problem using VoIP and many companies with internal networks (such as telcos and power companies) use VoIP to communicate within their organizational network structure.

However, when the available end-to-end bandwidth is less than 256 Kbps, a good VoIP system will require mechanisms to overcome fragmentation of the data stream.

Security is an issue everywhere on the internet and what this means is that VoIP also needs to deal with firewalls and NATs (Network Address Translation). While some systems can do NAT and firewall traversal on their own, others require the use of SBCs (Session Border Controllers) to manage the traversal.

One major, though non-technical, challenge to VoIP, comes from traditional telephone service providers who are being by-passed by consumers who love the extremely low (or zero) long-distance charges they can get by using VoIP. Exactly how this works out over the long run will be fascinating to watch. In the meantime, VoIP services are continually being improved and extended. Enjoy them.

For more information on VoIP, conference calling, web conferencing and related subjects visit Alta Global Telecom. Find more on wireless and cellular subjects at Alta Global Wireless. For networking and security check Alta Global Net.

In the heart of Silicon Valley a revolution is about
to take place. It could change the Universe as we
know it. Don’t laugh, this revolution will grab you
by the short wires and turn your world upside down.

It will affect your life and the lives of your children’s
children. It might just be the spark that changes
everything…

It all has to do with the Internet.

Someone wants to give the Internet its wings. Get rid
of all those wires and monthly bills. Set it free.
Let it fly among the stars. Broadcast it out into
the stratosphere. Or in other words, make it free
for everyone.

And it’s about time.

Are we talking about a free wireless Internet for the
masses? Well, not exactly and not yet. But it’s the start
of such a concept that could quickly become a reality
for many people very soon. It has to start somewhere
and why not in Silicon Valley. Where else would you want
to start a free wireless revolution but a place that really
knows how to cash in its chips.

And who else would you expect to lead this
Internet Parade than Google; the all knowing,
all seeing, omnipotent and undisputed ruler of
the mighty cursor.

Google wants to give free broadband Wi-Fi service
to the small city of Mountain View, sometimes AKA-ed
as the Capital of Silicon Valley. Located between
the Santa Cruz Mountains and San Francisco Bay,
Mountain View is home to around 72,000 young,
vibrant and smart residents. The median age is
32.8 years old. Pure Google fodder.

Google has proposed a system of providing free
Wi-Fi via 300 transmitters on light poles which would
virtually make the city one big hotspot. City
leaders now have to decide if Google should get the
go ahead for this free Internet. In its proposal,
Google has plainly stated its own self-interest in
such a system.

“In our self-interest, we believe that giving
more people the ability to access the Internet
will drive more traffic to Google and hence more
revenue to Google and its partner websites.”

Obviously, Google has everything to gain. Ad revenue
and the Internet is its lifeblood. Why not expand that
lifeblood. And why not make the Internet pay for itself.
Why shouldn’t it be free and ad supported — cut out all
those monthly ISP bills users now have to pay.

Will the majority of Internet users be willing to
give up their ISP bills for a few Google ads on
webpages? In a heartbeat!

Sure, there will be naysayers, all revolutions have
them. Commercialism of the web is a totally bad road
to traverse. Capitalism is wrong. But it’s a moot
argument, the web is already monetized up to the yin-yang.
Users should get something back for a change. It might
be totally in Google’s self-interest to give people a
free Internet but there’s no denying that such a gesture
would also be a way of sharing all that ad revenue.

A free Internet that spans the Globe and beyond –
available to everyone. Such a system is probably a
natural evolution. The Internet is already turning into
a billion channel universe broadcasting its contents
into the stratosphere. Why not give all this content
some wings.

Why not make this broadcasting system free and ad
supported. There’s a subtle democratic gesture in
what Google is offering. Will people accept this
offer or try to hold back evolution. Will they enable
Google “to be a good corporate citizen and play a
pioneering role in a public-private partnership
to bridge the digital divide.”

Of course, this is just the start, if Google’s
Proposal flies, a free Internet will only be a
click away.

Today, Mountain View. Tomorrow, the Universe.

Bring it on! I want my Free Internet!

Still looking for that unique corporate gift for the boss or employee — Click Here:
Corporate Business Gifts
Get a Free Desktop Calendar & Planner compliments of Titus Hoskins and DATEwise.

Copyright © 2005. This article may be
freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Wireless networks use radio waves instead of wires to transmit data between computers. Here’s how:

The Binary Code: 1s and 0s

It’s well known that computers transmit information digitally, using binary code: ones and zeros. This translates well to radio waves, since those 1s and 0s can be represented by different kinds of beeps. These beeps are so fast that they’re outside the hearing range of humans.

Morse Code: Dots And Dashes

It works like Morse code, which is a way to transmit the alphabet over radio waves using dots (short beeps) and dashes (long beeps). Morse code was used manually for years via telegraph to get information from 1 place to another very quickly. More importantly for this example, though, it is a binary system, just as a computer system is.

Wireless networking, then, can be thought of as a Morse code for computers. You plug in a combined radio receiver and transmitter, and the computer is able to send out its equivalent of dots and dashes (bits, in computer-speak) to get your data from here to there.

Wavelengths And Frequencies

You might wonder how the computer can send and receive data at high speed without becoming garbled nonsense. The key to wireless networking is how it gets around this problem.

First, wireless transmissions are sent at very high frequencies, which allows more data to be sent per second. Most wireless connections use a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (2.4 billion cycles per second) — a frequency similar to mobile phones and microwave ovens. However, this high frequency produces a wavelength that is very short, which is why wireless networking is effective only over short distances.

Wireless networks also use a technique called “frequency hopping.” They use dozens of frequencies, and constantly switch among them. This makes wireless networks more immune to interference from other radio signals than if they transmitted on a single frequency.

Internet Access Points

The final step for a wireless network is to provide internet access for every computer on the network. This is done by a special piece of wireless equipment called an access point. An access point is more expensive than a wireless card for 1 computer, because it contains radios capable of communicating with around 100 computers, sharing internet access among them. Dedicated access points are necessary only for larger networks. With only a few computers, it is possible to use 1 of them as the access point, or to use a wireless router.

Industry Standards

Wireless equipment from different manufacturers can work together to handle these complex communications because there are standards which guide the production of all wireless devices. These standards are technically called the 802.11. Because of industry compliance with these standards, wireless networking is both easy to use and affordable today.

Wireless Is Simple To Use

If all this talk of frequencies has you worried — relax. Wireless networking hardware and software handle all of this automatically, without need for user intervention. Wireless networking, for all its complicated ability, is far simpler to use than you might expect.

Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer. Visit Wireless Internet for more info.

Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact.