Looking for Broadband Internet? Here Are Some Tips.

Looking for broadband Internet? Here are some tips to ensure that you can easily get the plan best suited to your individual needs.

Location: Most broadband Internet solutions are reliant upon fairly complex infrastructure to be in place. As such, their availability is very much dependent on location. Generally, urban areas will have better infrastructure than rural areas, and high-end broadband Internet systems like fiber to the home will be largely limited to these urban areas. However, there are exceptions, so check on the options available even if you aren't expecting much. It's entirely possible that your sleepy small town could have access to a blazing-fast fiber network or if that is not the case, you will most likely want to invest in satellite internet. What is available in your area all depends on who's put the money into developing the area in which you live.

Price: Different broadband solutions can be more or less expensive to lay out and maintain. These costs will be passed onto you- in the vast majority of cases a shiny new fiber-optic network will cost far more to use than a DSL line will, which uses the same physical infrastructure as the telephone grid. DSL is almost always the cheapest option if it's available, so if you're on a budget it's probably your best choice. On the other hand, mobile broadband or satellite internet are sometimes more expensive. If you don't have a specific need for the mobile or satellite's benefits (primarily, the ability to use mobile broadband in portable hardware and the massive availability advantage satellite Internet has over all other forms on Internet access, to the point where it's viable even in the depths of the Amazon rainforest) you're generally better served by DSL, cable, or fiber-optic. Cable is relatively cheap and offers substantially better speeds than DSL; it's a popular option where available because of this speed. On the other hand, while fiber-optic connections are very expensive they also have breathtaking download and upload speeds; as such, a fiber-optic connection is worth taking advantage of if you have a stable, fairly high income.

Provider quality: Different Internet service providers will have differing consumer impressions, even where they offer the same type of technology. For instance, Comcast offers a cable Internet service, which is generally well worth going for. However, Comcast is also notorious for its shoddy customer service and obscene pricing, to the point where "Comcastic" has entered common parlance as a term meaning "very, very bad"; what this means is that, if other options are available, you may want to consider a service which you wouldn't normally. With Comcast's fairly small download caps, if you're making heavy use of your connection you may get better speeds overall with a DSL line featuring a lower advertised speed. It's an unfortunate fact of the broadband market in the United States that there generally isn't an overabundance of options for the same broadband service in an area; generally, if a sub-par ISP like Comcast is present, they'll be your only cable (or DSL, etc.) ISP.

How Broadband Internet Can Improve Your Life

The global brain. The Human Races sixth sense. The breeding ground of creativity and innovation.

All of these words have been used to describe the internet, and deservedly so.

The internet has provided us with a means of communication and organization the likes of which we have never seen before. It was not created by any one person (not even Al Gore), but yet it will surely go down in history as a turning point in our civilization. A time when humanity evolved forward in creating something new. Something organic, spontaneous, and unique.

In the time since the internet's "creation", (although it is more accurate to call it an evolution), it has proved the age-old adage that the greatest things in life cannot be consciously conceived, that is, they cannot be planned. The billions of people working autonomously, but also synergisticly and synchronistically, have come together to make the internet what it is today.

7 billion different viewpoints. 7 billion different skill sets. 7 billion different things to offer the world. The internet has provided a funnel, or a lens in which we can magnify and organize this phenomenon into easily digestible pieces, such as websites, blogs, articles, social media, pictures, books, videos, and more.

There is so much information out there that even if you started today and worked your whole life trying to digest all of the information that is available on the internet you still wouldn't have even touched a fraction.

We've come a long way since the days of the original apple computers and windows operating systems. We've also come a long way since the days of the dial up connection and that obnoxious phone sound that just had to be played every time you tried to connect to the internet. Most kids will have no idea what I'm talking about, but us dinosaurs of the 90's are all too familiar with that sound.

30 second or more load times. Freezing windows. Dropped connections. Hit the monkey banner click adds...Oh the 90's.

I once visited two different institutions in the same week, both of them having computers with an internet connection.

One was my great uncles retirement home with a public computer room for residents. I stopped in to check out the computers and quickly found out they had 56/k speeds. It was a shocking jolt back to the past, the owners clearly not having caught up with the times. The speed of the internet connection made it barely possible to get to a web page, let alone download anything. "Using computers is hard enough for the elderly" I thought, "They shouldn't have to go through this."

The other place I visited was my sisters University. The University provided Broadband Internet, free to all of its students, at a T3 connection...I was blown away.

Not only did pages load instantaneously; like you were flipping channels on a television, but full-length movies and albums downloaded in mere minutes. Downloading 100 books on any subject would take you no longer than a trip to the bathroom. A colossal improvement compared to a few hundred years ago when one good book was a rare treasure.

The number of ways Broadband internet can improve your life is staggering. It is no longer a question of if you have the resources to become incredibly skilled, knowledgeable, or well read in a particular subject; but rather how focused you are on absorbing everything the wonderful world of the internet has to offer.

The internet is a treasure of our modern age, a 21st century library of Alexandria. Make sure you're getting the most out of it in every way possible.

Don't let this opportunity go to waste.

DIRECTV Industry’s Most Advanced HD DVR

DIRECTV Grants Endless Wishes with the Industry’s Most Advanced HD DVR

The New DIRECTV Genie™ Records Five Shows at Once, Eliminates Need for Receivers in Every Room, Automatically Recommends Shows Matching Viewers’ Tastes

and So Much More

DIRECTV is granting TV viewers their ultimate wish – the industry’s most advanced and intuitive HD DVR, the new DIRECTV Genie™ – enabling a whole new suite of magical TV viewing capabilities.

The DIRECTV Genie delivers an innovative set of features that include the ability to record five shows in HD at one time; up to three times more HD recording capacity than cable HD DVRs; a full HD DVR experience on every TV in the home without seeing a box in each and every room; and a new opt-in feature that will automatically recommend shows based on the viewer’s taste.

DIRECTV Genie™ is now the entertainment hub for the entire home and shares content seamlessly with additional TVs that are connected to small DIRECTV clients or other connected devices (such as RVU-enabled TVs, gaming consoles and Blu-ray players) from a single HD DVR.

“We simply asked consumers what they wished for in the perfect satellite television experience and then set out to develop as many of those features as possible in our new flagship HD DVR. Given all that Genie can do, we expect our customers to be extremely impressed with this next generation experience,” said Romulo Pontual, executive vice president and CTO of DIRECTV. “Gone are the days of
scheduling conflicts, channel surfing, messy wires and boxes, missed shows and family fights over the remote. DIRECTV Genie’s massive hard drive, five tuners and its sophisticated, intuitive search and discovery functionality creates a simple and magical television experience without the need for receivers in every room.”

Benefits and features of the DIRECTV Genie™ include:

Five Tuners
Record five programs at the same time with one Genie HD DVR

Full HD DVR Functionality — in every connected room
Pause and rewind live TV in every room
Record and delete shows in every room
Watch the same recorded show on multiple TV’s simultaneously (up to four at a time)
View and record DIRECTV On Demand programs in every room

Genie™ Recommends
DIRECTV customers can opt-in and have their DIRECTV Genie recommend and store new shows that match their TV preferences

RVU Technology
One receiver serves the entire home, so DVR service can be enjoyed on every TV, without the need for a DVR at each TV
Connect up to eight RVU-enabled TVs to a single Genie

Advanced Search
Search and schedule recordings up to two weeks in advance

Picture-in-picture

Double Play
Watch, pause, rewind, fast-forward on two channels at the same time

Start Over
Start programs at the beginning if you tune in late

Past Episodes
Catch up on past episodes, as far back as five weeks

DIRECTV TV Apps
Access DIRECTV TV Apps on the Genie including Pandora, ScoreGuide, Facebook, Twitter and other general apps such as news, sports and weather

One terabyte of storage
Store up to 200 hours of HD programming
With 800 hours of SD storage, you can record more than 1,500 shows

Beginning today, new qualified customers can get a free upgrade to Genie, as well as connect up to four rooms. In addition, new customers who order the CHOICE™ Package and above will get 2012 NFL SUNDAY TICKET included at no extra charge and three free months of premium channels. For more information on DIRECTV Genie™, please visit DIRECTV.com/Genie.

Broadband Internet - What You Should Know

 
High speed internet is also known as broadband. Broadband is when data transmitted from the internet to the computer are processed at a high speed and due to this it is used widely. Due to it's fast speeds it saves time and money.

Cable - It is usually provided through cable tv and the internet speeds vary with how many people at a specific time are using the internet. The more people using the internet in a specific area the slower it is and this usually happens during the evenings when most people are at home and are browsing the internet.

DSL - also known as Digital Subscriber Line, DSL high speed internet is delivered through a telephone network therefore the need for one to have a telephone connection in order to have access to it. DSL download speeds (retrieving data) are much faster than the upload speeds (adding data) and with DSL the closer your location is to the telephone company, the faster the speeds are.

Wireless - another form of broadband, wireless is as fast as DSL or cable but it is costly and it has to be accessible in a particular area for one to have access to it. It enables the computer to have internet once it is switched on therefore there will be no need for one to log into an account or dial up a connection. Fiber optic is the fastest high speed internet around and one needs to have the cable run near their home so that they can be connected to it. It is costly to acquire but worth the money due to its very fast speeds.

Satellite internet is another form of broadband that is available in the market and it serves many people who live far from urban centers as it can be accessed from anywhere, without the infrastructure required by the other traditional types of broadband.

Broadband Internet enables one to multitask while browsing the net like watching a movie, listening to music or playing video games due to its high speeds. One can also have a conversation through the phone while the internet is still active without losing the connection. File downloads are faster therefore saving one time to do other constructive things and it saves money as updates are done faster therefore achieving the final outcome in good time. Moving from website to website is much faster therefore one will not be afraid of losing data due to slow connection. With broadband one can leave the internet on and still download items while they go on with other tasks around the home or office as they are constantly connected to the internet.

Broadband internet is fast and the speed depends on the area one is and how many users are using the internet. One drawback of broadband is that due to it constantly being "on", it makes networks more vulnerable to cyber attacks and security breaches.

Broadband internet has revolutionized internet connectivity and access to information.

How Broadband Internet Has Changed The World

Broadband Internet access has been with us for just over ten years, during which it has impacted on our lives in ways we could never have imagined. Back in 1993, it was impossible to imagine that our communication world could be revolutionized so much that it would actually impact the way everyone communicates, does business and socializes.

Back then, no one could imagine that in 20 years almost everybody on earth would have instant access to a sea of knowledge, including videos, audio and text. And that the extent of that sea of knowledge would be more than any library could hold. In 1993, no one could have comprehended the unbelievable nature of the broadband internet revolution.

Today, people do virtually everything online. We work, shop, socialize and plan details of our lives, all via the internet. Through online banking, virtual offices and video conferencing, high speed internet has revolutionized how we do business, while chat rooms, online gaming, social networking, VoIP, fast movie downloads and video on demand are quickly fazing out telephones and TVs.

The points above may be obvious; however there are some less familiar ways that the internet, and more recently, broadband and satellite internet have impacted our society.

1. Online Crime & Hackers: Regrettably, the faster internet speeds facilitated by broadband internet connection have unintentionally helped in fueling a rise in online fraud and identity theft. More personal information is being shared online, and with easier access, by online criminals. An estimated $221 billion dollars annually is lost by businesses to online identity theft. This means that without adequate protection, the internet is proving to be a very dangerous place to be. Additionally the faster internet speeds provided through broadband connections has increased the vulnerability of internet users to cyber attacks, making online security a major concern worldwide.

2. Change in Politics & News: Broadband internet has exposed politicians to more public scrutiny of their political values and ideologies than ever before. Every politician must be able to interact with his/her electorate through blogs and social media. Political blogs from around the world has considerable influence on policy; breaking news breaks first, online and worldwide blogs by civilians are gaining large audiences and creating influence and information sharing platforms that could never have been imagined, prior to broadband interent.

3. Socializing, chatting and making new friends online: 2007 saw a new era in communication and socialization, facebook took the whole world by a storm. Two years later it was twitter and in 2010 Chat Roulette was launched. Chat Roulette gave online users an opportunity to connect and chat with strangers through webcam. It made the headlines for all the wrong reasons as parents questioned its safety as it made their children vulnerable to strangers. Others positively noted and praised the universal appeal of that site and others like it. Broadband, high speed internet access has made it possible to connect and stay in touch like never before.

4. Relationships: New relationships are born every day through the internet, either through facebook, craigslist or via the hundreds of other online listing sites. Blind dates are rampant, people are meeting the love of their lives, and unfortunately, many people also lose their lovers through these sites.

5. Solving Crimes: People's internet activities often leave traces of evidence behind. These trails are usually followed by detectives who are able to use them to solve many types of crime.
Without a doubt, as our lives become more interconnected, the power of faster broadband internet has changed our lives and our lifestyles more than we could have ever imagined.

Broadband Internet - An Overview

The term "broadband" refers to a wide variety of Internet connectivity technologies which utilize a wide frequency band to allow computer networking at speeds well beyond those of dial-up.

Broadband Internet connections frequently "piggyback" on existing infrastructure like television coaxial cable, power lines, or even telephone cables for the last mile; the backbone of the system is more often than not fiber-optic, but most systems are copper from at a minimum the node to the user's home. In almost all cases, these long-distance standards will terminate with the broadband modem, which connects to the ISP's network and can be connected to be a user's equipment using commodity Ethernet cables. In some parts of the world, Ethernet to the home is viable; this is capable of great speeds, but as Ethernet cables are ill-designed for long-range use it's not possible outside of exceptionally dense urban centers.

In recent years, mobile broadband has become popular as well. Mobile broadband standards like the 3GPP Long Term Evolution standard marketed as 4G LTE in the United States use cellular telecommunications towers to transmit data to and from an end-user's equipment. These mobile broadband standards provide high speeds, but are substantially more expensive than most comparable home broadband systems; as such, they're largely limited to use in portable devices like smartphones, tablets, and small laptop computers.
In home broadband, the most common technologies to see are DSL, cable, fiber-optic, and satellite internet connections. Each of these has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Digital subscriber line, typically referred to by the initialism DSL, uses the wired phone network to transmit data; however, unlike dial-up, DSL uses a wider band distinct from that used for voice communication, as opposed to modulating the digital signal from the connected machine to the very narrow band the telephony network uses for voice communications. As a result, DSL can manage significantly greater speeds (typically around 8Mbps) from the same network of physical cables.

Cable broadband, high speed internet connections are a step up from DSL, with significantly higher speeds due to using the higher-bandwidth cable television infrastructure to deliver the signal. While a cable connection is pricier than a DSL connection, they're still very attainable for most people, and the existing infrastructure which is used is still fairly prevalent; as a result, cable Internet connections are very common due to hitting a good balance between speed, availability, and pricing.

Fiber-optics hold a place in most broadband networks; however, what's sold as "fiber-optic broadband Internet" is fiber-to-the-home. By utilizing optical fiber, narrow glass tubes the size of human hairs, it's possible to transmit a digital signal via on-off pulses of light. Since light moves substantially faster than electricity, this results in a faster connection- more bandwidth and lower latency. However, fiber-optics are expensive to make, lay, and maintain; this makes fiber-to-the-home somewhat uncommon except in wealthy urban areas.

Lastly, there's satellite Internet access. By using a dish to connect to a satellite in low Earth orbit, it's possible to get broadband speeds anywhere on the globe, even in places without other broadband technologies available. However, high costs and high latency (the latter due to the enormous distance crossed from dish to satellite and consequent speed-of-light delays) have limited adoption of this technology.

High Speed Internet Service Providers

Satellite technology is making forays into the broadband world for one obvious reason: it has the ability to reach the remote and rural areas that other kinds of technology - like DSL and cable - cannot. With satellite technology, you forget completely about cable or phone lines - it doesn't matter whether these in existence or not! Telecommunications providers are quickly beginning to realize the potential of satellite technology. Besides this, the US government has invested and continues to invest large sums of money into this sector. Indeed, the potential that satellite high speed internet provision carries with it, only means that the frontiers of telecommunications have not yet been reached! This also means that satellite high speed internet provider comparisons will become absolutely vital as competition in the sector emerges.

The major satellite internet providers in the US include Hughes Net, WildBlue and Skyway. This makes it only logical to base any satellite high speed internet provider comparisons on the three telecommunications companies. It is best to begin satellite high speed internet provider comparisons with the plans (packages) that these providers offer to their customers. While Skyway offers four plans (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum) both Hughes Net and Wild Blue each offer three. Hughes Net's plans include: Basic, Power 150 and Power 200. On the other hand, WildBlue offers the following plans: Value, Select and Pro.
Although the plans offered by Hughes Net are relatively expensive, the downloading speed is reasonably faster. If you happen to use the internet only occasionally and are a light surfer, the best possible plan would probably be Hughes Net's Basic plan. Its monthly charge is $59.99. However, besides having a good downloading speed of 1.0 Mbps, for the first three months of use, it will only cost you $39.99 following mail - in rebate. The light surfing plan offered by Skyway - Bronze - costs $39.95 with a downloading speed of 384 Kbps. On the other hand, Wild Blue's plan - under the light surfing category costs $49.95, with downloading speeds of up to 512 Kbps.

If you are to base your satellite high speed internet provider comparisons solely on affordability, then you probably should be a Skyway customer. All their four plans are cost - sensitive. Besides the Bronze plan's cost that's already been mentioned, the other three plans are priced as follows: Silver - 512 Kbps at $49.95 per month; Gold - 768 Kbps at 59.95 per month; and Platinum - 1.5 Mbps at $89.95 per month. These three plans are best suited for paying bills and shopping online, paying bills and moderate surfing and streaming, surfing and downloading on a daily basis, respectively. The disadvantage of this satellite service provider is that its service is only one - way. This means that to upload, you will need to use dial - up.
Satellite high speed internet provider comparisons cannot be complete without an analysis of the coverage area. Both Hughes Net and Wild Blue cover the whole of the US, with the exception being that the latter is yet to start servicing the states of Alaska and Hawaii. Similarly, Skyway has not yet started offering its services in Alaska and Hawaii, but covers the other 48 states.