Foreign Perspectives

It used to be really simple: there was dial-up access and even then chances are you were pretty technically minded to want Internet access anyway.

However, it’s very different these days. The dialup access is still there but if you want (or need) high speed Internet access you’ve a range of options available including DSL, cable, satellite and wireless to choose from in some areas. Which is best for you is often far from clear.

Even just choosing, say, satellite access you have a choice of HughesNet and Wild Blue high speed internet access which from $50/month is surprisingly cheap these days. In country areas this can be your best (or only) bet as DSL service is only available at a relatively small range from the nearest exchange. If you have a choice of other high speed connections it’s worth bearing in mind that whilst the download speed is very fast, the upload speed isn’t. So, it’s fine for surfing, watching movies online and so on but not so good if you transfer a lot of information in the other direction.

Regardless of which high speed connection you go for, it’s always worthwhile to have a backup service available to you. For these, free is the way to go as, hopefully, you won’t be using them terribly often. For example, I’m pretty dependent on our ADSL connection but I still retain a free dialup connection as a fall-back and use it a few times per year when the ADSL isn’t working for one reason or another.

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