The Issues With ISP Choices
An ISP or internet service provider is the means of getting the internet to your home or office. Not too long ago the question was whether you had a computer in your home. Today the issue is often how fast your ISP operates or whether you should choose DSL over a cable connection.
Cable does have the potential to supply the fastest speeds for uploads and downloads. What a lot of people do not realize is that the way cable access is distributed is that you home is on a loop with other homes in your immediate locality, so what one person does can affect everyone else on the entire loop. Your cable company will not tell you how big any given loop is, so you cannot even begin to estimate exactly how much bandwidth you will get at any given time. Usually it is about anywhere from 300 to 400 households that are on a loop.
So if your neighbor down the street is continuously downloading large data files then they will be taking up a lot of bandwidth that was designated to your loop. There is not a way designate which house gets what at any given time. However some cable companies are starting to charge for those who are continuously using large amount of bandwidth on a regular basis.
A DSL connection is a dedicated line to your home that guarantees you minimal amount of bandwidth. Do not be discouraged by this, often the minimal speeds of DSL are equal to and even faster then those provided by cable. Both types of ISP connections are affected by high traffic volumes at peak hours, although if you live in a rural area, this may not be an issue.
If you are looking for the fastest speed out there than you are looking at fiber optics; the speed for fiber optics far surpasses cable and DSL. The equipment for fiber optics is slightly higher but the monthly service is competitive with cable and DSL prices. However, the availability for fiber optics is relatively low.
Availability is an issue for cable and DSL in certain areas of the United States, so there is no need for any choice to be made. Some unfortunate souls are stuck with dial-up. There ways to tweak hardware to make your dial-up speeds faster but regardless of what you may try, video streaming is not in your future.
On the surface it is hard to gauge the true speed of their ISP. If you are using a single, large file download then you may not be giving your ISP the credit it deserves. There is more in play than just your internet connection; you must also factor in the servers on the other end that pushes the information to you. If those servers are overloaded then your download will be slow.
There are many things to consider when trying to find the most affordable and fastest ISP in your area. However, most of us are still grateful that we do not have to deal with dial up any longer.
