Andy Adams asked:




These days most households have the Internet with most of them getting a DSL line or Broadband for their homes. Broadband suppliers are like electricity suppliers, over the years the range of competitors all vying for your business has grown massively. In a test with one postcode I was able to find seven different broadband suppliers in my area, all offering different packages and extras for different prices depending on however much I wanted to spend per month.

Broadband is provided under contracts similar to Mobile Phone contracts, they tend to be 12 month agreements after which you can carry on with your supplier or make the jump to another, a lot of the time with contracts like this people have an overwhelming feeling of apathy and stick with their current supplier to avoid any hassle, providers rely on this to retain your business and you could get better deals elsewhere if you looked around.

This guide is going to go through what to look for if you have had enough with your current supplier and want to explore pastures new, however if you’re happy with your service then it is still worth reading on as you never know you may find an area where you could save money or get a bit extra from your provider.

How fast are we going?

First of all you should consider how fast your connection is at the moment, this can be done by using an online Broadband speed test, these websites get two figures: your upload speed and download speed, the latter normally being considerably larger than the former. It’s the download speed which is normally referenced in the adverts and brochures of the speed you can expect when you sign up.

Now the number you get back may be vastly different from the advertised speed, say you signed up for a speedy 8MB speed connection it isn’t uncommon for the download speed to actually be less than half of that number. Before you go complaining to your supplier there’s no point, whilst they are not exactly clear if you look at the detail it says “up to” before the stated speeds, a nasty trick you’ll probably think especially if you never actually get the full fat speed you pay for.

The reason for this is that the distance you are from the local telephone exchange affects the strength of your signal, as well as other factors such as the quality of the cabling in your area, the majority of internet cabling in the UK is still copper wiring which can lose signal strength over distance and time. The UK telecommunication companies such as Virgin Media are trying to get new Fibre-Optic cabling rolled out over the country to reduce the degradation in speed and allow for even faster broadband.

How much power is too much power?

As well as checking how fast your connection is, before you commit to a particular package you should consider how much speed you will actually need, whilst there are

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Tony Joy asked:




When you’re deciding to check broadband speed, the important first step is to find a good tool.

Where is my good Tool?

I usually use a file download to check broadband speed which is an easy and simple way. You can download a 1M file from a server, then you watch your clock carefully and see how long it will takes to finish. If it takes 20 seconds, then we can easily calculate the following result:

broadband speed = 1024k/20 = 51.2k/s

However, this way has some drawbacks:

1. Server’s location will affect your broadband speed result;

2. Your Operating System may cache the file you downloaded before;

3. You need to watch your clock carefully to calculate the time.

This Cool Tool

Fortunately, I found this cool tool which will let you feel fun when you check broadband speed.

Yes, this is http://www.speedtest.net

Speedtest.net is a free broadband speed test with servers located all over the world. Compare your results with others and easily share them. It is a broadband connection analysis tool with a huge selection of geographically dispersed testing servers. They provides this service free to hundreds of thousands of people every day.

Let’s Start

Firstly, let’s have a look at the face of this software.

When I firstly look at this picture, I thought I am driving a jet airplane:) Yes, it has a speed panel which allow you easily monitor your upload and download speed.

Then, You need to select a pyramid from the map. (eg. we choose San Francisco to test our speed)

If you click San Francisco, you will find the panel start to rotate and there is a star moving from destination to your City.

Is it cool? Yes, it is. After couple of seconds, the result will show up on the screen.

Check broadband speed Result

Moreover, you can rate your ISP as well.

Now that’s an ending. Short, quick, final and filled with some cool pictures. You can start to use this tool check broadband speed any where any time.

Steve S Wilson asked:




In the present scenario, the internet is the most sought after way to communicate with the world. It connects you in more than one way, such as you can chat with your friends. Moreover, you can connect through Emailing and can also avail the latest information. Broadband gives you high speed connectivity and the wireless broadband enables you to use the internet anywhere and without any hassle.

The word wireless broadband is defined to be accessing the Internet wirelessly and gaining the high bandwidth speed on your personal computer. And one more thing to get the wireless broadband is involving with the correct digital hardware for accessing the internet. Such hardware can be easily connected with any PDAs, or any laptops computer.

In fact, wireless broadband is running on the source of using the short-range radio waves to generate a tiny area, where your computers can work without any ineffectual wire. You can gain the wireless broadband by stopping into a wireless router. There should be a little, economical computer that does zero but should act as only the center of your network. Then you can fit wireless cards into each one of your computers, either by opening them up and putting it inside or by plugging it in using a cable such as USB or a port. Basically the wireless broadband has carried a great revolution in the market.

When you put in the card and turn up your computer and the router on, Windows will explain you a box and asking you, which wireless network you want to connect to. That means the router will repeatedly create a network. All you need to do is only choosing the exact network and you are on the Internet. And the wireless broadband access is usually no slower than plugging the modem in directly, unless you have very cheap wireless equipment and a very fast internet connection. You can avail lots of benefits of wireless broadband internet. It gives you hassle free communication and surfing to internet.