Technology: Life in the Internet Fast Lane - high-speed Internet connections

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Jan, 1999 by Scott Bernard Nelson, Margaret Ringer

* New technologies cut down the time it takes to connect.

Bart Kinlein has never been one to live life in the slow lane. A self-made millionaire by the age of 35 and a former chief executive of two companies, Kinlein, 61, retired to his Ellicott City, Md., home last year to pursue a lifelong passion--racing classic Porsches.

Not surprisingly, as a self-described Type A personality, Kinlein doesn't have much patience with pokey Internet connections. That's why he scrapped his phone-based modem for a superfast Web connection through fiberoptic television cable as soon as @Home Network made it available in the Baltimore suburbs.

Now Kinlein is able to accomplish online in seconds what used to take minutes or even hours, and he's saving money, too. He pays @Home a flat fee of $39.95 per month--compared with the $19.95 he was paying for an account with America Online plus $24, on average, for a second phone line.

"It usually comes out to a little bit less now," Kinlein says. "But the biggest thing is all the time I save. Some of the huge files I download are done in six seconds, rather than the half hour it used to take."

Cable modems like Kinlein's are the leading edge of a wave of developing technologies that promise to let you surf Web pages as quickly as you channel-surf TV stations. Unfortunately, whether you can get access to such high-speed connections depends on where you live and increasingly, on how much you're willing to pay.

Although it's too early to say which of the competing technologies will take root and become the standard, you can benefit now from alternatives already on the market. They'll increase your speed when sending e-mail, browsing the Web, buying and selling products online, and linking to commercial services. And bringing your computer up to speed isn't as tough as you might think.

These days, almost all PCs come with dial-up modems installed and set to run. The problem is, unless you bought your machine within the past year, your system probably runs (or, more likely, crawls) at 28.8 kilobytes per second. That's too slow to do all but the most basic Web-related tasks without frustrating delays.

Several technologies that will get you into the telecommunications fast lane--including direct-broadcast satellite, digital subscriber lines and multichannel, multipoint distribution service--aren't yet available or affordable for the majority of home users. We took the ones that are ready now for a spin.

Analog 56K telephone modems

AVAILABILITY: Nationwide

PRICE: $50-plus

WHO SHOULD BUY IT: Home users looking to trade in 28.8K or slower models

Granted, 56K modems are the slowest of the fast options. But for the time being, they provide the best combination of price, availability and speed for most people. And shopping for a 56K just got easier. The modems, which plug into phone jacks in the wall just like their 28.8K counterparts, have been around for a while. But until last fall, there were several competing types on the market. Buyers had to check with their Internet service provider (ISP) to figure out which version worked in their area.

Now the V. 90 standard unifies the 56K world. Any modem that you buy at the neighborhood computer or electronics store should work without creating a bottleneck between you and your Web provider.

Most big manufacturers--Hayes (www.hayes.com) and 3Com (www. 3com.com) are among the best--offer basic 56K modems with fax capabilities for $100 or less. And internal modems are among the easiest add-ons to swap in or out of your PC. You simply open the case and slide the new modem into an empty slot on your PC's motherboard, then close it back up. If you're using Windows 95 or Windows 98, the system automatically recognizes that the hardware has been changed and asks you to insert the disks that came with your modem. Follow the on-screen directions and you're done.

If the thought of popping the top of your PC and tinkering with the pieces inside gives you the willies, your best bet might be an external modem. Externals, which usually cost about 20% more than internal modems, connect via a cable to a plug-in on the back of the machine.

Externals come with the added (low-tech) advantage of an "on/off" switch. During those inevitable times when your system grinds to a halt while you're online, turning the modem off and then back on often frees things up. With an internal modem, you usually have to reboot the computer.

One popular model also deals with the problem of desk space. The Hayes 56K External Speakerphone Modem-Signature Series ($119; www.hayes.com/prodinfo/accura/ signature.html) is designed to fit on top of your monitor. The modem looks good and works well up there. It also includes ample features to deal with faxes and voice mail. For most Mac users, external modems are the only option. The bestseller is Global Village's Teleport 56K Fax/Modem ($150; www.globalvillage.com/56k/ macx2k56flex.html).

Under the best of conditions with a 28.8K, it takes more than four minutes to bring up the 141,000 words of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. With a 56K, it takes about two and a half minutes--which isn't exactly burning up the phone lines but is a big improvement. Uncluttered pages, even those with a few pictures, generally come up in ten or 15 seconds with 56K modems, versus 20 or 30 seconds at 28.8K.