Gotta Get Broadband - Industry Trend or Event

Home Office Computing, Feb, 2001 by Dan Costa

Although cable modems have a huge potential connection rate of 27Mbps, most users get download speeds of anywhere from 500Kbps to 2Mbps. This is because cable users share a common connection with potentially hundreds of other users in their areas. As more users share the "pipe," the speed and quality of service decreases for everyone on the line.

To learn how strong the competition is in your area, you need to know how many users share your local cable hub. If the providers aren't willing to give you this information, ask them for a guaranteed minimum download and upload connection rate.

Cable modem service is generally less costly than DSL at about $40 a month, with an installation fee of approximately $100. If you already have an Ethernet card, all you will need to buy is the cable modem, which should cost $200 to $300. Although you can shop around for cable modems, you are probably better off buying one directly from your service provider that is guaranteed to work with its service. If you decide to buy elsewhere, make sure the modem is DOCSIS-compliant, the industry standard that most networks support.

ABOUT GOING DIGITAL ...

A DSL line turns a standard phone line into a high-speed connection to the Internet. Several different flavors of DSL exist, including asymmetric DSL (ADSL: 384Kbps to 9Mbps download, 128Kbps upload); symmetric DSL (SDSL: 1.5Mbps download/upload); and integrated services digital network DSL (ISDN DSL, or IDSL: up to 144Kbps download/upload.)

Of these, ADSL is by far the most common for residential use and, therefore, most relevant for home offices.

ADSL is a dedicated connection that you share with no one else. That said, several household and use factors might still slow you down. Halogen lights, 900MHz cordless phones, and other nearby electrical devices can cause interference with your connection and hurt your transfer rates. You can also encounter slower speeds if you are far away from the central switch.

DSL access costs $40 to $320 per month, with another $100 or more for installation. As with cable, you need to have an Ethernet card and shell out $100 to $200 for the DSL modem. Given the proprietary nature of DSL modems, you'll probably need to purchase the modem from your provider.

These high costs are offset somewhat by ADSL's ability to help you get more out of a single phone line. ASDL supports voice and data communications simultaneously, which can save you the monthly service charges you incur for a second phone line.

Whichever technology you choose, the faster connection speeds will help level the playing, field for home office owners, according to Into Networks' Holding.

"Value-added services, like streaming software, enable small offices to have access to the same types of resources that large enterprise employees have" he says.

After all, it isn't the hardware people use; it's the applications.

Broadband Security

Broadband adoption is at an all-time high, but so are the security risks. Although these threats are real, if you invest in an off-the-shelf firewall and exercise a bit of caution, there's no cause for alarm.