ADSL FAQs

I am a new to broadband can you tell me what it is? more detail here

Broadband is a faster connection to the internet than dialup. Speeds for ADSL broadband start at 256k,your dialup modem is 56K.

So why would I need it?

If you are on a dialup connection, you will need to pay for a local call every time you dial the internet. In addition to this your phone line is engaged while you are on the internet and no one in the household can ring in or out. With ADSL your phone line can still be used while you are on the internet and both the phone and the internet work simultaneously and no dialup costs are incurred. The other thing is that you do not have to dial out when you want to connect; your pc just stays connected while it is turned on.

What is the difference between ADSL and Broadband?

Broadband is the term used for the speed of your connection in general terms. ADSL is a type of broadband. ADSL for example goes down the phone. Cable broadband goes down your cable television line.

Which is better Cable or ADSL?

That just depends on what you want to do with your internet connection. If you are surfing the web and getting emails they would perform around the same. If you want to download lots of data then cable is generally faster.

ADSL has the benefit of more competition in the market so you are likely to get some superior services like no port blocking and a static IP address. Often data is less expensive and you won’t need to buy a television and phone package to purchase it. A big plus is that the contract term is often only six months as apposed to 18 or 24 months.

What should I look out for?

 This just depends on your circumstances. If you are writing WebPages then you might not want a connection that is proxied. This is basically recycled data. .Netcall does not proxy any data.

If you are running or think you might dabble in any server technology you intend to make available on the internet you will more than likely want a static IP address. .Netcall provides a static IP as standard.

If you download via FTP (used for downloading files) it might be a good idea to pick a service provider that is not know to throttle back these ports limiting your connection speed. .Netcall does not throttle any ports or protocols. If you are unsure about any of this yet it might just pay to pick one that does not do any of the above and still gives you a static IP. There are a lot of ISPs to choose these options from.

A word of caution, if you are coming from dialup you will use much more data on a broadband connection.

How should I decide which plan to pick?

It is a good idea to pick a plan that has around the amount of data you think you will use. A general guide is if you intend to sit on the internet for the hours you do currently, is to pick a plan that has about 4 times the data that you use now. If your time on the internet increases because the experience lets you do more things then you will need to take that into account also.

Why will I use more data?

Simply because you can visit many more sites and flick through more pages when they come down more quickly. Every time you open a page and it is displayed on your computer, you are downloading data.

What is excess usage?

Excess usage is when you use more data than is included in your plan fee. Suppose you buy a plan with 8 GIG of data. That means that you can use 8GIG of data and not be charged because it comes with your plan. If you use 9 GIG for the month on our plans you would pay an extra $3 for execess data.

What about the unlimited plans?

There are two types of “unlimited” plans you should be aware of,

“True Unlimited” and “Shaped Unlimited”

Some unlimited plans are not really unlimited as with Shaped Plans. Some ISPs, notably some of the bigger ones sell unlimited plans like this. By there very nature they are limited so beware of the “ * “ which means conditions apply. Generally they just say the plan is unlimited. It is up to you to read the fine print. This is often written down the bottom of the advertisement in very fine print. After a certain amount of data is downloaded your connection is throttled back to less than dialup speed making is virtually unusable for most applications.

True unlimited, your speed stays the same regardless of the amount of data and if you are worried that you do not know how much data you are using and want to know what you are up for every month with no surprises, then this is the plan that is more than likely will suit you. If you have school age children then this might be the safest option.

What is the speed difference and what should I go for?

A rough guide is to go what you can afford rather than speed. Downgrading plans under contract more often than not has a small penalty attached and some ISPs will not allow it.

256/64K is around 5 times dialup speed

512/128K is around 10 dialup speed

1500/256 is around 30 dialup speed

4 GIG of data will download your emails and let you surf pretty happily with the odd file download

4 GIG is around 6 CDs full of data or one CD is around 6-700 Meg.