Even though there are changes in technology everyday, there is still one constant. People still have trouble understanding all of the terminology connected with computers and the Internet. Recently, while watching a pickup basketball game, I overheard two men talking about what type of Internet service they had. One man said he had a DSL router through his cable company. The other man disagreed and said he had high speed Internert through the phone company and he thought it was DSL.

If you have trouble determining if you have DSL or Cable Internet service, then you should follow these easy techniques for determining what type of Internet service you have.

1. There are still many people who are using a dial up Internet connection. For some people, they may live in an area where the only way to connect to the Internet is through a dial up Internet connection. Other people may prefer the cheaper cost of a dial up Internet connection. The problem with this type of Internet connection is that you cannot make phone calls while you are online. It is also the slowest way to surf the Internet.

2. Broadband Cable Internet service comes from the local cable company. They will allow you to access the Internet through the cable line that comes into your house. If you choose to subscribe to this service, they will send a person over to your house to install it for you. First, he will split the connection from your TV to a cable modem box. Then he will plug it into your computer or router.

One benefit of subscribing to cable internet service is that the quality of your internet connection will not depend on your location in relation to the cable company's office. The speed of your connection will be the same as everyone else's in your neighborhood. However, you will have to share your bandwidth with the subscribers who live in your neighborhood. This means that when a lot of the subscribers in your neighborhood are online your internet service will be slower.

3. DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is provided by the phone company. You will be able to make phone calls and go online at the same time without having to buy another phone line. You will probably not require the help of a person from the phone company to install anything for you. Once you subscribe to their service, they will turn it on and send you a DSL modem and DSL router or filters.

The first thing that you should do is plug one end of the DSL modem into your phone jack and the other end into your computer or DSL router. The filters are used to eliminate any DSL static from the phone jacks. You are supposed to put the filters in the phone jacks and then plug the phone connections into the filters.

Since you will be getting Internet connectivity through your phone line, you will not have to worry about too many neighbors sharing your bandwidth like you would with a cable internet connection. However, your Internet connection will be affected by your proximity to the phone company's office. That is, the further away your house is from the phone company's office the slower your Internet connection will be. Also if your house is located too far away, you might not even be able to get DSL service which means that you will have to go online by subscribing with a cable company.

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A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Routers... Always-On Networks Created with a Wireless Router If you're using a wireless network with Windows' built-in Internet Connection Sharing, you're probably quite happy with it -- but there's a problem. The problem is this: the computer the modem is connected to needs to be turned on before any of the other computers can get Internet access! It's alright for a while, but it gets annoying really fast. I had one of these annoying setups at home for years and the moment I upgraded to using a router was like a breath of fresh air. Now my son does not complain every time I need to reboot or do extensive maintenance periods. His machine could not care less weather my machine is active or not. So what should you do about it? Well, a wireless router is the answer to your problem. What is a Wireless Router? A wireless router is basically a small, low-powered computer dedicated to nothing but providing Internet access to your wireless network. Once you've got a wireless router, you can connect any of the computers on...

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