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CLICK HERE FOR MCC BROADBAND FAQs
I heard Broadband is cool. What is it?
Broadband (Digital Subscriber Line) is an always-on internet connection that ends in a socket on your wall that looks much like a phone socket. At least in the US, the socket is exactly a phone socket, and, for the popular residential Broadband, (ABroadband), the same house wiring does indeed carry phone and data!
Broadband is billed per month, usually for a fixed price, and (for the majority of providers) for unlimited usage. In other words, whether you use it for email once a day, or you are a net addict and use it constantly, your bill is always the same.
Once you have a Broadband line, you can use the entire resources of the Internet in the same way as you did from a regular modem connecting to your ISP, except you can use them 24 hours a day, with no connection delay, usually (although not always) without a 'username' and 'password', and without a busy signal or any connection/disconnection process.
The key advantage of Broadband over modem is speed. Broadband is several to dozens of times faster than a modem connection. A complex web page that could take up to a minute to finish loading can appear in just seconds over Broadband.
Connection speed, reliability and the 'always-on' nature of Broadband are the main reasons it is so popular. For small businesses, Broadband is also a great way to save money compared to pay per minute ISDN data or expensive T1 lines.
Do I still need an ISP with Broadband?
When you have a Broadband connection, you also have an IP address. Consider this to be like your house address. The allocation of this address, and responsibility of delivering packets from the Internet to your address, is normally the job of an ISP.
The quality of your ISP will be a big factor in how good your Broadband performance is, how reliable it is, and how much technical support you can get when you have problems.
You are free to use an ISP as just an on-ramp to the Iinternet, (including ignoring any e-mail facilities they would provide for free, or their usenet news servers, or their home page disk space...) but these services are available should you need them.
If you get Broadband from the phone company, you may find they strongly suggest using their own ISP and that may be the simplest choice for you.
Ok...What do I need an ISP for?
Apart from the Telco, the companies building large Broadband infrastructures do not want to deal with residential customers directly...recognizing that this is often expensive and not their forte. So what they do is sell their lines to traditional ISPs, who now offer Broadband, or to newer Broadband only ISPs, who are more marketing oriented.
The ISP provides your gateway to the Internet...when data leaves your house, it is not immediately on the Internet. Instead it travels to your ISP first, and then to their Internet gateways (known as upstream providers). The ISP would provide DNS service for your static IP address, if you were a small business, or handle allocation of dynamic IP addresses (DHCP) otherwise. They would also provide you with e-mail, a usenet server and more IPs if you need them. They are also the first point of contact for installation, billing and technical troubleshooting. Pick a good one! (which is what this site is all about).
Can I share my single Broadband line amongst more than one computer?
Yes.
Exactly how you share your single Broadband line depends on the operating system on your computer, and recently, whether or not your Broadband provider is using PPPoE. With a regular Broadband line, with a fixed or dynamic IP address, and Microsoft Windows, if you wish to share web browsing access but have some flexibility to add ICQ and play multiplayer internet games, then you can use one machine as a gateway, and run a NAT (network address translation) software product like Sygate, or similar on that machine. Current versions of Windows 98 even come with ICS, which is a Microsoft NAT implementation built-in.
Your private network IP addresses are allocated from the IP ranges internationally reserved for private use (10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x) and your NAT equipped PC with two network interface cards, functions as the gateway to the Internet.
NAT re-uses a single public IP address by allocating unused port numbers for other computers on your private network. NAT also is by default very secure, since it does not allow any incoming connection requests that were not part of a conversation you had initiated, but it can be problematic to setup some network intensive programs over NAT without reading manuals and consulting the net.
Finally, you could buy additional IP addresses from your Broadband provider. Most standard Broadband solutions will allocate up to 255 IP addresses over the one line.
Does anyone have to visit my house?
Generally, yes. Even if you do not get Broadband from the Telco, the Telco still has to provide the (new) copper line, which involves terminating it at the 'de-marc' point, then the Broadband providing company (CLEC) comes to do any necessary inside wiring.
For Telco Broadband, however, an existing line can be converted to an Broadband line, and the Telco may just have to visit to install a splitter or a filter, and/or upgrade the NID (which is the phone junction box in your premise).
Will my old PC be fast enough for Broadband?
Yes. Although if you start to use the Broadband line to view video on demand or other memory and processor hungry functions you may well decide your PC is too slow. PC makers are probably hoping that the revolution in bandwidth will fuel sales wave in the next generation PCs, but there are already so many interesting things to do on the web with even a slower PC, and the majority of sites can quite happily be seen and used by slower PCs.
Will I have to upgrade my Broadband modem every 6 months?
No. Even if you upgrade your line speed, your CPE (customer premise equipment) does not have to change. Until the commercial availability of G.lite (a newer Broadband standard, offering vendor inter-operability), though, moving from region to region, or from one provider to another, may require different equipment.
How does Broadband connect to my own computer?
Some Broadband installations require your PC have a network card. If you have to provide this yourself, you are looking for a 10/100mbps auto-sensing PCI network card for a PC. You are looking for something with a brand you are comfortable with, for instance 3com or Intel. Price range is currently from $20-$60. Don't waste your money on cards with features such as wake-up packet and LAN management, since you are buying for home use.
Several other connection options exist. Residential Broadband is often provided with a combined Broadband modem and card that is added to your PC. This card is all you need. These cards are known as PCI Broadband modems, and are designed for Intel PCs.
Another connection option is a USB Broadband modem. These are newer and more likely to suffer from incompatibilities with your PC or operating system, but they have the advantage of working on Macintosh, and possibly USB capable laptops as well.
For small business, you are likely to already have network cards, as you would almost certainly have an existing local area network.
My e-mail has been with MSN/AOL/etc. Can I have Broadband without changing that?
Almost any popular mail account (hotmail, MSN, AOL) can be accessed from anywhere, with the appropriate mail client setup, or even via the web.
AOL has the bring-your-own-access option for external use of AOL via another (Broadband) provider. Earthlink e-mail can continue to be used without even any reconfiguration, as can many other ISPs including MSN.
So once you get your Broadband line, you can continue to use and maintain your old e-mail account! with one hitch: if you continue to pay them.
Although rules for different mail systems differ, you may find you can purchase a minimum (MSN or AOL or Earthlink etc) plan that still allows full use of your mailbox, or e-mail could be set to forward to your new address while you tell people about it.
Why is distance important with Broadband?
If you have heard even something about Broadband, you will have heard about distance. Your phone lines normally terminate at a Telco office, usually nearby. This distance (the length of your line between your location and the Telco office), is a very important factor in whether or not you can get Broadband and what speed you can get.
Here are some rules of thumb for distance ranges. Please be aware that especially with non-Telco ABroadband lines, distance limits for speeds can vary widely from company to company. There are cases where it is policy for "residential" Broadband lines not to be offered as far out as functionally identical "business" products!
Distance In Feet:
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less than 5000 You will have little trouble getting all speeds of Broadband
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5000-10600 You may have trouble getting the highest speeds on offer
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10600-15000 The danger zone for Broadband from national CLECs like Covad and NorthPoint. Speeds on offer are pinned back steadily until they reach 192k for 15,000 feet. If your line is longer than around 15000 feet, they may not accept an order.
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15000-18000 In this range, Telco ABroadband is normally still available, although it may be restricted to 300-500k speeds
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18000-22000 Telco ABroadband is not available, although in a few areas, RABroadband may be a product you can get. RABroadband is speed-variable. Some smaller Broadband specialist CLECs may have solutions for you.
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22000-28000 Using less commonly used Broadband equipment, it is still possible to use lines of this length.
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18000-28000 IBroadband is an alternative or possibly the only alternative. IBroadband is 144k/sec, about four-six times modem speed.
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28000-38000 IBroadband is the only alternative
I heard I can connect my phone to Broadband also?
Your phone signal can run over an ABroadband line. ABroadband is a type of Broadband pitched for residential use.
This can be more convenient, and in some cases, remove the need to do inside wiring, since you can nominate an existing number for conversion to ABroadband.
There have been reports of interference problems between data and phone with ABroadband lines -- a phone call may cause a data connection drop, or there may be unacceptable noise on the phone lines. This is usually related to the usage of microfilters, but not always, but if you do have this problem, you will probably have to get your local phone company to install a splitter on the phone box at your house to fully separate the Broadband and voice signals within your location.
There is one other form where voice is actually run over Broadband, and this is called VoBroadband. The largest current implementation of this is Sprint ION, where a phone gateway that puts your voice and Internet service over Broadband, but the deployment of this version is very limited.
Can I FAX over Broadband?
You cannot FAX over a Broadband connection. You can still send and receive faxes over your regular telephone lines.
Upgrading to Broadband may add a Broadband modem of some kind, but if you keep your old modem, you can still use software fax products like winfaxpro -- they simply use your telephone line as before, although you still have to plug in a telephone line as well!
This holds true whether or not you get ABroadband over your home phone or SBroadband on another line.
For online gaming: slower SBroadband with lower latency or faster ABroadband?
If gaming is absolutely most important use of the line for you go for the slower SBroadband connection because it can give considerably lower pings than ABroadband.
If a mix of gaming and download and general usage is more important, you may be happier with ABroadband (as long as it isn't Covad RABroadband) because you can still get low pings, and you can get the faster downloads.
Can I use a Laptop with Broadband?
You can use a laptop with Broadband almost as easily as a desktop. Instead of an internal modem or ethernet card, you need to buy a PCMCIA card supporting 10/100 ethernet (if your laptop has no ethernet port on it). They are a little expensive.
The other option is to select a USB Broadband modem when getting a line (if your laptop has a USB port on it).
Apart from the choice of ethernet PCMCIA card, or USB modem, everything else is the same as a desktop Broadband connection.
Can 2 computers in my house operate at the same time using a single Broadband line?
There are two parts to the answer to this question. If you mean can you have two Broadband modems on two computers connected to the same line at the same time, then the answer is no (although one can be on at a time). If you mean can two computers be connected to one Broadband modem, then the simple answer is yes, but for a more detailed answer, look at Can I share my single Broadband line amongst more than one computer? in this FAQ.
I live in an apartment, not a house. Can I get Broadband?
You should be able to get the Broadband service provided by the local phone company assuming your lines support it, and soon from CLECs once their line sharing agreements are in place in most apartment buildings. Whether you can get Broadband that needs to be run over a seperate copper pair depends on if the apartment building landlord/manager will allow a new copper pair to be installed into the phone box along with the wiring up to your apartment.
If I am on the net 24hrs a day, will I get hacked?
Short answer: probably not. Longer answer...probably not because you are one of millions of computers and there are not enough hackers to go around. Anyway, any spare ones are not interested in your digital family photo album or Excel expense worksheets...but they could get to your files if you don't care to learn about security.
NAT offers good security, because by its nature it does not allow incoming connections; it is for sharing an IP address amongst several computers for outgoing purposes only.
Apart from NAT, basic security is to have a router with firewall features that only allows in what you decide to allow in. Your Broadband connection options usually include the choice of a router. Although not strictly speaking a full firewall, a router is the first line of defense against intruders. With the modern router setup correctly and refusing to route any requests by outside IP addresses for inside resources, things are a little tough for the hacker. However, you may want to open things up a little more, for example to allow yourself to telnet into your own computer from other places, run an FTP service, or your own web server. In this case, you need to look carefully at (a) the security setup for anything that is "public", (b) encrypting any files you really care about, and (c) avoiding transmission of any passwords in plaintext form.
If you are doing anything serious with your Broadband connected equipment, it is also a good idea to look at getting or writing some kind of small monitoring system that will play cop inside your own network...like a ignition cutout on a car, these can be simple, yet very unobtrusive.
My new computer comes with a Broadband modem. Can I use that?
Recently, Dells, Compaqs and other PCs are being shipped with in-built Broadband capability. This modem is likely to be a G.lite DMT modem. Unfortunately, existing Broadband networks are in varying states of G.lite compatibility...even large Telco ABroadband networks may not support G.lite yet. Inquiry with your chosen Broadband ISP should reveal whether or not your G.lite modem can be used. As of Q1 2000, the answer is most commonly, no.
How many users can use a single business Broadband line?
Depends on the speed. Even a slow speed business Broadband line can happily support 10-20 people. Why? because only rarely is more than one person actually USING the connection at a single time.
A T1 speed SBroadband line (1500 mbit) could easily support an office of several hundred if their jobs did not involve using the Internet all the time.
Getting a good small office firewall like the SonicWall would allow you to set access limits and log users (and abusers) of your office line, so that there is less risk of employees moonlighting at work.
Is Broadband available with voice-over-IP so I can use one phone line for voice & data?
True VoBroadband (voice over Broadband) is currently available from a very limited number of providers: for example, Sprint ION, now in beta-test in various areas of the US.VoBroadband seamlessly splits off voice to your phone or phones, taking small parts of the Broadband connection for high priority voice packets as you make or receive calls.
With any regular Broadband line, just as you did with modems, you may download some of the Internet to phone type programs such as Dialpad. These programs may suffer from various problems - delay, echo, quality loss, etc.
Don't forget that voice & data can be "on the same line" today if you use ABroadband provided by the local Telco, and soon with CLECs due to a line sharing agreement, regular voice service and ABroadband can run over the same physical copper pair. In this sense, yes, one phone line is for simultaneous voice and data. But there is no integration between them.
Should I turn off my Broadband or something when I am not using it?
No. Why? It doesn't save you any money. If you concerned about security, though, and don't mind shutting your computer down, it may be prudent. A Windows product called ZoneAlarm is also neat. ZoneAlarm offers a button that says "click this" when you leave your computer, and it freezes network traffic, then asks you to "unclick" when you get back to continue.
Will I get charged more for using Broadband often?
No. At the moment, the Broadband subscription systems do not usually include usage auditing, or at least usage is not factored into any pricing. This may come, though!
Is my line Broadband line private, or can my hacker neighbor listen in?
Unlike cable modems, your Broadband is totally private, up to your ISP. It is possible that your ISP can monitor your use of the web, but no more likely than if you use a dial-up modem. Note: this does not mean you cannot be hacked by someone else on the Internet, it just means that you have a separate line from you to your ISP, so no local neighbors can listen to your data.
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