The advantages of DSL service are great. The T1 like speeds, "always-on" connection, and affordable, flat-rate pricing are perfect reasons for your business or home residence to be connected to a DSL service. However, choosing the right DSL service for you can be more complicated than you think.

The first thing you need to do is, evaluate how the DSL connection will be used. The most common scenarios DSL is suited to address...

* Home office or family use
* Small business access
* Corporate remote access
* Large branch-office connectivity

Usually, a home consumer only needs to connect a single computer, making low-priced ADSL options an ideal solution. While the faster access is driving factor for switching over to DSL, the possibility of prime time hours effecting connection speeds is of little consequence to these users.

A family or home-office networking set-up will require a higher quality of DSL. Once more than one computer is factored in, the low cost ADSL service packages cease to be a cost-effective, as they generally can only accommodate one computer. For costumers in this position is a better choice to choose a more robust, slightly more expensive DSL connection.

Similar to home offices networked to multiple computers, small businesses will require a much stronger quality service than single computer customers. Small businesses will need a more reliable service that can grow as they do, along with guaranteed performance. With selecting a business-grade service, companies can be assured that the service can be upgraded as their network grows and still expect reliable connections and great speeds.

When comparing DSL services, the majority of people will focus on the different types of DSL, such as ADSL and IDSL. Although, it's also very important to choose the right provider to fit your needs. When searching for a service to meet your requirements, it's important to take the time to locate the right level of DSL service and determine the right provider for your needs.

Shopping for a cable Internet service is very similar to choosing a dial-up ISP, although usually your choices are more limited. Usually you go with cable Internet access, when you want fast internet at a great cost. The two biggest factors for speed are latency and bandwidth.

Bandwidth is the rate in which data can be transferred to your PC. It could be thought of as your Internet connection being a road, the higher the bandwidth, the more lanes the road has. High bandwidth is essential if you plan on downloading a lot of files, music or movies. Bandwidth will often vary, although you can usually look up the maximum bandwidth values of each ISP though.

Latency is another very important part of Internet speed. Latency could be thought of as the speed limit for the road. The faster the speed limit, the faster data can be transferred into your computer. Latency is the delay in which you get information. The lower your latency delay is; the faster you'll use the internet.

Although, it's quite hard to compare cable internet providers based on their latency, latency delays will vary among users of the same ISP. Many factors such as your computer, your modem, distance from the cable companies closest node and many other factors can determine your latency with your ISP. It could also vary depending on the time of day and how congested your local network is with other users. It can be very tough to determine your latency before subscribing.

Often your only choice for cable internet providers is the company that's providing cable TV for your local area. Usually areas will only have one cable TV provider, so your choices for cable Internet access are limited. Although you may be limited by provider options, cable internet access sure does beat dial-up.

Satellite Internet services are most often used in locations where no other internet access is available, usually very remote locations or in locations which move frequently. Satellite Internet access is available worldwide.

Different Types of Satellite Internet:
* one-way with terrestrial return
* one-way multicast
* two-way satellite access

One-way with Terrestrial Return: Used with traditional 56k dial-up access to the Internet, with inbound (download) data traveling via satellite at a speed near that of broadband Internet access, and outbound data sent via the telephone modem. In the U.S.A., a FFC license is only required from the satellite provider; no license is required from the user.

One-way Multicast: Access systems are used only for IP multicast-based data, video and audio distribution. Most Internet protocols will not work properly through one-way multicast access, since they are dependant on a return channel. Though, Internet download content, such as web pages can still be viewed over the one-way multicast system, although full interactivity will be not possible. One-way multicast could be thought of much in the same way as a radio or TV which offers the user very little interface.

Two-way Satellite Access: Sends information from remote sites via satellite to a hub, which then can upload information back to the Internet. In order for this service to work correctly satellite dishes at each location requires to be precisely positioned to avoid outside interference with other satellite systems. Radar detectors can cause interference with this system. Each location is required to use a power management to adjust the amount of transmission power to compensate for things, such as rain fade.