UK Broadband - Your Questions Answered

If you're looking to get broadband, you first need to select a preferred supplier (see the information above), and then need to check if that provider can offer you broadband in your area. Each supplier should have an online checker that allows you to enter a postcode and phone number to see if ADSL broadband is available.

If in doubt, BT's site is a good one to check first. Go to www.bt.com/btbroadband - pick one of the packages (Option 1, 2 or 3), and select "Order now". You don't actually have to order at this stage - You'll be prompted to enter your phone number and postcode, and a check will be done on your service. This will identify if you already have broadband. If not, you'll get an estimate of your top speed

If you're looking to work out how long it takes to transfer a file over Broadband, here's a rough guide of how long it takes to transfer 1 Meg over various connection speeds:

• Dialup (56kps): 2½ minutes
• 512kpbs: 16.5 seconds
• 2 Meg Broadband: 4 seconds
• 8 Meg Broadband: 1 second

Check out the Download Calculator to check transfer speeds

The speed at which you're able to download from the Internet is mainly determined by your distance from your local telephone exchange, and short of moving, there's not much that you can do about that.

If you feel you're getting a slow connection - first off, run one or two of the many online speed checkers to see what your line is achieving. The first one to try is speedtester.bt.com

Some other things to note and tricks to try:

• In most cases, your speed is affected by "contention". Bandwidth is shared are load balanced, which means that if a lot of people in your area are using the net, that could be affecting your speed - that's why many note faster Internet connections in the evening
• Could other users be taking your bandwidth? Other users in the home perhaps, or possibly even someone using your wi-fi bandwidth with BT Fon?
• Is there anything running on your machine that could be slowing down your computer? File-sharing? Windows Updates? BBC iPlayer?
• Your Internal home phone wiring may not be helping. If you have lots of phone extensions, it could be that your line speed is dropping due to electrical interference in your home. The technically-minded may want to consider removing the bell-wire from your home's master socket. Many users have reported that this can make quite a difference to download speeds. More at jarviser.co.uk.
• You can also consider replacing your main socket with a BT iPlate (pictured here) - this may help to boost your speed as it helps to screen out interference. These are available cheaply from shop.bt.com
  
• For faster surfing, you could also take a look at onspeed.com

• Cost - There are no call charges so you don't have to worry about hanging up when you're finished. On the downside, you have to pay a monthly subscription fee to use broadband, and you have to buy a special broadband modem (although see the offers below!).
• Connection time - This is where the 'always-on' bit has benefits - you establish a connection, and hang on to it. You don't have to worry about logging off to save money. This saves all the hanging about waiting for your modem to dial in, connect, establish a connection and authenticate with your password
• Speed - Standard dialup modems have a maximum speed of 56k, and broadband typically offers between 1meg and 8meg connections - up to 160 times faster than dialup. Note that you're sharing your bandwidth with other users in your area, so data transfer speeds vary, and you're unlikely to achieve the maximum throughput (this is known as 'contention', and eases bottlenecks at phone exchanges and ISPs).
• Phone line - When you're online with broadband, your home phone line isn't tied up.
• Extras - With Broadband, there's the option to watch TV over the Internet, make voice calls over the 'net, and even take control of your home PC from work
  
  

When Broadband first was launched, it was a case of having an engineer call out and connect you up. Now, broadband providers supply self-install kits. When ordering broadband, check what your chosen provider will be sending you. Here's what you need to do:

• Plug a Broadband modem or router into your PC (normally via a USB socket or an ethernet network cable)
• Plug a filter into your standard BT phone socket
• Plug the Broadband modem or router into the ADSL socket of the filter
  
  

Known as IPTV, we're about to see a large increase in the number of companies offering TV programmes over Broadband. Services will allow you to download TV shows that you've missed, get movies on demand, and do a whole range of clever stuff, either to your PC, or to your TV via a set-top box. Services include BT Vision (free to BT Total Broadband customers, using a BT Home Hub), TalkTalk TV and Virgin Media (in cable areas).

For more, see Radio & Telly's Internet TV section.

When you're looking to sign up to broadband, you may see mention of monthly download limits or a monthly cap. If you're not sure what this is all about, read on.

Some broadband customers make an awful lot of use of their broadband connection, downloading movies, file sharing and streaming audio/video. Heavy users can cause congestion and slow down access for other broadband users on the same phone exchange and ISP. For this reason, many broadband providers "cap" usage, to make sure that the heavy users don't degrade the service for others. Persistent offenders are likely to be moved onto a more expensive tariff, or have their account "throttled" to a slower speed.

Some providers don't 'cap' accounts, but most of the mainstream suppliers cap anywhere from 2Gig to 30Gig. The download allowance includes the download of all content (email, files, images, audio, video) made over the Internet within a month.

BT started pushing videocalling over broadband in 2006. If you're keen on the idea of keeping in touch with voice and video, videocalling might be worth a look. BT's service uses BT Broadband Talk. You can use BT's Softphone application on a PC, or there's a more convenient option - getting one of BT's new range of videophones, which includes a colour screen and a built-in video camera.

For more info, see our Videocalling page, or our reviews of the Videophone 1000 and Videophone 2000 handsets

If you're not able to get Broadband where you are and still want to get the speed benefits of a Broadband connection, there are a few other options open to you:

Option 1: Tariam Satellite Broadband - No ADSL availability? Check out Tariam 's satellite broadband offering - ideal for those not close to a phone line or phone exchange

Option 2: Mobile Internet. Get high-speed Internet access to your PC. If you want to connect your laptop or PC to the Internet while away from home or the office, take a look at T-Mobile Mobile Broadband offering - Their 3G network covers a reasonable amount of the UK. At the time of writing, their Mobile Broadband tariffs come with a free USB data modem offering wireless data speeds of up to 1.8Meg/sec. More on our Mobile Internet section

Option 3: Dial-up accelerator: There's a way to make your dial-up connection faster, using a service from OnSpeed. If you are running on a dial-up (narrowband) connection the speed difference with this service can be dramatic. It should increase your speed by up to 10 times. To use it, you'll need to download the special software from www.onspeed.com. Once installed, you won't even notice it's there, it runs in the background speeding up your Internet connection and compressing data automatically.

Take a look at MyHome247. For under £100, you can get a myhome247 Wireless Starter Kit in your home - This includes a door entry sensor and a camera - get notifications when someone enters your home and log in from a PC or mobile phone to keep an eye on your home.

More information at myhome247.co.uk, or see our review on the FrequencyCast site

If you want to get Internet around your home, wi-fi is probably the answer. Get yourself a wireless broadband router / modem, then equipment such as a laptop, mobile phone or games console can connect to the Internet at high speeds with minimal hassle. Need help with wi-fi? Try our Wi-fi page.

If wi-fi isn't the answer for you, but you need a way of sending data around your house without wires - try a HomePlug. These use your home's mains wiring to send and receive data. Get a pack of two, and use them for Ethernet wiring. More on our HomePlug page.

Before you can be converted to Broadband, you will need an engineer to visit to remove your ISDN box, and convert you back to a standard BT socket. Check your provider for prices.