Internet in the UK – Your Options Explored

Broadband is now the number one way to connect to the Internet – Providers are commonly offering speeds of up to 16 Megabits per second, which is several hundred times faster than the older dial-up service.

You’ll need a special Broadband modem or router to connect to a Broadband service, and your phone line will need to be Broadband-enabled by one of the many companies offering Broadband in the UK.

To find out more about high-speed Broadband (also known as ADSL), see our dedicated Broadband page.

We recommend:
BT
Broadband. BT is a respected name and their Broadband service offers lots of extras.

On most of their plans, you get a free wireless BT Hub. BT Broadband customers can also get a BT TV digital TV recorder for on-demand telly. Details at bt.com/btbroadband

Lots of current mobile phones can access the Internet (and we’re not talking WAP here)… so you can surf websites and read email on the move.

We suggest: If you’re looking for mobile Internet access, we currently recommend:

• For occasional access to email on the move, consider getting a free BT Yahoo Pay As You Go account.
• If you want to connect your laptop to the Internet while away from home or the office, look at T-Mobile Mobile Broadband. Their 3G network covers a fair amount of the UK, and at the time of writing, their Mobile Broadband tariff provides high speed mobile Internet access using 3G, with a USB wireless modem. Speeds of up to 1.8Meg are available.
  It’s also worth considering the Mobile Broadband offering from o2 Mobile Broadband

For more on Mobile Internet, see our dedicated Internet on the Move page.

If you’re looking to get more from your Internet connection… consider Broadband and wi-fi. This site offers some useful information on both of these areas:

• Broadband Advice – Information on high-speed, always-on Broadband Internet access.
• Wi-fi – Internet without wires. Connect a router to your Broadband connection then access the Internet from all of your PCs, laptops and PDAs

Want
to go faster? If you’re not able to get Broadband where you
are – or you’re looking for a faster connection without the Broadband
outlay – you might want to take a look at the service from OnSpeed.

To use it, you’ll need to download their special software. Once
installed, you won’t even notice it’s there, it runs in the background
speeding up your Internet connection and compressing data automatically.
More details on our OnSpeed Review page.

To connect to the Internet using dial-up service (as opposed to Broadband Advice or Wi-fi), you’ll need to plug a dial-up modem into a phone line – but what about if you don’t have a phone line close to your PC?

The common solution is to run a telephone extension cable from your home’s Master phone socket – kits are available from Maplin
Electronics.

If you don’t fancy running cables around your house, there is another option: Use your home’s mains wiring to run a wireless phone extension. More on this on our Phone Extension page

Once you have Broadband at home, you may be interested to know that you can access your home PC by remote control – great for accessing your files and emails from work, a hotel, a cybercafe or even from a Windows Mobile PDA.

Find out what the remote service offered by GoToMyPC can do for you. More on our dedicated GoToMyPC page.