Modes of Connecting Internet

In order to activate Internet services on any computer, it requires an Internet connection from an Internet Service Provider. There are several Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in India like VSNL, BSNL, Airtel, Reliance, etc.

They charge some nominal fee for installation and connection. Depending on the requirement we can get an Internet connection in any of the following ways:

Dial-up connection : We can get connected to the Internet by dialing the ISP’s number. This is useful if the network is either confined to small group of computers or for a single PC.

Leased lines : A dedicated line is laid specifically for the connection. This provides a fairly high speed, but is expensive. This is suitable for an organisation requiring uninterrupted, high speed Internet connection.

Broadband : This also provides a good speed. While leased line requires a separate telephone line, broadband can be delivered using an existing telephone line. This is ideal for home and small businesses requiring high speed Internet.

WiFi Broadband : These days even wireless connections are available. For this we need to have a Wi Fi card attached to the computer and a wireless modem.

When we connect to the Internet we must know its speed parameters. The speed of the Internet is measured in the number of bits transferred per unit time. Generally, the speed of the Internet is measured in kbps (kilo bits per second), but these days some organisations are providing high speed connections in Mbps (Mega bits per second).

Bandwidth : In context of the Internet, the number of bits transferred by a channel per unit time is the bandwidth.

In order to have a connection we need a device called the modem. This device converts the digital signal from the computer into an analogue signal that can travel through the telephone line. On the other end, this analogue signal is again converted back to digital form by the modem at the destination end. Some computer systems have internal modems (built-in within the motherboard) while in some systems there might be a need to have an external modem to have an Internet connection.

Another device called a router can be attached to the computer to access the Internet. The router is a device used for connecting two different networks.