Getting connected to the Internet

To connect to the Internet you need:

a modem to connect your computer to a phone line
an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) who provide access to the World Wide Web (or web) and other Internet services such as email and Web space for your own website.

There are two ways of connecting your computer to the Internet, known as dial-up and broadband.

Dial-up

Whenever you want to use the Internet your computer dials up and then connects to your ISP, using a standard phone line. Once your computer has connected to the ISP you are ready to get onto the Internet. You can then use the web to look up information such as train times or keep in touch with your friends and family through e-mail.

Connecting to the Internet through dial-up can be slow. You also have to choose whether to use your phone line to make phone calls or to use the Internet but you can't do both things at the same time.

Broadband

To connect to the Internet using broadband you need a broadband modem that connects your computer to your broadband phone line. However you do not need to dial up your ISP when you want to use the Internet as you are always connected. This is know as Always on, saving time when you want to check your emails or search the web.

Broadband is between 4 and 10 times faster than dial-up with speeds increasing as the technology improves. This means you can look up websites and send e-mails very quickly. With broadband you can also do more that one thing at the same time, such as making a phone call, downloading some music and sending an email.

The faster speeds of broadband mean that you can access many new services that people using a dial-up connection will be unable to use.

If you would like more technical information about broadband visit the BT Broadband website or look at our information on getting started with broadband.