We've had a lot of broadband suppliers in the UK these past few years, writes David Lyon. In what started as an expensive per-minute luxury to some of us, has ultimately become the nation's favourite guilty pleasure.

Instead of looking at each company, what we're going to do is look at the different types of connection that are on offer. The reasons for this are that many of the companies are selling exactly same thing, simply at a variable price. Covering them all in any detail would be needlessly repetitive.

Like your electricity bill, it really doesn't matter who you pay the money to... your electricity still ultimately arrives in exactly the same manner through the AC outlets in your home, likely from the same place, over the same lines. The experience does not change, only the price that you pay does, and perhaps the aftersales service and support in the event that something goes wrong.

This is true to an extent of some of the companies that offer you internet access. Without further ado, let's look at what is actually being offered.

There are three common ways to have an internet subscription: Cable, ADSL, 3G.

Cable

This uses fibre optical cabling buried underground to deliver your internet service, through the same thick white cable that you'd normally receive a cable television signal on. Using the combination of a cable modem and wireless integrated router (or, in recent cases, a single integrated cable/router/wireless box), once the initial registration is done, you simply plug it in, wait until the "READY" indicator light comes on, and you're done. No usernames, no passwords, no details.

The technology is the best, the speeds the fastest, and actually performs as advertised at either 10, 20 or 50Mbps. It uses an extremely potent and flexible system called DOCSIS to deliver data over the existing cable television infrastructure. The infrastructure itself is very young in comparison with the others, as I'm sure we all remember the roads being dug up when the company was called CableTel, or NTL. The investment then is paying off dividends now, as Virgin now offer the fastest speeds of any provider.

Short, sweet, there isn't much else to say. The only company that offers this in the UK is Virgin Media.

ADSL

This runs over the existing telephone network. A small microfilter box will plug into the primary phone socket of your house, this will branch off into two more sockets: one for a normal telephone, one for your ADSL modem. Using a special ADSL cable (that looks like a normal phone cable), you can plug your ADSL modem or router in, at which point it will begin the two step sign-in process. Step One involves finding the carrier signal to talk to the provider. Step 2, once the modem has a clear path, will authenticate and register on the network for access to the internet. Generally there are two lights that indicate each part of the process separately. Authentication is sometimes carried out by identifying your phone line, or other times with a username and password that must be input into the router.

BT, Virgin and every other internet provider currently offer this. Virgin offer it as an alternative to those who are unable to receive their cable internet service, as you don't need to be within range of their cable service. This is where the electrical company analogy becomes apparent: All of these companies are selling the same thing, over the same lines. They differ around the edges with regards to the hardware that they offer to you as a new customer, the introductory price that you pay for N months, the quality of the support in the event of a fault, the length and duration of the contract.

Over ADSL, the speeds are normally advertised as being "up to" a certain amount, normally 20Mbps or so. The reason for this is because it's being delivered over a 40-year-old copper wire telephone network, speeds can vary wildly, and there are many more vectors that can negatively affect the connection speed than on cable, such as your distance from the exchange, quality of your line, whether or not the main socket has been used.  As you can see, because it's dependent on the details of your residence, you may not get the same speed as someone/anyone else. However fast it goes, the technology ultimately cannot hope to match that of the cable internet service, and more often than not does not come close. There was recently an investigation by OFCOM into the advertised speed of many broadband services, resulting from many complaints. The main reason for these was inf act the inability of ADSL to meet its maximum advertised speed most/all of the time. Oddly enough, Virgin trounced them in every test. The linked page includes each companies' real service level compared with the advertised "up to" speed.

ADSL has had many different specifications, each with a different maximum speed. Presently, the common offering is ADSL2+, which has a theoretical maximum of 20Mbps. The advertised downstream bandwidth in each companies' case will reveal which product they are offering from this list. The downstream measurement will indicate how many megabits per second your connection could receive (under ideal circumstances, on the moon, in a vacuum, one metre from the exchange).

It is generally believed at the moment that ADSL, as a technology, has been pushed as far as it can go. With Virgin about to release a 100Mbps service, BT have been forced into the present with the launch of their BT Infinity service (see also here). I neglected to mention this in the previous section because it is not presently available to most of the country, I view it at the moment merely as the beginning of an overdue movement away from outdated ADSL technology. The new technology, VDSL, has a reported maximum of 50Mbps, still falling short of Virgin's 100Mbps.

3G

These connections are somewhat in a class of their own, as they cater to a different market than the previous two. This however does not stop the sales staff in those companies from pushing it on to people under the false impression that it's just as good, if not better.

3G connections are supplied by mobile phone providers such as T-Mobile and O2, and are intended for use by people who are on the move, much like mobile phones themselves. Anywhere where you can receive the network's phone signal, you'll also receive a 3G internet connection.

With this increased mobility, there is a cost: It's slower and less reliable than the above two, and quality can again vary wildly depending on network conditions. Many of these providers will tell you that this is an acceptable connection for use at home, it will go as fast as Virgin or BT's connection, it's ideal for indoors and out... this is incorrect. I would not recommend a person to use one of these connections unless you have a specific reason to, such as price (perhaps it's free on your plan) or the need for mobile internet. Do not consider it an effective replacement for a land-based connection.

It will handle general browsing reasonably enough, it will allow you to Facebook and check emails without losing too much hair... for multimedia downloads such as YouTube or music however, I wouldn't personally go near one. My own connection was experiencing difficulties recently for three to four days, the result of a temporary outage in the area, during which I had to use my mobile phone in USB tethering mode for internet on the laptop. It was unpleasant. Sites frequently failed to load, pages that did load took an age... I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless it's your only option wherever you are.

As an additional point, I'll also explain what USB tethering is, as it's a commonly advertised feature and product in today's market. Essentially, any mobile phone that supports tethering can allow the computers to share the phone's internet connection. Only advisable if you pay a flat rate for your mobile internet, and are not metered by usage, or even just want to check a few sites. Consistent usage on a metered price plan could leave you with a large bill. Normally the phone, when plugged into the computer, will ask you what functionality you wish to use; if your phone supports tethering, it should be in that list. Selecting it, if you have the phone's software installed on the computer, should get you going shortly thereafter.

Bits and Bytes

We've used a lot of numbers and measurements so far that some of you might be scratching your heads at. Let's scratch the surface of data measurements.

1 bit = 1b = 1 binary digit

1 byte = 1B = 8 bits

1 Kilobit = 1Kb = 1024 bits

1 Kilobyte = 1KB = 1024 bytes

1 Megabyte = 1MB =  1048576 bytes = 8388608 bits

1 Megabit = 1Mb = 1048576 bits = 1048576 bytes

These figures can vary depending on the system that the calculator uses. Using a decimal system, kilos go up in 1000s; using a binary (base 2) numbering system, a kilo is 1024. Data measurements over a network should generally stick to the binary model.

Many people are frequently (understandably) confused by the promise of 10/20Mbps from their provider, yet their Windows download box indicates a download speed of, say, 130KB/s.  To properly measure the speed that you're receiving, you must convert the Windows measurement from bytes into the ISP's unit of measurement, which is bits.

WIth the figure of 130KB, this translates to around 1040Kb (130 multiplied by 8, as there are 8 bits in a byte).  This equates to a rounded figure of roughly 1Mbps.  To convert from bytes to bits, simply multiply by 8.  As a safe rule, to go from kilos to megas, divide by 1024.

It's worth noting that there are other vectors that can effect the speed that sites appear to load at, some of which are not under the control of the internet provider.  Firstly, there is the site itself.  Sites such as Microsoft's homepage YouTube are very well connected, and should always perform reasonbly... other sites aren't so much, however. Like a car on the road, if that road is congested, you aren't going to get anywhere in a hurry, and it isn't the car's fault. Secondly, there is your own computer. Is it bogged down with nonsense software?  Is your Internet Explorer laden with useless add-ons and toolbars? Browser issues are obviously out of the control of your ISP, and will need to be resolved separately by yourself, since your own computer is the weak link in the chain. We'll look at those in another article, methinks.

Your Own Connection

And so we come full circle back to your own decision regarding your internet. My recommendation every single time will be Virgin Media. For most people, I would recommend the smallest package, 10Mbps. Why?  Because just a few years ago it was the largest package. The large ones now are ridiculously large. Ordinary humans simply do not need that; 10Mbps will download a song in seconds, open a wepage in nanoseconds, allow you to play console games online without issue. It's enough.

They are the best, hands-down. They provide the advertised speed, they have very few technical faults and outages, they provide good hardware.  Use them if you can. If not, go with any of the rest of the landline suppliers depending on price or reputation, they'll all give you whatever you phone line will allow. Use a 3G connection only if you specifically want one of the features that it offers, either in price or mobility; don't take it on the advice of a salesperson as a substitute for a landline.

Lastly, before I climb back into my volcano that I call home... there is a website that is a fairly reliable method to test the speed of your connection.  Speedtest.net is its name, and speedtesting your internet connection is its game.  Simply open the site, and click one of the stars to measure your connection speed. My connection where I am now is Virgin Media's 10Mbps cable internet. My downstream result is 9.41Mbps, not bad.  We don't need to worry about upstream much, it's always far less.

Test your own connection and see what results you get.

P.S. Are you experiencing intermittent loss of connection using Virgin Media's new Netgear VMDG280?

Some technical information for those interested: These new all-in-one cable modem/router/switch/wireless access points are good, except for one thing: The firewall facility is far too sensitive, and constantly detects ordinary internet browsing as a "SYN flood".

When this happens, your internet will appear to disable briefly, and pages will come up not recognised.

If anyone is experiencing this issue, visit http://192.168.0.1 in your browser, enter the login details (default is username: admin  / password: changeme), and under "Content Filtering", click "Services",  uncheck the "Firewall Features" box.

This will deactivate the incredibly sensitive and useless firewall present in these devices, which should resolve this issue immediately. As always, the decision is yours. If you're uncomfortable doing this, please do not.  In my view, the additional risk present is negligible,