Difference Between High-speed Internet And Dial Up Internet

By Author: Heather Protz
Total Articles: 46
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High-speed Internet is a boon and la dee da to the human society. You can do many things like –insert a never ending list of doable things here- that seemed impractical in absolutely no time with a high speed Internet connection. This is basic knowledge for every Internet frequenter. Anyone ever thought of the times when Internet was not so high speed, and connections could be deployed through dial up modems? How and why is High-speed Internet 'high speed'? This article won't bore you with technicalities, just a simple comparison of High-speed Internet over the not so fast ones and on how to High-speed Internet.

High-speed Internet is an umbrella term that describes any Internet connection that functions at a speed of over 2Mbps. Mbps stand for Mega bits per second. Bits per second is the rate at which data (images, texts, songs etc.) is transferred through the wires and reaches you. It could be Kilo, Mega, Giga-you know the drill. High-speed Internet connections are made available through a broadband network. How can data be transferred through the wires? Data is transmitted in the form of digital signals by means ...
... of wires made out of conductors. Makes sense now?

Okay great, let's come to the difference between High-speed and traditional dial-up Internet. The basic difference would be the connections from the Internet to your PC. A dial-up Internet uses an existing telephone connection to access the Internet. But the broadband can and has many ways of connecting your PC to the Internet, For instance, it can work through a satellite, cable and even a phone connection. But dial-up modems always need a phone connection to get access to the Internet.

The other difference to be noted is the speed. Actually, nearly all data transfers through any medium happen at the same speed. So it's 'not how fast do data-transfers happen', its 'how much data can be transferred through the given time'. That's the fact that counts when talking about data transfer speeds. Most traditional dial-up modems are capable of transferring data up to 56Kbps (about 2Mbps). While as broadband connections are capable of transferring data over 100Kbps.

Why the difference then, if all data transfers happen at nearly the same time? Here comes the term bandwidth. Bandwidth of an Internet connection refers to the capacity of data that can be transferred with various interferences in a given time. This can be considered as the speed of the Internet connection. With a lesser bandwidth, the data transfer would take more time, hence a slow connection. This means that, your traffic is blocked, because external or internal interferences and that the data has fewer paths to travel. Greater bandwidth means more number of paths for the data to travel, a controlled traffic and less interference.

So traditional dial-up conditions have less bandwidth and High-speed Internet connections have greater bandwidth. Greater speeds are deployed in broadband networks by simply tweaking the wires little. Tweaking doesn't mean simply sharpening the connection a little. It means blocking out as much electromagnetic interference as possible and avoiding telephone filters.

A major disadvantage of Dial-up connections is that because it can function only through a phone connection, you can't receive or make calls. Broadband connections through a phone enable the user to make phone calls. Plus, dial-up connections convert digital data (like videos) into analogue signals and then transfer them. But High-speed Internet access transfers data in the form of digital signals directly. This is why video streaming and song downloads take a longer time with dial-up connections.

Dial-up connections cost quite lesser than High-speed Internet connections. However, it has plenty of advantages and close to no disadvantages over a dial-up connection. Even so, getting an Internet connection is easy in the U.S. Many broadband providers like Verizon have made it possible to get High-speed Internet at affordable prices by offering many deals like the Verizon FiOS Deals.

Heather is a techno geek, who is interested in keeping herself updated with the latest technology. As a freelancer she likes to write about programming and recent improvements in the computer field. She enjoys sourcing out deals on the Internet and TV like Verizon Fios Deals