I believe that I’ve written about this before, but since I ran into this phenomenom at least three times over the past week, it bares mentioning again. Many dial-up Internet users using Windows 98 or Me buy a new computer and after taking it home setting it up and jumping online with their dial-up systems find that the Internet and email are just as slow as their hold systems. I then get the question, "Why?"
The reply I give usually is followed by a look of disbelief and disappointment in the new computer owner’s eyes. Internet speed is soley determined by the connection used. A phone line is the slowest connection maxing out at the rare 53 kbps (kilobits per second). Entry level DSL and microwave wireless Internet connections hover around 250 kbps. Mid-level DSL and satellite connections can perk along at more than 500 kbps. Max speed DSL connections and most cable Internet connections start at 1500 kbps and average more than 5000 kbps.
And the neat thing about high speed Internet is that the speed doesn’t depend on the age of your computer system. A Windows 98 machine with a cable Internet connection will perform Internet duties at about the same efficiency as a brand new computer running Windows Vista Ultimate…maybe even faster.
For computer users who primarily use the Internet and email, the cost of buying a new computer can pay for almost two years of the highest speed Internet and maybe four years of entry level DSL which is 10X faster than dial-up.
Save the money and hassel of a new computer and instead get a new Internet connection!
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