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Connecting a Computer to the Internet
One of the most common reasons for installing a home network is to share
an Internet connection among several computers. Internet service can cost
as much as a lot of your other monthly bills, so it should benefit
everyone in the house. With broadband technology, the average household
can enjoy a fast connection to the Internet at a reasonable price—usually
under $100 per month in most metropolitan locations.www.tartoos.com
How do I choose an Internet connection?www.tartoos.com
How much speed will you need? If you've spent any time on the Web, you
know that sometimes there's a wait involved. The more complex a file, the
more data it contains. The more data it contains, the slower it is
reaching your computer—this is what we mean by speed, or data speed, when
we talk about Internet technology. So, a fast computer with a fast
connection will show complex files more quickly.
You may never want to think about this again, but Internet connection
speed is measured in bits per second (bps). 1,000 bits are a kilobit.
1,000 kilobits are a megabit, and 1,000 megabits are a gigabit. Talking
about bits? Then you're talking about data speed.www.tartoos.com
Computer files are measured in bytes, though. A bit is about 1/8 of a
byte. Photos from your digital camera are probably about 300 to 700
kilobytes (KB). An MP3 music file is probably about 3 megabytes (MB).
Talking about bytes? Then you're talking about file size.www.tartoos.com
Do you have to think about bits and bytes every time you turn on your
computer? No. But it's nice to know that when you pay for faster Internet
access, you can download enough data to fill a CD in ten minutes. Less
expensive, slower access can take hours to do the same job. If one or two
people on your network use the Internet just to read e-mail and
text-oriented Web pages, cheap access works. But if anyone in the house
regularly downloads movies or music, plays games, or e-mails pictures,
you'll want to consider a faster connection.www.tartoos.com
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