Whether you work from home on a computer, want to stream movies and television shows, or need to access the World Wide Web for fun and/or school, you need to have an internet service provider. Unfortunately, not all providers are always reliable. You may have trouble with streaming movies constantly buffering or perhaps you lose connection and any work you are trying to submit on a regular basis. Luckily, in most places you have a few choices for internet service. Here are just a few options you may want to look into for your area.

Dial-up and DSL

While for most people, dial-up internet is a thing of the past, it is still available. This service uses your normal, analog phone line to connect to the web. It is slower than most other types of service but is a good option if you do not have access to another one. In addition, you may want to have it available as a back-up for times when your normal provider is down. It is the cheapest way to connect to the internet. DSL service also uses the phone lines, but in a different manner than dial-up. It involves having additional wires coming into your home with the phone line. These wires connect your modem to a computer at the provider's location that connects to the internet.

Satellite

Providers that offer internet using satellites are popular in rural areas. You would have a satellite dish placed on top of your home, or in your yard, that faces one of the company's towers. These towers are placed to pick up signals from a satellite in the sky. The internet signals go from the satellite to the tower and then picked up by the dish on your home. There will be a modem inside the house to decipher the signals and then sent on to your computer or other device. You may connect to the modem either wirelessly or with an Ethernet cable. The biggest problem with satellite connections is the weather. If there is a storm and the dish on your house does not have a clear path to the tower, or the tower to satellite path is blocked by clouds, your service may slow down, be intermittent, or cease for a while.

Fiber Optic and Cable

These two options seem to be the most common ones in urban areas. A cable (which may be a fiber optic cable) is run to your home in much the same way a hardline telephone wire is run. You connect a modem on your end that can be used for all the different devices you need to connect to the internet. While weather does not have too much of an effect on this type of service, if one of the lines falls due to an accident, or is coated with ice, your service will suffer.

Internet access has become so common many people have a hard time doing simple things without it. If you absolutely need to have continual access to the world wide web, you might want to consider having a back-up service provider. If you do, make sure that the secondary company is not using the same lines or towers as your main company or they will give you the same problems.

If you have questions, contact a company like Solarus for more information.