I've been in the telecommunications business for around 20 years, so it should be no surprise that I've been using a broadband Internet connection from the earliest days.
When I run into friends or relatives still using a dial-up modem I find it a curiosity. The other day when I was getting my car serviced I noted that my mechanic, Art, had an old dial up modem sitting on his desk.
I was astounded, but at the same time I didn't want to make him feel bad. I asked him about it in an off-handed way and the weird thing was he didn't seem to care. All he uses his Internet connection for is to check on his stocks every once in a while and to e-mail his sister in the Philippines.
He'll order an car part online occasionally, but most of the time he uses the phone to take care of business. It's as if the broadband revolution passed him by.
I know it sounds a bit self-serving, but my feeling is that if Art knew what he was missing he'd be online all the time. The truth is, broadband - like Oceanic Time Warner's
Road Runner cable modem service - is incredibly useful and time saving.
I don't mean "useful" just to get deals on books from Amazon or to order bulk pet food.
Here are a few other reasons why broadband can come in handy:
>> You can share it with the spouse and kids. Many homes in Hawaii have multiple computers. This is especially true if you have a home office or school-aged children. In my home, the entire family might be online at the same time. As I've written before, it's fairly simple to set up a wireless network and local people have been buying Wi-Fi gear in droves. (They even sell wireless routers at Costco or CompUSA if you need a some help.) Well, guess what? In order to set up a home network you need a broadband connection.
>> Everything goes faster. Remember the days when it took forever for Web sites to load? With broadband, those days are gone. It's not just Web sites that are speedier. If you send or receive digital photos, the last thing you want is to tie up your phone line for half an hour waiting for Grandma's picture to download.
>> If you have a home office, chances are you're going to be sending PowerPoint presentations and other huge files. A high-speed Internet connection will
make it a whole lot easier to perform these functions.
>> With broadband, you're always on. Talk about instant gratification! With broadband, you're e-mail will come in automatically. Bingo, you've got mail.
>> With a broadband connection
you're also not tying up a phone line. Of course the downside with an "always on" connection is that your security needs are more complex. You'll need a firewall to protect yourself from hackers and you'll have to take other measures.
>> Keep those patches up-to-date. One of those other security "measures" is to keep your operating system up to date with the latest patches from Microsoft or antivirus upgrades from Symantec, Computer Associates, MacAfee or whomever your antivirus software vender happens to be.
>> With a broadband connection you can
automate multi-megabyte downloads and they will take seconds instead of minutes to get dumped on your hard drive.
>> Dealing with spam is easier. Nobody likes to deal with spam in the first place, but unfortunately it's a fact of life. You're going to get it anyway, so why waste time waiting for that junk to download. With broadband, you'll retrieve it faster and get it out of the way more expeditiously.
>> Dig that tune or that film clip? Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few years, MP3 and video files are really popular (Just ask your kids if you think I'm making this up). New music services like Real's RealOne Rhapsody, Apple's iTunes and others are the newest and least expensive way to purchase music. You can
make your own CDs, but if you're thinking at all about this, you must have a high-speed connection. Songs are usually in the 3 to 5 megabyte range which just doesn't work well over dial-up.
>> Do you like getting radio news or music online? If you're a radio news junkie like me and enjoy getting your news on the BBC or Hawaii Public Radio Web site, you'd better have broadband. The same goes for
listening to music streamed over the Net. There are thousands of stations online for every taste.
>> What about Internet phone? One of the newest, coolest Internet features is called Voice over IP (VoIP), which allows you to use the Internet as your phone network. New Internet phone services such as Vonage (which I did a column on not too long ago) are inexpensive and have quality almost equal to a conventional network. All you need to do to is plug a box the size of pocketbook into your router and you can call your cousin in Brussels or for three cents a minute or the mainland free of charge (depending on what your program allows).
It will change your communications life immeasurably. You'll be able to work more efficiently save a few bucks by eliminating that second phone line and turn your home into a wireless hotspot for the entire family.
What are the downsides?
As I mentioned, you'll definitely have to be more security conscious. You'll need new gear like a firewall and you'll have to pay much closer attention to updating security patches from Microsoft for your operating system.
As for my auto mechanic, Art? Well, he's still happy with his dial-up service or just doesn't want to change. That's his business. I just hope his sister in Manila doesn't e-mail him photos of his nieces. He'll be online for a long time downloading them.
