‘Broadband Internet‘ or just ‘Broadband‘ is a high speed internet access. It is much faster than the dial-up connection.

Dial-up connection is Internet access through Public Switched Telephone Networks. The word ‘Broadband’ consists of two words ‘Broad’ and ‘Band’. Broad means wide and band means a group of frequencies. Therefore, Broadband means wide range of frequencies. As broadband uses wide range of frequencies, it is much faster than the dial-up way of connecting.

Pictorial view of Broadband

The above portrays a clear picture of broadband connection.

Setting up a Broadband connection :

Broadband offers you a fast way to connect to the internet. It is ideal for medium and high level users. Example: Users who want to watch TV online,play multi-player games or carry out other online activities.

Setting up a broadband connection is very easy.

The following are few steps that are to be followed to setup a broadband connection :

1. Select your broadband package

In order to choose the proper broadband package, it is necessary to check a few things. Checking the following will aid in the process of selecting the broadband package :

* Broadband coverage in your area.

* The Internet transfer speed.

* The download limit.

The broadband coverage can be checked by visiting the ISP’s (Internet Service           Provider’s website). The ISP is the one who offers you the connection.

The transfer speed can also be checked by researching each of the packages.      If you want to watch movies, play online, then a 4MB package can serve the     purpose. A 4MB package is one which offers speed that is 80 times faster than        dial-up connection.

The availability and price also play a vital role in selecting your broadband       package. So check the availability and compare prices of packages from different   providers. Choose the package that best suits you. Once selected, you can contact the supplier and sign up for a connection.

2. Device

A router or a modem is required to connect the computer to the broadband service            Look out for suppliers who offer free routers or modems.

3. Setting Up

After having signed up you will have to arrange a date for an engineer to come to           your place who will do the needful.

Broadband in Detail

Broadband is usually called high speed access to the Internet because it has a high rate of data transmission. Any connection given to the customer that is 256 Kbits/s or more is generally considered as broadband internet.

Broadband Definitions given by ITU and OECD

• The International Telecommunication Union Standardization sector (ITU-T) has defined broadband as a transmission capacity that is faster than the primary rate of ISDN(Integrated Services Digital Network), at 1.5 to 2 Mbits/s.
• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined broadband as ‘speed of 256 Kbits/s in one direction’. It is the most common baseline that is used to market broadband around the world.

There is no specific bit rate defined by the industry and hence broadband can mean lower bit rate transmission methods also.

In reality, the advertised bandwidth is not always available to the customer or the user. This is because the ISPs allow a greater number of subscribers under the assumption that most users will not be using the full connection capacity very often.

As and as the bandwidth that is delivered to the user increases, there is an expectation that the ‘video on demand’ services will become more popular. At present the data rates on most broadband services are not sufficient to provide good quality video. However, there is a gradual increase in the bandwidth and  the data rates. Increased bandwidth is evident from the fact that postings have grown from small JPEG files to large video files.

Types of Broadband Internet Connection :

There are several types of broadband internet connections available. Each have their own advantages. So it is better to know what are the types of connections and their advantages before you choose the package. There are three main types of broadband internet connection, they are :

1. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
2. Cable
3. Mobile Broadband

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)

This is one of the most common forms and is available everywhere unless      you live in a very remote area. With ADSL, Internet can be connected through existing phone lines using a modem or router and you will still be able to make or          receive calls while you are using the the internet. This is possible with the help of        micro-filters provided by the ISP. ADSL is cheap and easy to install.

Cable Internet

Cable Internet is a form of broadband internet access that uses Cable   Television(CATV) infrastructure.

It is also a common form but it’s not available as widely available as       ADSL. Cable type of connection service can be accessed when you live in large   residential area. Cable offers the same service as that of the ADSL and the cost    difference is very minimum.

Mobile Broadband

Mobile broadband is a form of internet access meant for people living in       remote and isolated rural areas where ADSL and Cable are not  available. Mobile broadband does not require telephone lines because it follows the antenna which    will send a signal to the connection point in the computer to access the internet.   Mobile broadband can be used on the go until there is coverage.

Broadband Technologies :

The standard broadband technologies in most of the regions are cable internet and ADSL. Newer technologies include fibre-optic communication, which enables broadband internet access by transmitting information over large distances much more cost-effective than the copper wire technology.

In areas where there is no cable internet and ADSL, organizations have started to install Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) networks, which is wireless internet within a range. The range where internet is available is called the hotspot.

The newest technology being deployed is the WiMAX, which is Wi-Fi with a coverage and QoS (Quality of Service) of cellular networks.

The following is a list of some broadband technologies :

1. ADSL
2. SDSL (Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line – offers symmetric bandwidth. It is considered the opposite of ADSL)
3. Multilinking Modems
4. Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN)
5. Wired Ethernet
6. Cellular Broadband
7. Power-Line internet

Broadband Access Worldwide

To reduce gap between people in accessing digital technologies, known as the digital divide, promotion is being done in order to make broadband connection available worldwide.

The above stats clearly show that the broadband internet users have increased in number due to the promotion activity being carried out to make broadband internet available worldwide.

Future Broadband

The future broadband world depends upon the successful implementation and maintenance of technologies like the BDR (Bonded DSL Rings), HSPDA (High-Speed Down-link Packet Access), etc. BDR gives speed up to 400 Mbits/s and the installation costs are 20 times lesser than that of optical fibre.

HSPDA is an enhanced third generation (3G) mobile communication protocol which allows UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) to have higher transfer speeds and capacity. It currently supports down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.0 Mbits/s.

There are also some other future broadband implementations that show that the future of broadband is going to be flamboyant.

With D link Wireless N Pocket Router /Access Point 9DAP-1350), one can easily create a WiFi network and can also be used as an access point to add WiFi facility to the existing wired network. DAP 1350 can work as a wireless client to any existing Ethernet ready devices such as Desktop, Laptop or Xbox 360 to add the WiFi functionality.

The compact, light weight and portable design make DAP 1350 a right companion while traveling to cater your WiFi needs. This can be connected to any existing wired network to share the internet connection for multiple users. The router is coming with a travel case.

DAP 1350 supports all advanced WiFi security standards like WPA, WPA2 etc. The Power over USB feature allows a PC to power the DAP-1350 if AC power is not accessible.

D Link claims “This Wireless N Pocket Router/Access Point uses Wireless N technology with multiple intelligent antennas to maximize the speed and range of your wireless signal to significantly outperform previous-generation Wireless G devices. The internal antennas bounce multiple wireless signals off walls and ceilings to work around obstructions and help eliminate dead spots”

1              Connect your PC/laptop with the router using Ethernet cable and in your browser type http://192.168.1.1

2              A popup window will be displayed to enter user name and password – Type “admin” in both the field (Assuming that you have not changed the default password. If changed enter the same accordingly).

3.            Click on the wireless menu – In Wireless you can see Basic, Security, Mac Filter, Wireless Bridge, Advanced and Station info Sub menus. Now you are in “Basic“menu. This page allows you to configure basic features of the wireless LAN interface. You can enable or disable the wireless LAN interface, hide the network from active scans, set the wireless network name (also known as SSID) and restrict the channel set based on country requirements.

Click “Enable Wireless” check box and in the SSID field enter the name of Wireless network. Select the country of operation. You can enter the number of clients can access this network simultaneously. For Eg: If you put it “2” then maximum two computers can access this network at a time.  Click  ” Save /Apply” to configure the basic wireless options.

Security Settings

4.             Click on the Security menu -This page allows you to configure security features of the wireless LAN interface. You can set the network authentication method, selecting data encryption, specify whether a network key is required to authenticate to this wireless network and specify the encryption strength.

There are different WiFi security encryption standards. As per your operating system and the compatibility of WiFI adapters you can configure the settings accordingly. Details of the WiFi standards and their application will be explained in a separate post. Now we can select the most secured format.

• Select the SSID (Which has been set in the previous step)
• Select  WPA2-PSK from the network Authentication drop down menu
• Enter a non guessable key (No dictionary words) mixed with figures and characters in  WPA Pre Shared Key field.
• In WPA group interval field, you can enter 3600 (This is the interval between the keys are refreshed means of you set 100 your keys will be refreshed every 100 seconds)
• Set the WPA encryption to AES
• Click “Save Apply”

MAC Filtering

Mac filtering will give you additional foolproof WiFi security. MAC (Media Access Control) address is a unique number of each network hardware. This is the identity of a machine . There will not be two network cards (Any type) with a same MAC address. This is the manufacture set hard coded one.

Through the MAC filtering you can optionally allow or deny a particular WiFi device on your network. You have to enter the MAC address of the client machines in the Modem to allow or deny a particular machine. For example – You have four laptops in a network and you want to enable MAC filtering. For this the MAC address of each machines to be entered in the Modem for connectivity, means you have to save the addresses of all four machines in your Modem.

How to find MAC address

• For Windows PC go to start > Run ant type cmd
• Then type ipconfig/all and you will get some values as displayed.
• Note down the physical address of WiFi adaptor – This is your MAC address.

Click on the “MAC filter” menu of the Modem configuration page.  In this page you can see MAC Restrict mode “Disabled” , “Allow” and “Deny”. The default setting is “Disabled”.

Click on the Add button below and enter the noted down MAC address .

Important: You might have noted down the MAC Address like this 02-14-C4-C2-98-26 but if you enter like this Modem will display an error message “invalid MAC address”. You have to replace the “-“ with “:” means to enter the address like 02:14:C4:C2:98:26

Then click “save/apply” button. Now your MAC address has been added. Like this way  enter the MAC addresses of all the machines intended to use with the WiFi network.

Now you can optionally allow or deny a particular or group of machines on your WiFi network. If you want to allow one or more machines – Set the “Allow” option and select the MAC addresses of corresponding machines to be allowed. To deny a particular machine , set the “Deny” option and select the machine to be denied.

Advanced settings

In the advanced settings menu of ZTE 531, you can configure advanced features of the wireless LAN interface. You can select a particular channel on which to operate, force the transmission rate to a particular speed, set the fragmentation threshold, set the RTS threshold, set the wake up interval for clients in power-save mode, set the beacon interval for the access point, set XPress mode and set whether short or long preambles are used.

In the standard conditions the default setting will work. You need not to configure anything.

Settings in Computer

In the Control Panel select Network connections and Right click on the Wireless Network connection. Select “View Available Wireless Networks”. A “wireless network connection” dialogue box will be opened which display the available connections within the range. Select your WiFI network and click “Connect” . Here you have to enter the same key which has been set in your Modem.

WiMax Broadband is termed as the fourth generation (4G) wireless technology, which is an effective and economical alternative of the costly DSL broadband system. The present WiMax broadband system provides upto 40Mbps and with IEEE 802.16m update it can skyrocket up to an unbelievable speed of 1Gbps .   As per the WiMax forum which was established on Jun 2001 “Wimax is a standard –based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL”

WiMax  wireless broadband system can be an effective replacement of the GSM and CDMA cell phone technologies. Other than the high speed Internet access, WiMax system can deliver reliable cum  fast VoIP(Voice over internet protocol) and IPTV services to the customers.

WiMax connectiviy

WiMax broadband connectivity is established between the base stations and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) . The CPE s or Subscriber Units (SU) are special Wimax Modems / gateways . There are several devices available in the market to facilitate WiMax connectivity. Subscribers have to install these devices at their end to establish connection. Recent developments include the incorporation of WiMax technology in the portable devices such as Cell phones, PDAs and other portable gaming devices.

WiMax penetration

WiMax broadband technology is not yet broadened worldwide. In Russia ,Yota has been providing exceptional WiMax broadband service and millions of Yota subscribers enjoying the benefits of this next generation technology. This technology is very much helpful for the fast growing countries like India where rural internet penetration is still a challenge.

The greatest challenge for WiMax is the requirement of higher range of frequencies and more base stations for connectivity. Developing countries are still struggling to setup the 2G/3G infrastructure. In India the 3G spectrum allocation for broadband and voice communication is yet to be finalized. In this juncture adoption of WiMax broadband technology (4G) will be a giant leap from EDGE/GPRS/EVDO skipping the much talked 3G. The National Internet Back Born of India-BSNL is offering limited WiMax connectivity across selected places but unfortunately not economical.

Conditions of this offer

• The 2 Mbps speed is an automatic upgrade , only applicable for www.youtube.com/ipl
• For all others site customers will get their current plan speeds.
• The upgradation is free and automatic but the streaming on youtube will be considered as part of data transfer limits of your current broadband tariff plan.
• The 2 Mbps bandwidth is not guaranteed all the time and is dependent of traffic.
• Upgraded speed of 2 Mbps applicable only for live cricket streaming on youtube.com/ipl page and not for other YouTube content.

Prepaid plan will cost 5 Paise per 100 KB.

Tariff

Terms and conditions

• Service Tax as applicable will be charged extra.
• The above bundle free usage will also be available while roaming.
• The usage charges beyond bundled free usage will be @ Rs. 0.50/- per MB.
• The above volume-based tariff will be applicable wherever volume-based charging and billing is feasible. Otherwise, revised Unlimited plan (Rs.999) as mentioned above will be applicable.

Technical specifications

Tariff

*Day usage – 7 AM to 11 PM; Night Usage – 11 PM – 7 AM

Coverage

• Andhra Pradesh: Hyderabad,Visakhapatnam, Warangal
• Bihar: Patna
• Delhi: Delhi, Gurgaon
• Uttar Pradesh: Noida, Gaziabad, Fareedabad, Lucknow,  Kanpur, Dehradun
• Gujarat: Ahmedabad,  Gandhinagar,  Baroda Surat, Vapi,  Mundra Ankleshwar Daman,  Silvasa
• Himachal: Shimla,  Solan,   Baddi,  Ponta,  Sahib
• Karnataka : Bangalore,  Mysore,  Mangalore, Hubli,  Belgaun,  Bellary
• Kerala: Cochin, Trivandrum
• Maharashtra: Mumbai,  Nagpur,  Nasik,  Kolhapur,  Navi Mumbai
• Punjab: Chandigarh
• Rajasthan : Jaipur,  Jodhpur
• Tamilnadu: Chennai,  Coimbatore
• West Bengal: Kolkata

Get updated coverage from Virgin site

The key highlights of the rural broadband connection under this scheme are:

• Cheap monthly rental (From Rs 99/- and Rs. 150/-)
• Free Modem
• Bandwidth starting from 512 Kbps
• Full details and tariffs here

But these things are in advertisement only. In many areas BSNL authorities are not giving connection under this scheme. The reason they are projecting is – they can not assure the minimum bandwidth of 512 Kbps, especially in rural areas, which is mandatory under this scheme to get fund from USOF. BSNL officials say they can assure only the basic broadband bandwidth of 256 kbps.

It is heard that some  hidden circular is behind this to safeguard the BSNL authorities from legal action. If you apply for broadband connection they will simply give you the normal basic broadband connection.

See the fun, in the countries like Finland, high speed broadband connection (1Mbps) has been made as a fundamental right and heading towards an assured bandwidth of 100mbps by 2015. Here our National Internet Backborn can not assure a minimum 512 Kbps bandwidth.

Leave the bandwidth, people are satisfied with 256 kbps, at least BSNL authorities should think about giving the connection under this scheme after getting an undertaking by the customer that he/she will not claim for 512 Kbps or put a “*” in the advertisement(Conditions applied).

This is the best example of  Red tapism and communication gap between the Govt departments. How easily they have spoiled a great program to increase the broadband penetration in rural areas.

Please share your experience if any.

I came across this software to help  my friend who need a free application that can monitor the bandwidth of different users in a Windows machine separately . He and his friend share  a data based broadband connection in a single PC with different user accounts and facing difficulty in usage accountability. None of the free applications are coming with this feature except Networx. Now let’s go through the features of this software

1. 100% Free and supported with  Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Seven, 2008 32-bit and 64-bit
2. Bandwidth usage report can be exported in different formats like Word, Excel and HTML
3. Supervision of uploads and downloads
4. Bandwidth usage of individual users on a same machine with different user accounts
5. Works with dial-up, ISDN, Ethernet, Wifi and more..
6. Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly and custom usage report
7. Dial-up session report with detailed information of each sessions
8. Speed meter gives real time information of download and upload speeds
9. Scalable to your own modem download capabilities.
10. Option to notify user or disconnect from the Internet automatically when network activity exceeds a certain level.
11. Includes network information & testing tools with advanced Netstat that displays applications using your Internet connection.
12. Easy singly click backup facility of statistics
13. Password protection of statistics and account.
14. Trace route option to trace the route of packet taking across internet
15. Can set bandwidth quota for hourly , daily, weekly usage etc
16. Ping option to check the communication link or to verify whether the host is existing or not.
17. Supports 26 languages.
18. Built in dial up tool

Then why to wait download the software from here

All the schemes are applicable  uniformly up to three consecutive bills only i.e., the latest disputed bills and two immediately preceding bills, in case these two preceding bills too are disputed and unpaid. However on the merits of each case, the heads of Secondary Switching Area have been empowered to allow settlement of such disputed bills for six consecutive billing cycles i.e., the latest disputed bill and preceding five bills, if disputed and unpaid.

Option – I (Applicable to all customers – Home & Business)

Under this option, a customer against whom one or more such alleged excessive bills outstanding, can settle maximum three bills of three consecutive billing cycles as follows :

The customer has to pay Rs. 750/- for first 5 GB per bill  for excess usage (beyond the admissible limit as per plan)  and the remaining excess usage (if any) beyond 5 GB @ Rs. 100/- per GB or part thereof per bill. This settlement shall be applicable individually against each disputed bill. For example, if you have a 1 GB plan and with an excess usage of 7 GB (Means total 8 GB) you have to pay Rs 750+Rs 200 in addition to fixed monthly charges as per your plan.

The above mentioned relief shall be allowed to the customer, if the customer (Home & Business) simultaneously chooses a BB Plan at least Start up 250 or any other higher Plan (in terms of FMC). A Home user can choose only Home Plan and the Business user has to choose a suitable Business/General Plan.

Option – II (Applicable to all customers – Home & Business)

In this the customer has an option to select a Limited Usage Plan with higher FMC (Fixed Monthly charges), and the excess usage will be accommodated with the additional data limit of the new plan. All the disputed bills shall then be settled as per the new Limited Usage Plan chosen by the customer.

Option(III)

In this scheme Customer can select the unlimited plan  to get corresponding rebate on the excess usage of his disputed bill/s.

For Home useres

For Buisiness users

For extra usage beyond the rebate mentioned above in each disputed bills, the customer shall have to pay @ Rs.100/- per GB (For Home users) and Rs 75/- per GB (For business users) or part thereof to settle the disputed bill/s.

Note:  In all the three above mentioned options,  Customers are committed to  remain in  the selected BB Plan  for a period of twelve months after the  settlement, by paying ten months fixed monthly charges in advance as Annual Payment.

Option IV (For all customers)

If a customer does not want any future commitments, he can settle the excess bill by paying the outstanding  fixed monthly charges along with Rs 1000/- up to first 5 GB , Rs 200/- per GB for every additional GB or part thereof beyond 5 GB up to 10 GB and Rs. 100/- per GB for every additional GB or part thereof beyond 10 GB. Further the customer can continue with his existing plan without any future commitments.

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