There are a wide ranges of internet connections. Some are easily available while others are difficult to come by. Your choice of internet connection depends on your location and budget. However, the faster the internet connection you are using, the better for your work.
In the early to mid-1980s, most internet access was from personal computers and workstations directly connected to local area networks (LAN) or from dial-up connections using modems and analog telephone lines. LANs typically operated at 10 Mbit/s and grew to 100 and 1000 Mbit/s, while modem data rates grew from 1200 and 2400 bit/s in the 1980s, to 28 and 56 kbit/s by the mid to late 1990s. Since the first decade of the 21st century, many people had switched away from dial-up to dedicated connections, most internet access products were being marketed using the term "broadband", and broadband penetration was being treated as a key economic indicator.
The most common forms of internet connections are the DSL, Analogue (dial-up), Satellite and Cable. Other types of internet connectivity exists, from the very slow to the high-speed internet connections.
Analogue
Also called dial-up access, it is both economical and slow. Using a modem connected to your PC, users connect to the Internet when the computer dials a phone number (which is provided by your ISP) and connects to the network. Dial-up is an analog connection because data is sent over an analog, public telephone network. The modem converts received analog data to digital and vise versa. Because dial-up access uses normal telephone lines the quality of the connection is not always good and data rates are limited. As dial-up access uses ordinary telephone lines the data rates are limited and the quality of the connection is not always good. Nowadays very few people use this type of connection especially after the growth of the internet in the Web 2.0.
Typical Dial-up connection speeds range from 2400 bps to 56 Kbps.
ISDN
Integrated services digital network (ISDN) is an international communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over digital telephone lines or normal telephone wires.
Typical ISDN speeds range from 64 Kbps to 128 Kbps.
B-ISDN or a Broadband ISDN is similar in function to ISDN but it transfers data over fiber optic telephone lines, not normal telephone wires. SONET is the physical transport backbone of B-ISDN. Broadband ISDN has not been widely implemented.
DSL
DSL is also called an always on connection because it uses existing 2-wire copper telephone line connected to the premise and will not tie up your phone as a dial-up connection does. There is no need to dial-in to your ISP as DSL is always on. The two main categories of DSL for home subscribers are called ADSL and SDSL.
ADSL is the most commonly deployed types of DSL in North America. Short for asymmetric digital subscriber line ADSL supports data rates of from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate). ADSL requires a special ADSL modem.
ADSL+2A is an extension to ADSL broadband technology that provides subscribers with significantly faster download speeds when compared to traditional ADSL connections. ADSL+2 works in the same fashion as ADSL a special filter is installed on a subscriber's telephone line to split existing copper telephone lines (POTS) between regular telephone (voice) and ADSL+2. ADSL2+ service is most commonly offered in highly-populated metropolitan areas and subscribers must be in close geographical locations to the provider's central office to receive ADSL2+ service.
SDSL is short for Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines (POTS). SDSL supports data rates up to 3 Mbps. SDSL works by sending digital pulses in the high-frequency area of telephone wires and can not operate simultaneously with voice connections over the same wires. SDSL requires a special SDSL modem. SDSL is called symmetric because it supports the same data rates for upstream and downstream traffic.
VDSL is short for Very High DSL (VDSL) is a DSL technology that offers fast data rates over relatively short distances — the shorter the distance, the faster the connection rate.
All types of DSL technologies are collectively referred to as xDSL.
xDSL connection speeds range from 128 Kbps to 8 Mbps.
Cable
Through the use of a cable modem you can have a broadband Internet connection that is designed to operate over cable TV lines. Cable Internet works by using TV channel space for data transmission, with certain channels used for downstream transmission, and other channels for upstream transmission. Because the coaxial cable used by cable TV provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access.
Cable speeds range from 512 Kbps to 20 Mbps.
Wireless Broadband
Wireless broadband is one of the newest Internet connection types. Instead of using telephone or cable networks for your Internet connection, you use radio frequency bands. Wireless broadband provides an always-on connection which can be accessed from anywhere — as long as you geographically within a network coverage area. Wireless access is still considered to be relatively new, and it may be difficult to find a wireless service provider in some areas. It is typically more expensive and mainly available in metropolitan areas.
The speed is usually unstable, and have a very high dependancies on network coverage area and users nearby.
Tier Carriers
T-1 Lines are a popular leased line option for businesses connecting to the Internet and for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) connecting to the Internet backbone. It is a dedicated phone connection supporting data rates of 1.544Mbps. A T-1 line actually consists of 24 individual channels, each of which supports 64Kbits per second. Each 64Kbit/second channel can be configured to carry voice or data traffic. Most telephone companies allow you to buy just one or some of these individual channels. This is known as as fractional T-1 access.
Bonded T-1 is two or more T-1 lines that have been joined (bonded) together to increase bandwidth. Where a single T-1 provides approximately 1.5Mbps, two bonded T1s provide 3Mbps or 46 channels for voice or data. Two bonded T-1s allow you to use the full bandwidth of 3Mbps where two individual T-1s can still only use a maximum of 1.5Mbps at one time. To be bonded the T-1 must run into the same router at the end, meaning they must run to the same ISP.
Typical Bonded T-1 (two bonded T-1 lines) speed is around 3 Mbps.
T-3 Lines are dedicated phone connections supporting data rates of about 43 to 45 Mbps. It too is a popular leased line option. A T-3 line actually consists of 672 individual channels, each of which supports 64 Kbps. T-3 lines are used mainly by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) connecting to the Internet backbone and for the backbone itself.
Typical T-3 supports speeds ranging from 43 to 45 Mbps.
Optical Carrier
Optical Carrier it is used to specify the speed of fiber optic networks conforming to the SONET standard. OC3 or Optical Carrier level 3 is typically used as a fiber optic backbone for large networks with large voice, data, video, and traffic needs. There are three types of fiber-optic internet connections and they are the plastic optical fiber, single mode, and multimode.
OC1 = 51.85 Mbps.OC3 = 155.52 Mbps.OC12 = 622.08 Mbps.OC24 = 1.244 Gbps.OC48 = 2.488 Gbps.OC192 = 9.952 Gbps.OC255 = 13.21 Gbps.
Internet2
Internet2 provides the highest internet speed connectivity. It was developed by a networking consortium to meet the high-speed internet demand for research and education work. It has a speed of 100Gbps. The use of internet2 is not common and a not-for-profit networking.
Speed exceeds 100 Gbps
Satellite
Internet over Satellite (IoS) allows a user to access the Internet via a satellite that orbits the earth. A satellite is placed at a static point above the earth's surface, in a fixed position. Because of the enormous distances signals must travel from the earth up to the satellite and back again, IoS is slightly slower than high-speed terrestrial connections over copper or fiber optic cables.
Typical Internet over Satellite connection speeds (standard IP services) average around 492 up to 512 Kbps.