1. Introduction

In the last twenty five years, the internet has moved from being only available to the military and universities in the early days to billions of ordinary people now having access all around the world.

It has changed from being a largely text based network to full multimedia content with video, television, music, telephone streams alongside millions of personal and commercial web sites.

In the early days, you had to use a modem / computer setup to access the internet. This is no longer the case as all kinds of devices can connect. For instance, smart phones, tablets, laptops and modern televisions can stream video straight from the internet.

This section covers the various ways you can set up a broadband connection along with their advantages and disadvantages.