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ADSL is the preferred method of connecting to the Internet today. More and more people are turning towards ADSL as the only way to connect to the Internet from home and from work. Setting up ADSL at home in South Africa requires three things: a phone line, a modem and an internet service provider (ISP).

 

The phone line is the first step in having access to ADSL at home. This serves as the material and direct connection to the service provider (we’ll get to that later). In South Africa this means talking to Telkom (for the time being) to get a line installed in your house. Yes, you have to pay for a normal phone line before you can upgrade it to an ADSL line. The monthly cost of the ADSL line is dependent on the speed of the line but can be anything from R100 per month to R600 per month.

 

Be warned. There is a bit of a wait to get your ADSL line at home so be prepared to wait at least a month or so before the line is installed.

 

The next important component for ADSL at home is the modem. The modem helps your computer communicate with the Internet. It translates data into digital signals and back again. There are a lot of different modems available on the market and their price can also differ dramatically. The price will depend a lot on whether you want a wired or wireless modem. Often your ISP will offer you a modem as part of the installation cost but if this is not the case then you should be able to find a proper modem in most computer stores.

 

The ISP is final important component. Without it you won’t be able to access the Internet. What the ISP does is provide you with a connection to the Internet through their servers. Your line connects to the ISP servers and the servers connect to the Internet. The price of the ISP will differ considerably depending on a number of different factors including connection speed, bandwidth cap and additional services.

 

The connection speed should at least be as much the line that you are hiring or you are just wasting money. The bandwidth cap should be a realistic amount dependent on how much you are planning to use the Internet. Most ISP’s offer a minimum of 1 Gb per month but other packages can go as high as 5 Gb or 10 Gb for home users. Once you have downloaded and uploaded this amount of data then your access to the Internet will be cut off or severely reduced – depending on the ISP. Additional services include things like free hosting and email addresses and will differ from ISP to ISP.

 

Connecting to the Internet with ADSL is not as hard as it seems. With a little research you should be able to find a solution that suits your particular needs no matter what they are.

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