What is Broadband and
What are the Security Issues?

What is Broadband?

Broadband mainly refers to the connection speed which is also often called band width. Entry level broadband connections are ½Mb (512Kb) per second compared with a narrow band connection of 56Kb per second for a dial-up modem.

In practise in one second you can typically download 50-60K of data with a broadband ½Mb connection, or well over 100K with a 1Mb connection compared to 3-5K of data with a dial-up connection.

Note though that however fast your connection is, if you connect to a web page running on a server that is heavily loaded you will not get anywhere near your maximum speed.

All broadband systems allow you to use both the phone and the internet at the same time.

- Contention Rates.

Contention rates are the number of users your ISP (Internet Service Provider) shares your connection with. ISP's rarely give this information at present.

Line contention won't effect your maximum upload speed at quiet times but may reduce your maximum speed at peak times.

Broadband Security.

When you put in a broadband connection you should also review your PC, laptop or network security. Security is more important not only because of greater use of the internet but also because of the always on nature of broadband.

If you have no protection, data can be transferred without your knowledge. In effect your PC can be working for someone else, with you paying the bills and perhap getting blamed for sending spam too!

See the feature pages for information on Anti Virus Software and Software Firewalls.

Decent products are available free to non commercial users so there is no reason for home users not to have one. Don't forget to regularly update the Anti Virus software too!

Free products are comparable to commercial products but usually have less features and the update web sites can get very busy at times.

Some other security issues to consider are -

- Windows Update

Keep up to date with latest operating system critical patches. Critical patches for early Windows XP users include the major download of Service Pack 2 from Microsoft which improves security.

Access this software which is free to WIndows users, through the internet using the Windows Update icon on your PC/Laptop or try the Windows Update Site.

- Browsers

Browsers are the software you use to view a web page. The most commonly used one is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, version 7 is the latest release of this browswe.

Modern versions of these are the most secure, Windows Update will give you the most secure version of Internet Explorer. There are also other free alternatives (not supplied by Microsoft) which may be more secure: -

• Firefox.
• Opera.

- Backups

Few Home users will backup data but if you have anything that you value that can't be recreated or re-installed from a CD. I would recommend copying it to a floppy, CD, zip drive or a offline network drive.

- Hardware Firewall - Router

Hardware Firewalls or Routers are one more line or defense to be considered they make the PC or network behind them less visible on the internet.

For a few extra pounds consider a combined router/modem rather than a simple modem.

Peter Frost
Last Revised 23rd August 2007.