| It is amazing that roughly 20 years after first | | | | important aspects that need to be taken into |
| commercial use of the internet we are now | | | | account when deciding which technology to use. |
| totally dependent of it. This dependence in many | | | | Wired access provides constant bandwidth |
| cases evolves into addiction. There are many | | | | between individual user and internet service |
| popular services that we are using on a daily basis. | | | | provider. It is mainly the bandwidth of the ISP's |
| Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter are only few | | | | backbone which determines actual speed that we |
| popular names that wouldn't exist without internet. | | | | will be able to achieve. Wired access enables |
| First home access to the internet was via | | | | permanent connection. This is important when you |
| modems and telephone infrastructure. At that | | | | need reliable connection which should be also |
| time speeds were adequate for websites and | | | | available from the outside. Static IP address is |
| services that were available. The next step was | | | | usually used for such purposes and if the |
| replacement of modems with xDSL technology | | | | connection is important it is also powered by an |
| which significantly increased the range of available | | | | UPS. |
| bandwidths. The latest approach is using fiber | | | | The main difference of wireless internet access is |
| cables to get the fastest internet speeds in | | | | that it uses a radio channel to transfer data. This |
| individual homes. 1 GBit/s is now reality for | | | | channel has limited capacity which is usually shared |
| anybody having the possibility to connect to the | | | | among many users. Even if there are many |
| optical network. | | | | channels available the total bandwidth that we can |
| Another technology that evolved in parallel with | | | | get depends also on the number of users and |
| wired access was, of course, wireless access to | | | | their transfers. In general, this is an additional |
| the internet. The most common technology today | | | | bottleneck for our access to the internet. Another |
| in use is Wi-Fi which allows speeds over 100 Mbit | | | | significant difference is that the connection is not |
| s. All you need for a wireless access is an access | | | | permanent. When it is established there is no |
| point (usually a wireless router) and WiFi enabled | | | | guarantee that is will stay as it is. The situation in |
| laptop or any computer with wireless network | | | | the radio frequency spectrum can change, other |
| card. | | | | users may start using the same access point, |
| For average user there is probably no big | | | | slight change of antenna position may significantly |
| difference between these two ways to access | | | | decrease connection speed, etc. |
| the internet. However, there are some very | | | | |