When you move into a new home, one of the things that are more than likely on your to do list is getting access to the internet. Turning on the power, water, cable, and internet are all at the top of the list for most people. Depending on the Internet Service Provider (or ISP) you may have some choices to make when you are ready to choose a plan:

How Much Is Enough

When you start looking at the internet plans available, you will most likely have speed choices that are listed in megabytes per seconds. But how can you tell how much you need? The general rule of thumb is if you are using a pc only on the network, you don't need much. If you like to play games, stream movies, or have the entire family using it at the same time, you will want to get into those higher tiers of 100mb/sec download speed. In most cases, the upload speed will be much less than the download speed but unless you are uploading large files, you don't need the upload speed to be super fast.

Fiber Optic or Broadband

There is a lot of speculation about which is better, broadband connections or fiber optic connections. The truth is, they are both good and the limitations to these connections are typically related to the hardware used on the system or speed limitations imposed by the ISP. They both suffer if there are too many concurrent connections and can be slower during different parts of the day. Fiber optic cabling uses light to transmit the signal and has to be converted as it comes into the home to a digital signal for the modem to be able to decode it. Because of that, the cable is wrapped strands of glass and can be damaged if it is not buried properly or the line going up the side of the house to the box is hit hard. It is not common but be aware that it can happen.

Data Caps and Disclosures

When you start looking at the internet plans, you should ask about data caps on the service. Some ISPs will lower the speed of your service or worse, charge you per megabyte of data if you use more than specified. On a lot of systems, the cut off is at 1 terabyte of data, then they start charging an overage. For most people that will not come into play but if you are a gamer or stream a lot of content, it is not that hard to hit that amount of data and the fees can be steep. Be sure to ask if that applies because if you go over and don't know they are charging extra, it adds up very fast.

Contact a company like Solarus for more information and assistance.