Page 1 of broadband connections to pc

Hi guys,

Ok long story. Ive bought an ADSL router as I have also bought a laptop which is wireless. OK the modem I had was from tiscali which was connected into a USB port at the back of my pc box. The Modem/router I have bought does not connect into a USB port, but into a socket on the back of the pc which is like a phone line socket, so I tried the plug from the router into this socket and it fitted! I then went on to install the router/modem and I am now on the internet again. The thing is whats the difference between these two type of connections, also I used to get Tiscali broadband now connected at 2.2 Mbps when I dialled into it. but now its like its always connected as I dont dial and when I look at my network options its connected via LAN and says 100.00 Mbps!

Anyone expalin please?

The connection from the router to your PC is via Ethernet cabling.
The router does the connection to the Internet, and if you look on its configuration page, you will probably see that it is connected at 2.2Mbps....however, the connection between the router and your PC will be at 100Mbps, hence you see that in Windows.

That means that you can plug another PC into the router and transfer files between the 2 PCs at 100Mbps (in theory)...but you will only be able to get 2.2Mbps when downloading from the Internet.

hope that makes sense.
Miles

cheers miles it does, but why the two different types of plugs, ie usb and eithernet? It does seem to be downloading quicker now its via ethernet, and why dont I have to dial up like before?

dave














i

You don`t have to `dial-up` because the router does that for you. It makes the connection to the Internet, and then shares that connection with the PCs connected via the ethernet port (or wireless if you have it).

Not sure what you mean by "why the two different types of plugs".
USB is used as a universal connection for all manner of different bits of hardware.
Ethernet is purely for networking, and has been the standard for many years. You `could` use USB for your networking, but it isn`t ideal.

It may seem to be quicker, as your PC no longer has to do any of the work with the Internet connection...(as the router does that), won`t be much quicker though.

Thanks for your help :)

not that you were dialling up anyway as the broadband connection was always there and all you were doing was logging into the servers

Didn`t want to confuse matters further :D
Hence the `dial up`