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Cheap Broadband – What are you really getting?

We have all heard about it. It’s all over television and the newspapers at prices so cheap, why would we not go for it? It’s only $29.95 per month – WOW – that sounds too good to be true!!

Well…….just make sure you read the fine print before you sign up!

High speed broadband installed at my home for only $29.95….. plus……what other fees, contracts and installation costs??!!

We felt the need to advise our customers of all the facts. We too see the marketing that these large Internet Service Providers bombard the consumer market with and want to make sure you are aware of all the “Gotcha’s”. Here is a comparative list of the offers by leading service providers as at 20th April 2004;

The main things to note are the download limits are all extremely low and just about all of them lock you into a fixed contract.  With broadband being so fast compared to a 56k modem, you could easily “max out” your download limit in one night if you were a keen music buff downloading mp3’s.

None of these packages include protecting your equipment from internet hackers and none of these packages would suit a business environment, no matter how small.  Without proper firewall protection, internet hackers can connect to your computer and access your files while you are connected to the internet.

Now we don’t want to scare you or baffle you with jargon, but please call us and let us put together a solution for your home office.  A solution that is robust, secure and flexible depending on your usage requirements.  If you intend connecting to any business network from your home office, the solution may be slightly different to ensure your home network is properly secured with a firewall device.  If you would like to know more about firewall devices, please have a read of this article on "Surfing Safe".

Our preferred internet service provider is Internode.  They have competitive rates including the cheaper $29.95 per month deals with low 300MB downloads.  However, most customers opt for the $49.95 with 12GB of download and no fixed contracts.  We handle any equipment supply, installation and configuration and everyone is happy and surfing safe at a competitive price!!  The old saying ‘You get what you pay for.’, holds true in just about every aspect of information technology, so make sure you are aware of what you are actually getting for you money before signing up for anything, and don’t be afraid to ask for professional advice.