There are three types of broadband connection (not counting satellite) available in the Ash Vale area:

• Cable broadband is available to you if your house is connected to the Virgin media cable TV network. This will normally be your best choice if your telephone service is also supplied by Virgin. Three different speeds are available ("up to" 10Mbs 20Mbps and 50Mbps). See this Virgin Media broadband page for more details.
  
  
• ADSL broadband is available to you provided that your telephone service is not provided by Virgin media via their cable TV network. The speed advertised by most ADSL providers is "up to 8Mbps". In practice, because of the distance between Ash Vale and the BT exchange (which is in Aldershot), the maximum speed available rarely exceeds 3MBps and is as low as 0.5MBps in a few localities. The good news is that the Aldershot exchange is due to be enabled for FTTC (Fibre-To-The-Cabinet) in March 2011, so we may see much higher speeds sometime after that - provided that BT Openreach installs new distribution cabinets in the Ash Vale area.
  
  If your telephone service is provided by a company that uses "local loop unbundling" (e.g. TalkTalk), then you can only get ADSL broadband through that supplier. Otherwise (e.g. if your telephone service is provided by BT), you can choose from a wide range of suppliers, all of whom make the necessary arrangements with BT Openreach. We use and recommend PlusNet.
  
  When choosing a supplier, check whether the headline price quoted applies for the whole contract period or just for the first few months. In some areas of Ash Vale (e.g. near the Swan Inn), it can be difficult to get ADSL broadband working at all, or the speed obtained is very low. We can often improve the situation by installing an ADSL filter at your master socket or by improving your telephone extension wiring.
  
  
• Mobile broadband uses a 3G mobile telephone network to transfer the data instead of a fixed line. If you use a laptop computer on the move, you can use mobile broadband to access the internet on it from anywhere that has good 3G coverage for the network you subscribe to. Quoted mobile broadband speeds are typically lower than the maximum speeds quoted for cable or ADSL. However, if your street isn't cabled for cable TV and the available ADSL speed on your telephone line is 1MBps or less, then mobile broadband could be the fastest option for you. See this mobile broadband guide for more information.
  

If you order cable broadband, Virgin Media will provide the equipment. Their packages generally include a wireless router, allowing you to connect one or more computers wirelessly and/or using Ethernet cables.

If you subscribe to mobile broadband, then the supplier will provide a USB dongle. You just plug this in to your computer or laptop and you are read to go.

If you order ADSL broadband, you will need either an ADSL modem or an ADSL router. You will also need either an ADSL faceplate for your BT master socket, or one microfilter for each used telephone socket on the line. Most ADSL providers will give you a free ADSL modem or router and two microfilters when you sign up.

The differences between a modem and a router are:

• An ADSL modem is cheaper, offers no protection against viruses, and is intended to connect one computer only (although it is possible for other computers to connect to the Internet through the first computer, we don't advise this);
   
• An ADSL router costs more, protects your computers against certain types of incoming virus attack, and allows several computers in your house to share the broadband connection. The computers can also share other resources (such as a printer). The computers are connected to the router either by network cable, or by wireless. A wireless connection is ideal for laptop computers, or where one or more of the computers is a long distance from the router.

As a guide to prices, we can install ADSL broadband for you (using equipment supplied by you or your ADSL broadband provider) for £47 upwards, depending on whether you need an extra filter and/or changes to your extension wiring. We can supply and install a wireless router and connect two computers for about £150.