Bring Home High Speed Internet Access With G.Lite
by Jill B. Hart
Anyone who has ever enjoyed a T1 Internet connection at work quickly becomes hooked on high speed Internet access. The world wide wait fades to just a bad memory -- Web sites download at up to 45 Mbps (megabytes per second!). That means they usually appear instantly, unless the server at the other end of the line is tied up (but that's another story).
While fast access is common in the workplace, high speed Internet access has been slow to come home -- now that's about to change thanks to something called G.Lite.
G.Lite is a brand new, internationally accepted high speed Internet access standard. G.Lite is based on ADSL (which stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) technology.
ADSL has been making a lot of news lately. It has been touted as the next big thing in high speed access to the Net. Internet access companies, such as Earthlink and AOL, and "Baby Bells" such as Bell Atlantic and Bell South, are starting to offer ADSL service to customers.
With ADSL, your Internet experience is dramatically changed. Under optimal conditions, ADSL can download data from the Internet at up to 8 Mbps over regular phone lines. That's 150 times faster than the best download speed you'll get from a 56K modem. At that speed, most Web pages will jump onto your screen.
Data sent upstream (i.e. when you send email or participate in a multi-player game) goes over much more slowly, at about 1 Mbps.
This discrepancy is why it's called "asymmetric" DSL. This difference won't be a problem for the average Web surfer, though, since most people download much more data than they send upstream.
Unlike today's dial-up Internet access, an ADSL connection is always on. This means you can open your Web browser and immediately start surfing, or bring up RealAudio and start listening to your favorite Internet radio station.
Best of all, with ADSL your computer doesn't seize your phone line, it shares it. You can actually talk on the phone or send a fax while you're online. Not only do you get fast access, you get peace at home because there's no need to fight over the phone line when one family member wants to surf and another wants to call a friend.