Research released today reveals Australia is in the midst of an internetThe series of interconnected networks that includes local area, regional, and national backbone networks. Networks in the Internet use the same telecommunications protocol (TCP/IP) and provide electronic mail, remote login, and file transfer services.http://www.lights.ca/hytelnet/glossary.html explosion, yet broadband consumers are over-spending on their connections by $141 million through a lack of understanding of what they really need.

Over 7.5 million Australian households subscribe to broadband internet, a jump of almost a million in 12 months. In their enthusiasm to do more online however, Australians are failing to review and update their plans to meet their changing needs.

The iSelect Broadband Report shows broadband is booming in Australia – Australians are on average downloading more than 48 gigabytes of data per household per month (the equivalent of approximately 20 movies and 2000 songs), or a massive 368 million nationally per month.

More than half of Australians across all age groups rate the internetThe Internet is a super-network. It connects many smaller networks together and allows all the computers to exchange information with each other. To accomplish this all the computers on the Internet have to use a common set of rules for communication. .http://wings.avkids.com/SPIT/glossary.html as the single most important piece of technology in their home, ahead of television.. Entire families are now online, with three or more people accessing the internetA network of millions of computers from all over the world. The internet allows computers to trade information using telephone lines, fiber-optic cables, and satellite links. It is also referred to as the Net.http://classic.netsmartz.org/safety/definitions.htm in almost half of Australian households (48 per cent). Yet over half (59 per cent) of those surveyed admitted they did little or no research into different broadband services before choosing a broadband package.

The Report shows Australians are confused about what they are paying for, despite rating themselves highly on their internetAny set of computer networks that communicate using the Internet Protocol. (An intranet.); The Internet, the largest global internet; An internet connection, internet connectivity, access to the internethttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/internet intelligence, with 83 per cent reporting they have a good or very good understanding of the internetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet at home. Those who go over their monthly data allowance are spending on average almost $200 a year extra for the privilege.

According to technology expert and blogger, Charlie Brown, the Report highlights how active Australians of all ages are online.

More Australians than ever before are connecting with each other via the internet. This research found that two thirds of Australians now rely on the internet to keep in touch with their relatives and friends, and social media is growing at a rapid pace, even amongst older internetA global network connecting millions of computers. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. The Internet is not synonymous with World Wide Web. The Internet and the Web are two related but separate things.http://www.delicious-webdesign.com/website-design-uncovered.html users.

However, in contrast with the heightened status of broadband internetInternational network of computers that you connect to by telephone line. Two popular services of the Internet are the World Wide Web and electronic mail.http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/computing.htm in the home, Australians arent researching their choice of plans properly. There is a lack of understanding of the more technical details such as connection speeds and how much data they actually need, leading to consumers signing up to plans that dont fulfil their needs, he said.

A quarter of Australians dont know how much data they download each month, and consistent with this, a third never check how much of their download limit they have used.
Less than a quarter (24 per cent) understand how the speed of their broadband connection is measured (megabits per second), yet 86 per cent say speed is very or extremely important to them.

Australians need to do their homework on broadband before signing up to a new contract. It doesnt need to be time consuming or difficult – if you use an online comparison service, you can evaluate plans based on your actual needs to find the best one for you, said Charlie.

Not surprisingly, most people (66 per cent) say that reliability and maintaining connection are the most important features of a home internetA world wide grid of inter-linked (networked) computers.http://www.whatisawebsite.com/website-terminology.html service. However, amount of data downloads is further down the list of priorities (36per cent) even though it is more closely related to actual cost, and is the basis on which most internet(The Internets) The Internets is not something you can just dump something on, it's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes, invented by Al Gore and pluralized by George W. Bushhttp://www.dailyawesome.com/2007/11/republican_to_english_dictionary services are promoted.

Matthew Cuming, Corporate Affairs Manager at iSelect, said the Report demonstrates the significant role broadband internetAn interconnected system of networks that connects computers around the world via the TCP/IP protocol.http://knowledge.accuracast.com/glossary/ now plays in the lives of most Australians.

Almost three quarters of those surveyed reported feeling frustrated, angry or powerless when they go over their monthly data limit for broadband. Just under two thirds (59 per cent) reported spending less time online as a result.

This is all avoidable if Australians become as active in shopping around online for the right plan, as they are when it comes to using Facebook, email and downloading music and movies, said Matthew.

iSelect is Australias leading provider of online comparison for a range of household products and services, including health, life and car insurance, home loans and now broadband internet. iSelect was founded on the principle of removing the confusion and complexity from the process of buying everyday necessities.

Issued on behalf of iSelect by Cube.

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http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20060908003622AA94G4y

Best answer:

Answer by DrDave
You can do this on a cheap netbook. It isn’t so much what you need for a PC. You NEED a good ISP. I’d suggest 10mbps download speeds.

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