Making the Connection: Dial-Up or High Speed
There are two common ways to connect to the Internet: a dial-up connection using a traditional modem, and a high-speed connection using a DSL or Cable TV service.
Traditional Dial-Up Modems
To connect these devices, simply connect the modem to a telephone jack using a standard telephone cable. To be safe, you should unplug the telephone cable whenever the computer is not connected to the Internet because bad programs have been known to make long distance phone calls using your telephone ("trojan dialers"), resulting in large, unexpected phone bills.
High Speed Connections
One of the advantages of high speed connections that use DSL or Cable TV services is that they are designed to be connected to the Internet all the time. This avoids the connection delays experienced with traditional dial-up modems, but it also increases the risk of bad things happening. So, when using high-speed connections you must install a hardware firewall (often called a high speed router).
The firewall is installed between your computer and the high-speed modem, and acts to hide and protect your computer from bad traffic coming from the Internet. High speed firewalls also allow multiple computers to connect to the Internet (and each other) at the same time.
Popular hardware firewalls include:
Extras & Links