(This is the first of a special three-part report on current Internet connection services. The Oct. 20 report will review cable modem and DSL services. The Oct. 21 report will review the various choices.)

Options for Internet access just got a lot more complex.

Believe it or not, that could be a good thing.

A whole range of choices has opened up in the area between regular voice telephone service and the high-speed, high-cost leased data lines that many major companies use.

Cable, phone and satellite communications companies are vying to make their access option the next big thing, and consumers, if they're careful, can be the winners.

In the past, anyone who wanted to connect their organization to the Internet has had few choices.

Many larger organizations leased T1 or T3 digital phone lines from the telephone company, allowing them to provide access to entire networks of users. This, unfortunately, could cost thousands of dollars, so it was often not a practical option for small offices and almost never one for people who worked from home.

In order to access the Internet, this small office/home office (SOHO) market commonly had to use computer modems to access dial-up accounts contracted through an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Now several new "always-on" access options are giving small organizations the chance to connect just like the big ones, except for less money.

But choosing between them could be confusing, particularly since most are fairly new and are only just now being released on a national scale. Each form of access, old or new, has strengths and weaknesses which we will examine here.

Telephone Modem

What it is: Telephone modems connect to the Internet through a standard phone line. It converts the digital signals used by the computer into an analog signal that can be transmitted through the voice channel on phone lines. (For more information, go to the 56k Modem Info Center.)

Modern telephone modems, which have been around since the early days of computer telecommunications, tend to range in speed from 28.8 Kbps to 56 Kbps. (Kbps stands for Kilobits per second. This number doesn't mean a lot to many people, but it is actually pretty fast for such things as transmitting text. Unfortunately, so much Internet content today is made up of images, programs and other binary files that can be much larger. For an easier way to envision what kilobits mean, just remember that a byte -- as in kilobyte or megabyte -- consists of eight bits.)

However, phone modems have an advantage that no other form of access can match right now: They are available wherever phone lines exist.

Pros: The result of this technology's age is that telephone modems are a fairly stable form of technology, meaning consumers are unlikely to make a mistake choosing this form of access. Of course, like with most kinds of technology, the suitable expression is "Let the buyer beware." Until a new standard was set for 56K (common shorthand for Kbps) modem speeds, most vendors sold modems that worked on different competing technologies. Make sure that your ISP supports the technology for your modem. The official standard is called V.90.

Telephone access, particularly at higher speeds, is quite suitable for occasional Internet access. It is also the cheapest, in terms of total cost, form of access there is.

Cons: While POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) has improved immensely over the years, even the fastest modems can seem glacial when you are waiting for that important e-mail or trying to download a graphics-rich Web page. The highest practical speed (for legal reasons) even the latest 56K modems can reach on a download is 53K, and they seldom do that, due to line noise.

In addition, a dial-up account, by definition, does not provide that "always-on" experience that a full-time Internet connection does. E-mail will wait on the server until you dial up and check it. Surfing the Web will have to wait until you get a ring when you try to access sometimes overcrowded ISPs.

Finally, while it is possible to share a modem connection between a network of computers, each user will have to wait for the modem to dial in to the ISP before they can access the Web.

ISDN

What it is: ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) was for a few years the only widely-offered option for high-speed Internet access before leaping into the stratosphere of industrial-strength access options. (For more information, go to the Dan Kegel's ISDN Page.)

By using digital transmission (as opposed to the analog transmission of POTS modems), it is possible to use a telephone line to transmit multiple "channels." ISDN technology could split a line into three channels, two of which could be used to transmit data at a rate of 64K per channel. (The third is used to manage the transmission.)

By signing up for ISDN, it was possible to have one 64K channel for data and one for voice, to two for data, pushing the line up to its highest speed of 128K. Back in the days of 14.4K modems, that sort of speed was unheard of for personal computers.

Getting ISDN means signing up to have ISDN run over a phone line to the organization. A special "modem" is used to connect the line to a computer, and installation most often is done by a professional.

Pros: ISDN is also an older technology, therefore it can be fairly stable and predictable. This can be important for such applications as video conferencing. (At least, the problems are predictable. Because of inconsistent service and equipment, ISDN has also received a reputation as being complex to install and run.)

Like most high-bandwidth (the amount of information that can be transmitted at one time) options, special equipment can be used to hook the connection up to a network so all of an organization's computers can use the connection. Since the connection is "always on," using the Internet is a fairly seamless affair.

ISDN is also available in many geographic areas, since quite a few phone companies began to offer it a few years ago as a high-speed data solution to businesses.

Cons: Unfortunately, before Internet access became almost ubiquitous among computer users, those same telephone companies had trouble deciding on pricing and service packages for ISDN. High-speed access was seen as a valuable commodity for larger companies who would be willing to pay a lot for the privilege.

This meant that smaller organizations were quite often faced with an access option that cost quite a bit more to set up and often charged a per-minute rate on usage.

As modems got faster, the reasons for getting ISDN became less-compelling. Small organizations and large organizations (using T1 lines) simply didn't need it. As a result, ISDN, while still offered, is widely considered a commercial failure.

This perception can impact pricing and service. Many phone companies offer ISDN options, but the price can vary wildly, and some still charge per-minute rates. Due to the competition between newer high-bandwidth options, the other options are beginning to catch up to and pass by ISDN in price.

Got any questions, comments or suggestions for Tech Notes? Contact Shane Thacker at shanethack@mindspring.com or (919)899-3746.