These connections offer greater bandwidth, which is the capacity to transmit different types of data over high-speed lines. Greater bandwidth is what enables people to receive full motion video and quality audio at useable speeds. The cable modem is up and coming and available in a few cities across the United States. A cable modem uses the cable TV hookup that is currently installed in many homes. Cable modems are considered to be an extremely fast way to connect to the Internet.
Computers use protocols when sending information from one computer to another.
These are a set of rules that allow computers to communicate with each other. In the highway analogy, protocols are the driving rules that each driver follows in order to prevent accidents. Internet Service Providers are companies that provide access to the Internet for a fee. The most common way to subscribe to an Internet Service Provider is by using software that has been provided by the ISP and directly dialing into the ISP's server via your computer modem. There will be on-line instructions to follow, and a credit card number will be requested at that time.