Getting Connected Of course, before you can use all the cool internet stuff, you gotta get connected to an Internet service provider. In some places, organizations have a direct hard-wired link to the Internet. These lucky souls usually have very fast connections from 56 kilobits per second up to 1.5 megabits per second.
Most people have to dial into a service using a modem.
There are two basic protocols used for dialing in to a service provider. P oint to P oint P rotocol, or PPP . A ccess, or ARA . Both of these methods require that you have a client program on your computer that does the dialing and all the other geeky stuff you don't want to know about. See your system administrator or service provider for the perefered method of connection and the programs necessary.