There are several ways to get free access to the Internet.

DIAL-UP
Most people with a computer will use dial-up to access this Internet. Using a low cost modem and your standard telephone line you simply configure the PC or Mac to dial the telephone number of your chosen free ISP and you can then browse away and send and receive your email. With modern computers and a decent ISP such as Aardvaak you can quite comfortably browse web sites although it may take 10-20 seconds for each page to appear - for most people this is quite acceptable.

ISDN
If you are lucky enough to have an ISDN line installed in your home or business then you can use this to access the Internet faster and at the same cost as Dial-Up. A single ISDN channel will give you 64kbps, faster than that modem, and you will still have the second channel available to make and receive telephone calls. Your 'modem' or Terminal Adaptor will be slightly more expensive that the normal modem but it will connect quicker and provide faster web browsing.
If you need extra speed then you can combine both channels using PPP Multilink - the computer dials the ISP access number on both channels and then joins the two channels together to provide 128kbps - this makes accessing the Internet much more enjoyable but you are of course using two telephone calls.

With some Terminal Adaptors it is possible to configure BOD - Bandwidth on Demand. Here the second channel is only raised if the computer needs the extra bandwidth and it is dropped if it is not required for a preset time. This can provide the best of both worlds if properly configured.

ADSL
This is referred to as Broadband access and is becoming more and more available around the country. It uses your existing BT telephone line (not ISDN) and allows you to make calls at the same time as accessing the Internet. Although you still 'dial' the Internet the connection remains connected whilst your computer is on and you are not charged for the call. At the moment there are no free ISPs offering Broadband but we will let you know as soon as the first appears. Current charges range from £25 to £30 per month and we would be cautious about recommending the cheaper ISPs as the economics of Broadband are somewhat tenuous at present.

CABLE BROADBAND
If you are lucky enough to live in an area with Cable TV then it is likely that your Cable TV company will be offering a broadband service, probably cheaper than ADSL. The bandwidth is delivered into your home along the same piece of cable as your TV pictures and it is simple and easy to add to any existing Cable TV services that you take.

CAUTION
Both Cable Broadband and ADSL use the principle of 'nodes' where a fixed amount of bandwidth is delivered to a node and all of the subscribers in a particular area all connect to that node. This means that although you may have a theroetical bandwidth of 512kbps, when lots of other subscribers all connect to your node the performance is likely to drop off significantly. Contention ratios of 50:1 have been talked about which might be something to consider as more and more people start signing up to take broadband services.