8 meg

I recently upgraded my broadband connection over ADSL to 8 meg, it was of those upgrades that does have an immediate impact on your way of working. My previous connection speed was 2 meg and to be honest i did not think that i would need any greater downloading muscle. However i helped a friend out who had purchased an 'ebay' laptop computer but lacked the funds for an operating system. I started the download of the excellent open source kubuntu operating system's cd image, normally i sit back and get on with something else but was stunned at the rapid download speed. It sound a little sad but seeing the 'wget' progress bar in my Linux command shell race across the screen i was feeling a little smug that i upgraded. My ISP Nildram, now owned by PIPEX and formerly owned by Mr Mardlin (yes nildram is mardlin backwards) have always provided me with a good service, apart from once being down for 4 days in a row, but 4 days in 5 years of service is not bad. I hope this 8 meg service upgrade does not effect their good record.

If you are considering upgrading your internet broadband service, i would say if you do download large files then go for it, but you just need simple web browsing, email and IM then stick to 512k or 2meg. Serial Music & Movie downloaders will love the new ADSL2's speedy downloads but as I buy all my music and movies legally, as i think this shows respect to the creator, this multimedia factor does not really effect me. On the illegal downloading subject matter i employ the following theory "As the creator has enhanced your life in some way, you shold pay back the favour".