Can someone please enlighten a lady in distress, as I have always been a bit of a dinosaur using dial-up, but as I am moving to Geneva in three days, and am taking my own laptop for the ride, I thought I might jump into the technologically baffling world of broad-band. (Is it even called broadband anymore???)

What is the difference between broadband, wireless, ADSL??, and all of those other options like piggy backing that seem so complicated?

All I need is high speed internet access for a reasonable price, and a website in English. (I have not studied up on German yet!)

Do I need to bring a modem-connection thingee from Australia, and will it even work in Switzerland? Is it cheaper?

I will be living in a rural area, so will this affect my connectivity?

I am exhausted just thinking about it!!! Please help!

www.cablecom.ch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Internet_access
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADSL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi

If your laptop has a network port then you're laughing.

You have many many many options - cable internet or ADSL from *someone*. For ADSL, you will need a Swisscom Fixnet line.

www.comparis.ch will switch into ENglish and allow you to compare the services.


Some firms do offer Wi-Fi internet but at the moment it's somewhat expensive.

First, if you will be living in Geneva you will need French not German. But there are plenty of expats there and plenty of English websites.

Is it cheaper? Well, my sister-in-law lives near Brisbane and she still uses dial-up because having ADSL is still too expensive where she is at. Ok, more expensive then it would be in Switzerland.

The service you will end up choosing might depend on how long you plan to stay in Switzerland. Unless you are planning on going the dial-up route, where you pay every time you connect to the internet, you will be required to sign a one year contract. I'm not sure what other providers offer, but Sunrise will give you a free ADSL modem with your subscribtion and for only a few Swiss francs more offer you a wireless modem so if your laptop has wireless capabilities you can move around the house with it instead of having to be plugged directly into the modem.

With Sunrise, their basic unlimited internet service costs 49 francs a month. Their website is unfortunately not in english but they do have english speaking people when you call customer service.

Without getting too technical you only have to decide between two basic services: 1) dial-up - where you connect to the internet only when you need to. The downfall is that during this time you cannot receive incoming calls as your main line is being used by the modem to connect to your internet service. Dial-up service is good for people that only use the internet occasionally to check their emails. For this service you pay per connection and according to the time you are online or you pay a flat rate for a certain amount of downloaded information. 2) ADSL - this service gives you a separate phone line without the additional cost of installing a second line. It is not a second line which you can use as a landline but rather a dedicated line for your internet modem. That means that you can be online 24/7 and people can still call your regular line to reach you. For this service you pay a flat monthly rate.

So, if you plan to use the internet a lot choose ADSL.

Thanks guys!! This info is wonderful.