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An Internet service provider (abbr. ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. In the past, most ISP's were run by the phone company. Now ISP's can be started by just about anyone. They provide services such as Internet transit, domain name registration and hosting, dial-up or DSL access, leased line access and colocation.Internet connection speed can generally be divided into two categories: dialup and broadband. Dialup connections require the use of a phone line, and usually have connections of 56 kbit/s or less. Broadband connections can be either ISDN, Broadband wireless access, Cable modem, DSL, Fiber Optics, Satellite or Ethernet. Broadband is always on (except ISDN that is a circuit switching technology), and varies in speed between 64 Kb and 20 Mb per second or more.With the increasing popularity of file sharing and downloading music and the general demand for faster page loads, higher bandwidth connections are becoming more popular.
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