There's no denying the appeal of broadband internet access and yet for a smart country Australia has been falling way behind our international counterparts.

Cheap plans, good hardware and excellent results in our speed tests make 3 a deserving winner, in our group test against Telstra Bigpond, Optus, Vodafone, Virgin and Unwired.

The form of DSL offered by BigPond is ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), meaning that the upload speed is lower than the download speed.

Fast, full of features and with mobile broadband support, but just a little too expensive

Simple to use and great performance without being locked to a provider.

Despite worrying reports about network congestion, Optus performed well in our tests. Top-notch speed, balanced with keen pricing - if you value network performance above all else this is the mobile broadband to get

According to a recent ACCC study, people are jumping on the broad-bandwagon in droves. In fact, the amount of people upgrading to broadband has doubled in the last 12 months. And as you might expect, the hardware community has responded by ramping up both Internet sharing and security devices for homes and businesses.

A striking laptop that’s incredibly portable and has good battery life. But the screen is a big disappointment

Type: VoIP service with IP phoneWeb: www.broadbandphone.com.auPrice: $199 plus monthly charges

Optimize your broadband connection with this handy freeware application, even if you use Vista.

This recommended broadband tool earns our respect and takes labs honours.

Mobile wireless broadband for your notebook, and a tale of two cities.

Significant competition from the likes of Optus@Home recently has given cause for Telstra BigPond to devise flat-rate pricing plans that have opened up its cable service to the residential market.

A latency monitor that can generate handy graphs about your broadband connection.

The A7N8X Deluxe features dual-LAN ports, which allows you to connect to a broadband service and share it without the need for a separate PCI network card.

A great choice for anyone who needs a backup to their broadband connection

Good value if purchased with a plan, the telstra’s speed impresses

Part 1 of our VoIP product and services roundup includes: MyNetFone, Broadbandphone, Skype, Firefly, BBP Global and Chat-Cord.

Telstra says it now has more than 300,000 ADSL subscribers and is on target to reach a million by 2005. The problem with home ADSL is that unlike cable, Telstra doesn’t make it easy to network even though it requires an Ethernet connection. Interestingly, the Ethernet requirement for broadband Internet connectivity is also helping to drive the rising popularity of home networks.

A nice idea, particularly for PSP owners, but it’s ultimately too restrictive to be considered a must-have item.