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	Hardware	Setup	Monthly price	Contract	Speed (Up to)	Downloads
1	93 reviews	FREE	FREE £10 after 3 months	12 months	20Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	O2 Premium	Extras: Wireless router, free 24/7 support, 200 web texts/mth, McAfee security software (3 licences). Non-O2 customers pay £15/mth
2	93 reviews	FREE	£9.50 £19.50 after 3 months	12 months	20Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	O2 Premium + Evening & Weekend Phone package	Phone: Includes telephone line rental plus unlimited evening and weekend calls to UK landlines Extras: Wireless router, free 24/7 support, 200 web texts/mth, McAfee security software (3 licences). Non-O2 customers pay £24.50/mth
3	660 reviews	£55	£15 £28 after 3 months	12 months	50Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	Virgin XXL 50Mb Broadband + Phone	Phone: Unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin mobiles (+ £11.99/mth line rental) Extras: Super-fast broadband, enhanced performance Wireless "N" Router
4	660 reviews	£35	£25 £30 after 3 months	12 months	20Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	Virgin XL Broadband	Extras: Enhanced performance Wireless "N" Router
5	213 reviews	FREE	£14.99	18 months	24Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site 0800 0497866
	TalkTalk Plus	Promotion: FREE connection Phone: Unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines and discounted calls to mobiles (+ £11.49/mth line rental) Extras: Free wireless 'N' router, free technical & customer support. Add International Boost - unlimited international calls £2/mth extra
6	93 reviews	FREE	FREE £17.50 after 3 months	12 months	20Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	O2 Pro	Extras: Enhanced wireless N router, free 24/7 support, prioritised customer service, 500 web texts/mth, static IP address, McAfee security software (5 licences). Non-O2 customers pay £22.50/mth
7	660 reviews	£55	£33 £38 after 3 months	12 months	50Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	Virgin XXL 50Mb Broadband	Extras: Enhanced performance Wireless "N" Router
8	42 reviews	£24	£24.52	3 months	24Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	BE Pro	Extras: Wireless router plus static IP address and 2.5Mb upload speeds
9	660 reviews	£20	FREE £33.50 after 2 months	12 months	50Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	Virgin XXL 50Mb Broadband + TV (M+ extra channels) + Phone	Promotion: ONLINE EXCLUSIVE - FREE setup plus 2 months free. Extra 20 TV channels TV: Digital TV package with 60 channels Phone: Unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin mobiles (+ £11.99/mth line rental) Extras: Super-fast broadband, Enhanced performance Wireless "N" Router.
10	93 reviews	FREE	£9.50 £27 after 3 months	12 months	20Mb	UNLIMITED	Go to site
	O2 Pro+ Evening & Weekend Phone package	Phone: Includes telephone line rental plus unlimited evening and weekend calls to UK landlines Extras: Enhanced wireless N router, free 24/7 support, prioritised customer service, 500 web texts/mth, static IP address, McAfee security software (5 licences). Non-O2 customers pay £32/mth

Gaming broadband: give yourself the edge

Whether you prefer wielding a flamethrower in Modern Warfare 2, questing the night away on World of Warcraft, designing your new pad in The Sims Online or beating your lap times on Blur, you need to be sure you have an internet connection that can cope.

When you're looking for gaming home broadband, there are several things you need to think about: are you a hardcore player who needs a gamer specific package? If not, do the games you play need a consistent fast connection, a good ping rate, or lots of GB per month (bandwidth) to download files? Don't worry - all will be explained.

Gamer specific packages - comparison

Right now, both Be and PlusNet  are UK providers that offer specific gamers broadband to buy: cheap deals deliberately targeted at broadband gamers.

Be's 'Unlimited' deal offers unlimited downloads, download speeds up to 24Mb and upload speeds up to 1.3Mb, low pings, no traffic shaping, optional static IP and a control panel so advanced gamers can change the settings of their internet connection.

The PlusNet 'Pro' package claims to offer: all traffic priorities at all times, low latency and pings (see below), reliable and stable connection, access to gaming servers, up to 8Mb speeds, a static IP address, the option to turn interleaving on and off and a 15GB monthly download allowance, plus free usage from midnight to 8am.

Do I need gaming broadband?

The simple answer is no. However, if you're serious about gaming, you will certainly want to make sure you give yourself the best chance out there to get the cheapest package. Read and compare customer reviews to compare experiences and see if the prices are worth it.

Connection speed can be really important, as it can give you the edge, so it is seriously worth considering a connection above 8Mb if you can afford it. If you have a slower connection, just try not to run other programs while you're playing games, as this will slow things down.

Your monthly allowance should be less of an issue: playing World of Warcraft, for example, has been cited as using around 0.4KB/s, so even if you played 24/7 you would never reach the standard GB limits that are now common (10-40GB) - in reality, game playing might use up about 20-50MB of your allowance each day. However, be careful about game 'patches' (downloaded files that update the game). These can be massive, and can eat up your allowance very quickly.

It is worth watching the Broadband Genie news page for stories about ISPs that use 'traffic shaping' - this is where you can have your broadband slowed down artificially by your provider, sometimes because it is peak hours or sometimes because they think you are using up too much bandwidth. Gamers should probably try to avoid traffic shaping ISPs where possible.

A static IP address is worth considering too. Your IP address is essentially the address of your computer on the internet. Most people have a dynamic IP address, which changes regularly (to help repel hackers), but some broadband deals (particularly gaming and business deals) let you get a static one. The advantage is no little blips of downtime when the address refreshes, as well as giving you the option to host your own game servers.

What's all the terminology?

In simple terms, 'ping' is a simple program built into most internet capable operating systems that allows you to verify if another network or computer exists and is operating. It works like sonar - a small amount of data is sent from one machine towards another, and then bounced back to show the other machine is out there. Gaming broadband should have ping times that are as low as possible.

In terms of gaming, ping is often used to see define quickly this process takes. This is seen as important for certain types of online game, especially real time action games where a second's delay can mean the difference between success and failure. The term 'latency' is also used to describe a slow ping rate, as latency describes the time it takes for a package of information to get from one computer to another.

Lots of things can affect ping: from how far you are (geographically) from the network you are pinging (always choose a server as close to you as possible if you can), as well as other things happening on your own network (for example, don't try to download something while playing an online game). As far as choosing an internet provider, just try to get broadband that is as fast as possible!

'Lag' is another familiar term in this field. Lag describes where a game freezes for an amount of time, which is caused by high latency. As with ping, distance between machines - as well as what else is using your bandwidth (your broadband connection) - are seen as the main reasons for high latency and lag.

Finally, 'interleaving' is a term describing a way in which computers arrange data in a more efficient way when it is being transferred between machines. However, when sent in this way, the entire block of interleaving data must be received before the data itself, so this can in actual fact increase latency. It may be more efficient, so less likely to go wrong, but it is also a little slower.

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