Broadband has become the preferred method of connection to the Internet for anyone who has a compatible phone line and can commit to a 12 month or longer contract.
Support for Broadband connections is not always provided outside of office hours and calls are not always charged at the basic call rate. It can therefore save time and money trouble shooting the broadband connection before calling the ISP's help line.
First, a couple of recommendations. Broadband as supplied via a standard telephone line can be connected via a Modem direct to the computer, or via a Router (wireless or wired).
Using a modem, the work of connecting to the telephone exchange and then to the ISP is done by the computer. The modem software (driver) may fail if there are problems with the rest of the computer or operating system. Also, when connected, the computer is exposed directly to the rest of the internet. Firewall software must be used, but any flaw in the firewall or computer operating system will be easily exploited.
Using a Router, the burden of creating and maintaining the broadband link is removed from the computer and any
computer equipped with a network connection will be able to access the internet. This includes older computers or those running operating systems (linux/macos) that are un-able to use some Broadband Modem Drivers. Also, as there is no longer a direct connection between the Internet and the computer(s), it is much more difficult to leverage an attack from the Internet although, software firewalls should still be used to supervise the programs running on the computer(s).