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In a very short amount of time, the internet has come a long way. The main method that millions of people keep in touch, the world wide web has become more user-friendly than anyone could have imagined, and people on all continents spend record amounts of time each day doing everything from chatting online to browsing videos on YouTube.

While the sort of computer you use to get online can determine what you can and cannot do while surfing the web, the thing that matters most when it comes to how you get to experience the information superhighway is actually the connection that you have. And while there have been some serious advances in recent years, a lot of people still just use the old standard of broadband to get online.

But there’s a lot more to the internet than just broadband. Here’s a look back–and forward–at everything from the beginnings of dial-up to the huge advancement that was wireless internet. The internet: an evolution.

When the internet started, there was only one way to get online: dial-up. Everyone can remember the familiar noises of a computer connecting with a loud beep and then whirring. That was the internal modem, which was only able to connect to things like America Online and Prodigy through the telephone line. This meant that it took forever to download anything, that surfing the web could feel more like waiting for a movie to finish downloading on a high-speed connection, and that not very much could be accomplished that wasn’t in text form.

But after dial-up came broadband and cable, which are two very popular ways that people still get online. The second most popular way of getting online lately besides using wireless internet, this was the most reliable way to upgrade a connection. Using an ethernet cable instead of a phone line meant that it was possible to transfer more data at a faster speed. Hence, the internet was able to grow and include more images and video, while users were able to download a song in less than two hours.

At sort of the same time, large companies and governments began using satellite internet to get in touch with business offices far away in remote regions. While satellite was once just the realm of those extremely wealthy corporations, today a consumer version has been rolled out to offer an alternative to dial-up for those living in areas where cable and broadband don’t currently offer service.

Most people, however, get online by combining a faster connection and wireless internet. Wireless is just a way of taking your T1 or broadband connection and making it float through the air with the help of a router. This means being able to sit somewhere besides a desk and surf the internet. However, if a lot of people are on a wireless connection, it often slows down considerably and becomes less enjoyable to use.

T1 and T3 connections are mostly used in offices, but are just a faster way to transfer data using an ethernet port. These have developed in tandem with wireless and are the method of choice for people who are depending on the fastest connection around while happy to stay at a desk.

For those who want to move around but need a better connection while they do so, the latest development in internet, WiMax, seems like the most promising hope for the future. Instead of depending on a router and a centralized location to provide a signal, this new mobile version of surfing the internet connects laptops and desktop computers alike all over the country to a network that is bounced using towers, just like a cell phone company does. Pretty forward-thinking, it offers potential into the direction that future innovations in the internet might take.

There are plenty of good reasons to want to be able to watch movies and listen to internet radio from just about anywhere. For one, if you’re spending a lot of time in transit, it makes dealing with waits at airports and train stations a lot easier. For another, if you happen to be on the road because of business, it’s a lot simpler to send an email that you got to your destination safely rather than wake up your significant other or family with a phone call. And if you’re traveling with small children, you might find that activities designed to keep them entertained can turn into yesterday’s news a whole lot faster than you were expecting.

That’s the biggest problem with entertainment on the road: before the days of wireless internet, you were stuck with exactly what you packed, unless you felt like spending a whole lot of money to get something else. This meant that if you were in an airport for hours, you were going to have exactly the music on your mp3 player or Discman, and that your children were only going to have the coloring books and video games that you packed for them. That can definitely wear thin after awhile, and can be seriously troubling if you are in the middle of a major delay.

Today, things like wireless internet make it a lot easier to get fresh entertainment. Whether it’s a business traveler checking in for a more “serious” purpose, getting details on the weather via streaming website content or tweeting at friends, or it’s just catching up with your favorite television programs on a laptop, there’s something to be said about having technology at your fingertips. And even travelers who have smartphones can get in on the game in places that are hot spots, meaning a lot more variety than before.

The only negative about traditional wireless internet, however, is that it tends to go out at the most unfortunate times. And in places like train stations and airports, where wireless is often not free, there is also the downside of having to pay after your first hour, with prices often far too high. A wireless network in a hotel is also far more likely to slow down because of so many users, and wireless in hotel rooms often is resigned to the very same fate.

However, a new form of wireless makes it possible to get online and stay online, whether you want to listen to internet radio for three hours or watch a movie while you wait for your plane to finally show up. Called WiMax, this technology depends on towers that are able to magnify a signal for miles, rather than just for a couple of feet. This means that you can take your laptop on far more than just your morning commute, and that it will not lose your wireless signal anywhere along the way. And in airports and train stations, when the wireless is lagging because everyone is using it, you will still be enjoying a speedy connection, since you’re on a network all of your own. When it comes to entertainment on the road, nothing beats this new form of wireless.