Newbie Broadband Question

[Dr Evil]

Hi All,

Using 56k dial-up at the moment, want to upgrade to broadband, but have some questions about it.

1. I have a gigabyte GA-8PEMT4 that has a RLT8101L Lan, it came without the cable, should I use this or a USB modem?

2. I like to manually setup my connection etc, can I do this with broadband or do I have to use there cdrom which would install tons of junk aswell, is it as straight forward as setting up a dial-up connection?

3. I know that this is "always on", once configured how do you as such then use the service, I am more prone to attack from hackers etc then using dial-up?

4. We have only 1 socket and one phone can I use the splitter downstairs so we can use the phone and run an extension upstairs and plug the modem into that?

Thanks in advance,

Dr Evil.