I would recommend joining a company such as BT or AOL if your a newby, lots of companys are offering low prices at the moment, on the connection rate.
They also chuck in a free router, and get someone to come round and fix it all up for you.
You can go wireless on three different speeds. For example im on dial up as my laptop is nearlly dead lol, so my only allows a dial up connection speed, but obviously there are loadsa different broadband speeds.
Shop around, each companywill tell you what makes them special, and while they're telling you, you'll pick up the information that you need to no. You don't have to commit to a company to find out what they;re on about!!!