Is anyone using one of the higher data-rate Internet connections? What kind (DSL, cable, fiber optics, wireless?). What are your experiences? What is the cost? What do you recommend for a home-user as an upgrade from a dial-up modem?

-- Lars (larsguy@ahoo.com), February 18, 2001

Answers

I use Roadrunner cable. If you can get it, it kicks ass. Never takes more than 3 seconds for a page to load. Have downloaded 3 songs from Napster simultaneously from T1 connections in less than a minute at rates over 80 kbps, totalling around 230 kbps, so it delivers on its promise of up to 256. With other modems you're lucky if you can get half of what they say.

Buy the modem from your cable company for $100, or rent it for $10 a month. The service is $45 a month, well worth it for someone who spends as much time on the net as you do (#1 poster).

-- enjoy! (little extra money @ well. worth it), February 18, 2001.

Lars

I've had both cable and DSL. I do DSL for a living for SBC (Southwestern Bell). DSL or cable, both fast, both good, both about 50 bucks. More info here.

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 18, 2001.

Thanks to you both. "Roadrunner"? Is that the name of a cable company? I have Time Warner cable but they won't offer Net service here until April. T1, I didn't think was an option for residential.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 18, 2001.

Time Warner IS Roadrunner.

The T1 connections were on the other end, the people I was downloading FROM. Probably from their office.

-- enjoy! (get@it.asap), February 19, 2001.

DSL, but I can pick n' choose... Lars, why d'ya make me feel like ah gotta speak southern?

-- Bemused (and_amazed@you.people), February 19, 2001.

Bemused--

It's not my fault. It has to be Eve. She is from Michigan but always says "y'all". What's with that?

When I lived in Michigan, no one ever said y'all.

-- Lars (larsguy@y'allhoo.com_back, heah?), February 19, 2001.

I'd do the upgrade, but don't expect "instant gratification". Allow me to enlighten you with OUR story of How We Finally Got DSL Installed.

(Don't drink anything while reading.)

We had it installed here last year (March?) and at the time we were forced into the Sprint/Earthlink monopoly. I just hope you're ready for a parade of idiot "techs", each of whom ONLY KNOWS HIS SMALL PIECE OF THE PROVERBIAL PUZZLE (but each of whom claims to be the ONLY ONE who knows what's going on at "that company"). Consequently, it will take no less than four (count 'em, FOUR) Certified Sprint/Earthlink Nitwits to get it working.

Of course, this will happen ONLY AFTER XX number of phone calls back and forth, and ONLY AFTER you are spontaneously disconnected around 9 AM EVERY SINGLE MORNING for the first two weeks after it's finally (yes, I say FINALLY) been installed.

You'll get it up and running CORRECTLY in about three to four weeks from the initial "installation". Or so you think.

This is pretty much how the scenario goes: They will claim to have sent you the modem through the mail, well ahead of the scheduled installation appointment (they will forget, however, to let you know that you were supposed to receive this before the FIRST installation date.....you will not discover this until Nitwit #1 comes to install it). This is just a facade, you see, so that they can push out the installation date for at least two weeks past the one you set (which was initially at least a month into the future anyway). Then someone will call you (Suzy Customer Service Rep -- and, oh, how perky Suzy is) to "confirm" your originally-scheduled appointment the day before. You are under the impression that in less than 24 hours, you will be Connected to the Internet at a Kick-Ass Speed.

You poor, delusional fool.

On the day of your (first!) Installation Appointment, Joe Install-Tech will show up at your door, complete with Install-Tech Utility Belt. He will ask you to produce the Modem They Sent Ahead of Time. This is your First Clue as to how this Process is going to go. You will explain that you never received a Modem They Sent Ahead of Time. Joe will tell you that he cannot do the installation, but he will check to see if he happens to have a spare one in his vehicle (he does -- what a coincidence). He will then have to excuse himself to his vehicle at least four times to retrieve the proper equipment because apparently, his Utility Belt does not have the proper number of slots for his assorted screwdrivers.

After approximately two hours, Joe will then tell you he DOES NOT HAVE THE CORRECT MYSTERIOUS MODEM and he will have to come back. Note that all the while, he will be chatting nonchalantly with you, explaining that ONLY HE knows what's going on at "that company" (you're never quite clear WHICH company he is talking about).

Enter (a couple of days later, if you're lucky), Joe Install-Tech 2, complete with the Appropriate Mysterious Modem. He will explain to you that ONLY HE knows what's going on at "that company" and ONLY HE can install these things properly. He will also bash anyone and everyone he has ever worked with in his 45+ years of employment. This "installation" takes NO LESS THAN THREE HOURS.....yes, that's THREE HOURS of listening to "f*ck that a$$hole" and "what a [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] that [expletive deleted] guy is".

THREE SOLID, UNINTERRUPTED HOURS.

He will then proclaim that you now have a Working Internet Connection at Kick-Ass Speed.

Uh huh.

After being disconnected around 9 AM every morning for approximately two weeks, and after XX number of phone calls to "that company" (you're still not sure who you're dealing with), there magically appears at your doorstep one day (flourish of trumpets.....) Joe Install-Tech 3, who REALLY IS THE ONLY ONE who knows what's going on at "that company" (or so you think at the time). He introduces himself as The Software Guy; you know, the one they WERE SUPPOSED TO SEND IN THE FIRST PLACE, because, you see, HARDWARE and WIRING GUYS just don't know what the hell they're doing. He probably only has to excuse himself to his vehicle maybe once or twice, and VOILA!! when he leaves, you finally have DSL Internet Access at Kick-Ass Speed.

Or so you think.

The weeks roll merrily along and you wonder why they advertised a 512 kbps speed, yet every measuring web site you've found on the Internet that can determine your **actual** speed states that you're never really at more than 300 kpbs (if you're lucky; usually it's around 200).

You make XX number of additional phone calls and are finally told they will send Joe Install-Tech out to your house. You ask for a specific time because you actually work for a living. They agree (you should be very wary of utility types who agree to a specific appointment time). Joe Install-Tech 4 will show up five minutes after you've left for work. (This is after you took a day off work last week for the appointment, but he never showed.) You call again and at this point you really (REALLY) don't care that the person on the other end of the phone line isn't responsible.

A week or so later, you finally have Joe Install-Tech 4 in your home (miracle of miracles!). This appointment takes seven minutes because after he's looked at the connection, he tells you that the first three Install-Techs should have given you a splitter. (That would be the splitter you asked about during those three pseudo-installations and the splitter the first three Install-Techs told you **you don't need**.)

Total Elapsed Time : Two to Four Months from your Initial Phone Call Requesting Service for the first installation; Six to Eight Months for Anyone to Figure Out Why It Wasn't Working Properly.

Might I take this opportunity to wish you the best of luck with your installation.

If you're independently wealthy, I'd go with a T-1.

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), February 19, 2001.

Patricia....I am ROTFLMAO! (it takes a lot to get me to do that these days...)

Might I encourage you to cross-post this at my sleezyboard (which was down for maintenance the last time I checked) forum for all us DSL techs (lets see, am I supertech #1, #2, #3, or #4...I really can install this stuff and make it work the 1st time) because it is priceless. I believe every word of it because at PacBell I see it all of the time. You see, we are an equal opportunity employer, we hire stupid people too...

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 19, 2001.

LOL. Nice horror story, Patricia.

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), February 19, 2001.

One teeny weenie fact Patricia left out of the horror story is this. The dope who was the beneficiary of all this great service was none other than little old *me*. Some will say, "bout time that Doc dude got his". I would reply,,,"get the f*ck outta here".

Just thought I would add this and hope you alls now know why I have been in such a "badd mood" these past months(years for some). Now you know, it ain't *me*, it is them ;)

Some type of Y2k bashing karma repay Lars, so take our "experience" for what it probably was, an isolated incident.

-- (doc_paulie@hotmail.com), February 19, 2001.

Patricia, your experience inclines me towards cable. Anyone have similar horror stories about cable?

What's the deal with cable that I hear it can bog down at times because it is like a party line? TW assures me this is not true.

Thanks for all your answers but Patricia, you didn't have to give me nightmares.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 19, 2001.

Lars...

Sorry, but cable is a party line. One coax feeds an entire neighborhood. If you are the first and one of the few to get it in your neighborhood your speeds will be fine. However, once the neighborhood begins to fill up with broadband users speeds slow to below dial-up levels. This is a fact of broadband physics.

By the same token DSL will slow as well. This is because a DSLAM holds 520 NIC cards. Each card has 4 ports. It is true that your pair of copper is not shared from your home to the DSLAM but it is shared from the DSLAM to the DNS. Results, loss of bandwidth similar to that of cable. Lose-lose situation.

Other drawbacks to cable; the cable companies use the MAC address (adapter ID, usually your network interface card) for authentication. That means that you may only have 1 user on-line at a time. DSL does no do that, therefore, you may have unlimited users surfing simultaneously with 1 account. It requires a router but if you are like me (5 workstations on my home network) you need to cheat the system a little. Don't get me wrong, you can cheat cable too (pinhole a router to the mac address) it's just not as user friendly.

You can check this site for discussion on the high-speed Internet access issue.

Good Luck

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 19, 2001.

U.B., I'll be sure to post it there. I forgot to add that #4 was from Sprint -- apparently the first 3 were contractors through ..... well, we're still not sure. "They" gave us an "800" number to call, but we never could figure out exactly who we'd been calling.

I work as a project manager in the IT department for a CLEC here so I'm pretty familiar with general telecom procedures, etc. But these guys were just .....

Lars, maybe you can entice U.B. to install the DSL for you..... (Sorry about the nightmares; just wanted to make certain you were sufficiently prepared.)

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), February 19, 2001.

Lars,

Uncle Bob is obviously trying to sell you on DSL, since that is where he earns his paycheck. ALL internet connections can experience slower times when there are more people on line. My cable connection rarely slows down, and most of the time it is blazing fast.

In my experience downloading over 1200 songs from Napster, I eventually gave up on downloading from DSL connections because they were NEVER as fast as cable and T1 users.

You can be sorry if you want Uncle Bob, but I'm not. I took all of the tests at your site, here are the results.

-- enjoy! (cable@kicks.ass), February 19, 2001.

enjoy! (cable@kicks.ass)...

You misunderstand. I believe that I said cable and DSL are pretty much equal. I get the same speeds with DSL that you get with cable. I had RoadRunner cable and was equally satisified with the speed as I am with DSL. At the end of the day both kick ass compared to dialup service. I believe that the only downside to cable was the hardware security (mac address) that takes some creativity to work around. The average end user wouldn't be able to do it. Enjoy your cable! Don't buy DSL. Makes no difference to me...

PS...Patricia, thanks for the cross post!

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 19, 2001.

(PatriciaS@lasvegas.com)

I work as a project manager in the IT department for a CLEC

Damn...(she's smart too)

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Thanks for all the great info. UB, what is a "mac address"?

Is cable more vulnerable to viruses or poor security because you leave it on the Net all the time? Is DSL always "on" too?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), February 20, 2001.

what is a "mac address"? It is the adapter address (you can see it by running WINIPCFG in Win98 or ME).

Is cable more vulnerable to viruses or poor security because you leave it on the Net all the time? Only if your computer is on. Download ZoneAlarm from www.zonelabs.com.

Is DSL always "on" too? Mine is because I use a router. The router has a firewall plus I use zone alarm...

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Lars,

I have had cable internet access for over a year and a half. My computer is on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. No firewall. Have never had a single virus or attack of any kind. It never hurts to have a firewall, but if you have a good computer with port stealthing capability it really isn't necessary.

-- (cable@kicks.ass), February 20, 2001.

Does anyone think they're safe from hackers? go to Astalavista.com. Under Navigation click Privacy Analysis. Compare what Astalavista sees on your computer to your Control Panel (if you have a Windows machine). Scary, huh?

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

OFF DAMMIT!

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

(ahem...let me try again)

Does anyone think they're safe from hackers? Go to Astalavista.com. Under Navigation click Privacy Analysis. Compare what Astalavista sees on your computer to your Control Panel (if you have a Windows machine). Scary, huh?

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Lars I have cable and I use dial up as a back up. My cable is probed several times a day.

That is scarey Uncle Bob. How do they do that? I have Zone Alarm, Norton, a router and a force field around my computer and they STILL got through to read my files. I went to the GRC and it said my computer is in stealth mode - no open ports. What gives? Is there NO way to keep our boxes from prying eyes?

Patricia can you or someone else tell me what CLEC stands for?

-- (Netsc@pe 6.0), February 20, 2001.

CLEC stands for Competitive Local Exchange Carrier. DCLEC stands for Digitial or Data Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, and denotes CLECs that are competing for digital services and not just voice (local or long distance).

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 20, 2001.

Thanks a lot Bob. Right now I'm thinking it must be something like a telephone company so I'll go key it in at Google and learn a little something today!

cablekicksass do you read your server logs to make sure you're not being probed?

(I hope everyone knows my remark about the "force field" was just a joke. I'm not into the supernatual stuff.)

-- (Netsc@pe 6.0), February 20, 2001.

I could use a good probe-job.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), February 20, 2001.

Here let the resident Pope help you netscape::::CLECs what are they?

-- (doc_paulie@hotmail.com), February 20, 2001.

Thanks Doc. I always appreciate a lending hand.

-- (Netsc@pe 6.0), February 20, 2001.

Netscape,

They can probe all they want, as long as they can't get in that's all that matters to me.

-- probe away (cable@kicks.ass), February 20, 2001.

I admit I was probed just yesterday.

Here is hoping I'll get probed tonight ;-)

-- the brat (the@brat.atwork), February 21, 2001.

LOL Sumer! Ya mean a vulcan mind probe?

Iv'e been thinking about upgrading service sinse this thread started but I have a question...With a DSL line,if two people are online at the same time how diminished is the speed?

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), February 26, 2001.

capnfun

I've networked my home with 5 workstations (I know, pretty stupid with only 3 people living here). I use a Cayman Router 3220H configured for DHCP (dynamic hosting), which is always on. I use NetBEUI for file and peripheral sharing and TCP/IP for Internet access. I've tested my bandwidth with all 5 systems browsing and have had no noticeable loss of speed. During the mornings we have a minimum of 2 systems browsing and at night three, all very-very happy...for what it's worth...

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 26, 2001.

There is always Wireless. It's new technology but it does satisify those without access to DSL or cable.

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 26, 2001.

How DSL Works

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 26, 2001.