Unfortunately I can't get any other type of service so I'm tuck. But I have to admit it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Being a cable puke ain't too rough.
http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=629379
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Unfortunately I can't get any other type of service so I'm tuck. But I have to admit it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Being a cable puke ain't too rough.
http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=629379
I'm on cable, and it SUCKS. My provider overdistributed, cutting everybody's bandwidth down to less than dial-up speeds, and they're STILL ADVERTISING! The township has been on them several times about it, but to no avail. I hate that whole shared bandwidth thing now. First chance I get, I'm going over to DSL. I would not recommend cable to anybody.
I haven't had any problems with my cable connection. I love it. I originally wanted to get DSL because of the whole shared bandwidth thing, and it wasn't available in my area. I ended up getting cable, and it is great.
I guess that all depends on your area though. My town isn't exactly the most technical advanced, and half the people probably don't even know what a cable connection is. I guess I just lucked out. :-)
Oh Yea, and for those that are looking into a cable or DSL provider, take a look at www.dslreports.com. They have some great reviews there, and people in your area might've posted their reviews about a service.
Can someone explain the concept of DS3 and what makes it different from cable/dsl modems.
****ing Verzion sucks dick! I mean they really do!!! They'll screw you over big time, like Al Goldstein does to p0rn stars.
As for that, I'm upgrading my service to business class DSL, from covad. I'm getting the bandwidth that I pay for, not best efforts by the cable/telco companies.
As for DS3, IT'S 27 T1 LINES HOOKED UP TOGEHTER!!!
i'm on cable here and at home...and have had great results
just did a dslreport speed test from work
** Speed 1764(down)/255(up) kbps **
(At least 35 times faster than a 56k modem)
Finish.
it's good to remember that dsl speeds degrade the further you get from the switch node...so it's not always great either...
and at least where i am cable is available everywhere...dsl is only in some areas...with long waiting lists...
I've had both cable and DSL. When I lived in Philadelphia I would call comcast and ask for a cable modem for 3 years they told me it was coming in the fall. Verizon hooked me up with a DSL (my company paid for it I thought it was great). I switched jobs moved to Portland, OR and now have a cable modem which in my opinion is much faster then the DSL every was. The only draw back to cable is I find I have to physicall unplug the power line to the modem every couple of days or my speed drops to 56 to 156 kbps (reboot through the surge protector does not have the same effect -go figure).
-D
Someone seems to have given me balance points on my last post, with the following comment:
"If you don't fully understand the shared bandwidth thing you might want to read up on it. It would take such an unbelievably large amount of people in one area to slow it down. I don't think you realize the capability of cable modems."
Let me assure you that I DO fully understand the whole shared bandwidth thing. They overdistributed to a ridiculous extent, and had to get lines from outside providers. At this point, we were getting about 200K-300K. We were paying for 768K. Suddenly, one of their outside providers went under. This dropped us down to about 9600, which would be bad even by AOL standards. I DO realize the capability of cable modems. I know overdistribution when I see it. Believe me, they overdistributed that bad. They even admitted it.
Over that past few months, I've had to 'trouble shoot' Cable modem installations. Seems the Cable 'HELP' desks don't supply much assistance.
One was an office on Cable. Before the (un) help desk finished: they had the clients entire network disconnected.
Three were identical. Seems the local Cable company changed the name of their mail server, but didn't tell the clients. The (un) help desk told the clients 'It's because of the way your computer is setup. Change the mail server name to ......'
One had the client re-format his hard drive, and insisted that cable service ONLY worked with the '@home' software. 'Don't even think of running that 'thing' called Linux'
I have a business Charter cable connection. Set behind a Linksys router with a Winblows 2000 Server with an 8 port Linksys switch. I got lucky. Its in a newly developed area and so far I get great bandwidth. It stays consistantly in the T-1 range. At times all of the computers on the LAN are downloading or working online with no slowdowns or bottlenecks. They actualy post the scheduled down times with few incidental disruptions. I have heard some horror stories about Charter. However this faction of Charter (chartertn.net) has been an excellent provider with great tech suuport 24/7. The most i've had to wait is less than 5 minutes. They even allow you to setup your own equipment without there software. They just run the line and give you the gateway and dns ip's. So, no complaints so far, knock on wood. Just my $.2.
@home is the easiest thing to troubleshoot... I find it amazing that anyone on this board would actually need their help.... quit the fibbing
About the bandwidht thing: in theory the bandwidth of a cable modem connection is higher than that of an ADSL modem... so pure looking to the technology: cable modems are faster in theory.
When you are in an area with lot's of people (many many many people) on the same "segment" (don't know if this is an English term too) your connection will slow down. This is many times used against cable modems in favour of DSL... but you have to consider that DSL also has bottlenecks. You only have your dedicated bandwidth (if you pay) from your home to the first node, then the nodes come together on the same backbone, this makes that when the backbone is slow, everyone is slow... so it could be that one DSL connection company offers in theory the same speed as another one while in practice their speed is very different. There are other problems with ADSL too, first you need to be in a range of 2 km from the node (for digital lines) and in a range of 4 km from a node for regular PSTN lines. second your local node (the BAS concentrator) has limited capacity, when your company did not made this capacity high enough, due to the fact that their bussiness is going better than they suspected, or due to the fact that they are lazzy..., then there's a real chance that it will be difficult to log on.
Cable modems: you go to a local node on a shared connection with other users in your immidiate location, when this gets overcrowded your bandwidth will drop, unless the cable company has provided enough capacity depending on the amount of users.
I've been on cable for just a little over 5 years now and it's been great... On average I get around 100KB/s downloads (depending on the other side) with better connections of around 200KB/s and sometimes getting peaks of 300KB/s.
I have only two complaints about my ISP/cable provider:
1- We have limited download amounts to 6GB/month and 1GB/mounth for upload (although I haven't been over the limit yet)
2- Upload bandwidth is locked at 15KB/s...
Besides that, service as ben ok, not great, not worst...
Ammo
Have you guys ever thought to tweeking your cable speed? Also to tell you the truth cable isnt all that bad just make sure you clean your system out as much as possible and defrag your system so it can run at its top speed at all times. If you are downloading something and you think it is running too slow and that it must be that darn cable box you have, your wrong DL anything off the internet depends on the speed that the other persons computer modem is running at IE: (KAZAA or Morpheous) now if you are uploading and it is slow as **** then yes it is your modem but dont worry just disconnect and reconnect or just renew your IP and you should be doing just fine.
Now you maybe asking what is tweeking my modem mean? Well that consists of the value or numbers in your H-KEY and you can find more about this by going to google.com and typeing tweeking modems or cheater boxes I found it there too once. and there are applications that will do the job for you, But I dont trust them much. So I hope this gives you all an understanding on modems and how they work. Have a nice day.
I too, Use the Michigan segment of Charter Communications Pipeline, the same as stflook does. The really funny thing is... I never ever get speeds above 30 kb/s. I used to download at 135 kb/s and I was happy. All was going just swell... then the service caught on.... and as stflook said... they over distributed, and my neighborhood must have been hit the worst with these new accounts, because I have never recovered. And now I cannot connect to play ANY online game! Now I need help? Is my cable modem configued wrong? Is it in fact Charter? Or could it be my firewall preventing inbound connections in an attempt to filter out wannabe attackers? HELP!
Easy way to find out:Quote:
Originally posted by psychosquee
And now I cannot connect to play ANY online game! Now I need help? Is my cable modem configued wrong? Is it in fact Charter? Or could it be my firewall preventing inbound connections in an attempt to filter out wannabe attackers? HELP!
Turn off your firewall, and try to connect. Easy, huh?
The concept of DS3?Quote:
Originally posted by ac1dsp3ctrum
Can someone explain the concept of DS3 and what makes it different from cable/dsl modems.
It's the evuivalent badnwidth to 28 t1's. Now you can have it all in one chunk 45Mbps or have multiple PVC's, etc. etc. it's a pretty big pipe.
Well UDP protocol is best chance type of stuff, basically if it doesn't get there in time it just times out. Tweakng and other things will not effect you online game capability. What it will help is your download speeds.Quote:
Originally posted by stflook
Easy way to find out:
Turn off your firewall, and try to connect. Easy, huh?
Gaming should be done with very low ping times, so to assure best chance for the packet to reach it's dest.
I'm gonna have another beer. you go digest what i've said.
You need to read more. What's a DS3?
Please.
RTFM
Uh huh. I disagree with this. My cable provider, Rogers (a former @home company/partner), has decided to setup their own network. Mind you, the instructions they give out leave a lot to be desired. As an example: for the mail settings we are supposed to put in pop for the pop server and smtp for the smtp server. Now, this may seem silly but DNS suggests that there has to be more than one pop and more than one smtp. Besides which, the rest of the domain name is missing (maybe its just me). Anyways, a few calls later and I get the full address. Peachie! Im happily surfing away (there are about 5 people on my segment... ;).. ).Quote:
Originally posted by Labrats
@home is the easiest thing to troubleshoot... I find it amazing that anyone on this board would actually need their help.... quit the fibbing
Then this week I can't send email. Weird. I check my settings, Authorization allowed is checked because I know they are using "secure smtp". Now I use Eudora. Been using it since I first got on the Internet. It has to be one of the longest standing commercial email programs. I call to find out why I can't send. "You are using an unsupported application.. I can't help you". I tell him I know what the settings are and they are set as per what the support app is (authorized authentication is the key here) and why can't I send. "I can't help you because you are using an unsupported app". I ask to speak to the supervisor. Tech puts me on hold. Comes back and says "we can't help you because you are using an unsupported app". I say "I want to speak to a supervisor". Puts me on hold. Comes back and pretty much says the same thing. I'm losing my patience. He says the supervisor will tell me the same thing. I say Fine but I want to speak to the supervisor. Finally I get the supervisor. The supervisor, who was quite intelligent and adept, tells me that there is a bug in the upgrade they did recently: seems that no matter what program I use, since I am an OS 9 (apple) user I won't be able to send. OS 8.6 and OS X are fine. It's OS 9 that's the bug.
I told him to train his techies better to ask questions. Just cuz I wasn't using a "supported" application doesn't mean that they can't still support me if I ask whether there is a problem with the server.
So. Long story short: sometimes you do need help with @Home. The question is "Is the Light on at tech Support to provide said help?!?!"
Wow. look at all the cablemodems..
If I could have a choice I think I'd get DSL. Amazing most here use cable.
KorpDeath:
Guess I'm luckier than most. I have always had the choice between Cable or DSL.
I chose DSL (deliberately) Those that I know on Cable only have it because DSL service
is not in their area 'yet'. They will be switching when DSL is available.
Is there a diffrences between DS3 and a T3?Quote:
Originally posted by KorpDeath
The concept of DS3?
It's the evuivalent badnwidth to 28 t1's. Now you can have it all in one chunk 45Mbps or have multiple PVC's, etc. etc. it's a pretty big pipe.
Ammo
well, me at my home computer i still use the 56k modem which is
my medium in connecting to the net. but still you may say that my
technology is backward what the heck. but still, i say that i have
the most powerful operating system ever built. do you have sparc?
;)
One way the cable modem ISPs worked around having big problems was to make the networks smaller. Instead of having 30 houses on one segment, they'll make 2x15 which makes throughput a lot better for everyone. Of course, fat pipes to the net, more good routers, etc etc all contribute to better service. Glad Tampa Bay Roadrunner's on top of it
in my area. You might consider paying for business class cable. It's much better because (if your ISP's worth a shite) you're on a separate network entirely from the regular residential customers. It's what I did and with it being 60 bucks more per month, not only is my throughput a ton better (dl is around 500 kilobytes/sec, upload is 128-200 kilobytes/sec), but the support is better and I have a static IP. I wouldn't go back for anything.
I have access and used the following
Dial up = SUCKS!!! (I am spoiled!)
ADSL at 3 different speed levels from 96 up and 256 down to 512 K up and 1536k down
SDSL at 256 k both ways
Cable at up to 3 mbs down and 15 to 60 k up
T1 1.5 mb both ways
and yes a 1/2 T3 22 mbs both ways.
In many cases the speed means how fast you can update your OS from Microsoft.
On the T3 I find that is not the bottle neck... the otherend is.
It is nice to have bragging rights but the reason for the different
speeds is your applications you need to use.
I use at my shop a 1536k down and 512k up ADSL and discover it is
the other end that slows down stuff.... I can personally use a slower speed
and not have any problems....and save money but like I said "I AM SPOILED!"
I am lucky enough to have a static IP and no blocked ports unlike cable and
most other ADSL modems.
I can load up my ADSL circuit and get the ISP PO at me if I do it for any lenth of time
especially during rush hour...
I have tried to hog the T3 on tests but find that I canot find a site at the other end
fast enough to do that... and I have tried....
So unless your an ISP or a big company a T3 for a single user is way overkill
and very pricy....If you can afford a dedicated T3 even a partial, you have more mony than
GOD! and AT&T will love you....
But remember your needs will determined your speed and type of line,
not just the bragging rights.
:zap: