Subject: Re: High speed internet access
From: Tom Campbell (tom@tandc.com)
Date: Mon Jul 09 2001 - 14:36:50 CDT
At 12:48 PM 7/9/2001 -0500, Jim Thomas wrote:
>I was going to send this privately, but thought maybe the information
>would be useful to others.
>
>We're finding that internet (especially telnet) access through AOL
>or even through long-distance dialup to a private provide is
>often stunningly slow. The problem seems unrelated to our PC or
>laptop, because it occurs with both. And, using the laptop for
>connectivity from other cities hasn't been a problem. Are others
>experiencing slowness? I thought it might be a problem with Ameritech
>lines.
There are a number of things that it could be. If it seems isolated to
your telnet and/or web sessions with NIU, I'd suspect NIU's uplink to BBN,
or BBN's public or private peering interconnects to other tier 1 internet
providers. (ie, AOL, Verio, Sprint, etc.) If you want to do a ping test
to compare your round-trip packet times to mine, do "ping sun.soci.niu.edu"
from a dos prompt. I'm getting about 16ms average from my Verio
connection, which is about the same speed someone with a DISH internet
connection should be getting.
If the slowness seems to be isolated to anytime you dial from Chicago to
any provider, I'd suspect your Ameritech line. By law, Ameritech only has
to provide the tonal range on your voice phone line to let you achieve 9600
bps. Any higher speed you can achieve is "bonus". You may want to check
what connect speed you are getting...24000-38400 is pretty standard for
even crappy voice lines, unless you have severe line problems.
>This raises a second question: How are those with high speed access
>getting it? Is anybody using Ameritech?
I've used Ameritech ISDN here at VG, it was decent. The tariffs for
residential ISDN (128K speed) are extremely
competitive. http://www1.ameritech.com/sb/site/page/1,3002,2641,00.html
You pay the flat monthly rate, then something like $.06 per dialup
call. You'll also have a monthly fee from the internet service provider
you place the dialup call to.
Ameritech also offers DSL, but I have no experience with it. It seems that
many of the DSL providers (other than Ameritech) are having serious
financial troubles right now. Northpoint has gone out of business, Covad
and Rhythms are laying folks off in droves. If I was purchasing DSL, I'd
probably only look at Ameritech.
>How is DISH? Can they install an internet connection anyplace there is
>a phone line?
Yes. DISH has a T1 to the building, but they don't run traditional
ethernet to your unit. What they do is tap into your existing phone line
and run voice+DSL over your phone line. You'll have a small box in your
unit (or card in your computer) to pull the DSL signal off the voice
line. (You can't hear the DSL signal on your phone line, it's beyond the
human tonal range.)
>What about Sprint Broadband? Sprint would require a dish on the
>roof (line of sight to their tower, which we have from the top of
>our building). Would this require permission from First Properties?
> From the Board? Is there one there already?
Probably permission from the Board, and no, there isn't one there already.
One of my former co-workers is managing the network deployment for the
Sprint Broadband service. It has plus and minuses, most of the minuses are
related to signal availability (ie, during bad weather) I wouldn't expect
to see the bandwidth speeds that Sprint advertises...those are "ideal
theoretical" numbers...and we know how that applies to the real world.
>What are others doing, how's it working, and what would you recommend?
If I had to purchase connectivity right now in VG, I'd go for the DISH
internet solution based strictly on my professional network knowledge and
the price/performance factors. However, I don't have any experience using
that solution, so perhaps you should wait and hear what others that are
actually using it have to say.
Tom
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