Subject: Re: High speed internet access
From: Belinda Leeney (leenbel@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 09 2001 - 19:31:59 CDT
..just to add a couple cents worth...
I've been using Telocity DSL for the past year, and I have never experienced
a problem with it. I did Tom's ping test below and I was averaging about
13ms.
I did try to get Ameritech DSL originally and after about 4 months of (to
put it simple and short) bologny, I gave up and called Telocity. Tom is
right though that most DSL carriers are experiencing financial difficulty.
Telocity was just bought by DirectTV, so it is now operating under the name
of DirectTV DSL. However, I did not experience any downtime during the
turnover, and I have never experienced any problems with their customer
service or quality of DSL serive. By the way, my connection has always been
128K/768K, never worse. I have no complaints. You may want to check it
out.
-Belinda Leeney, #704
>From: Tom Campbell <tom@tandc.com>
>To: Vanguard Discussion <discuss@vanguardlofts.com>
>Subject: Re: High speed internet access
>Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2001 14:36:50 -0500
>
>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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