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Re: Cable modem is cooomminggg !!!
On Tue, 29 Sep 1998, Valentin Ossman wrote:
> Well, about the ACTVNET, here I some points that I found out srom them:
>
> 1. It's expensive!! $30 per mounth + NIS600 for install.
I pay $35 p.m. to actcom for an enhanced account and am happy with it.
Have been for 2 years. If $30 is expensive for a 24 hr open connection w/o
phone plugging and cost, what is cheap ?!
> 2. You don't need any 'cable modem' as they provide you with an Ethernet
> connection at home, so you only need an ethernet card. A 10Mbit like the
> NE2000 is well over the bandwidth you get!
Yes, because they share the cable modem with other people. I don't know
what exactly they are using for modem and what line type.
> 3. Now, about that bandwidth.... They claim in their presentation that
-snip-
> up. Are you ready?: In the SMALL PRINT they wrote:
> We will supply you a SHARED line of 64K together with some other 7
> people (Total 8 connected on a 64K line).
Welcome to distributed networks with statistical use models. It all
depends on whether those 8 people are going to be online together with you
and what they do. Remember the modem pool rules for ISPs provide something
like N/10 modems per PoP, where N is the number of users there. This is
correct for large numbers of N. 8 is a small number and you may end up
using 64k alone most of the time, and at other times be slowed down to 4k
(for short periods).
> AND there is a total transfer
> limitation of ... (Idon't remember exactly, but you probably figured out
> by now that downloading that new Netscape version should be limited by
> your mounth restriction).
Where did you get this info and how recent is it ?
> I did some complicated math: 64K/8=8K per connection. + No volume
> restriction.
> Well sir, I'll just keep my old modem. It can do 33.6K!
That's not the way you compute these numbers. Say the read/download ratio
is 5:1 or so, the actual BW per user is 33.6k/5 ~= 7k. Assuming all 8
users are online at the same time, they require 56k instead of 64k while
'seeing' a speed equal to their old 33.6k modem ! Assuming only 4 people
are online at the same time each 'sees' a 64k channel under the same
conditions. Just how many computer freaks live in your building ;) ?
And, Linuxers are not usual surfers ;)
One last thing: You said d/ling Netscape will last long. Why do you really
care ? The think works 24/7/365, so just start the download and go about
your business. If you d/l a CDROM image at 4k it will take 20 days ;) At
33.6k, about 8 times less, 2.5 days. At 64k, half that, 1.25 days. Now,
the trick is, MOST of the time MOST concurrents aren't downloading at all,
so you can safely say that you will be downloading a cdrom image in about
2 days or less in despite of 8 concurrents, assuming that the internet
cooperates ;)
Long live access statistics !
Peter