Volume 16, Number 6 • June 1999

Last month, my online life at home took a radical turn for the better. I finally broke down and had cable modem access installed.
 

Stepping Up My Access
I should have done this a long time ago. I live in an area where the local phone system is one step above Dixie cups and string. You may have this problem, too. You went out and bought that 56-K modem, hoping to cruise along the Infobahn with your hair blowing in the wind behind you. Instead, you can’t quite shift out of second gear. I was never able to wring more than 28.8 Kbps out of my 56-K modem ... and that was on a good day. There are any number of reasons for this sub-par performance.

First of all, the FCC limits modem speed on the telephone network to about 53 K, and that’s downstream, from the Internet to you. Upstream, these modems top out at about 33.3 K, and that’s under optimum conditions.

Also, the history of 56-K modem technology is, well, funky. For a long time, there were two competing standards—X2 (Rockwell Technology) and K56flex (Lucent Technology). Some Internet providers supported one, some supported the other. Last year, a new standard called V.90 was approved by the International Telecommunications Union (http://www.itu.int). Most folks who bought a 56-K modem prior to V.90 have the capability of upgrading to the new standard by downloading new software from each vendor’s Web site. See the Official V.90 Web site (http://www.v90.com), or check out 3Com’s 56K Central page (3Com bought out Rockwell—http://www.3com.com/56k) or The Official 56K Modem Web site (http://www.k56flex.com) for Lucent-based information. You should find links to applicable V.90 software upgrades for your modem at one of these sites.

Another reason is that noisy or “dirty” phone lines can really put a damper on your modem speed. If you regularly hear buzzing or static when you’re on the telephone, chances are you won’t be able to achieve optimum modem speed. Things like Caller ID, answering machines, and cordless phones add even more line noise. You can try disconnecting these devices one by one to see if the noise diminishes. Alas, this may not help at all if your line noise is caused by nearby power lines, buildings or other environmental factors ... and/or if you’re more than about 3-1/2 miles from the telephone company’s central office ... and/or there is more than one analog-to-digital conversion point along the path to your Internet provider. You can always call the phone company and whine, but that tends to be a waste of energy, since they’re basically obliged only to provide you with a dial tone. Bummer.

If you live in the U.S., you can try 3Com’s LineTest to see if your phone line has any hope of supporting anything approaching 56 K. Find the instructions at http://www.3com.com/56k/need4_56k/linetest.html.

Meanwhile, the mainstream computer press regularly offers any number of hardware and software tweaks to improve your modem speed. To wit:

• ZDNet’s Help Channel (http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/filters/hardware/peripherals/#0)
• CNet’s “Internet Speed Tweaks” (http://www.cnet.com/Content/Features/Howto/Netspeed/index.html?st.cn.Speedrc.rl8.gp)
• PC World’s “Unclog Your Net Access: Part One” (http://www.pcworld.com/current_issue/article/0,1212,3943+1+0,00.html) and “Part Two” (http://www.pcworld.com/heres_how/article/0,1400,7802,00.html)

Is Cable Modem Access for You?
Eventually, however, if you’re a heavy home Internet user, you’re bound to start thinking about higher bandwidth alternatives, especially if you’ve been spoiled by that fat-pipe connection at work. The good news is, prices are dropping and geographic availability is climbing. The bad news is, well, prices may not have dropped low enough where you live, if indeed you are able to find a higher bandwidth provider at all.

For most home users, cable modem service will be the lowest-cost, lowest-hassle solution. You may not be as fortunate as I am, however. In our area, we actually have a choice between two competing cable TV providers—both of whom also offer cable modem service: Time-Warner’s Roadrunner (http://www.rr.com/rdrun) and GTE’s WorldWind (http://www.gtecablemodem.com). Before making a choice, I hopped over to DejaNews ... er, Deja.com (“To better reflect all the features that the site now offers, we’ve changed our name to the simpler Deja.com ... Building on our traditional base of discussion forums, we’ve added new features to extend and enhance the people-driven elements of the site, and improved the navigation.” Yada yada yada—http://www.deja.com). At any rate, this is still where you go to search the Usenet newsgroups. In this case, I was interested in comp.dcom.modems.cable, where the technology and service providers are raked over the coals on a daily basis.

Ultimately, since Time-Warner’s been in the cable modem business a lot longer around here, and since I was already a Time-Warner cable TV subscriber, I opted for Roadrunner. Around here, it costs $39.95 a month if you are also one of the company’s cable TV customers. (The GTE service is comparable.) I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Hoo boy! Forty bucks a month for Internet access?” Consider, however, that the cable company is now your ISP, so you can drop your current ISP (average cost: $19.95 per month). You can also dispense with your second (and third, in our case) phone line. When you have cable modem access, your computer is always “on the Internet.” The modem stays on all the time; you log in and out as you please, or you can just leave your PC connected 24/7. Your phone line is always free and clear (unless a teenager lives with you). So $39.95 all of a sudden doesn’t look so bad.

Standard installation charge is a one-time $99, but special deals abound. I paid $45 (and a month later, saw an ad touting free installation). My installation was a two-man job. A contract PC tech came to the house to install and configure a network card and the Roadrunner software. While he was still here, the cable guy showed up, bringing the modem. Essentially, his job was to split the cable connection to my house into two parts—one for the TV and one for the PC. He ran new cable, hooked up the modem, climbed a nearby utility pole to tweak something, and then (wowie kazowie!) I was online! It worked great right from the start. I’ve had it for a couple months now, and I have yet to see any downtime.

Figure 1

MODEM SPEED/TYPE	TRANSFER TIME
9.6-Kbps telephone modem	2.3 hours
14.4-Kbps telephone modem	1.5 hours
28.8-Kbps telephone modem	46 minutes
56-Kbps telephone modem	24 minutes
128-Kbps ISDN modem	10 minutes
1.54-Mbps T-1 connection	52 seconds
4-Mbps cable modem	20 seconds
10-Mbps cable modem	8 seconds

How fast is it? See Figure 1 for a comparison.

Your mileage, of course, may vary. Some caveats:

• Your PC may not be able to keep up with the cable modem, which sends data to your computer via an Ethernet card. Although the cable modem may be receiving data at 10 Mbps (megabits per second) or higher, your PC can only read data at the rate your network interface card can handle.
• The cable network may not always be as fast as the cable modem. This is no different than with a regular dial-up Internet provider; the Net is only as fast as the slowest server. Some cable providers cache, or store, popular Web sites on their own servers for faster delivery to their subscribers.
• The more people tapping into your local cable network node, the slower your service will be. This is just like the LAN at work, when some yutz decides to e-mail a 10-MB PowerPoint presentation to a long list of different people. Cable modem access is still going to be a whole lot faster than standard dial-up, but if everyone in your neighborhood is a fellow subscriber, and they all like to hop online at the same time ... well, that’s life.
• “Upstream” speed—from your PC to the cable operator—is generally much slower than “downstream” speed, inasmuch as cable networks were originally designed to transmit data one way only: to you rather than from you. But virtually all home users are sucking megabits down from the Net rather than pushing megabits the other way (and cable providers will definitely yank your connection should you try and run a Web server off of it). Also, larger companies with the bucks to upgrade their networks to fiber optic, etc. are reducing the impact of this problem in today’s competitive environment.

Keep in mind that this is an industry in constant flux; ongoing mergers and acquisitions make it very difficult to keep up with who is offering what where. Most larger cable providers offer Internet access, either directly or through a partner: @Home Network (http://www.home.net), CableVision (http://www.cablevision.com/cvhome/frame/finet.htm), ComCast (http://www.comcastonline.com), Cox @Home (http://www.cox.com/CoxatHome), MediaOne Express (http://www.mediaoneexpress.com), Rogers @Home (http://rogers.home.com), TCI (http://www.tci.net).
 

Other Possibilities
Are there alternatives to cable modem service for the home user? At one time, it was easy to say, “It depends on what your local telephone company has to offer.” But in some locales, competition is creeping in at the local level, and there’s no telling who might be offering what in your neck of the woods. The two main high-speed Internet technologies of interest to home users and small businesses are ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Lines) and ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). ADSL works via your existing phone line, using filters to split it into different channels. ISDN requires separate, special lines. Since cable modem service is not generally available to commercial entities, these may be the most reasonable solutions for the small (non-home-based) business that needs higher bandwidth but can’t afford a T-1 connection, for example. Prices tend to be all over the map—from competitive with cable modem service to exorbitant. I have no personal experience with these services, but I do know of a few good Net resources:

• Dan Kegel’s ISDN Page (http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/index.html)
• ISDN InfoCentre (http://www.isdn.ocn.com)
• Dan Kegel’s ADSL Page (http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/adsl.html)
• ASDL Forum’s FAQ (http://www.adsl.com/faq.html)

 It’s still the Wild, Wild West out there ...
 

Some Interesting Stuff
I’ve been spring cleaning here at the old PC—tossing out stale URLs and adding new ones. Here are some intriguing sites that have crossed my radar screen within the past couple of weeks:

• Daily Diffs (http://www.dailydiffs.com): “Daily Diffs monitors changes on tens of thousands of pages, all hand-selected for quality and usefulness. Every day, we publish brand new changes and history for over 4,000 dynamic pages.” This service subdivides changes under some useful subject headings, including computers and programming, environment, etc.
• Euroguide (http://www.euroguide.org): Kind of like an EU-oriented Yahoo!, Euroguide will help you find your way through the maze of European information on the Internet.
• Orientation (http://eeu.orientation.com): For Europe and beyond, this site carries a collection of links to regional search engines and directories for Asia, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin American & the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Oceania.
• Fishsearch (http://fishsearch.com): Fishing is something most people either like or hate. Even if you’re not an enthusiast, you’ve probably got friends, relatives, coworkers, or customers who are. Fishsearch provides a searchable subject index about fishing—fishing tools, fishing trips, taxidermy, etc.
• Library Juice (http://libr.org/Juice): “Library Juice is a current awareness service for library and information science students, librarians, and other interested people. It includes announcements, many web resources, calls for papers, and news items. Much of the material has a social-responsibilities or intellectual freedom focus.”

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