[Re: @home update]

[Matt Graham]

Edward Glowacki <glowack2@msu.edu> wrote:
> Quoted from Mark Szidik on Fri, Nov 09, 2001 at 12:08:51PM -0500:
> > Thanks for the update.  I don't feel so bad about my DSL
> > connection anymore.  (it has been quite good except for the 3
> > weeks! it was down this summer).
> > 
> > I suppose you saw yesterdays /. article about some people dumping
> > broadband to go back to good old dial-up because its more
> > reliable!

My experience has been totally different from Ed's.  I can barely believe
we're using the same service.  (One ~16 hour outage since August, and the
cablemodem seems to drop carrier every Monday afternoon--push Reset, it comes
back.)  The west side of town's AT&T cable connections certainly go through a
different CO, and AFAIK there are fewer people jumping on the cablemodem train
on the west side.  I may be complaining as much as Ed in 6 months when the
whole apt. complex is on the Information Cowpath.

The horde of untrained ninja Slashbots pointed out several things about that
article:  The writer used the connection mainly for working from home, then
got fired.  If I were out of work, I'd cut costs too, and start with things I
didn't need anymore.
 
> Yeah, I read that one with great interest... =)  I can definately
> see why though... it'll be hard to keep the service when it goes
> up to $45/mo...

Bleah, I think I'd pay twice the going rate for dialup if I had an *always-on*
connect at ~56kbit up/down.  IMHO, the always-on feature of cable/DSL is a
bigger selling point than the speed, since the psychological "Oh, the
bandwidth meter is running" and "Oh, the ISP will drop my carrier if I'm
{inactive for > 30 minutes,on for > 8 hours}" elements aren't present.  Slow
speed + always-on just means you have to plan things out a little better. 
("OK, start grabbing that new ports tree at 11 PM, it'll be done by the time I
wake up.")


-- 
Matt G / Dances With Crows
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
"I backed up my brain to tape, but tar says the tape contains no data...."