Fiber optics needs to be more widely available for digital HD downloads to become a contander. Cable speeds right now are decent.

quote:

Originally posted by junkproject Fiber optics needs to be more widely available for digital HD downloads to become a contander. Cable speeds right now are decent.

yep... only a few places have 15Mbps+ DSL and 20Mbps+ cable.. I'm only at 10M/1M cable but sitll beats the hell out of 6M/512K dsl in my area was told that it should be upgraded later this summer to 12-16M

Little off topic, but...

Cable companies' traditional business model is to control what you watch, and how you watch it, thru their cable boxes, and DOCSIS standards. This is again bad for us consumers who use the internet, because they are doing the same things to our internets now as they did to our cable tv's back in the day. Limiting services such as bittorrent, or prioritizing other services such as http traffic ("powerboost" anyone?) Its not actually faster, its slower, but the traffic is prioritized in such a way that it appears faster to the average user. These techniques also hinder speed tests from working correctly.

Don't support Comcast in their goal of taking over the world, and telling you what you can do with an internet connection.

Go get a real connection provided by a local ISP, and you'll see some sharp differences... It may not be faster, but they aren't messing with the content flowing between you and them.

quote:

Originally posted by toolman667 Little off topic, but... Cable companies' traditional business model is to control what you watch, and how you watch it, thru their cable boxes, and DOCSIS standards. This is again bad for us consumers who use the internet, because they are doing the same things to our internets now as they did to our cable tv's back in the day. Limiting services such as bittorrent, or prioritizing other services such as http traffic ("powerboost" anyone?) Its not actually faster, its slower, but the traffic is prioritized in such a way that it appears faster to the average user. These techniques also hinder speed tests from working correctly. Don't support Comcast in their goal of taking over the world, and telling you what you can do with an internet connection. Go get a real connection provided by a local ISP, and you'll see some sharp differences... It may not be faster, but they aren't messing with the content flowing between you and them.

that is why you use encryption but ya i understand that aspect and its not just Comcast/cable companies but a lot of media/telecom companies. Also powerboost is really nice. You can be downloading at 26Mbps for about a minute then gradually slows down to your normal speeds. Great for quick downloads. Same thing for uploads. I honestly see zero problems with it.

quote:

Originally posted by rizo that is why you use encryption but ya i understand that aspect and its not just Comcast/cable companies but a lot of media/telecom companies. Also powerboost is really nice. You can be downloading at 26Mbps for about a minute then gradually slows down to your normal speeds. Great for quick downloads. Same thing for uploads. I honestly see zero problems with it.

From a network engineer perspective, its a terrible thing. Now "certain" packets are prioritized in a closed manner (no documentation on what or when). So you don't know if you have a problem or not and have to look even further into the equation.

From a user's perspective... if I am downloading something that I have been downloading for a long time (DVDR), and my neighbor comes home from work and gets into one of his heavy porn viewing sessions... my download now is hindered, even tho my connection (the download) has been running longer than any of his sessions. How is this fair? Instead of remaining neutral to all parties involved, we now prioritize the ones who demand the least from the internet... this seems backwards to me.

Powerboost is terrible for the internet and the existing neutrality of it.

So If im chilling at a bar all night, and a seat finally opens up at the bar (location for most efficient drink refills), and then someone just cuts in because they requested a drink... he gets filled first instead of the person who waited the longest and who was there first... seems like no problem to me

Comcast took an existing technology that was used for prioritizing actual "time critical" packets (ie, VOIP) and used it in the worst way possible, to actually prioritize NON time critical packets. So in effect they have made their own standards that are not internet standards, and are part of no existing protocol, all to make a buck. This is not how or why the internet was created, nor will it be the way it will be sustained. Too bad most people have no idea of the internal workings of the internet (I don't blame them), and therefore wouldn't even care if Comcast kept doing what they are doing, until its too late and the internet wont at all allow your porn thru anymore unless you give someone money.

Hopefully more people will wake up to what comcast is actually doing, and cancel their accounts and sign up for local, honorable ISPs only interested in providing you with a connection to it, and not whats going down (or up) that connection. (This is the idea of a "Free Market")

edit: BTW, encryption is actually the answer, but the "internet" as a whole has not hopped on the https bandwagon yet, unfortunately.

Last edited by toolman667 on Feb-20-2008 at 23:58

Ya, it sucks that the prioritization is closed (although I assume p2p protocols are the very bottom of the list while normal http/ftp usage is at the top). Still, I've honestly have not had a problem with powerboost. As for sharing the bandwidth onces your neighbor comes home has always been a problem with cable yet ive never experienced it at my current residence or previous one but have read about it.

quote:

Originally posted by rizo Ya, it sucks that the prioritization is closed (although I assume p2p protocols are the very bottom of the list while normal http/ftp usage is at the top)

I assume the same. But thats like having Apple tell you what type of music you can listen to on their "iPods", and how much of it.

If they pulled that shit, the fanbois will have a field day claiming that it was the right thing to do because so many people abuse the iPods by putting their own music on it, instead of only what comes from iTunes.

Except people generally understand how a mp3 player works, and don't understand whats involved every time you type "www.google.com".