Back to Tips PageBroadband
Satellite - ISDN - Cable or DSL (Digital
Subscriber line)
Cable
If you are interested in choosing cable, It has a high theoretical throughput. Throughput
measures the amount of data that can be moved across a connection in a given time period.
Its usually represented in kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps)
Be aware that because all households on a cable node (usually around 30-40 homes) share
the same finite amount of bandwidth. Cable users on busy nodes typically end up with
significantly slower connections. To minimize this problem, most cable companies cap
upstream bandwidth at 128Kbps.
This "cap", combined with a shared bandwidth problem, makes cable a poor choice
for anyone who wants to run a web or FTP server. Also MOST cable providers specifically
forbid any sort of server software on their connections.
DSL
Aside from a multitude of technological differences, the biggest differences between cable
and DSL is that you don't have to share your DSL connection with anyone else.
DSL offers slower peak connection speeds than cable, but DSL connections usually have
lower latency than cable connections. Latency is the amount of time it takes data to get
from your computer to the internet; which is measured in milliseconds [ms].
DSL comes in a few versions. Which version is available is dependant on how far you are
located from the phone company's Central Office (CO)
ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line)is the
most popular DSL option because it offers home users the best value for their buck. ADSL
usually offers faster downloads than uploads which works for most people since home users
download far more than they upload. ADSL's maximum upload and download rates drop as you
get further from your CO, and most ISP's wont even attempt to install ADSL if you live
more than 18,000 fee from your CO.
SDSL (Synchronous digital subscriber line)is
another popular choice. Connections are usually more expensive than ADSL, but SDSL is the
ultimate for gamers since synchronous connections allow for much lower pings than even
normal ADSL lines can. It is also the best choice if you are looking to run a game, web or
file-sharing server. It is recommended 256Kbps as a MINIMUM upload speed if you are
looking to host a server. You will also need to find an ISP that doesn't object to you
running a server. SDSL is subject to the same 18,000 foot limitation.
HDSL (High-speed Digital Subscriber Line) delivers
the T1 lines used by ISP and business and offers very high reliability. They are also
compatible with repeater hardware beyond 20,000 feet in case you live far away from your
CO.
IDSL (ISDN Digital subscriber line) a replacement
for standard ISDN. While it doesn't offer the speed of the other DSL's, it works well
beyond the normal range of other DSL's - up to 50,000 feet.
Which every you choose, there are some things you should know before you make the final
decision. Find out in advance what kind of modem you will get. Whether you buy or lease
the hardware. Whether you get a static IP or a dynamic one. Whether your ISP uses Point to
Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE)
Static IP's are good if you plan to host a server or remotely access your home computer
from work. PPPoe is another way to assign the IP address but it requires special software
that your ISP will have to provide.
Satellite
EarthLink is offering a two-way satellite service powered by DirecPC - possibly in advance
of Pegasus Express. The $69.95 monthly EarthLink service has the disadvantage of having
steep upfront charges: $650 for the satellite dish plus $250 for installation, and a
one-year contract commitment. On the plus side, you get 20 hours of analog-modem dial-up
service per month so that, when you travel, you can use your same e-mail address. The
service uses DirecPC's twin modem system with USB. You can find out a lot more about it
from the EarthLink website:
http://www.earthlink.net/broadband/satellite/availability.html
Bits and Bytes
Most DSL providers report download rates in Kbps (Kilobits per second) FTP Servers report
download rates in KB/sec (kilobytes per second). There are 8 BITS to a BYTE, so to figure
out your Kbps just multiplying the number of Kb/sec by 8.
Cable providers usually report Download/Upload speeds in Mbps (Megabits per second) You
can convert Mbps (megabits) to MB (megabytes) the same way you converted KB to Kbps. 1
Mbps = 1000 Kbps
To convert Mbps to Kbps you multiply the Mbps by 1000 Example: 1.5Mbps is also 1,500Kbps.
Websites that check your speeds should report in BITS per second; this is the correct
method used for reporting online speed. (For example, a 56K modem gets its name because it
can operate at maximum speed of 56K BITS per second.) However, many browsers and
speed-measuring software improperly report speeds in BYTES per second. There are 8 BITS in
a BYTE; so a 56K modem can operate at a maximum of 7K BYTES per second. Normally, BITS are
represented by a small "b" and BYTES are represented by a capital "B."
Thus, 7KB and 56Kb are the same speed. Alas, many people disregard these conventions, and
mix BITS and BYTES with abandon--- creating far more confusion than there needs to be.
There are other areas of confusion, too. For example, each byte a modem sends also is
accompanied by some necessary "baggage" called start, stop and parity bits;
sending one byte can take 11 bits, not just the 8 you'd expect.
Modems
Replacing the DSL or Cable modem your ISP provides can be confusing. DSL has 18
incompatible standards. And almost as many for Cable. Most ISP's will only provide
technical support if you use one of the modems they sell
The right modem upgrade will in some cases get you access to advanced features such as the
ability to connect multiple computers to your connection or higher download or upload
speeds.
The main consideration when picking a broadband modem is its interface. Currently 3
interfaces are available: Ethernet, US and PCI. All OS's support Ethernet cards and they
allow you to easily make your broadband connection available to multiple computers. USB
and PCI modems are generally plagued by poor driver support in non-Windows OS's and
neither works well with hardware broadband routers.
I don't recommend that you ever acquire a DSL modem from someone other than your ISP, but
when it comes to cable, you may have some options. There's a fairly well-accepted standard
for cable modems, called DOCSS. Check the modem for a Cable Labs Certification sticker.
Optimize your connection
This involves working with your Registry. These tips are only good for Windows 98, SE
& ME. If you are using NT4, Windows 95 or Windows 2000 check out www.SpeedGuide.net for help. IF you don't want to
work with the registry...read the last paragraph.
The MaxMTU settings gives your computer the size limit for any given piece of information
the machine wants to send to the net. A lower MaxMTU setting is better for slow
connections, but broadband users should be able to crank this up for a bigger performance
boost.
The MaxMTU string value is usually located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current
ControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP. If PMTUDiscovery is set to 1, your computer attempts to
optimize the MTU for each individual connection, instead of using the Maximum value you
just set. Find PMTUDiscovery, double click it, and set it to 0 so it will automatically
use the MaxMTU setting you set above.
DefaultTTL, located in the same subfolder as PMTUDiscovery, controls the amount of time a
packet will persists before it's declared lost and reset. Again find the value and
double-click it. It is recommended testing settings between 32 and 128 to find the best
performance. In order to get this setting to take effect, you'll have to reboot your
Windows.
MaxDupAcks helps reduce network traffic. Its in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\parameters.
Start by setting it to 2, but try different settings between 2 and 6 to find the best
performance.
If you don't feel comfortable fooling with the Registry, several programs available for
free on the net will handle it for you. Try iSpee (www.hms.com)
which allows you to change the settings mentioned above, as well as others from a user
friendly GUI interface. Not only does this save you mucking about in the registry, but it
also gives you some performance tips and works out the tricky math for you.
Trouble shooting DSL
If your PC is freezing regularly, and you are on PPPoE, your computer may be looking around for a DHCP server that does not exist. Check the following:
Open control panel
Open Network
Look for the first entry in the scroll box marked TCP/IP, that is associated with a hardware ethernet card (ignore dialup, AOL and VPN type bindings).
Select it and press properties
Select IP address from the tab
Is Obtain IP address automatically checked? If so, change that to Define IP
address and enter 192.168.1.10, and 255.255.255.0, into IP address and subnet mask fields
respectively will stop the in-built DHCP services from waking up every 10 minutes to
look for a DHCP server
WINIPCFG
You will find many uses for this tool to help you
troubleshoot DSL. Things such as releasing and renewing an IP address, finding which NIC
is active, gateway address, subnet mask, DHCP server, etc. Go to START/RUN and type
winipcfg and click OK.
Sometimes if you're having a problem with your connection, it might be a problem with the
DHCP server. By releasing and renewing the IP address, this might clear things up. You do
this by clicking Release followed by Renew. Or you can Release All and Renew All.
This renews everything (IP, gateway, subnet mask, etc.) From this location, you can also
see which NIC is active (if you have more than one network card installed on your
computer). Click More Info to find out other information about your system.
check this link out http://www.uwo.ca/its/doc/hdi/access/lease.html
DSL providers vary widely in their ability to properly set up (or "provision")
their subscriber lines, but in theory, the speed between your PC and your DSL provider's
office should be consistently at whatever level of service you're paying for. (Many DSL
providers let you specify how fast a line you want, and charge accordingly.) But note that
bottlenecks can occur at any number of places between you and any given web site. Your DSL
provider is only accountable for the sustained throughput speed of that first hop, between
your system and their central office; that speed should be what's specified in your
contract or user agreement.
Cable modem speed *is* less stable and assured than DSL speed; throughput does vary
according to the number of users on each "loop" or segment of the cable network:
The loop as a whole has a finite total bandwidth, and it's simply divvied up among however
many users are online at once. The more total users, the less bandwidth available per
user. However, the total bandwidth available is usually very, very high, and the cable
companies usually do an OK job in sizing the loops: Normally, the total bandwidth remains
more or less adequate on a per-user basis--- although below the levels users may
experience when they're alone on a loop. (And that drop from unshared to shared speeds is
the cause of some complaints: Some users want the whole loop for themselves, all the time.
<g>) And with cable, too, many other factors affect your experience of the web at
large. Bottlenecks can occur at any number of places between you and any given web site.
The site at http://www.dslreports.com is a gold mine of information for seeing how good
(or not) various DSL and Cable vendors are. As you explore the site, you'll see that
problems are not at all uncommon. In particular, the page at http://www.dslreports.com/gbu
shows you user-ratings of various ISPs, xDSL and cable vendors, side by side. The range of
perceived quality and value is astonishing!
The site also has a wealth of tuning tips and tweaks that can help ensure that whatever
bottlenecks occur are not within your own PC. <g> Generally, if you have a decent
vendor in your area, and if you attend to tuning your own system, you should get
acceptable performance from *either* DSL or cable.
WINPOET
Indeed, the commonly-distributed versions of WinPoET does't work with Windows ME. (Just
one more reason not to like that particular version of Windows...) A new version is in the
works.
What are WinPoET and RASPPPoE?
First, you need to know about something called PPPoE, or "Point-to-Point Protocol
over Ethernet." It's described as "specifying how a host personal computer (PC)
interacts with a broadband modem (that is xDSL, cable, wireless) to achieve access to the
growing number of high-speed data networks." Its big advantage is that it's
relatively easy to configure, usually requiring no special knowledge on the part of the
end-user about the networking address, protocols, etc., in use.
WinPoET is one of the very first implementations of "Windows-based PPPoE." It's
implemented in a way that looks and feels like ordinary Dial-up Networking (for
familiarity purposes), but that actually communicates over high-speed broadband
cable/dsl/etc connections, rather than standard modems. RASPPPoE (Remote Access Service
PPoE) is conceptually similar, but based on different code.
DSL and cable hookups don't automatically require WinPoET or RASPPPoE. I use an ordinary
networking setup for my cable modem, for example. but many broadband ISPs are using one or
the other. If yours is one, or if you're thinking about broadband in the future, the link
may help you avoid hassles. If you have trouble with one client, you can try the other.
And for more general information on PPoE and WinPoET, see:
Fact sheet: http://www.wrs.com/ivasion/html/factsheet.html
FAQ:
http://www.wrs.com/ivasion/html/winpoet_faq.html
RASPPPoe: http://sympaticousers.org/links/downloads.htm#raspppoe
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