Re: [Junk released by Allow List] Re: more on MS networking

[Flash flash@xxxxxxxx]

Y'all,
I'm a bit late on this one, I know. I'm visiting my mother-in-law for
the holidays, and she has no Internet link at all. Talk about retro!
The link from your house to the service provider "POP" (point of
presence) is usually the bottleneck in the system. The POP is where the
first switch (or DSLAM, if you've got DSL: stands for digital
subscriber line access multiplier) resides, usually no more than a mile
away from your house--hence, in some parlance, this part of the loop is
called "the last mile". In many communities, the SPs are still using
copper wire from the house to the POP.
If you have DSL, the speed you get out of the wire is directly but
inversely related to the distance you are from the POP. The SP may
promise you 6 MB, but the farther away you are from the POP, the less
you'll actually get out of it. Of course, their sales people dispute
this, but it's plain physics. By the way, "DSL Modem" is correct
nomenclature; it does exactly what modems do: convert network siganls
(usually Ethernet) to analog telephony signals (different frame format
to Ethernet, different voltage, etc. etc.)--OSI Layer 1. It is also a
"router", because it also does what routers do: namely, link two
different subnets at OSI Layer 3.
To my knnowledge, DSL is copper-wire based technology. I do not know
what it is that Verizon is offering, but if they had to go the local
government to do whatever it was they wanted to do, then it probably
involved laying new cables (possibly fiber) under the pavement (for
which one requires public permits).
For those with cable modems (i.e., Internet access via the TV link),
huge speeds (6 GB or higher) are offered, but bear in mind that you
share bandwidth with everyone else on the street. If you're the first
on your block with cable, you'll be happy. As soon as everyone else is
on the link, too, it'll slow down. If you get only 10% out of a busy 6
GB link, that's still pretty fast.
In any case, fiber optic in the home is not necessary. 100 MB copper
cable is entirely adequate. If your SP line (DSL, Verizon, cable modem,
whatever) is slower than 100 MB, nothing you could do in the home LAN
will increase the link speed. The current widely available wireless
standard is 54 MB; if your SP line is slower than that, don't worry
about upgrading your home WLAN router either. You're not going to get
any increase in speed by changing from copper to wireless.
There is bound to be a bottleneck somewhere; if not on the SP link or
the LAN, then the CPU-to-network card or the pc's internal bus or the
hardisk. As a general principle of networking: You can move the
bottleneck, but not remove it. So pick your spot carefully.

Froehliche Wahnnachten!
> Michael Norman wrote:
> > At 05:16 AM 12/6/2007, Robert Holmgren wrote:
> > > Also, they aren't fiber right up to your machine
> > > -- the last leg is copper wire, and that compromises everything.
> > So what's the point of going FIOS?
> When Verizon came looking for a municipal OK last year, they made a
> presentation to the mayor and council (whose meeting I was covering
> for the local weekly). They SEEMED to be saying that they would have
> to run a new line all the way into your house or flat. Which would
> seem to argue 100 percent fiber. But you cannot believe anything they
> say.
Fiber optic to the house, but copper in the lines running through the
walls. I suppose you get around this by going with a wireless router
for internet and a wireless setup for your TV's.

This generally involved new fiber optic cable
(somewhere along the route) and new junction or
repeater stations (not what they actually called, I
think, but I forget the correct terminology) along the
route. I am currently receiving the top tier of DSL
at less cost (!) than the far slower DSL service I
started with -- which _did_ take some maneuvering
through the system and some wheeling and dealing. It
is nearly as fast as the faster cable modem service
one can get. To get something faster, you're looking
at one of those T-something lines, at many times the
cost.