Re: a number of things

["Steve Crutchfield" SCRUTCH@xxxxxxxx]

An addendum....

A friend of mine has satellite internet access - he can't get DSL in
his remote rural home. He tells me there is a small but annoying wait
between hitting the enter key (or clicking a mouse) and the computer's
response. This is due to the lag in sending the info 25,000 miles
into space and back down again. Its sort of like the amusing lag seen
on TV when CNN asks a remote correspondent a question, and the
correspondent stands mute while the audio feed bounces around in
space.

Steve Crutchfield

≪< "J. R. Fox"  1/ 8 10:47p ≫>
Morris Krok wrote:

>         Patricia talks about DSL. Excuse my ignorance what
does it mean.

Digital Subscriber Line. At the moment, there are three main
competitors in Broadband
internet access: cable modem service, DSL (or variants thereof), and
satellite. Any of

these should be **many** times faster than a 56K dial-up modem -- the
differences for
loading web pages or downloading larger files is _startling_. These
are "always-on"
connections, in contrast to your regular phone service, although DSL
actually
multiplexes
your phone line, such that voice and data traffic can flow
simultaneously, without
cross-interference. A cable modem makes use of your cable-tv line.
In major cities in
this
country, until a few months ago, cable modem or DSL service ran about
$40. a month,
though installation (and possibly the equipment) were extra, with a
one-year service
committment. A recent round of price increases has typically raised
this figure to
around
$50./month. Satellite service has generally been more expensive (this
may be starting
to change), but could be available in some more remote areas not
served by the other
technologies.

For businesses, universities, or those with extremely deep pockets,
there are also T1,
T2,
and T3 lines, which are orders of magnitude faster yet.

I've had DSL service for a little over a year. Perhaps the biggest
problem with it is
that
once you've grown accustomed to it (broadband service in general, I
mean), dropping
back to the use of a dial-up modem seems like cruel and unusual
punishment.

Jordan