broadband in east Watertown

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

On Fri, Jan 17, 2003 at 11:00:42AM -0500, Derek Atkins wrote:
> The major issue I have with the concept of speakeasy (or any other
> DSL) is that I don't think I can get nearly as much capacity as I
> can with the CM, let alone for a decent price.  I'm something like
> 12.5-k' from the CO, and the best that any DSL company will offer me
> is 384kbps, which can't match the 1-3Mb I get from RCN.

What do you do with all that bandwidth?  The radio streams I listen to
are all far short of that many bits.  Web browsing seems to be browser
limited.  I read my e-mail locally off my own server so that is fast.
(Having a static IP is rather important to hosting one's own e-mail.)
And the biggest ftp transfers I do are Red Hat updates, but
ftp://updates.redhat.com usually throttles me before extensive
downloads can finish.

The most annoying speed problems I see are limited bandwidth on the
*other* end, such as when I am part of a slashdot deluge.

Sure, I am looking forward starting to play with my new Covad line
this weekend, and it will supposedly have a lot faster download and
somewhat faster upload than my outgoing Galaxy DSL.

But what am I going to do with it?  I mean, sure, I am certain it will
help sometimes, but when?  And how much?  A static IP seems far more
useful.  (Fairly necessarily, for example, for me to be ssh-ed into my
basement server right now as I write this in mutt.)  It seems arguing
raw speeds of DSL vs. cable modem in 2003 is a bit like arguing about
muscle car horsepower at a time when roads were still all gravel.


-kb, the Kent who found 256Kbps SDSL a *major* qualitative improvement
over a dial-up modem, but the Kent who is skeptical that his next bump
upto 1500/384 will be anywhere near as dramatic, but he will find out.