April 5, 2010
GOVERNMENT GOODIES
BROADBAND
While high-visibility battles are fought over health care and regulation of financial institutions, there are equally important things happening at a lower level, as federal agencies begin to reassert themselves under the leadership of people who believe in the mission of those agencies instead of seeking to undermine them.
The Obama administration recently called attention to its plan to extend broadband coverage and speeds, which (of course) includes a nicely-designed FCC web site filled with information and links. Even if you don’t spend time reading about the broadband initiative, you might want to visit […] continued
July 30, 2009
COMCAST POSTSCRIPT
Ace consultant Brian Dent of CompuDent Systems points out an interesting corollary to the speed increases from Comcast:
Just one caveat I’ve run into. A lot of the existing routers can’t handle a 50Mbps incoming signal. I have a 50Mbps account with a SonicWALL TZ 180e 25U. The ports are 100Mbps but the throughput is limited to 20Mbps. So you can get all this speed but it doesn’t do you any good if the equipment in-between can’t accept it.
And another little gotcha that some people might not be aware of regarding network speeds. My Dell notebook has
[…] continued
July 29, 2009
COMCAST SPEED INCREASE
Comcast Internet subscribers in the North Bay are getting a free speed increase, and some new choices for even faster Internet connections. Here’s today’s press release. The increase covers much of Northern California, including all of Sonoma and Marin counties.
Residential customers are supposed to have their speeds doubled for free, effective immediately. For most people, that would be 12Mbps downstream/2Mbps upstream speed. It’s difficult to measure the true speed of a Comcast connection – they use special technology to boost the first 30 seconds of a download, which fools many of the speed tests. Comcast connections are […] continued
April 8, 2009
SUBSIDIZED NETBOOKS
Netbooks will be widespread by the end of the year, shaking up the PC market and changing our world in ways that will be more dramatic than you expect. You might not have foreseen one of the ways they’ll be distributed – sold and subsidized by the cell phone carriers.
Many notebook computer users are familiar with the concept of a separate “mobile broadband” device built into the notebook, or plugged into a USB port, that gives the computer an Internet connection anywhere within a cell phone carrier’s network. Dell has been selling Verizon and Sprint internal modems with […] continued
January 15, 2009
THE TIES THAT BIND (AND BREAK)
This doesn’t affect you directly but it’s an interesting glimpse at How Things Work.
The vast bulk of international voice and Internet traffic travels through underwater cables. There were several reports in 2008 of broken or cut cables in the Mediterranean, giving rise to conspiracy theories and talk of terrorists, and making us wonder a bit about whether the Internet is really as invulnerable as we were led to think. In January, two cables were cut in the Mediterranean, causing Internet disruptions and slowdowns for users in the Middle East and India. On December 19, three more […] continued
December 15, 2008
TROUBLESHOOTING A SLOW INTERNET CONNECTION
Sometimes you’ll hear me groan or sob quietly when you describe a simple problem. Let me give you an idea of some of the things that go through my head when a problem comes up. Take this as an example:
“My Internet connection is slow.”
Your Internet connection is fine; your computer is slow.
Your computer is running normally but it has malware installed that is using up all your bandwidth sending out spam email.
Your computer’s network card is going bad and needs to be replaced.
Your connection is saturated by another computer in the house that’s downloading
[…] continued
September 13, 2008
COMCAST POWERBOOST & SPEED TESTS
I was testing Speed.io, a new site for measuring the speed of an Internet connection and displaying it in a lovely way. (I’ve put in on the bruceb favorites page under Internet / Online Tools, joining an old favorite, Bandwidth Speed Test.)
The test results reminded me that Comcast’s PowerBoost technology really does improve the online experience. DSL has nothing like it. Comcast boosts the speed of just about every connection to a new web page or file for the first thirty seconds or so. That’s enough to load virtually any web page nearly instantly (or […] continued
August 24, 2008
AT&T TECH SUPPORT vs. ETERNAL DAMNATION – A TOSSUP
I’m occasionally asked why I have such a negative opinion of AT&T’s DSL service.
This chilling account should answer that question – a complete log of one person’s experiences on two different occasions, dealing each time with more than a dozen customer support reps over a period of more than three hours each, on problems that should have been simple. A slow DSL connection at home, a failed login to AT&T wireless service, problems that should have required five minutes but turned into hellish nightmares.
I’ll add one more awful, unforgiveable story, just the latest in my own run […] continued
August 14, 2008
VERIZON MOBILE WIRELESS FUN
I have a Verizon mobile wireless adapter built into my Dell Latitude D630. I pay sixty bucks a month so I can connect to a reasonably fast EVDO broadband connection from just about anywhere. It’s becoming a standard accessory for business travellers who don’t want to hassle with conventional wireless.
A few days ago, there was a lengthy delay when I clicked the Connect button – “wait while your equipment is updated,” something like that.
It stopped working after that, although I didn’t recognize the coincidence for a while. I just knew that this error message came up when […] continued
July 30, 2008
WHAT I USE
On the assumption that my choices are endlessly fascinating to an ever-growing number of people – really, really bored people – I’ve added a page with details about the hardware and software that I use here at the high-tech headquarters of bruceb consulting. I’ll try to keep it up to date. Heck, my computers are happy – you could do worse than follow my example in precise detail.
Click here for all the prurient details!