[wplug] Pittsburgh DSL questions

[Steven Leach]

On Feb 15, 2004, at 11:51 PM, Lance Tost wrote:

> On Sun, 15 Feb 2004, Drew from Zhrodague wrote:
>> 	For connectivity, DSL is a crappy technology. This is the
>> twenty-first century. We should not be using circa 1800's technology 
>> in
>> this day and age in the form of unshielded untwisted copper pair.
>
> According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coax_cable#Timeline, 
> coax
> cable was patented in 1884 :)

I would also point out that old technology needn't be replaced just 
because it is old.  The bicycle is 1800's technology as well, and is 
still more practical than something super-modern like the segway.   To 
paraphrase Neil Postman, the question to ask with any new and 
revolutionary technology is "what is the problem to which this is the 
solution".  Cable internet is great for downloading mail and web 
access.  That's what I've got right now, download speeds are terrific.  
Upload speeds are rather poor but usually irrelevant.  For a while I 
was having constant problems with outages but the third time they reran 
the cable from the street seems to have finally fixed it (I hope).

>> 	Cable is the way to go for residential connectivity.
>
> Not for me.  Not without static IPs and not with that ridiculously low
> upstream cap.  I've also heard many complaints of cable getting 
> dog-slow
> when your whole neighborhood is on browsing... No personal experience
> though.  One of my in-laws has a problem where they sometimes have to 
> shut
> off their cable modem and *unplug* their cable from it for 5 minutes to
> get it to work again.
>

I'm not sure who the predominant/only cable internet provider is for 
Pittsburgh as I have not checked into cable much, but if it is Comcast 
then you also have to deal with the fact that just about every useful 
port is blocked.

---------------------------------------------------------
http://homepage.mac.com/stevenaleach/
I am not cynical.  I am not bitter.  I just believe that if you aren't 
angry then you aren't paying enough attention.