Well, I am using @Home now. I just downloaded a copy of Netscape 4.0 from the Netscape server at an average rate of about 1.6Mbit/sec (about 200Kbytes/sec). I haven't tested closer to home to see how fast it will go, but I was told that up to 4Mbit/sec is possible.
They sent two installation people, one was more the "computer guy" and the other was more the "cable guy". They didn't need to do anything outside, but the "cable guy" noticed that my cable was marked wrong, so that if they every disconnected my neighbor, I'd be disconnected instead. They fixed that.
Since my machine was already set-up with an Ethernet card (I have an external ISDN router) they didn't have to install any software, and respected my wishes not to disturb my software installation. They changed the network settings in my control panel (basically just set to "get IP address automatically") and it was working.
Other than that, they changed my Netscape setup to use their proxy. They explained that I could choose to use the proxy or not - if you use the proxy you benefit from cached pages. I decided to give it a shot. (SI's home page is obviously cached. :) ) They told me the address of the @Home services home page (simply: www) should I choose to use it.
They stumbled a bit configuring Eudora, but that's reasonable considering that they don't support Eudora. :) (Eudora is a bit odd in how you specify the POP server - you have to give your account name, @, and the pop server address) but I finally convinced them to try it the way I thought it would work, and I had e-mail up.
In all, the installation took about 1/2 hour and there were no hitches. But then, they indicated that this one would go fast since they didn't have to install an Ethernet card or any software.
The guy who did the computer installation apparently runs a computer installation business on the side. They seem to have gotten the right people - he seemed to understand most everything (he wasn't able to answer whether or not incoming low IP ports are blocked, but hey, this is a big step up from installing cable boxes! He did say that he'd run a web server on his machine at home during their test period...)
I think for many people, but fact that they come out and set everything up could be a big plus. Think about how much time the typical computer neophyte must spend setting up an analog modem and Internet service!
I learned that their current bandwidth out of San Diego is 10MB/sec, but they have a 45MB/sec connection coming. I did some traceroutes, and I was pleased to find out that @Home does have peering with MCI, so they avoid the dreaded NAPs on a lot of paths. (A tracert to www.uu.net was less promising - it went through MAE-E to SprintLink, to UUnet.)
I haven't explored content much. One thing that I noticed is that the home page was designed for 640x480, and so looks a little lost on my 1280x1024 screen. :) With a quick look-around, I didn't see any really proprietary content, but they've made some good choices on sites to partner with, and those sites came up very quickly. I hadn't thought that I would actually use any of their content, but with the speed with with pages come up, I will seriously consider using the San Diego Union-Tribune's Sign-On San Diego site (e.g. instead of reading the paper) which is their local news site.
I discussed bandwidth issues with the installer, and he seemed well-informed, and it seemed that they are planning things well. They are currently at 1000 homes/concentrator (that is, there is a return fiber for every 1000 homes that could be potentially served), and will drop to 500 or less as they build-out the system. He said that they are avoiding building-out the system too quickly "which may annoy some people" but indicated that they didn't want to make the mistake that other companies had made in suddenly trying to hook-up everyone at once.
I have some issues to figure out on how to hook-up my second computer, how to network my computers back together, etc. Fortunately, I have access to some people in the industry, and know quite a bit about TCP/IP, so I can probably figure it out. (I plan on switching to NT and using the NT proxy server). This is not currently a big issue with a lot of people, but will once people have a computer in the living room, kid's computer, etc. so they obviously will have to do some work in this area.
Overall, very positive, more than I expected. |
