No, you don't retain your local ISP for uploading. In the case of DirecPC, you dial back to HNS's NOS via regular phone line and modem. Inside NOS, they will route you upload requests to the ISP you selected. So in all cases, no matter download or upload, you need your ISP, such as AOL or EarthLink. DirecPC only provides
access method, they don't provide contents. They are not a portal service. The fastest download speed is very slow at 400k range. The most annoying thing is the round trip delay, it could be 2-4 seconds. Hughes did something in their software to spoof it so that it doesn't look so bad to the user. Pricing is not attractive either, you must pay DirecPC then you pay ISP. This two payments is more expensive than $40 TCI@Home charges. DirecPC's penetration rate is minimal. Their service has been out for 3 years, but I never heard of any one personally using their service. Maybe too expensive. May be too complicated to set it up. However, I heard @Home everywhere. Just the other day my friend told me that his friend just installed @Home and impressed wtih the speed.
ATHM is a content provider as well as an access provider. That is a big difference.
|
