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Pastimes : Computer Learning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PMS Witch who wrote (4597)	7/21/1999 5:51:00 PM
From: Cheeky Kid	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110652

PMS, I use @Home Great!! I had bugs late last year, but now, no problems and it's now very very rare the system ever goes down. The software is on my firewall, (set-up simple) doesn't take up much space, still uses the browser like Netscape or IE but they added links in there to their web site for custom options, e-mail, web space, etc.. (I don't use their version of Netscape or IE, I use the public versions) Call tech support during the day. Night calls are long hold times. I haven't called support for 6 months. Want to see a fast DL: unicus.com 2 days ago from the MS site, I was downloading a demo almost 11 MB it took under 2 minutes.

To: PMS Witch who wrote (4597)	7/21/1999 6:14:00 PM
From: wily	Respond to of 110652

I don't have @Home, but I have cable. It's the mother of no-brainers (individual results may vary. A while ago I heard scattered reports of nightmare situations in some @home locales. Depending on how the system is implemented, it's possible that if you have too many neighbors getting the service your bandwidth can shrink to near-zero at busy times. OTOH, I think it is not necessary for them to set it up this way. I believe that Time Warner doesn't do this (that's who I have and the service has been excellent). Also, I haven't heard of any of those incidents recently but it wouldn't hurt to ask questions). My download speeds are similar to CK's. w

To: PMS Witch who wrote (4597)	7/25/1999 10:40:00 PM
From: RJL	Respond to of 110652

@HOME...go with it, or stick with dial-up. "1) Is it reliable?" Yes and no. Some people say it's great, I disagree. As it's been stated many times, the more people you have in you area that are using cable Internet access and are on simultaneously, the slower it gets since you're all using the same 'pipe'. And although download speeds can get pretty high, it often depends on the server on the other end. Symantec's FTP server happens to be one of the fastest I've ever seen. (450k/sec) Still, it smokes dial-up hands-down. For the cost involved, might as well go with it. However, if the company has only recently begun offering the service, don't be surprised to see the occasional outage. "2) Is 'their' browser, a special version of IE or Nav, good or bad?" Some companies don't give you a special browser to use and allow you to use the standard Navigator or IE. I've also seen some that have some rather interesting proxy layouts for the browser that require multiple windows to be opened. (Pain in the *** if you ask me) On a security note, much has been said about how easy it is get access to your neighbors computers if they are also on cable because of certain port access flaws. I would check with the company offering the service regarding this issue. Another note for you...If you have multiple systems, it's a piece of cake to split the access and share it among a few computers with the use of modem sharing software (Sygate, Wingate). They often don't care if you use more bandwith for download, but uploading space is fairly precious...so don't try and start an MP3 server. "3) Does it eat much disk space?" Minimal. No more than a standard dial-up account. "4) Any experience with technical issues or support?" Loaded question. Check the FAQ from @Home and the local company offering the service. Any other issues that come up...just ask. All in all, I would not hesitate if you have it. I happen to be lucky enough to have ADSL (which IMO beats cable)...but that's another issue altogether. Rich