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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ryno who wrote (4367)	1/17/1999 2:27:00 PM
From: Jing Qian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Despite my believe that Cable will eventually win out(it's already is in the lead!). I would visualize the near broadband future as a pie being divided by Cable and DSL technologies. Both access will attract a lot of consumers. And both will make a lot of money. The Internet penetration rate is still very small in the world, there is tremenduous room for both technologies. I feel it is not a good way to think that Cable will monopolize, or the vise versa. Sometimes I found my self to be thinking this too often. Besides, Cable access and @Home will be AT&T's last chance to grab a straw in the sea of Internet access. I don't think AT&T will screw up this time. This is their LAST CHANCE.

To: Ryno who wrote (4367)	1/17/1999 2:42:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 29970

Ryno, welcome aboard. >>The only way I know of to submit text to this or any other SI thread is to “respond” to a message. However, since this message really is not a “response” to the previous, I would like to know how to post text without “responding” (ie. A message listed as To ryno, and From ryno).<< Some threads, such as the ARTT thread, will allow you to reply to the starter page. Others, for some reason, don't. So you have no recourse but to tag your message on the back of the last poster, or to post to yourself if you have already posted once before. Such are the memes of SI Space right now. From the sounds of things, I think that you would be well served by going to the @Home web site at home.com and reading up on the company. As a form of starter, I'll offer some replies to your questions below: >>1. How does the television cable company fit into the process? << ATHM is not a cable company, per se, rather they are an enhanced form of internet service provider, or ISP. >>2. Do they (telephone cable) essentially take the place of a traditional ISP by linking on one end to the Internet backbone and on the other end to a home computer? << First, telephone lines are not used (yet, except for @Work's offerings where DSL techs will play a part), rather they use cable TV company facilities in the way of hybrid fiber-coaxial systems. The cable TV multiple system operators, or MSOs, who own ATHM are responsible for tieing end users to the MSO operator's head ends (cenrtal sites), and from the HEs, connections are established to the Internet's Backbone. >>3. What is the technology provided by ATHM? << WWW technology, hosting, caching, all the things that an ISP would do, and plans are in place to supersede those, with high bandwidth enabling. >>4. And how does the actual Internet Protocol that eventually gets adopted as a standard affect ATHM's involvement in whatever their current role is?<< IP is the core staple of ATHM's delivery mechanism. For this, you may want to look at some tutorials that others here may want to offer up... gotta run now. Good Luck, Frank Coluccio

To: Ryno who wrote (4367)	1/17/1999 10:20:00 PM
From: SOROS	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 29970

Dear Ryno, I finally found a simple explanation on all this. AVAILABILITY??? ISDN -- Metropolitan areas -- line limit of 18,000 cable feet from the nearest switching station SATELLITE -- Anywhere that has an unobstructed view to the south ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) -- 12,000-18,000 cable feet from the phone company switch, plus new switches Cable -- very limited metropolitan areas . . . . . DOWNLOAD SPEEDS (per second)??? ISDN -- 128K SATELLITE -- 400K (some complaints about system getting bogged down during peak times, plus some lag, so no good for interactive games or Telnet) ADSL -- up to 1500K, but costs seem to be prohibitive at this speed -- for comparative purposes, say 256-512K CABLE -- 1.5 - 4 Mb! (you lucky stiffs) -- Networks must keep upgrading as subscriber base increases or speed will suffer the same as an office on a LAN -- more people, more waiting . . . . . SPEED TRANSLATION (time to download a 2MB file)??? 28.8 modem -- 10 MINUTES ISDN -- 120 SECONDS SATELLITE -- 40 SECONDS ADSL -- 5-50 SECONDS (depending on service and cost -- average probably 25 SECONDS -- someone correct me if this is wrong) CABLE -- 0-2 SECONDS! (Someone tell me this is NOT true!) . . . . . COSTS??? ISDN -- terminal adaptor ($100); Per month varies state to state ($30-$300) SATELLITE -- hardware ($300); Per month (100 hours for $35 -- PLUS your ISP fee you are using now) ADSL -- Per month ($40 for 256K, $65 for 512K, less than $150 for 1000K -- this may have changed?) Cable -- Ethernet card ($50-$80); Per month ($30-$50) . . . . . What are your chances of having one of these connections to the Internet???? One survey says by the year 2000, of those homes with Internet access: 65% will use 56K modems 7% will use cable modems 5% will use ISDN 3% will use ADSL . . . . . SO, I guess the people with cable access are the lucky ones right now, but that is a small number of individuals. For me, living on a mountain near nothing, pretty much means I will go the Satellite route for now -- until some genius invents a NEW technology that uses existing wiring!