Cable Modems to be 1000x faster in 2008
 

Sounds good... bring it on. I have Comcast internet and it's generally been very good. But yesterday we had about a 6 hour outage. I finally gave up trying to contact customer service after getting a busy signal 7 or 8 times... it was obvious that I wasn't the only one having a problem...

We know they have the means, but where is the will? They are going to give us as little as they can. I would switch to Verizon FIOS if it were locally available.

same here: shame it's only in florida and california (or something like that).

I'm doubting that they hit a %1000 percent. Maybe 500 percent but I'd take either.

Even 100% increase would be unbelieveable! I get 3.5 megs downloads sometimes....7 megs would be awesome and just about enough to stream DVD movies.

Introducing Internet 2 - the next generation internet
 

There is a technology currently being used by colleges called Internet 2. Apparently it was developed by Georgia Tech in Atlanta but is used across universities to move huge amounts of data. I just saw a local news story on Tech students being in trouble for apparently using it to download media, songs, etc., illegally. It was said that this technology allows the ability to download a DVD movie at DVD quality in about 30 seconds. Uhhh, that changes everything.

<<<-- Originally posted by Christopher C. Murphy : ... just about enough to stream DVD movies. -->>>

At that time you'll need to stream HD-DVD movies, so it's still gonna take same or more time :)

RE FIOS: Check their user agreement. It bars the hosting of "servers" of any kind. That means no web servers, rtsp servers, VNC servers..... What good is the uplink bandwidh if you can't use it?

But then they give you a free website on their servers. A whopping 10 Mbyte. How many seconds of video is that?

<<<-- Originally posted by A. J. deLange : What good is the uplink bandwidh if you can't use it? -->>>

Seems like a better question would be "What good is the uplink bandwidth if it's being hogged by a bunch of streaming video servers" ;-)

That certainly would be their point of view: "We must protect our resources". Mine is that if they are going to take your money based on an offer of 2 mbps uplink then your use of 2 mbps up isn't hogging - it's using what you have paid for. Dangling 2 mbps in front of the consumer - most of whom are scarcely sophisticated enough about networking to understand - and then disallowing use of it is, IMO, deceptive advertizing.

The cable suppliers generally have the same language in their user agreements, BTW. The means that they use to prevent hosting of servers are easily and widely surmounted so it's really a question of whether or not they decide to enforce this provision of the agreement. Problem is that they can pull the rug out from under you at will at any time they want and you have agreed to it. Remember that "servers" do lots of things. If you use Fugu or FTP to get a file off your machine at home onto your machine at work you are using a server. If you have a web cam or security cam at home that you check from time to time while away you are using a server. If you VNC or Telnet or SSH into you machine for any purpose at any time you are using servers on your machine.

It is not entirely deceptive...all ISPs have a "reasonable use" clause, meaning you are entitled to transfer a certain (not necessarily fixed) amount of traffic. Beyond that, your connection may be cut or throttled. This is done so the small fraction of users who use the most bandwidth do not effectively steal the bandwidth (which is a pooled resource, after all) from the other users.

If it said that the uplink bandwidth was 2mbps and that for my $39.95 a month I could transfer so many gbit after which I would be charged so much more per gbit I would be fine with that but it doesn't. It says no servers of any kind.

Just thought of another kind of server: rtp - the basis for VOIP. How do we suppose Verizon feels about VOIP?

Just an update to this thread...I've been getting over 6 megs a second on Comcast for a while now.

I'm able to stream Apple's HD trailers in real time!

And an update from northern Va.: Verizon installed FIOS in my neighborhood. The response of the cable company (Cox) was to mail everyone a new cable modem and upgrade service to 5 mbps down, 2 mbps up for the same price. And they deliver these rates. So despite my all my whining FIOS did turn out to be a great benefit to me!