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The Dark Side of (Broadband: Pick Cheap or Speedy)
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2003 17:46:35 -0400
Actually I would love to use DSL rather than cable BUT for some totally unknown reason Verizon will not offer me DSL even though neighbors have it and my old apartment in Pgh 1 lock away had it. Even the Verizon installer did not know why.
Dave From: David Mercer <radix42 () cox net> Dave, I've been a Cox Cable subscriber for over a year. Before that, I'd had a number of DSL ISP's that I connected to via Qwest DSL since 1998. Cox isindeed very fast, when my link isn't saturated with scanning traffic from various worms and script kiddies looking for holes in my network. And I mean saturated.
Various calls for broadband ISP's to firewall consumer networks may have merit, but in the case of cable modems, it's a shared network in each cable segment, which is most like Ethernet with a hub instead of a switch. DSL providers can truly filter out unwanted inbound traffic, as each customer is on a point to point link. But cable providers can't because of the type of physical network in place. Which is why, the slower speed notwithstanding, I'm thinking about moving back to DSL. Smaller local ISP's that you connect to via the RBOC's DSL networks will happily firewall your link however you like if you are a 'business class'customer. Larger carriers will of course only do this for much larger customers.
But what good does a 3-5Mbps link do me when it's clogged with hostile nonsense traffic? I need it for work, not just for play. Thanks, David MercerTucson, AZ
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- The Dark Side of (Broadband: Pick Cheap or Speedy) Dave Farber (Oct 05)