[Loch-Ruadh] shoppin

Sat Feb 21 00:31:18 PST 2004

Just my two cents...take it for what it's worth...

I'll have to disagree with the part of a firewall being useless on a dialup
connection.  There are viruses out there that broadcast out on common
'Windows' ports it doesn't matter if you have a static IP or a dynamic one
(one that changes when you reconnect to the internet), you will get scanned
by these viruses.  As for hackers, they do not focus on static customers,
they usually do blanket scans on certain ranges of IP address to install
their 'backdoors and trojan programs and once installed these programs
broadcast back to the hacker your IP address.  Once the program is installed
it doesn't really matter how many times you reconnect using your modem, they
will be able to connect to your computer.  

As for one ISP being better than another...  Each has their own pros and
cons, pricing, contracts and downtime which is normal, but you need to look
into who they are partnered with.  SBC/Yahoo, SBC/Prodigy, SBC/Flashnet,
Verizon/MSN those are the common ones.  You know who Earthlink or Internet
America is partnered with?  Those partnerships aren't advertised a whole
lot.

Another thing that has quite a bit of bearing on your connection speed it
the area you live in.  How old it the subdivision or apartment complex?
That will give you a good idea of the age of the wiring you are using.  How
far are you from the Central Office where your telephone line connects into
the network?   

You can pick this apart in any direction you want and have a valid reason
for all of it.  If you want the best connection, move into a new area that
is next to the Central Office and go with the ISP of your choice.  Any ISP
you decide on will have someone who will try to talk you out of choosing
that particular one because they have had trouble and was unsatisfied.  

You do the work and figure out what is best for you...

Cuan Ruadh

-----Original Message-----
From: loch-ruadh-bounces at ansteorra.org
[mailto:loch-ruadh-bounces at ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Patrick Bixler
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 9:49 PM
To: Canton of Loch Ruadh, Kingdom of Ansteorra, SCA,Inc.
Subject: RE: [Loch-Ruadh] shoppin

I love NetZero's advertising with their highspeed
internet being up to 5x faster than other ISP's.  Read
this page and see how they do it.

http://www.netzero.net/signup/faqs-accel.html

Your 56k modem is not connecting at 250k.  If you
check the speed of your modem, you are probably still
getting similar connection rates, and they vary
everytime you dial up.  You may get 28.8 one time,
46.6 the next, then 32 the time after that.  It
doesn't matter, that is how dial-up is.

All NetZero does is uses other technology to speed up
your connection by using tricks like increasing the
cache on your computer to hold more web pages, which
you can do on your own without spending 14.95/mo. 
They also are pre-loading web pages on their end.  And
note what is not accelerated?  Why is that not
accelerated?  Because MP3's, MPEG's, etc are already
compressed.  Compressing a compressed file doesn't
make it any noticably smaller.  Why not "secure web
sites", because they can not pre-load a web site that
requires a logon if you havn't logged into the site
yet.

A bunch of parlor tricks to make it "appear" you are
getting a faster connection.  

Also, running firewall software on a dial-up
connection is pointless unless you dial-up on day and
leave it running for a week.  Every time you dial-up,
you get a new IP address and different from the last
one you got.  Because your address changes all of the
time, there is no way a hacker is going to get into
your computer.  Only with fixed IP addresses does that
matter, like that broadband modem that stays on for
months at a time.

Dial-up is pretty much the same anywhere you go.  It
is slow and outdated.  I am sorry for those who still
have to use it.

But if price is what you are looking at.  SBC dial-up
is 15.95 ($1 more than NetZero HighSpeed access).  Or
you can get SBC for $9.95 if it is bundled with other
qualifiying service packages on your existing phone.

Earthlink has a 1/2 their normal $21.95 for the first
6 months you use their service and they have
"accelerator" stuff too.

AOL is $23.95/mo and they also have their "AOL
TopSpeed" acceleration too.  But if you are smart, you
spam the list here for everyone not using those new
"1045 free hour" CDs.  If you spend 5 hours a night on
the computer, that is 6 free months or something like
17 months if you only spend 2 hours a night on it. 
That is like free dial-up internet for a year.

Internet America is $19.95 for the normal service.

And for those with dial-up that ask the "Why can't I
connect at 56k?"  Here are the answers.

1. The highest connection the FCC allows over standard
phone lines is 53.3k 

2, Your modems 56k protocol may not be compatible
with ours. We support the fastest and most recent
protocols, up to and including V.92. 

3. The route your phone call takes to us may be
indirect. In order for 56k to work on your modem, you
must have a direct route from your phone to our
dialups. If your call passes through more than one
switching center, 56k Flex and V.90 will not function.
The highest you could connect would be 28.8k  33.6k. 

4. Noise on your telephone lines can dramatically
affect your connection speed. 56k Flex and V.90 are
very intolerant to any amount of line noise. 

So there you have it.  Everything you ever wanted to
know about dial-up, but were afraid to ask.

Eirikr

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