Cable Wars

No one notices that MS does have an ISP of its own... ya know. It's in their best interest to make sure AOL doesn't grow bigger than 40%.

Also, you guys say Windows is a monopoly, but how much does Windows really hurt you? They give you everything you need and the best games in the computer market are made for it, is it really so bad? Now they're making it so you can not install such things and you still complain. If they were killing off Mac (instead of investing in it), and Linux, which they aren't, then I'd see where you were coming from. Also, they don't release worse OS' that are impossible to erase so you are forced to use Windows, no, they allow choices, and enhance every OS released, with XP being the next step (quicker, more stability, and higher quality [64bit]).

Cable: My biggist complaint, the fact that my network monitoring tool shows me how many of my "fellow" cable users in my network are trying to hack my system!!! Sub7 crap, SYN Flood attempts, I have at least 50 or so attempts per day! Security on Cable Modems = bullshit!! The new 2-way Satellite technology - now that is something that I'll be looking into! It automatically uses NAT to mask your internal network. (or at least my father-in-laws SAT connection did). The shit is fast, and you can use it anywhere!
check it>> www.starband.com

Here is the latest numbers:

      Microsoft: 50 billion
      The consumers: One ass... Goat.sex size

Bellsouth Customers have a Class-Action law suit against the baby bell for providing terrible DSL service. I have had bellsouth DSL for over two years and in the last year, service has gone down the shitter. What started as service identical to a full T-1 is ending up as "Billy-Bob's Downhome DSL" the service is unbearably unreliable. Considering that I am bridged and have no connection scheme, Seeing my connection stop and disconnect every 20 or so minutes is disheartening. I have called the Bellsouth NOC technicians som many times, they now call me about once a month just to check up on me. I am soon switching to a static/routed connection so I will have good service once again.

what the fuck!? GOD DAMNITA

This isn't all that bad. For instance, you could have Telstra (Australian telco). They basically have a monopoly.

When you accept their (constantly changing) contract, you get:

Unlimited, oops, I mean large, wait...3gb download limits per month.
Trouble free..., uh...it might work. Sometimes.
Low, uh...high ping gaming. If its working...
etc.

When you accept it, you really accept it.

Well, if Microsoft puts in funding to improve things like service and routing, I'm fine with that, but if they use this as a springboard to push MSN, then I'll be pissed. If they succeed, whatever they end up buying should provide service to anything with a NIC and a TCP/IP stack. And software installation should not even be required; the only software intervention should be the configuring of said IP stack.

AOL fails at this, and from what I've heard, @Home fails at this. Microsoft may not be stupid, but they're still crazy for marketing revenues.

I always had the sinking feeling that the independent DSL vendors wouldn't be able to make it. That probably came from the fact that I couldn't even figure out how they worked, from a technical standpoint. Let's take a local example. Here in Denver, Qwest (used to be USWest of course) has 98% of a monopoly on local phone service. So if you were to have an extra line of copper run to your house for your DSL, it would terminate at a Qwest-owned central office (CO). So if my line starts at my house, and ends a 1/2 mile away at a Qwest facility, how could Rhythms, with their office in Colorado Springs (70 miles away), provide service over that line? For that matter, how could PhoenixDSL, with their office in some other state, provide service?

I'll take a guess, and suppose that the independent operators would rent enough bandwidth from the phone company to shunt the traffic of their customers onto their own network. At any rate, I'm sure that whatever the arrangement was, the indies ended up paying some kind of fee to the phone companies. This put them at an immediate disadvantage, since even if the PC's DSL service and the indie's were the same, the PC would be making more money per connection. But that's not how it was. When I was shopping for broadband (like 8 months ago), Qwest was offering 256/256 DSL for $50/m, Phoenix was offering 768/384 DSL for $50/m, and AT&T was offering shitload/128 cable (where "shitload" has, at times, surpasses 7Mbits/s) for $40/m. So Phoenix was offering better service for the same price, which means their shunt connection would fill up pretty fast, and you can see where this is going. Of course, I'm not an idiot, I now have cable ;). People were also put off of DSL by the long-term contracts that nearly everyone required.

In short, DSL will probably go down in history as a half-baked stopgap measure, just like ISDN. It was good if you couldn't get cable, and weren't made-of-money enough to afford a T1 or whatever. I think we'll see cable, along with DSL provided mainly by phone companies, last until we have ethernet-to-the-curb.


MoNsTeR

Can the dreamcast/xbox work with aol?

Poll:

Wanna be

1. Microsoft whore!
2. AOL WHORE!!!

Choose wisely :)

With its cash pile of more than $50 billion

thats somthing i would like to see some day.

a pile of $50 billion in cash

wow

monster, you got really really lucky. cable just recewntly moved into your area (i.e. last 1-2 years. you didnt have to go through terrible oversaturation of nodes, routers, and everything horrible you could imagine about cable. io had cable for 4 years, and about maybe 8 months of those 4 years were hassle free. docsis modems for cable do amazing things, just thank god you didnt have to deal with the old ones. and a 128k upstream just sucks ass, especially if you like sending things to other people.

Jesus Christ what a cluster-fuck.. Never thought I'd see the day I actually rooted for microsoft from a purely corporate warfare/political standpoint... As evil as MS is, they've got more of the consumer's best interests in mind than AOL could ever even be aware of.

GO MICROSOFT! However my area doesn't even offer any freakin cable services (high speed internet that is)

Anyone seen some recent relevant numbers on where the market is now? - DSL groth is still rising but lately it has been happening at a slower rate. Things are not looking too good for consumers with the CLECs like Covad, Rythms and Northpoint either losing money fast or already out of business. The baby bells now practically have a monopoly (see 2nd article below) on DSL installations. Prices have started to rise in the DSL market. With fewer and fewer companies left to provide service, what is to stop the baby bells from raising prices again? Higher prices may lead to better service and upgraded networks, but who knows. The bells have been known to drag their feet in the past when it comes to implementing and improving DSL service. Hopefully this will change. We should all hope the number of companies in the cable internet industry stay high and that Covad and Rythms can some how bring themselves back into the black.

With DSL providers fading, customers cringe - http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-5508467.html
DSL subscriber growth slowing - http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-5964929.html
Covad: Rise and fall of a Net star - http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-6397739.html
DSL math doesn't always add up - http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-6397854.html

I think i speak for everyone here when i say, I would hate to see AOL control 40 percent of the isp services. They aren't even becoming a big company through sound service, they just buy up everything.

I have to agree with Microsoft on this one... who wants to have AOL on cable. ick. Cable gets worse with the more people who are connected (as is my understanding). Thus, AOL+Cable=one big pain in the ass.

Oh god, this means I need to cancel my AT&T BroadBand Connection soon...

Wow, it is almost wierd seeing Microsoft try to be competitive in a market.

Anybody have any linkige to find out if dsl is in my area?

I think MS just needs to stick to software. The baby bells seem to be forcing the smaller ISP's out of the DSL arena except for business accounts. I don't care who does what as long as there is competition. Competition=we win

It'd be nice if Microsoft bought @Home and made it better, but i doubt that would happen so leave me alone.

Hello.

it said 0 posts

CABLE WINS!!!