 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Using a cable modem George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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A cable modem is one that is connected permanently to the Internet by a cable that is used for connecting to pay TV. Cable modems are most definitely faster than the conventional dial-up modems, up to 100 times faster. They cost $495. At present (June 98) you can buy any type of cable modem that you like, as long as you like a beige-coloured Motorola modem. Also at present they can only be used in Melbourne and Sydney and then only if the household is able to get the Foxtel pay TV service. Cable Internet service is only supplied by Telstra at present and you will have to contact Telstra to arrange a connection.
The main advantages of having a cable modem are the speed of receiving data plus the fact that you are permanently connected to the Internet and are not using a phone line. The requirements for your computer are that it should be a 486 or better and run Windows 95 or NT. You will also need an Ethernet card with a 10-baseT connection to plug into the modem. These network cards can be purchased for under $30 or you can arrange to purchase a top quality, 3Com card from Telstra. When you are connected by cable you will also be given a new e-mail address in the form of yourname@vic.bigpond.net.au
I have had a cable modem for about one month. Generally performance is very good to excellent. Installation will take about two hours from the time the modem arrives in the mail to the time that you are surfing and this includes an upgrade from Internet Explorer 3 to version 4. This allows for carefully reading the documentation and a necessary phone call to Telstra to obtain some passwords. The download time for the 15 MB for IE 4 was about 15 seconds. It was too fast for me to time accurately but this was being loaded from Telstra's local cache and did not come from overseas.
General surfing is very much faster than with a dial-up modem but certainly not 100 times faster because the computers or networks at the other end may be busy and hence limit the speed. As a registered user of Paint Shop I downloaded version 5.0 from http://www.jacs.com. They have several servers and the first one that I picked was going very slowly, at about the speed of a 56 kbps modem. So I aborted that download quickly, tried another server and downloaded the 7 MB file in about 20 seconds. If response is slow, you can open multiple windows in your browser without any degradation in any open session. The upload speed is limited to 768 Kbps by the modem, which generally is not a problem.
My main advantage is that I can send and receive mail at any time without having to dial up or have a phone line tied up. If you have several accounts then you will be able to read your mail from any account via the cable but you must check if your existing ISP will allow you to send mail via that account. Often this is blocked to prevent spam (sending large volumes of unsolicited mail) as the spammers would be using a cable. I can receive mail by using my existing Eudora program configured for Melb PC without any changes but I can send mail from that setup only to someone whose e-mail address ends in @melbpc.org.au. To reply to anyone else who e-mails my Melb PC address via the Eudora configuration I must close my cable connection and dial up the normal way.
As for the browsers, I use IE 4 with the cable account as it is configured with the proxies for Telstra, and I use Netscape configured for Melb PC when using the dial-up modem. I have configured Outlook as my Telstra mail reader to gain experience with that product, but I could have used Eudora Pro as it supports multiple accounts.
If you have a LAN at home, or in your office and wish to use a cable modem then you will need to have a special 10-baseT cable made up, with a few wires crossed over similar to a null modem cable. This is to connect the modem to your hub rather than going straight into the PC. Such a cable will cost between $10-$20 depending who does the job. Although not advertised or supported by Telstra, with such a setup it would be possible to have several users accessing the Internet simultaneously.
If you connect your LAN to the cable, the only concern I have is that Telstra may not provide adequate firewall protection from the outside world. I suggest disabling the sharing of hard disks or if this is not feasible then password protect the shared resources with non-trivial passwords.
For anyone considering a cable modem, these are the costs involved:
- $30 to have the Foxtel cable installed to your home
- The modem itself costs $495
- Monthly charges for unlimited connect time are $65/month and it must be a
12-month contract with Telstra
- And now for the bad news. There are volume charges of 35 cents/MB if you exceed 100 MB per month. The good news is that mail and news is free. Unfortunately mail accounts when accessing other ISPs, such as Melb PC, are counted in the volume charges.
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When surfing at high speed it is very easy to go over 3 MB/day, just by
looking at numerous home pages with graphics. Typical casual surfing will result in 3-5 MB/hour usage, as
most home pages contain graphics. Quake will result in 35 MB/hour and CU-SeeMe video is 2 MB/minute (120
MB/hr). Therefore it would be quite easy to clock up $1000 in a month in volume charges.
Nonetheless, if you are thinking of installing a second phone line just for the Internet, then the cable
modem should be considered as the costs may not be that much higher. It will save you the phone installation,
rental and dial costs plus it will give you high speed surfing. However, you will have to be reasonably
disciplined and monitor your usage to prevent a large entry from appearing on your Visa statement from volume
charges.
Reprinted from the July 1998 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
