Cable Modems

[Dakkon]

Does any lucky soul have Roadrunner service?
Need feedback and some brain picking if you don't mind.

[Steve]

Dakkon - we've had MediaOne's Roadrunner service for the past year or so. I like it because it free's up our telephone lines and because of its speed.

Will try to answer any questions that you have.



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D. Steven White
swhite@umassd.edu

[Dakkon]

OK, that works.
The first issue is Security.
There has been documented cases of a poor setup leaving your machine open to anyone who wanted to "Browse the network" did they cure that, or what fix did they use.
The second is speed.
I was wondering what type of speeds you are seeing? Both up and down.
thats really it. I should have access to cable modems in a month or 2.
The speed is my real issue as i'll just use a firewall and proxy anyway for the home network.

[Steve]

We have three computers set up in our house on one network (4 kids) and had an interesting time setting up the proxy to allow them access to the internet from their bedrooms.

We haven't had any trouble with security that I know of - but a firewall is always a good idea! IMHO, if someone wants in bad enough, there is always a back door somewhere. We don't keep any "sensitive" material on the PC's, so I'm not as concerned over security as I am about viruses.

Speed - sometimes lightning fast, both on the upload and download, sometimes as sluggish as a 1200 baud modem. It depends on the traffic (read time of day).

Pro's: Fast internet connection - for the most part - and continuously connected. No dialing in, no extra phone line needed. Good on-line and telephone support.

Con's: Price. At around $50 per month, it is as much as a second phone line and internet service provider. Comes with only one e-mail address, thus forcing the other members of the household to get web-based accounts (hotmail, yahoo, etc.). Extra hole in my floor to run the cable from the basement to my computer.

Last but not least, roadrunner switched from Netscape to IE5.0 as their browser a couple of months ago. Not a problem, except they have selected Alexa as their default search engine/information service, and it automatically opens as a frame on the left side of the browser. I hate this, and have been trying for the last three months to disable it. So far, nothing has worked.

Although the speed is the greatest benefit, we selected roadrunner to free up our second phone line, which is my fax line.


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D. Steven White
swhite@umassd.edu

[Dakkon]

Things have changed, or at least Roadrunner for Fl. allows 3 mail boxes.
The browser change won't matter for me.
I will do the install myself and use my default setups.
The IE5 thing is controlled in the setup they did. I have written distro's of IE 4/5 for some people so i know thats how they did it.
Thats the break even point in my book.
$50 for roadrunner versus 20 for a ISP and 10 for another line. The speed down really matters to me.
Thanks for your input!
Oh yeah one last question how is the newsgroup feed?

[RickLiebespach]

I had RoadRunner, Through Time Warner cable in Tampa, Florida. I loved it. I didn't hear about security issues. The only reason I got rid of it is my budget...at the moment I can't afford $40/month.

The speed was great! I could download a 1MB file in about 10-12 seconds. Frequently the transfers were in the area of 40-60KPS and I saw a 100+ KPS a couple times. It depends on who you are connected to and how fast they can go.

Most RR cable setups I've heard of are a shared bandwidth ether net connection to the internet...mine was about 4-5MB up and about 15-20MB down...even shared it was pretty quick.

Also, unless I'm mistaken, here in Tampa (Time Warner), we have one account per household with upto 5 email accesses and 5MB of web space for personal use...I was able to email myself attachments upto 60MB... I don't know how high the limit was...

Rick

[Dakkon]

Thanks Rick !
I have heard a lot of good things about RR from the Tampa people. I know i'll be scrappin the cookie jar for the 50 a month but will be well worth it for me.
Again thanks to Steve for the information to.

Regards,
Chuck