From: jamesvig@home.com (James Vigiotti) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Cable modem Internet service Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm Date: 14 Jan 2000 11:08:15 -0500 Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 255 Sender: barrett@relativity.cs.umass.edu Message-ID: <85nhlf$d8t@relativity.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: jamesvig@home.com (James Vigiotti) Keywords: hardware, cable modem, commercial X-Review-Number: Volume 2000 Number 1 NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.119.41.220 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.119.41.220 X-Trace: 14 Jan 2000 11:08:21 -0500, 128.119.41.220 Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!not-for-mail Xref: bangor.cs.umass.edu comp.sys.amiga.reviews:684 PRODUCT NAME Cable modem Internet service BRIEF DESCRIPTION Several companies offer internet service using cable modem technology. Most of them do not list the Amiga as a supported computer. Set up and use of an Amiga computer is not difficult. The purpose of this review is to provide a description of hardware/software requirements for cable modem internet access and a few advantages of cable modem access over traditional dial-up service. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Time Warner Cable Road Runner Service and COX@HOME service World Wide Web: http://www.rr.com http://www.cox.com LIST PRICE Price of installation varies depending on if you install the cable modem yourself or if you need a Warner Cable technician to do the work for you. I had the technician install it for me. Price was about $150. That included installation of a second cable wall outlet on the opposite side of the house, the cable modem & RJ45 ethernet cable, and the first month of cable internet service. With the @HOME service the options are almost identical. Installation with @HOME also has an installation fee. In this case I had already had a working ethernet setup among several Amigas and PC clone machines. The technician merely made sure all was working well together once the cable modem was installed. DEMO VERSION Time Warner Cable has a public demo of Road Runner setup at a local computer store. A computer connected to the internet with a cable modem allows the customers to test Road Runner Internet Service. COX periodically sets up local test machines. Check their web site for more information if a test site will be near you in the future. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Amiga ethernet card with RJ45 connector SOFTWARE TCP/IP, web browser, email, irc, ftp and newsreader software COPY PROTECTION None MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Clark Alexander's setup Amiga 2000, GVP combo 68040/33, 64MB Fast ram, 1MB Chip ram 1 internal 880k floppy Quantum 1 GIG internal hard drive 15" Multisync monitor Amiga OS 3.1 Commodore 2320 deinterlacer connected to the bypass of Picasso II/ Picasso96 Hydra Systems Amiga Net ethernet board, AUI cable, RJ45 transceiver. Villagetronics Ariadne II Sound enhancer Miami 3.2b, Ibrowse 2.1, Megellan II, Stargate, PageMonster and AmIrc. James Vigliotti's setup Amiga 3000-T, A3640 040/25, 12Mb Fast Ram, 2Mb Chip 1 internal HD floppy drive Micropolis 1.2Gb HD Original Ariadne ethernet board with 2 parallel ports, RJ45(10BASE-T) and 10Base-2 (thin-net) ports. AmiTCP/IP 4.3 GVP EGS Spectrum 28/24 graphics card driven by CybergraphX INSTALLATION I converted my Amiga from a dialup connection to a cable modem connection. Miami 3.2b, Ibrowse 2.1, Megellan II, Stargate Email/Newsreader Client, Pagemonster and AmIrc had worked fine for years before and after I made the change to a cable modem. I had to purchase an ethernet card with a RJ45 connection to match the cable modem's RJ45 connector. I purchased a Villiagetronic ethernet card. It came with a built in RJ45 connector. I installed it in one of the Zorro II slots. After putting the Amiga back together, the only thing left to do is connect the cable copper wire connection from the wall outlet to the back of the cable modem. Then connect the RJ45 cable from the back of the cable modem to the RJ45 cable in the Ariadne II. Finally, connect the power to cable modem. Next, I installed the TCP/IP software provided with the Ariadne II using the install script. This program also installed the AriadneII device driver in the devs:network drawer. Then I ran the Miami3.2 Init program. Miami 3.2b asks for the name of the ethernet card device driver and a few other questions. This program basically configures its self. After you have answered all the program's questions correctly you must save your settings. Then you can use Miami to go online. After you are successfully online you are ready to use the browser, email, etc. These programs must be configured to use the stmp, pop, and news servers for the new ISP. This was easy. The information was included in the well written manual that was left by the cable service technician. For James's setup there is a little more to do. Almost all cable providers use DHCP for setup and the technician should have left you with an information sheet detailing your IP, and the IPs of your default news, mail and proxy servers. Under AmiTCP/IP it was simply a matter of running the AmiTCP config program and either punching in the appropriate IP numbers or setting up the software to use DHCP. After that it is simply a matter of adjusting your various networking software to use the appropriate links. Since this was a direct connect, I set all software to not use a proxy at all. REVIEW Time Warner's advertisements say the cable modem will upload at 400 kilobits per second. It will download at 1500 to 2000 megabits per second. All of my Amiga software measures transfer rates in characters per second. With my cable modem it is not uncommon to see a download rate of 76,000 or more characters per second with my brower or ftp software. For @HOME, the max transfer rate I have seen for download was between 600-800 kilobytes a second (10Base-T ranges. Uploads faired in the 40-60 Kilobytes a second. In a word cable modems are fast. There is no waiting for a connection. Your internet connection is available in just one click of the mouse. Cable modems will not drop your connection if you get up to answer your door. The biggest advantage of cable modem service is that it is fast!!!!!!!! The only caveat for cable modem access is that it follows the same topology as standard ethernet. Several hubs within a community with so many machines off each hub. In practice it is possible for net congestion if there are too many people on your local hub. In @HOME's case they have been very forthright in investigating and adjusting hub usage as to not deter your online experience. DOCUMENTATION Time Warner gave me documentation on the cable modem and the names of the various servers needed to setup my email accounts, news reader and personal home page. COX provides similar documentation as well as a wealth on online help via their customizable local page for users as well as your own web page space, currently limited to 5Mb for personal web pages. @HOME also provides for 3 separate e-mail accounts included in the basic package install. The other documentation is for your Amiga TCP/IP, news reader, email, irc, telnet and ftp software. I had been using this software for several years with my dial up connection so I didn't have a problem changing the servers to those used by Time Warner Road Runner service. LIKES 1. Uploads and downloads files very fast. 2. Never have to wait for dial up connection. Internet is connection is always one click away. 3. Cable modem will not drop your connection if you are away from the computer. 4. Uploads and downloads files very fast 5. Second phone line I was using for dialup service is now free. I can now use the internet and talk on the phone at the same time. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS Both @HOME and Road Runner offer a very rich local content service that can provide you with an enormous amount of almost instantaneous user configurable content delivery. Unfortunately quite a bit of this content is geared towards top level web browsers. The Amiga still needs proper Java and a slew of other language protocols to really appreciate the local service. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS DSL service is similar in speed to cable modem. Pricing is different. Cable modem monthly fee includes internet access and ISP. DSL fee is for phone line only. Customer will have to pay for ISP separately. BUGS None VENDOR SUPPORT Miami 3.2b did a great job of configuring itself. I just confirmed the settings it retrieved from the ISP and saved the new configuration. My ftp software, email program, web browser and newsreader perform like there are different programs. They display the information very quickly. Time Warner Road Runner tech support is 24 hours each day 7 days a week. COX also provides 24/7 tech support with REAL people at the other end! A novelty in this day and age of tech support! WARRANTY Standard Warranty on Ariadne II and the cable modem. I don't know if Miami 3.2b, Ibrowse 2.1, Pagemonster, AmIrc, Megellan II or Stargate have warranties. They continue to get the job done for me. CONCLUSIONS If you own an Amiga and are fed up with the traditional 56k dialup internet connection consider buying an ethernet card with a RJ45 connector and joining us as cable modem customers. High graphic content pages and large files download in seconds instead of hours. Even though Time Warner Road Runner cable service does not support the Amiga, all Amiga users who can install an ethernet card can enjoy the speed of cable modem internet service. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 2000 James Vigiotti (jamesvig@home.com) and Clark Alexander(calexndr@hotmail.com). --- Accepted and posted by Daniel Barrett, comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews Web site: http://math.uh.edu/~barrett/reviews.html