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Yes, in fact, I DO do this for a living. I also have to take complex networking principles and try to put them in terms of what my normal business users can understand.
I'm sorry if I offended you. I want to help educate the average consumer about these issues, but I thought that this statement you made was misleading:
"Conversely, you can have a relatively slow-speed connection, but when you add lots of other devices "doing things" (TVs, DVRs, other computers, etc.) the speed isn't impacted."
People should understand that a faster broadband connection will make all their network devices at home work the same or better. The average consumer can go to a public speed test site (speedtest.net, broadband.gov, etc) to test their connection speed. They should all want this speed to be faster. While ISP networking is a very complex topic, those that know a little about it should emphasize the "speed is good" narrative, and not create doubt about faster service. That's all I was trying to say.
I'm sorry if I offended you. I want to help educate the average consumer about these issues, but I thought that this statement you made was misleading:
"Conversely, you can have a relatively slow-speed connection, but when you add lots of other devices "doing things" (TVs, DVRs, other computers, etc.) the speed isn't impacted."
People should understand that a faster broadband connection will make all their network devices at home work the same or better. The average consumer can go to a public speed test site (speedtest.net, broadband.gov, etc) to test their connection speed. They should all want this speed to be faster. While ISP networking is a very complex topic, those that know a little about it should emphasize the "speed is good" narrative, and not create doubt about faster service. That's all I was trying to say.
I was just trying to keep it simple, Chris. Thanks!
We can devolve into highly-technical topics, but it still won't help. Was trying to use everyday analogies, not get into "does light in a fiber optic conduit act as particles or waves?", or "does electricity in a conducting cable flow in the direction of electrons, or in the opposite direction of electrons?".
Yes, in fact, I DO do this for a living. I also have to take complex networking principles and try to put them in terms of what my normal business users can understand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by local2rtp
your business guys will look for someone who speaks English.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chris75
emphasize the "speed is good" narrative, and not create doubt about faster service. That's all I was trying to say.
+all this
No offense, adams_aj. Just found your explanation to be more confusing than helpful, and the idea of questioning the benefit of additional bandwidth to be surreptitious.
I'm also an avid on-line video gamer who appreciates the benefits of low ping rates.
I work for a networking hardware company. About 12 years ago a senior VP came to RTP to discuss next gen hardware and how it was being defined. It was interesting to hear at that time that we were paying a lot of attention to on-line gamers and their need for low latency. I can't recall specifics but their input was weighted pretty heavily...in concert with Wall Street trading houses.
I work for a networking hardware company. About 12 years ago a senior VP came to RTP to discuss next gen hardware and how it was being defined. It was interesting to hear at that time that we were paying a lot of attention to on-line gamers and their need for low latency. I can't recall specifics but their input was weighted pretty heavily...in concert with Wall Street trading houses.
Good point. Gamers and Wall Street traders alike realize that success in the modern world is now measured in nanoseconds.
While some may argue that Gigabit connections are overkill with respect to applications that can take advantage of that much bandwidth; I don't believe there's any debate that Time Warner Cable (TWC) charges way too much for the bandwidth they provide. This is what happens when there aren't any true alternatives and/or any viable competition.
Network latency has been brought up several times on this thread, but I'm never sure if people are talking about latency from their broadband modem to the next hop, or latency through service provider backbones to reach some website. Additionally, it's not clear whether people are referring to latency caused by network congestion, or latency caused by network hardware performance limitations.
In the context of gigabit broadband connections over fiber, I don't think that latency should be a major concern for the average consumer. At a certain point, it's up to service providers to build networks that perform well and maintain a certain quality of service. Increasing bandwidth is probably the most effective way of reducing latency, so service providers are heading in the right direction with regards to latency by offering gigabit broadband over fiber.
The wireless gigabit service proposed by RST Communications is a different story altogether, and latency (as well as speed) should be a major concern for the average consumer.
This is what happens when there aren't any true alternatives and/or any viable competition.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris75
The wireless gigabit service proposed by RST Communications is a different story altogether, and latency (as well as speed) should be a major concern for the average consumer.
Yeah, I was shaking my head at this once I realized that it was going to be wireless. I'd be happy to observe the #s, but I've got my reservations now that I'm aware.
Yeah, I was shaking my head at this once I realized that it was going to be wireless. I'd be happy to observe the #s, but I've got my reservations now that I'm aware.
I was kind of bummed too until I remembered that TWC is currently maxing out at 50/5 for $99/mo and who knows what the price may be with Comcast. Even if RST is only a fraction of gigabit over wireless, at least they are starting from gigabit and going down from there. Kind of puts things in perspective. Even if they are "only" a low multiple of fast Ethernet speeds up AND down, it will be great compared to 1-5Mbit upload.
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