Reminiscing our first internet connections (WAS) Re: akamai yesterday - what in the world was that

Ray Wong rayw at rayw.net
Wed Jan 29 05:37:38 UTC 2020


My first internet connection was some generic 2400baud.I had software
support for MNP 5, which probably claims speeds up to 9600 bps? {perfomance
in the lab with pretty cooperative factors like noise when squirrels eat
through the protective coatings, and then chew up the actual wire, and at
least compromise the protection. Oh anyway tl;dr, I found a couple modem
numbers that weren't listed in the company publications, of course. they
suppported MNP5 on three dialup lines. All totally spoke IP and didn't
require authentication accounts, (things were pretty new for them, I'think)
so I'd periodically call the other numbers in the list an see if it was
crowded. I mostly did that because it obviously meant for general use but
some department or whatever had need.

So yeah, free 9600bps. at least people understood using words instead of
having to slap the words on an image, which isn't so appealing, while the
noise:signal ratio was the same, the total of each was much smaller. being
concise was often perceived a too short an answer, of the go away kind. The
slowest part was downloading the install cd images, and you had to make you
weren't trying to use it for anything else even so, hah

I finally lucked out. had an employer who wanted everyone in operational
duties to be able to respond faster in emergencies, and actually did it!

So then I graduated to...iDSL! yes, that's right, at the time I was too far
from the box for regular DSL. So, yeah it cost more, around 150/month I
think, maybe more, maybe less. but now I was up tp 128kbps bidirectional!
okay, so it wasn't great for moving lots of data to my home resources, but
it was enough to support the plenty of mail  coming through, including some
mailing lists for personal interests. And of course, people would email
porn. fortunately, postfix is quite good at noticing the gargantuan files,
and if they don't work the first time, fall pretty fow down the priorities,
so, i guess it worked since that was a very different time

Then I move to a new place in SF. for some reason I can't get anything
telco-based to install, so I finally turned to Comcast, first
Residential, Buisiness internet, which costs more for slower rates you
probably can't count on get, but it'll be close. They've turned out to be a
lot more clueful than the folks on the Residential service. Apparently, I
got in at a good time, because as I said I need it for work and need fixed
IP the VPN to autoconnect properly, asked me to list off the server roles
for 5 addresses instead of just the one, so it was easy to justfity 5
instead of just getting the one fixed it. I believe they've gotten more
stringent as IPv4 address, even small /29s So, it was cheap, why not try
it? It turns out that comcast business is an entirely different
organIzation.The SLA They have a 4 our onsite for someone to show up and
say they need to order a part, they're often pretty prepared by incident I
provided so have a guess where to look. There's a separate support number
only business class customers are allowed to us, so which means threre'
usually not much of a wait, if any. Because BC is presented as a complete
package, the reason they make you rent whichever cablemodemrouterfirewall
they've got their custom firmware on. If they can determine that it's your
box, they'll make sure the truck has one. Of they need to be onside trouble
shoot, they're quite competent at calling in what's needed, and most of
what they'll have is where they're stationed.

For work internet connections, I've long since track. probably all ofthem,
though i'd never be am exact who used what. I do recall one interview with
a candidate, and he asked about our network topology for whatever reason. I
happili obliged, 2Gb

We in the US have gotten used to other many mountries ahead of us for
gigabit to the home. We should do it, but in all honesty, having 57Mbps
down and 12 up, I havent been found my bandwidth seems fine. Usually looks
like either another exchange router had a problem and the remaining routes
are sitll converging with the new reality of how to transit traffic. In
fact, come to think of it, i've had exactly ONE ticket call for a railed
router. The was wsa somewhere outsie.

ANyway, 57dn12up may not be enough for what you guys do on the internet
with so much data may need, but it's still overkill for probably most of
the customers who need time to figure out how to use the computer again.
The main reason for increased capactiy all they way to plugs on the wall
and some kind of WiFI in there someone

Oh, as long giving kudos to comcast business, for those with a lot of
traffic to comcast users, their peering rates are much more affordable.
That's probably becase they get to make money on both ends of the traffic.
since they've already got networks spread out to do their stuff peering, so
worthwhile.They're nice guys to work with, too

And of course, there is the fact that traffic will always grow to exceed
capacity
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