Getting RoadRunner cable, now what...

[AmigaMan]

Ok, I'm getting Time Warner's Road Runner cable service here in Durham, NC. Since this is my first experience with broadband, what do I need to do next? I'm wondering about security, type of ethernet card, etc....

I have a home-built Duron 650 on a MSI K7T Pro. I'll be running W2K as of tonight when I reformat my drive and install it. Thanks all!!

 

[Tom]

In Columbus, Ohio anyway Roadrunner supplies the network card. Other than that I use Zonealarm which is free for personal use.

Download ZoneAlarm site

 

[pdo]

You don't really need to do anything. I think they provide an ethernet card for you. Just go download zonealarm and you're all set.

 

[AmigaMan]

what about tweaks and stuff to optimize the speed? Also, does anybody have experience with TimeWarner Roadrunner here in the Triangle?

 

[Mutilator]

I have RoadRunner in Cary... it's very fast if you like to download and if you like games (specifically counter-strike) you'll get sub 30 pings to several servers @ NCSU and Duke
I avg about 250KB/sec downloads and pings of about 60 to my fav servers... but other servers lag very badly @ peak times such as after kids get home from school but it's not a local problem its another RR hop... I'm thinking about emailing them but don't know if they do anything to fix it... it's obviously an oversold hop or something.
But overall it's very good You'll never go back to dial up that's for sure.

As for tweaks you can get those from www.speedguide.net

 

[DazedAndConfused]

If you are using 2k then don't do anything except get zonealarm or Blackice. My experience is that 2k will run Out of the Box as fast as a tweaked 98 box.

Dazed

 

[Wingznut]

I agree with DazedAndConfused. If you are running Win2k or WinME, don't bother tweaking anything.

 

[aldamon]

I'm runnin' RR in Durham and the speed is great. The only problem I experienced was with the 3Com Etherlink XL NIC RR supplied with the self-install. FYI, it is incompatible with my EPOX 7KXA MB, and many other Athlon systems, and caused system skipping and pauses after about 15 minutes online. I bought a Netgear FA310TXC NIC from Onvia.com (Intrex Computers across from Carmike Cinemas on MLK Parkway in Durham has them too, but they're a few bucks more) and I've had no problems since.

Good luck and I highly recommend the self-install! Just remember to ask the technician who comes with your packet for your user name and password. Mine forgot to give it me!

 

[Mutilator]

Yeah the 3com card they give you is an old 10mbit one (not 10/100) so you may want to buy yourself a better card such as the 3com 3C905B-TX.. that's what im using.

 

[Killer Ape]

I just got RR in New York City last week. I didn't need an ethernet card, they just stuck a 3Com USB NIC between my USB port and the modem. Get Zone Alarm and you should be all set.

I get ~80-100 ping on most local Q3A servers and up to about 80KBS FTP downloads, vs. about 5KBS over my old 56K dial-up, so I haven't even tried tweaking anything yet.

The biggest problem I find here in NYC is that RR's Usenet server has VERY short retention time. Depending on the group, as short as 1 day. So if you do a lot of newsgroup surfing or download big files, MP3s, etc. it can get pretty annoying. You should consider subscribing to alternate News Servers if this is a problem.

 

[AmigaMan]

Ok, so what I'm hearing is: new NIC and download ZoneAlarm. Anything else?

 

[Shudder]

Definitely get a new hard drive. Minimum of 20 gigs

I thought my 13 gigger was fine until I got roadrunner. Then all of a sudden I didn't have anymore hard drive space and had to get another.

 

[Killer Ape]

Make sure you have your Windows CD ready in case you get a braindead installer(like I did). They may claim that they can't carry any OS disks because it's "illegal" for them to, so if they need something off the disk they might not have it. It's also a good idea to back-up the Registry etc.

Also monitor closely that they don't remove your dial-up info, drivers, etc. if you want to keep that as well.

 

[aldamon]

That is all avoided with a self-install. It's half the price and you don't have to worry about a stranger touching your box...

 

[Killer Ape]

RR does not allow Self install in my area yet, or I would have done it (as any self respecting Anandtechie would ). You need to check with RR to see if they have that option in your area, otherwise the RR guys have to do it.

 

[Supergax]

Actually, if you want to take the ever so small risk associated with importing reg keys, you can reallllly boost your speed, and I'm not talking about that MTU garbage, I'm talking about the RWIN window. This anandtech thread has all the instructions from me on where to go and what to do. I used it and dslreports.com says my Road Runner is now 60x a 56k modem on downloads, it was 40x a 56k before the tweak. The user I recommended this too also notes a big performance increase. Not trying to force it on you, but if you are getting broadband i seriously recommend you check it out. Good luck.

 

[AmigaMan]

Yep, they offer self-install at half the half-off price of the installer install (if that makes any sense). Anyways, I'll pay only $24.95 for the self-install then get two months at $19.95. Not a bad deal. Thanks y'all for the info!

 

[zodder]

I went with the self install, too. The biggest reason was to make sure I knew what the steps were so if anything screwed up down the line, I wouldn't have to rely on RR. As a sys admin, it was very simple, but you never know until you try!

I agree with the folks here. Download Zone Alarm and make sure you have a good anti-virus program.