@Home Cable .....double your bandwidth! (sort of)

[Rendus]

<< Hmm... The only time you will cut your speed in half is when u use a Hub. If you are using a switch, the switch(more intelligent than a hub) will allocate the bandwidth to the computer which needs it. Therefore, if one computer is only word processing, and the other is downloading something... then it will allocate the bandwidth appropriately.

This is my opinion, feel free to let me know if I am wrong >>



You're wrong.

In this situation, a hub and a switch will perform the same functions (we're not talking a DSL/cable router). If both systems are downloading, the bandwidth will be split between the 2 systems no matter what. The only difference between the switch and hub come in when there are more than 2 systems on the network, talking directly to eachother. The hub broadcasts all traffic to all systems, while the switch sends the traffic to the destination system, freeing up bandwidth on the network.

In either case, if one system is idle, and one is downloading, the downloading system will get full bandwidth. If both systems are downloading at the same time, both systems will get around 50% bandwidth. 3 at once will get 33% each, 4 will get 25% each, and so on.

 

[Nutdotnet]

S*IT!!!! You guys are way way too confused. Go read a couple of my posts and you will understand what this thread is ACTUALLY about.

 

[Wiz]

Maybe some of you people have way different net habits than I am used to but the way I see it (my 2 pennies) is that even when several people are using computers that share one connection all 'hitting the net' at the same time they generally are not downloading or uploading at anywhere near saturation point. Maybe some of you sit there downloading some freakin' huge files all the time, 24/7 (where do you get enough storage space) but how many 100 - 200 MB files can you download at a time and why in the world would you sit there downloading Gigs of stuff and not be spending time DOING something with all of that downloaded stuff? Geez what is enough? Maybe learning to be satisfied isn't such a bad thing eh? (besides, when I need to download some big stuff fast I just open up with my OC12).
I do notice the saturation point of some of the internet sites out there, if they can't send me stuff as fast as I can receive it I usually just download something else at the same time. If the first one's performance doesn't drop then I know I'm getting as much as they can send.
Anyway, some of you should use a network monitor to see if you are really saturating your available bandwidth before you start thinking that getting more will help. It's like anything else related to computer performance, look for your bottlenecks. Is it the cable company, the sites you like to visit, your own hard/software or something else?

 

[KillaBee]

80% of these post are total BS. Thank you for your time.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Just like your post KillerBee. If you have something to contribute do, but that post is not helpful at all.

 

[Wiz]

I was tempted to start my post with what a deep swelling pool of BS this whole thread seems to be, but then thought better of it and decided to try to contribute some 'old fart' thinking...
Hopefully this is more than just a deep pit of liquid fertilizer to some here. It's obviously way too late to be up and typing so - night night bessie.

 

[Zwingle]

Ok guys, This is my last post about this....this is a post from DSL Reports about DOCSIS and authentication. I have verified this by calling @Home and asking them again if my bandwidth was split or if each IP is getting the bandwidth of just having 1 IP. They again said that my account shows 2 IP's and that each IP gets the maximum bandwidth allowed for @Home service. The article specifically states that your modem can be updated with new configuration info on the fly. The file contains info about bandwidth allowed, and number of IP's connected. This makes sense, because Charter@home offers a couple of levels of service. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

---------------------------------DSL REPORTS ARTICLE------------------------------------------


So you know, DOCSIS is the &quot;Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification&quot;. It's a standard that governs how cable modems behave and interoperate. The majority of systems out there, especially from the big cable ISPs, are DOCSIS compliant. The rest are headed that way.

The upside is that if you own your modem, and move to a new locality, if they are DOCSIS compliant you can use the same modem regardless of what kind they normally lease or sell. The downside is that boo-hoo, you can't steal from others. No uncapping.

The reason it doesn't work is that under DOCSIS, the modem goes through a whole series of steps before you are ever allowed on line. The short version is as follows:

After power is applied:

1. The modem &quot;ranges&quot; for useable download/upload frequencies that no one else is using.

2. Having found useable frequencies, it contacts the Cable Modem Termination System, (CMTS) sometimes called the headend.

3. The headend responds with some information, one part of which is the address and name of a configuration file.

4. The modem goes to this address at the headend and downloads the configuration file which contains IP addresses, cap settings, and a whole host of other signalling and troubleshooting instructions.

5. The modem applies this file internally.

6. The modem then authenticates these settings with the CMTS.

7. NOW it may begin to transmit.

As you can see, it's a complicated process, and until it's complete, you MAY NOT transmit data. Period. It's also periodically refreshed. The modem recieves the &quot;config settings&quot; file every so often from the CMTS and re-applies the settings, making any changes the new settings may dictate. This means that system adjustments can be done on the fly, which is an advantage from a systems management perspective.

There are multiple reasons why it's so complicated. Remember that the process must make sure that:

No one can simply plug a modem in and start using the service.

To make sure the service caps are enforced.

It's also designed to allow for reliability throughout the system so that no singular haywire modem is jamming the entire spectrum and taking down multiple users.

Finally, each modem MAY have it's own file. So that if you buy a work account, you might have more access than your neighbor with the home account. You pay more for that of course.

 

[Zwingle]

Ooops!

 

[Zwingle]

Double post.....sorry!

 

[AudiPorsche]

if i buy my router thing using that $100 rebate at circuit city. will that replace my cable modem? will it improve speed ?

 

[TBP]

And I assume if you have 2 IPs and 2 cable modems, you can use both modems in different room, without building a LAN. I don't have two modems but I do know all the wall jacks in different rooms work fine with my cable modem.

 

[Dahamma]

I can tell you for a FACT that DOCSIS modem rate limiting is done on a per-modem basis, NOT a per IP basis. What the person you talked to probably meant was the IPs do not &quot;split&quot; the bandwidth, each can use the full bandwidth available, but they DO share the bandwidth of the CM.

There are several reasons you may have seen a similar bandwidth using 1 and 2 computers. First, rate limiting is not turned on in all areas - I'm in an AT&amp;T@Home market and mine is:
** Speed 3882(down)/1081(up) kbps ** (try http://www.dslreports.com/stest if you're curious...)
Also, your speed to a server depends on a lot of factors besides the CM - the server, the path to that server, your computers' network settings, etc. TCP/IP can be sensitive to the window size, and packet loss, latency...

I don't doubt that you saw what you saw, but the technology of the DOCSIS modem is NOT specifically limiting traffic per IP. That said, I still have 5 IPs - plus another 6+ computers behind a Linux NAT box - because there are some useful things about a real IP (incoming telnet/ssh/ftp/Netmeeting/vnc/ICQ file send, some peer to peer games, etc...)

 

[trend]

loook... (yes i know i said i wasn't going to bother anymore...but so much info)....

your QOS (quality of service) is set my your MAC address on your NIC, not on your cable modem.
You receive service via hostname/MAC address.

there is no way to get 3.5megaBYTEs per second (cable modems are 10mbites per second and 1mbits per second... so the fastest possible transmition is 1.5megabytes)
and also,... almost all cable modems do NOT do nat or dhcpd (look at your ip address through winipcfg.... )

anyways... this message thread is 1/2 (half ccrap/half not)...
also, i say again, iget all this info from tier 3.. which is where the servers are at...





anyways

 

[SLEEPER5555]

Ok i would like to add something to this, I am a Comcast@home Customer and i have 1 IP address on a router with multiple comps on it! below are my last 4 test results at dslreports.com with date and time! I am curious though how do you setup a web server (I know it is aginst the rules) can someone email me on this or post here please!

2001-01-31 14:55:39 Speed test 4009/1115 kbps
2001-01-29 20:20:10 Speed test 4291/1125 kbps
2001-01-17 16:06:33 Speed test 4210/1102 kbps
2001-01-17 11:43:31 Speed test 4224/1127 kbps

My alltime high is 45xx kbps
and the low is 22xx kbps

I do NOT think is possible to increase bandwith by increasing ip's though, that just dosen't sound logical. Does anyone know what the limit of cable is? I thought it was 5 megs but a friend told me it is 10megs? anyone know?

 

[Souka]

Torchem,

There is a dial-up sharing thing on 95/98 machines called Multi-Link.

I used it with a PCI and ISA 56K modem.....got a nice 100K connection.


I don't know if it can work with Broadband connections. For what it's worth, my regular ISP and my two free ISP's I used when traveling would allow me to use two connections at once.

Good Luck,

 

[Searchname]

Just to answer the router questions:

so wait a minute. . .wouldn't getting a router and connecting 2 comps to it with seperate IP's do the same thing as telling @home that you want another IP and having them charge you for it?. . .i mean. . .not that you would save any money. . .the way i figure it would take about a year to start saving money from getting the router instead of paying for the extra IP.

I have the SMC 4 port router with DSL and here is the basics of how it works. (**NOTE - I have no idea if the Cable w/ extra IP address would double your bandwidth or not - my guess is ... not everyone) Anyhow, with the router it does assign additional IP addresses, but these are on the local level. You only have one IP address that your Cable/Telco deals with. So, if you have three computers on the internet at the same time. The router assigns each of them with a different local IP address (with DHCP enabled). At the same time, you truly have only 1 IP address as far as the Telco is concerned. The router &quot;Routes&quot; the TCP/IP handshakes to and from the respective computer, but all of the information is sent down the same pipeline. My point is: I don't think a Router would accomplish the same thing as buying an additional IP address (That is, if a second IP address does double your bandwidth).

Also, I have to concur that www.DSLreports.com is a great resource for all of you who have broadband.

 

[Sid 7.1]

I was wondering if this is true while we are on the subject. Is there a software uploading uncapper? People have told me there is but I have been unable to find it. Secondly..there is no need to buy a modem to get the discounted price. When I ordered my @home service I told them I had a cable modem already, which I really did. But when they came and installed the cable, the technician told me my cable modem wasn't compatible so he installed another modem. I still, however, get charged $29.99. Maybe I just got lucky..heh

 

[Zwingle]

No, you cannot uncap uploads or downloads it is set when your modem authenticates. You could make some change to uncap, but it would require you to reboot the modem, BUT, in rebooting, it would again authenticate and erase any changes you made.
Just tested AGAIN my up and dl speeds at dslreports speed test.....both showed almost exactly the same up and dl speeds.....downloads were 600 and 588, uploads were 130 and 134. I ran the test at the same time, then individually, same results.

SO THERE!

 

[drac747]

Actually if you go read the specs for your cable modem, it has limits for bandwidth in either direction.

There are 92 msgs posted and I didnt want to read them all to see if someone already told you this

Regardless, it fixes that download speed bottleneck when your 128Kbps uplink cap is maxed (by getting 2 IPs)

 

[kcobra]

Zwingle: Sure you can change the bandwidth without rebooting. The variables that control such things are just simple SNMPv1 vars. Now when you reboot, you will loose those settings, as the original cable operator's tftp bootfile will be downloaded to your CM. I guess you could get really fancy and intercept/change the DHCP messaging to redirect the CM to your own TFTP server, but that would be quite a bit of work.

Also, as I said before, their are vars at the CMTS that may detect/overide your changes.

 

[SLEEPER5555]

i would tend to agree that it would double upload since that is being capped, but download is as @home says &quot;what you get is what you get&quot; so i don't see how that would work. So some @home areas are capped going up? why isn't mine capped (as you can see by my earlier post that i am getting over 1k mbps up)? this is just regional?

 

[dman]

Zwingles,

Thanks for performaing the tests and posting your results. I appreciate you taking the time to demonstrate this is possible.

 

[mrEvil]

Zwingle - just wanted to touch on what you were talking about with the 2 IP addresses and clarify what I believe you meant. You meant that you cannot have 2 IP addresses for a single NIC, right? If you're stating that a Win98/ME PC cannot have 2 IP addresses, that's is incorrect information.
I can say that because I've done it. Before I got my router, I had 2 hubs running with 2 NICs in each PC, separate IP addresses for each. One for the cable modem and one for the local network.
Just curious....