4 ms·

I know.. I remember lusting over the single T1 we had at work (this was circa 1999 or so, shared between a hundred employees or so) compared to the mere 56k I h

by TylerE 4y ago

I know.. I remember lusting over the single T1 we had at work (this was circa 1999 or so, shared between a hundred employees or so) compared to the mere 56k I had at home... 1.5 whole megabits...

jdironman 4y ago
The highlight of my K-12 sysadmin stint was replacing an $800/mo. T1 with a point to point wireless solution which gave the remote site nearly the same speed as on-site.
kingcharles 4y ago
I'm in (roughly) downtown Chicago. My building had no wired Internet when I moved in here last year (!). I called Comcast and they wanted $71,000 to install, and $800/month minimum to wire me up, despite all my neighbors already using them. I called AT&T. Yes, they can have me hooked up with DSL tomorrow. At 1.5Mbps. O_o
- projektfu 4y ago
  What about RCN? Is that Comcast now?
  - kingcharles 4y ago
    I'm not sure if they are Comcast now. They seemed to be separate when I called them. They couldn't help me, though.
- Fnoord 4y ago
  Is fiber an option for you?
  - kingcharles 4y ago
    Would it be from a different company outside the major players? I spent weeks trying to find anyone who could wire this building and gave up. I'm on 5G now which is actually 100X more useable than I expected.
aunty_helen 4y ago
I remember chatting with an online friend in the USA using msn messenger who had a T1 line. It seemed so imaginary, 1.5mbs. The 56kb modem that I had averaged around 13kbs due to living out in the middle of nowhere. Years later (mid 00s) I still had the same connection but all my friends were on 256kbs-2mbs adsl but with ridiculous datacaps. I was so envious of people in the states that had similar connection speeds but could download as much as they wanted like it was some kind of American buffet. Moving to uni saw me break into the 2 figure mbs club but the datacaps were still there. Then the NZ govt decided to do something abou it, they "unbundled the local loop" and the market became more competitive, no more 20gb down+up for 60USD a month. Then realising the internet was the backbone of a strong e-conomy, they started building out a nationwide fibre network. For around 120USD, you can now get business tier fibre up to 8gbs in your home (or if you don't want the business SLA you can just get the consumer version at the same speed, slightly cheaper). I hear stories of how bad the internet is in Australia and how far the USA have fallen, to the point a lot of people still can't even get fibre and I feel sad they're not the inspirational places that I imagined as a kid.
- williamcotton 4y ago
  Fellow Kiwi here, living in Austin, TX. Some crew just went up all the streets in our neighborhood and left a GFBR box buried in our front yard. Things are looking up!
  - aunty_helen 4y ago
    There is _a lot_ of kiwis on this site. It’s always good to see. Best of luck with the install mate.
- nickpeterson 4y ago
  I remember as a young kid (11ish) I lived in Rochester, NY, which was one of the first areas to get cable modems. I pleaded the case to my parents and we cancelled the extra phone line we used for the modem and payed the extra $20 towards a cable modem. This was one of the few moments in my life that felt like ‘the future’ was arriving (the other around this time was my voodoo2 gpu running unreal). A year or so later we moved to Columbus which didn’t have high speed available yet. What’s the quote, the future is already here it’s just not evenly distributed? Incidentally I now live in Toledo and my internet is probably about the same speed as it was 25+ years ago… sigh
matwood 4y ago
My first programming job while in college (circa '98 or so) was at a small custom software dev shop, and they had an ISDN line. I would bring in my personal desktop to play quake online and download updates. My next job was at a much bigger company who happened to have a data center in my home town. They had something like 70-100 T1s (T3?) coming into the building. Keep in mind they were used for both the phone system and data. I remember the older network people talking about the PITA it was get them all put down and how the local phone company said whatever was there was maxed. We were also spread across 2 buildings separated by a parking lot with a fiber connection between the buildings. The stuff I got to play with was pretty cool. Even though the company had a big parent, the DC was in a smallish town and mostly a free for all for the tech hires. My badge let me into anything. No way would that be allowed today. I was also a beta tester when Comcast first rolled out cable internet in my town - that changed everything. The lust for more speed was real (before that it was more RAM lol). Now I have 1gb u/d fiber and never think about link speed.

by TylerE 4y ago

I know.. I remember lusting over the single T1 we had at work (this was circa 1999 or so, shared between a hundred employees or so) compared to the mere 56k I had at home... 1.5 whole megabits...

jdironman 4y ago

The highlight of my K-12 sysadmin stint was replacing an $800/mo. T1 with a point to point wireless solution which gave the remote site nearly the same speed as on-site.

kingcharles 4y ago

I'm in (roughly) downtown Chicago. My building had no wired Internet when I moved in here last year (!). I called Comcast and they wanted $71,000 to install, and $800/month minimum to wire me up, despite all my neighbors already using them. I called AT&T. Yes, they can have me hooked up with DSL tomorrow. At 1.5Mbps. O_o

projektfu 4y ago
What about RCN? Is that Comcast now?
- kingcharles 4y ago
  I'm not sure if they are Comcast now. They seemed to be separate when I called them. They couldn't help me, though.
Fnoord 4y ago
Is fiber an option for you?
- kingcharles 4y ago
  Would it be from a different company outside the major players? I spent weeks trying to find anyone who could wire this building and gave up. I'm on 5G now which is actually 100X more useable than I expected.

aunty_helen 4y ago

I remember chatting with an online friend in the USA using msn messenger who had a T1 line. It seemed so imaginary, 1.5mbs. The 56kb modem that I had averaged around 13kbs due to living out in the middle of nowhere. Years later (mid 00s) I still had the same connection but all my friends were on 256kbs-2mbs adsl but with ridiculous datacaps. I was so envious of people in the states that had similar connection speeds but could download as much as they wanted like it was some kind of American buffet. Moving to uni saw me break into the 2 figure mbs club but the datacaps were still there. Then the NZ govt decided to do something abou it, they "unbundled the local loop" and the market became more competitive, no more 20gb down+up for 60USD a month. Then realising the internet was the backbone of a strong e-conomy, they started building out a nationwide fibre network. For around 120USD, you can now get business tier fibre up to 8gbs in your home (or if you don't want the business SLA you can just get the consumer version at the same speed, slightly cheaper). I hear stories of how bad the internet is in Australia and how far the USA have fallen, to the point a lot of people still can't even get fibre and I feel sad they're not the inspirational places that I imagined as a kid.

williamcotton 4y ago
Fellow Kiwi here, living in Austin, TX. Some crew just went up all the streets in our neighborhood and left a GFBR box buried in our front yard. Things are looking up!
- aunty_helen 4y ago
  There is _a lot_ of kiwis on this site. It’s always good to see. Best of luck with the install mate.
nickpeterson 4y ago
I remember as a young kid (11ish) I lived in Rochester, NY, which was one of the first areas to get cable modems. I pleaded the case to my parents and we cancelled the extra phone line we used for the modem and payed the extra $20 towards a cable modem. This was one of the few moments in my life that felt like ‘the future’ was arriving (the other around this time was my voodoo2 gpu running unreal). A year or so later we moved to Columbus which didn’t have high speed available yet. What’s the quote, the future is already here it’s just not evenly distributed? Incidentally I now live in Toledo and my internet is probably about the same speed as it was 25+ years ago… sigh

matwood 4y ago

My first programming job while in college (circa '98 or so) was at a small custom software dev shop, and they had an ISDN line. I would bring in my personal desktop to play quake online and download updates. My next job was at a much bigger company who happened to have a data center in my home town. They had something like 70-100 T1s (T3?) coming into the building. Keep in mind they were used for both the phone system and data. I remember the older network people talking about the PITA it was get them all put down and how the local phone company said whatever was there was maxed. We were also spread across 2 buildings separated by a parking lot with a fiber connection between the buildings. The stuff I got to play with was pretty cool. Even though the company had a big parent, the DC was in a smallish town and mostly a free for all for the tech hires. My badge let me into anything. No way would that be allowed today. I was also a beta tester when Comcast first rolled out cable internet in my town - that changed everything. The lust for more speed was real (before that it was more RAM lol). Now I have 1gb u/d fiber and never think about link speed.