BANDWIDTHS OF TODAY AND TOMORROW
Perhaps, at the workplace, scientists do not
need to worry about their connection to the Internet
since at most major universities, virtually everyone has
already been connected. However, at home, the story is
different. You may be among those who have become
discouraged at home to connectg to the Internet via a modem.
Connection via modem is frustrating and even when you are
connected, downloading of certain pages takes annoyingly
a long time. Although various technologies already exist
for delivering a high bandwidth to those who are
interested (table 1), either they are expensive or are
not yet widely available.
Table 1. Comparison
of the bandwidth of various
technologies
|
| 33.6 KBPS |
31 K |
| 56-KBPS |
47 K |
| ISDN |
110K |
| Satellite |
444 K |
| ADSL |
629 K |
| Cable |
839 K |
| T1 line |
839 K |
Perhaps, the best choice of more
readily available technology is the ISDN. The price of
the external and internal ISDN adapters have decreased
over the years and they have become quite reasonable
(table 2).
| Table
1. Internal and external ISDN adapters |
INTERNAL ADAPTERS
|
| Name
of the company |
Street
Price |
Telephone
number |
URL |
| Diamnod Supra NetCommander |
$250 |
800-727-8722 |
www.diamondmm.com |
| US Robotics Sporster ISDN 128K |
$249 |
800-877-2677 |
www.3com.com |
| Tiger Jet PCI ISDN |
$99 |
408-725-7506 |
www.tigerject.com |
EXTERNAL ADAPTERS
|
| Zyxel omni.net |
$249 |
800-255-4101 |
www.zyxet.com |
| Hayes Accura ISDN |
$279 |
800-374-8388 |
www.hayes.com |
| US Robotics Courier-I-Modem |
$279 |
800-877-2677 |
www.3com.com |
| 3Com Impact 10 |
$370 |
800-638-3266 |
www.3com.com |
| Adtran Express XRT |
$369 |
800-923-8726 |
www.adtran.com |
| US Robotics DataBurst ISDN 128K |
$260 |
800-877-2677 |
www.3com.com |
| Motorola BitSurfur Pro |
$399 |
800-365-6394 |
www..mot.com/mims/lsg |
| |
In addition, the price of the ISDN
line has also been dropping. For as little as$35 per
month, one can obtain ISDN line for an unlimited usage.
The number of the Internet service providers that offer
the service have also been increasing. GTE Internet
Solutions and Earth Link as well as on line services such
as CompuServe are handling ISDN. As compared to ISDN,
other technologies such as satellite, cable or ADSL offer
a much better bandwidth. However, it will be sometime
before they become readily available for home use. In the
meantime, if you are seriously considering improving your
connection to the Internet via ISDN, bear in mind that
the following steps are involved in this process:
 Buying adapters
Ordering ISDN line
Installation of a high-speed serial interface
Installation of the terminal
adapter
Configuring the adapter to work
with the ISDN line
Setting up the PPP
(point-to-point protocol)
Setting up the adapter port to
its maximum speed
Configuring the
dial-up-networking connection.
|
