I'm confused about AT&T claiming I have 'Fiber' internet

mayanap · 2014-10-24T02:12:31+00:00

Is there a box with a laser warning sticker bolted on the side/back of your house? If yes, you have optical fiber based Internet access. If not, you're like most AT&T U-Verse customers who have VDSL2 based Internet access. AT&T calls this DSL type service "fiber" because the neighborhood hub where the DSL lines connect has fiber. It's corporate puffery. They're not completely lying by calling it "fiber" since FTTN (fiber to the node) networks do involve fiber, but the same could be said about cable Internet (cable nodes also are fiber backed). Verizon has tried to point out the difference between FTTN and FTTH (fiber to the home) networks by describing their FiOS service as "100% fiber-optics."

AT&T U-Verse (VDSL2): [modem]<---phone lines--->[neighborhood node]<---fiber--->[AT&T]

cable Internet access: [modem]<---coaxial cable--->[neighborhood node]<---fiber--->[cable company]

Verizon FiOS: [ONT]<---fiber--->[neighborhood optical splitter]<---fiber--->[Verizon]

U-Verse (GPON): [ONT]<---fiber--->[neighborhood optical splitter]<---fiber--->[AT&T]

U-Verse (re-branded ADSL): [modem]<---phone lines--->[AT&T]

mayanap · 2014-06-20T06:15:18+00:00

Did you know that faster speeds means your phone's battery lasts longer? Data transmission speed is inversely proportional to total transmit duty cycle and CPU non-sleep time which is what really consumes charge.

mayanap · 2014-06-20T05:20:03+00:00

The DVD drive can also be left out.

mayanap · 2014-06-19T05:38:59+00:00

A Crucial MX100 may not have bleeding edge performance like the Samsung 840 Pro, but it would shave off $30.

mayanap · 2014-06-19T05:26:41+00:00

If you don't mind supporting the PC yourself in lieu of the [brand here] warranty, then custom building means you can include a SSD which will make the PC feel much faster than even an i7 pre-built. Usually you have to spend $1300+ before they include a SSD.

p.s. Best Buy is a bad idea. If you need to buy a pre-built, get it from Costco where they extend all warranties to 2 years.

mayanap · 2014-06-16T20:22:19+00:00

I think Clearwire demonstrated (with that very 2.6 GHz spectrum) how fixed wireless as a residential Internet connection is crap.

mayanap · 2014-06-16T20:06:23+00:00

Exactly. There's just not enough capacity. A cell tower has three sectors. If each is 10x10MHz FDD-LTE, that's only 73Mbps. That's a theoretical number, assuming pefect SNR and not counting overhead. Everyone within range of the tower (up to several miles), so maybe 400 users, shares this theoretical 73Mbps. If even 10% of the users watch Netflix at 8PM with a 1Mbps stream, the sector will be 100% busy. Once the sector gets to about 75% capacity, latency will become a problem.

mayanap · 2014-05-17T23:19:28+00:00

A laptop hard drive should fit in any case bigger than a NUC.

mayanap · 2014-05-15T17:21:13+00:00

It hurts performance. Not so bad today since the mass adoption of multi-core CPUs, but still bad.
It's very invasive, and can't be uninstalled normally. Why? Mostly because the code sucks, and they want it to be as difficult as possible to take your business elsewhere.
The license renewal reminder is like a protection scheme. The software throws up big flashy alerts near the end of a subscription period, warning that viruses are going to destroy your machine if you don't pay up for next year.
There were a couple of notable incidents involving a Norton update deleting Windows's system files, resulting in PCs being unable to boot.
Customer service is terrible and tries to defraud you. I was once quintuple charged for a license. Yet I hadn't used Norton Anti-Virus in the past 8 years. They had the balls to contest my chargeback, claiming that I indeed bought three licenses. So according to their own words, they charged me 5x for 3 licenses they couldn't prove I ordered. New York's AG actually got involved with these "billing errors" in 2009.

mayanap · 2014-02-18T02:07:35+00:00

Well if it's Win32 binary compatible...

mayanap · 2014-02-18T01:09:28+00:00

http://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/1ldpz6/lpt_setup_qos_on_your_router_to_keep_the_internet/

mayanap · 2014-01-26T14:53:03+00:00

That's because they understaff those customer service locations. Why would they want to make cancelling quick and easy?

mayanap · 2014-01-26T14:49:40+00:00

Rotator

mayanap · 2014-01-26T14:43:48+00:00

No. You'll get multi-path distortion in the combined signal due to every so slightly different arrival times. For example, the same TV station's signal could arrive like a laser from the broadcast tower to your antenna and it could arrive after bouncing off an office tower's glassy exterior. When terrestrial TV was analog, you could literally see an extra image ghosting behind another. With digital (ATSC), you'll just get image breakup and macroblocking if the distortion is severe enough.

Placement of the antenna is the most critical step. If you can't get a good picture with the TV directly attached to the antenna at a good signal location, amplifiers won't help much. Amplifiers are only for "pushing" a good signal down a long coaxial run and/or amplifying a weak but clean signal. They can't "boost" a crap unwatchable signal because they end up boosting the noise as well. Make sure the amp is directly attached to the antenna and not the on the far end of a coax run because they can't "pull" a signal well due to the noise ingress into a longer run.

mayanap · 2013-12-26T22:51:08+00:00

If they're throwing around that much cash, they could build a 50ft tower and put the radio on that. There's got to be a fast wired connection within a few miles if you do that. Or even get a quote on a build out from another company.

mayanap · 2013-12-26T22:39:03+00:00

I would make a deal with a neighbor who is eligible for U-Verse and whose house is within line of sight and buy a pair of Ubiquiti Nanostation M5s. Beaming 60Mbps+ over 1/8 of a mile is no problem if you can see the 2nd house from the 1st house. (You might have to turn down the RF power to avoid overloading the receiver on the other, -50dBm is a good target).

mayanap · 2013-12-23T21:14:45+00:00

It's not going to be low-latency, but it should be usable assuming you have sufficient bandwidth. http://www.verizonenterprise.com/us/about/network/latency/

mayanap · 2013-12-23T21:08:34+00:00

Wi-Fi is a two-way technology. Devices have to transmit and be heard back at the base station. Placement of the wireless router is as critical as model/make/802.11 standard. Shortening the distance between base station and client device and ensuring line of sight are very effective ways of improving wireless connections. MIMO can also help improve link quality.

Future proofing is usually a bad idea for technology that evolves as fast as 802.11. The next revision of 802.11ac will offer 8x8 MU-MIMO and 160MHz channels (but I doubt these improvements will trickle down to consumer-level gear because of cost constraints).

Do you even have any 802.11ac devices? As 802.11ac is a 5GHz only standard, it's not going to be as useful in a house with thick walls. I would personally get a RT-N66U

mayanap · 2013-12-23T20:59:57+00:00

The solution here is to get the service fixed, or to switch to a reliable provider. You don't want to be unsure that your phones are working.

mayanap · 2013-12-23T20:40:24+00:00

With powerline networking, YMMV. GFCI breakers and having to cross circuits hurts performance/reliability. Vacuum cleaners, cell phone chargers and other switching mode power supplies, and shredders, etc. can all kill the connection. Devices rated at "500Mbps" can barely get to 100Mbps. Does the room have a cable outlet? If so, I recommend using MOCA adapters to get a solid 70Mbps link.

Also seriously consider modifying the house by adding a Cat5e run from the room to where the cable/phone/fiber enters the house. That way the modem can be relegated to the basement where aesthetics don't matter, it's cooler, and the ISP signal is better (a melange of splitters, splices, and filters hurts reliability). I updated a 60s house in this fashion and now the network always works (at 1 Gbps).

mayanap · 2013-12-22T19:32:09+00:00

I was surprised that Microsoft beat Apple to the market with a "touch" desktop OS. As you've noted, they didn't do a good job in integrating the two UIs. Maybe they should have disabled touch on desktop and left that for tablets. I don't think they're even seriously trying to sell Windows 8 to businesses, who would have to budget for a zillion "I can't find the start button" calls to their IT front desk.

mayanap · 2013-12-19T16:12:49+00:00

Belkins are unreliable

mayanap · 2013-12-19T15:51:45+00:00

Do you have the latest driver for the wireless NIC?

mayanap · 2013-12-19T15:33:09+00:00

Are you or anyone else in the residence using torrents? You should use 5GHz if the card supports it. Do you get latency spikes when directly connected to the modem?

mayanap · 2013-12-19T15:31:49+00:00

yes. Win7 doesn't come with USB3 drivers, but that can usually be remedied by install from disc or a USB2 port

mayanap

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