>From: brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult)
>To: adsl@freebsddiary.cx
>Subject: Re: considering adsl
>Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:05:06 +1300

> >If you are in Auckland and within sight of the SkyTower, you can get
>IHUG's
> >Starnet service.

Up to a couple weeks ago you couldn't - they were not taking 'Nationwide'
orders - looks like it's back on now though.

>
>Plus a satellite service which works anywhere in the country -- unlike ADSL
>or Saturn. Here in Tawa it's the *only* choice, though ADSL is supposed to
>be here within three months and Saturn aren't far away either.
>

The Tawa exchange was cut over for ADSL on 26 November, which means that you
should be able to place orders from about 13 December. Possibly a bit
earlier.

>
> >This only give you a downlink, you have to use your dialup
> >modem over your phone line as the uplink. www.ihug.co.nz. However the
>peak
> >speed is not so hot - 400kbit/s and performance is reported to be
>erratic.
>
>No, 400 kbit/s is a real-world easily acheived actual speed for a single
>TCP stream from a US site. I've actually had over 500 kbit/s from time to
>time. Which from what I hear is very competitive with ADSL or Saturn.

If you check out the diagram on http://www.ihug.co.nz/satnet/how.html you
will see that IHUG describe their downlink as being 400 kbit/s. That sound
like what most people are getting. A downlink which is modulated at 8Mbit/s
isn't too useful if you can't actually move data at that rate because you
are sharing it with 1000 other users.

Even before the Jetstream service gets tuned up customers are getting
2Mbit/s even during peak periods.

If I can quote from the Satnet FAQ:
" Q1: How likely is it that I will get 400Kbps? What is the minimum speed I
will get?
A: The card actually receives traffic at the amazing speed of 8 Mbits, and
you should get up to 400Kbps for email and newsgroups. For NZ sites, you can
usually expect to get speeds of up to 400Kbps during off-peak times and up
to 128 kbps during peak times internationally.

> >You can't get a static IP address which makes it easier to host a web or
> >mail server - you
> >can with Jetstream and I am pretty sure with Saturn as well.
>
>The satellite service gives static IPs to everyone, though ihug don't
>guarantee that it will always be that way. But IHUG will in fact sell you
>a permanent static IP if you want one.
>

Again quoting from IHUG's web site:

"Q18: Can I use this as a permanent connection and can I have a static IP.
                   A: No and No."

Jonathan.

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Received on Fri Dec 3 22:00:55 1999