Network Connection Choices

Network connections have never been so plentiful. From the early days of dial up ( I can still remember 4k memory chips!) with the PC Jr. to the 10MB home cable systems we have a lot to choose from. The carriers (AT&T, Verizon, South Western Bell etc) are all competing for market share. Yes we are still expanding our population and cities are adding more and more homes to the grid but by and large the carriers are now competing to take customers away which in simple terms is market share strategies.

The carriers do this by adding unique features to their offerings such as AT&T offering DirecTV as an example. The phone companies are looking more and more like the content providers and the DSL/CABLE giants are adding VOIP Telephone service to compete with the carriers for the elusive dial tone of the phone services.

So, the above examples are what I like to call the classics. Basic home or office connection via some form of wire. The emerging technologies today and in the near future are all about wireless. Companies are springing up to drive content and phone over the air and thus eliminate the barriers to expansion within a home or commercial property. In the early days of wireless the performance and security was not even close to the wired DSL or CABLE offerings so wireless suffered. This did not deter the silicon valley and others from defeating this problem with exciting new high speed wireless solutions that not only offer the same speed as the carriers wired solution they now exceed it in some cases.

Many times the wireless modem has the ability to transmit to the access point at speeds ten times faster than the DSL or CABLE modem can respond to. I have also found that the new 10MB offerings have a lot to be desired. Companies are rushing new high speed programs to the neighborhoods to either take market share or protect and the quality of consistent high speed delivery is not where it needs to be. In fact, my personal experience with a certain CABLE provider has me paying a premium for 10MB’s and averaging between 2-4MB actual downloading rates.

Very disappointing and they have not resolved the problems as of this writing. I will say that they did rebate my monthly service (credit) for their inability to provide as advertised and charged.

On the outer edge of wireless is quickly emerging the WiFi technology. This is a very exciting capability from an adaptive perspective. WiFi allows for laptops and desktops (although not as popular yet) to connect to the internet via pre-installed chips that offer onboard WiFi capability. When you enter a “hot spot” WiFi provided area such as most airports you no longer have to install a modem or find a dial up connection to download your mail.

The WiFi providers have you open your web browser and the first screen you will see is their sign on policies. Most offer by the hour, day, week or month and in some cases even annual plans. Very flexible for all your road warriors of the skies. WiFi is also getting beyond the airports. Most major cities are now either implementing or studying plans to offer localized WiFi hot spots throughout their cities. In some cases it is completely Free to all. They recoup their operating costs by having the clients view dynamic advertising along the side and bottom of the browser page frames.

Still other cities are looking to WiFi for emergency services and revenue generation. They can either manage the environment with a pay as you go plan or outsource the service to companies who then pay royalties back to the cities and thus reduce their over head and risk associated with the operation of the networks and services.

So, do your homework if you are just getting setup for a home office or small business deployment. The search engines of Google, Yahoo and MSN are great places to research the topic freely and provide you with endless reports and pricing to setup a home or small business network. One of my personal favorites is the Geek Squad but for they will be yet another topic!