[H-GEN] Bigpond Advance (cable)

[Glen De Witt]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.          ]

Hi, we've been using BPA with a Mandrake 7.0 Abit BP6 dual Celeron 433 box
for about three weeks now and, briefly, I've added a comment to your queries
below. We are using it as a gateway machine for a small business LAN, to
which we are currently making into a WAN as we open up some more branches.

To people who have had experience with this could you tell me:
1. What are the differences between BPA and getting 128K ISDN?
Speed and cost and, in our case, it was quicker to arrange installation.

2. Why would an organisation want BPA over 128K ISDN?
cheaper and faster

3. What "speeds" do you get from BPA - is it a relatively "slow" link
from customer to Telstra?  Are these sustained speeds or "bursts"?
Verrry impressive! I used to work for one of Brisbane's major ISP's and am
used to having broadband access, but this seems to perform better than when
I was used to the LAN access at the ISP! Typically getting 50kb/s and above
for file d/loads. It ROCKS!

4. Are there latency issues?
Latency? I'm a married man. ;^)

5. Is it reliable?
Seems to be very reliable, once you get the "stay alive" script happening,
it's just ....there...

6. IPs: How does this work?  I saw someone say that its dhcp?  Is it
possible to get a fixed IP subnet?
Yep, it's DHCP, we use two NIC's, one to deal wid da cable and one to
connect to da LAN. And, nope , they're not keen to give out static IP's....
however, once you're up, you don't lose it, so.... no more reboots... still,
once you've compiled the kernel, reboots aren't necessary, are they? ;^)

7. Does anyone understand what Telstra's target market is for BPA
Not me... guess they've had to rush at it 'coz of optus at home??? Seems to be
primarily targeted at the home user, it's only Windoze software they
supply... optus at home expressly mention they will not permit "servers" to be
used with their service... beats me how they will police it and where you
draw the line... BPA don't seem so paranoiac

8. How will the preformance of the cable network scale when every person
in Brisbane gets cable internet.
Stay outta the trendy suburbs and you'll be fine.

9  Any other issues I should be aware of?
500Mb download limit is wayyy to easy to exceed and it's ummm, 24c /Mb after
this (I think... I'm not paying the bills)

10. Are there any hidden costs?
Decrease in social life. Eye strain. Aching wrists.

Apologies for flippancy.... have fun.

Glen De Witt
Brisbane
Queensland
Australia
0411 861 809

.sig removed to conserve bandwidth


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