Survival of the quickest: Broadband will change your life, they say.
To test the theory, we pitted a cable modem head to head against a 56k
modem. Kim Gilmour sees if dial-up's days are really numbered.
There's a mantra going around at the moment: 'High-speed Internet
will change your life.' No, really. With an always-on broadband
connection installed in your home, Web pages will come whizzing on to
your desktop at a thousand miles an hour and the whole way you use and
perceive the Internet will change. Not convinced? Well, take a look at
what's happening in South Korea, the most broadband-enabled nation on
Earth. While we're still crawling about on 56k, around 95 per cent of
home Internet users there have raced to broadband, according to
Nielsen//NetRatings (www.nielsen-netratings.com).
South Korean teenagers practically live online, accessing broadband
media trough sites such as DreamXwww.dreamx.net), a popular portal
crammed with gaming networks, action films and free multimedia
downloads. For a social experience, they'll frequent broadband-enabled
gaming parlours known as PC baangs (PC rooms), which are part Internet
cafe part cool hangout Some of these baangs are lavish and trend others
smoky and dingy. In the thousands of them lining the streets of Seoul,
you'll find teenagers chatting, flirting, sending video messages,
battling each other in 3D and immersing themselves in atmospheric
roleplay scenarios.
Abundant broadband availability and, just as importantly, appealing
content and rock-bottom access prices ($28, or about [pounds sterling]20
a month) have given South Koreans an insatiable appetite for broadband
recreation. They look at Web pages for an average of just 28 seconds
each, clicking through Web sites like couch potatoes flick through cable
channels.
What a difference!
The act of clicking on your ISP's dial-up networking link and
initiating a call is eliminated with broadband as it's always on. Those
with fast connections at work will know what this means -- no wondering
whether you're going to get a busy signal, no lags or constant
congestion, and no waiting to download huge software files, only to find
you've passed the two-hour acceptable usage limit and have been kicked
off the Net by your grumpy ISP. Broadband becomes a part of everyday
life.
In the US, a cable Internet connection is often bundled with a TV
package, which has the effect of making Net access an 'invisible' part
of your home entertainment world. (The oft-used phrase is "media
convergence".) In the UK, both NTL and Telewest offer similar
packages, but cable penetration is low compared with our transatlantic
cousins.
So what about broadband Britain? Well, we've made an embarrassingly
slow start, but the evidence is that those of us with broadband are now
staying online for longer and longer periods.
Broadband has had the hype, but people now want to know what it will
deliver. A recent survey conducted by Fletcher Advisory for BT Openworld
looked at how broadband affects residential Internet users in the UK.
Around 200 detailed interviews showed that broadband users have their
computers switched on for 13 hours a day, compared with just five hours
for narrowband households.
"One of the major impacts of broadband is that the computer is
increasingly seen as a kind of general resource for the activities of
the home," says the report. "Since usage is not rationed ...
and because access is so convenient, individuals make fewer distinctions
between leisure, recreational, informational or professional use of the
facility."
Accordingly, broadband users access the Internet more frequently for
research, music downloads, communication, video, education, banking,
online shopping and computer games.
A good sample
According to the Fletcher report, an important part of broadband
usage is 'sampling'. Because people don't have to actively dial into
their connections, getting online isn't a big deal and they discover
more things. They don't feel they need a predetermined purpose for
getting online. Most people (80 percent) loved the fact they could get
information, such as weather and travel news, fast. Quick access to
entertainment, such as video, games and music, was important to 68 per
cent of people.
Broadband's speed also helps people expand their social circles.
Forty-three percent have contact with more people thanks to their
super-fast connections.
The fact that broadband users are looking at more sites could be a
problem for portals that don't want people to stray away from their
sites. But, conversely, it could prove to be an incentive for producers
to create stickier, unique content that retains people's interest.
The test
So, what about broadband at home? Are all these statistics leading to
overhype? We decided to test the differences for ourselves. Using a 56k
modem (dialling into Freeserve's No Ties service) and a home broadband
connection over a cable modem (courtesy of Telewest Blue Yonder), we set
out to compare narrowband and broadband connections performing a range
of online tasks.
1. The connection
According to the Fletcher Advisory survey, users think the speed of
their broadband connection is more important than the fact it's always
on. Ninety-one per cent of people loved the high-speed Internet, but
only half said always-on was "very important". But this rises
to 65 percent for experienced users, who appreciate the importance and
convenience of being continually connected.
Our 56k line was continually busy. We had to dial in five times
before we could even get online. With broadband, we just turned on the
computer and started browsing.
2. Streaming stuff
Anyone who's tried watching video streaming over a narrowband
connection is likely to have been less than impressed, probably deciding
to turn on the TV rather than watch some teeny, juddery rectangle on a
PC screen.
Many sites feature broadcasts optimised for either high speed or
dial-up connections. Not many are optimised for 500k speeds, and instead
stream media at around 150k. Even so, that's way better than the paltry
multimedia that represent streaming 56k today. Watching even a tiny CNN
broadcast (www.cnn.com/multimedia) at 150k was substantially better than
watching it at 56k. At 56k we got one frame every four seconds, with so
much buffering and Net congestion that the whole experience was spoiled.
But over the broadband connection, everything was smooth and flawless.
So we gave up on 56k and concentrated on broadband fun. Ichoose.TV
(www.ichoose.tv) has a great range of short videos from many different
genres, some of which occupied quite a lot of our time. It also led us
to a link to a BBC news broadcast delivered in almost widescreen format,
thanks to iBEAM technology (www.ibeam.com).
We later visited AtomFilms (www.atomfllms.com) to watch a few
independent shorts. Movies.com and film (www.ifilm.com) had some
upcoming trailers, and the excellent Broadband Television
(www.broadbandtelevision.com) gave us links to a range of free content
from around the world. Voyeurs can also watch live streaming video from
the webcams found at Fly on the Wall (www.flyonthewall.com). We had a
little peek, but solely for the purposes of research you understand.
3. Downloading
It took us 20 seconds to download a free firewall for our always-on
connection. We tried the Tiny Personal Firewall
(www.tinysoftware.com/pwalt.php), which is 1.35Mb. When we tried to
download the same software over our dial-up connection, it took five
minutes and 40 seconds.
What about music? The rise and rise of peer to peer technology is a
perfect match for broadband. You can start downloading piece of music,
go away for a cup of coffee, and when you return to your PC, voila! The
song's there and ready for you to jive to as you JavaScript. Broadband
is so much faster, and so much more reliable than a 56k connection,
you'll find yourself discovering things that Simply weren't within your
range on a narrowband connection. With peer to peer networking, times
can vary according to the speed of the other person's connection, so
it's best to pick someone else with broadband. Downloading a near
CD-quality sound file of Garbage's single Androgyny (MP3, 4.5Mb) from
Audiogalaxy (www.audiogalaxy.com) took us around two minutes.
4. Gaming
Multiplayer gainers are a niche group that Telewest is targeting with
its Blue Yonder service. For a small fee, subscribers can access a
premium multiplayer games service (http://gaming.blueyonder.co.uk) that
lets you book dedicated broadband gaming servers and find gaming
friends. As with most multiplayer games, you and your competitors have
to own a copy of the game you want to play online.
Avid gamer Chris Duncan has been playing games for years via 56k, but
now he's hooked on broadband and says he could never go back. "It's
purely because of the speed. You need bandwidth." Duncan prefers
'massively multiplayer role playing games' (MMRPG) such as Asheron's
Call (www.microsoft.com /games/zone/asheronscall) and Anarchy Online
(www.anarchy-online.COm) where the gaming environments involve thousands
of people 'wandering around' in fantasy worlds.
If you're on 56k, interested in gaming, and feel like you're
disadvantaged, don't worry yet. Broadband won't necessarily give you an
advantage over your dial-up competitors, particularly in popular
multiplayer role-playing games. As these are ongoing and strategy-based,
it's all about how long you play them for. So spending 40 hours as
Thangaar the Warlock will make you a great player, though the only
friend you'll probably have left will be Durkum the Dwarf.
Most games are still optimised for 56k modems because many people
continue to use them, says Duncan. "But obviously on broadband the
all-round experience is better." On a cable modem, Duncan can turn
hi-res atmospheric effects on, instead of having to run at 'bare bones'
on a 56k modem to help things load faster.
Having a top-notch computer is important too -a machine with a 1Ghz
processor and 200Mb of RAM will obviously improve your broadband
Internet experience.
So?
If you're lucky enough to be able to get it, broadband's the way to
go. But there's a catch-22, because not enough content optimised for
broadband is out there yet. Extra demand for broadband can only be
driven by interesting content, and more content will only come with
increased demand for broadband.
But the situation's changing. And even visiting regular Web pages at
high speed enhances your whole Internet experience as the frustrations
that come with dial-up are eliminated. It saves so much time. You don't
have to twiddle your thumbs waiting for some JPEG to download-you can
just sit back, relax, and watch audio visuals streaming uninterrupted in
front of your eyes.
More broadband sites Search
Johnny Broadband
http://www.siteforsiteS.Com
We don't know who Johnny is, but he certainly knows where to find all
the good speedy content. Checkout his great dedicated broadband search
engine.
Speed
See how fast you're going by trying one of these speed tests:
SpeedTest.Net
www.speedtest.net
Pretty self explanatory. A simple dropdown menu lets you choose the
amount of data you wish to download or upload. Once the task is
completed, download time and throughput is displayed on screen.
TestMySpeed.com
www.testmyspeed.com
More links to modem speed tests. Determine your connection location
for a result that's closer to home.
Games
GameSpy.com
www.gamespy.com
If you dare to delve into the world of online games (be warned, you
could be trapped for days), GameSpy is one of the more popular
multiplayer resources. Find out absolutely everything about online
gaming here - there's reviews, other gainers, previews, cheats,
networking tips, tournament information and more,
Content
Yahoo! Broadcast
http://broadcast.yahoo.com/home.html.
Yahoo!'s reputation for categorising quality pages endures at its new
broadcasting resource. Make the most of your broadband connection with
its links to hundreds of live, on-demand programs. You can even watch a
full-length movie.
Network of the World
www.now.com
Interviews, music videos, television and a 24-hour video stream.
NOW.com Combines digital TV, Internet and multimedia in one
entertainment-rich portal.
Bloomberg Television
http://www.bloomberg.com/products/live_btv.html
Broadband isn't just for entertainment-hungry youngsters, and offers
real advantages for business. Bloomberg television offers live financial
news through its online video players and you can tailor your content
according to location and program preference.
Assistance
Broadband Help
A UK-based site offering seasoned and new broadband users alike
reviews of broadband providers, availability checks, links and the
latest developments in the UK broadband industry.
www.broadband-help.com.
RELATED ARTICLE: Which technology gives me more speed?
You can get broadband access through a range of technologies, but in
the UK it's either through cable or ADSL.
The advantages and disadvantages of each have been widely debated in
the US. Generally speaking, both are great technologies, Speeds tend to
depend on how many people you're sharing the pipes with. Using a cable
modern you might be sharing bandwidth with more people in your area, but
it'll be around [pounds sterling]15 a month cheaper than ADSL (which
runs on BT phone lines) in the UK, and will usually run just as fast.
If every single one of your neighbours is making bandwith-hungry
downloads, the slowdown on your cable modem is still likely to be
negligible- at least at this stage of uptake in the UK. However, ADSL's
local bandwidth is dedicated, which Means although your share your
Internet connection with others using ISP, you don't share it with your
neighbours. On ADSL, only a limited amount of people share bandwidth
(around 20:1). These so-called contention on ratios" should be in
your contract.
In rate cases, crashing and slow connections can occur on broadband,
and there are a number of possible reasons why, Network latency can be
major factor, although broadband connections usually have low latency.
Broadband connections usually have low latency. While strictly speaking,
latency equals speed. DSL Reports (www.dslreports.com/faq) uses a simple
analogy to explain the difference: "Imagine water running through a
pipe. The pressure is latency, the width of the pipe is can more water
through the pipe but at a slower rate, If your have a narrow pipe but
high pressure, you can move less water but at a faster rate."
A number of technical can increase the amount of time it takes for
date packets to travel back and forth. If you dare, you can do a bit of
dangerous tweaking of your spawn.net/rzcoon.htm), but don't say we
didn't warn you if it makes things worse rather than better, of course,
the other major factor is a lo-spec PC, As we said before, make sure you
have a good processor lots of RAM, other wise your system won't able to
handle broadband so well.
COPYRIGHT 2001 EMAP Media Ltd.
in association with The Gale Group and LookSmart. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale
Group
