"Digital Wokan" <
wokan@home.com> wrote:
> I have to ask because @Home never blocked me for some reason. Tonight,
> I have a theory.
Mine was blocked without warning on ports 25 and 80 for a week or two. Then
25 opened up, as I was hit back a backlog of old e-mails. I don't think 80
ever came back though. As of 10/1, I'm on @Work, so I can't say what's up
lately.
> Do any of those people who can't use port 80 have the
> old LanCity modems, or were you all switched to the newer models?
I was on one of the General Instruments Surfboard units, but started out
with the LANcity LCP way back when. They had no trouble filtering SMB
networking with the LCp either.
> [...] The old LanCity doesn't care, but
> the new models do and won't sync up. They can't change my info without
> corrupting the account under their current system, so we put the LC back
> on and after a few minutes, it sync'd up again.
I had the opposite problem, thus the Surfboard.
> I never realized just how programmable those new ones are. I always
> though if your service was "capped" at so many K/sec, it was because
> @Home did it at the router. Seems it's the modems doing the capping and
> LC's are too old to do it. (Yes!)
The LCp was pre-standards, so there were some combinations of things it
wouldn't do. However, are you sure you're not capped. I definitely felt it
when the cap went in on the LCp. In fact, I actually was bumped from 128Kbps
to 256Kbps as part of the upgrade to the GI modem.
> This does leave me wondering... Why would a manufacturer purposely sell
> something crippled to consumers? If I went out to buy a cable modem
> (assume using the docsis standard), why would I want to buy something
> that's been crippled? I would think there'd be a great incentive for a
> company to sell a cable modem that can't be capped. Customers would
> very likely prefer that in principle at the least.
DOCSIS *includes* some of those crippling features. Makes sense, as it's
only meant to be a consumer-grade service, so there are a number of options
for various combinations of up and downstream speeds. HFC (cable) networks
vary, but most have a shared upstream path, so true symmetrical bandwidth is
uncommon and expensive.
> (Until then, they can have my LanCity when they pry it from my cold
> hands... maybe I should go turn off the AC.)
My current unit is a Toshiba. Can't say that it feels any different in terms
of speed -- though it has been VERY good lately. Biggest difference to me is
I got my boss to sign off on billing it to the company now!
- Bob