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By: Gowan McGland
Date: 3/15/00 12:52:04 PM
# Replies: 33
Well, here it is, my first post on the Nunz via my brand-spanking-new
Roadrunner cable modem.
Am I impressed? So far, not really. It's definitely faster than the ole 56K modem, but it doesn't seem particularly zippy especially compared to the ADSL connections I've seen at some friends' houses.
It benchmarks pretty fast on the two online connection benchmarks I found (one is on RR's page and the other is on Microsoft's).
Also, since I'm part of RR's internal network, I can't PCAnywhere to work which kinda sucks hard. I'm sure after some thought I'll figure a way around this.
No one seemed to know how often my IP would refresh. I'd like a static IP, but that's apparently not possible with cable. I'll be getting ADSL in about 6 months, anyway, so we'll see where I go from here.
So, anyone else with cable? Any tweaking suggestions? Anyone?
Response #1
By: Da Sissop
Date: 3/15/00 2:10:29 PM
Sorc' sent me this link when I first got my ADSL hookup. Looks like they've grown a bit since I last saw 'em.
Response #2
By: Ralf
Date: 3/16/00 8:24:07 AM
Congrats on the modem! Sorry it's not blowing your socks off... so much depends on how many others are sharing your segment. I've had MediaOne/RR for over a year and have been impressed.
The fact you can't PCAnywhere baffles me. I do it all the time to and from my machine... it's how I support customers in the field. Can it be something else?
Your dynamic IP lease expires according to the settings in winipconfig.exe/more info. WHen it renews you'll PROBABLY get a new IP but not necessarily.
There's registry tweaks you can perform that supposedly improve performance, but I didn't notice any. I can dig 'em out if you wanna try.
For Quake/Half-Life try RATE 8000 at the ~ command prompt. :-)
Response #3
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 3/16/00 9:21:09 AM
The PCAnywhere thing is because I don't have an outside IP at either location. My IP at work is an internal ip (it starts with 10) and my IP with the cable modem is the same way. It's internal to the RR network, I guess (it begins with a 24). So, I guess I need to figure out a way to spoof an outside address.
The IP seems to be set to renew every 24 hours. I'll keep track of whether it actually changes.
That's it.
Response #4
By: rorschach
Date: 3/16/00 12:37:08 PM
I've just been debating this same situation, I'm getting ready to move and the four houses I've narrowed it to don't have DSL access yet. all should have access by fourth quarter of this year but thats over 6 months away. the cable runs in the area average 18-22 thousand feet so i suspect the dialup modem won't get real high either. should I gut it out and wait on DSL or should i bite the bullet and go Cable modem? a friend of mine has road runner and i tell ya, thier tech support needs reinforcement, the guys are generally pretty inept. now, I THOUGHT that as the IP addresses are refreshed, the modem would request the existing address first, and if available, would recieve it. so in a static system, the addresses should never change. but if you add another user well......... I'm gonna ask about that because i wanted to get a static IP as well so i could set up an FTP site to handle large engineering files that normally kill my e-mail account. HMMmmmm food for thought.....
Response #5
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 3/16/00 4:14:08 PM
The user booklet they give you clearly states that you can't get a static IP and thus can't run any type of server. They make it pretty clear that the service is really only to be used as a means of surfing and not for hosting.
Response #6
By: Ralf
Date: 3/17/00 7:12:31 AM
That's indeed what they say, and they DO scan your ports occasionally looking for HTTP, IRC, FTP, etc servers. If they find an open port, they'll probe further.
However, I've been operating a more-or-less 24-hour FTP server for my biz, and they've never complained. I think because it's low bandwidth... if I was hosting WAREZ or MP3's they'd probably notice the bandwidth hemmorage and shut me down.
Renewing your IP lease every 24 hours is kinda extreme. Mine changes every six weeks or so... I'd chalk it up to different regional offices with differing policies. Perhaps Houston RR was burned by a ring of pyrates?
But you CAN run a dedicated server even if the IP changes. There's shareware that will post your current IP to a known good site everytime it changes, kind of like how Jim does the http://come.to/webnuns thing. Or, you can write your own, like I did. Tain't hard. :-)
About PCA... if you're using at least v8.0, and your internal network at work supports proxies, which it sounds like it does, then you should be able to expose ports 5631 & 5632 in your firewall and rock on. Assuming you know your host's IP (your machine at home, at least for 24 hours at a time, right?) the proxiy should handle everything else transparently... you should not need to know or care what local IP the remote session (your workstation) has. If none of that works, see if you can set up a PCA gateway on one of the servers outside the firewall.
Good luck!
Response #7
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 3/18/00 1:18:17 AM
The problem may be that Houston Road Runner has port filters on their network that block most everything (including PCA) but the bare minimum of services for standard residential web & mail services.
If they are expiring IP leases every 24-hours they're probably very tight about they have open on their routers.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #8
By: Ralf
Date: 3/18/00 9:06:51 AM
Wonder if you can get PCA to use ports 80/20 instead of 6631/5632? My rancid v8.0 wont, but maybe v9...?
Am I correct in assuming you can pump ANYTHING over ANY port, standards be damned? Like, I can FTP over port 80, or suck web pages thru the FINGER port (if the webserver cooperates). Right?
Response #9
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 3/19/00 2:05:11 PM
The technical answers is yes, with some definite limitations you're pretty much right Ralf, as long as both end devices are setup the same. As an example, on my Linux box there is a configuration file that lists all of the network services and the ports that they will use. I can go in change ports all over the place. The only thing is some protocols (like telnet, ftp, ping, etc) have rules about how they can be transported across a network. Some are TCP, others are UDP. Some require "guaranteed delivery", others are "connectionless". Some packets can be fragmented during transport, others must not be fragmented. If both devices were on the same unrouted subnet you could probably get away with alot more of this sort of thing, but going through firewalls and routers...you'll run into alot of practical limitations if you try to go wild and remap all your ports to HTTP or FINGER.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #10
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 3/19/00 9:06:39 PM
Sorc, you're too much geek for me.
Response #11
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 3/20/00 1:29:33 AM
Er...uh...sorry...I thought I was being helpful....
I'll shutup now.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #12
By: Ralf
Date: 3/20/00 7:12:25 AM
Actually, whether the traffic's TCP or UDP isn't important. If a UDP (your "guaranteed delivery") packet is sent from port 2222, and everyone (client & server) agrees it's 2222, then no problem. Things take care of themselves. We get hung up on port 80 being HTTP and 20 means FTP and forget that these are just conventions.
After all, y'all are communicating RIGHT NOW THIS VERY MINUTE with a webserver on port 8080. And you didn't have to do anything to your client software -- it's all in the address, baby.
In Gowan's case, he has control over the client (PCA remote) AND the server (PCA host) so he should be able to twiddle the ports any which way he wants. Assuming PCA allows access to those things, which I believe v9 does.
Response #13
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 3/20/00 8:50:38 AM
Nono, no reason to shut up. I was just in awe of your massive geekdom.
It was a *compliment*.
Response #14
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 3/20/00 1:10:32 PM
Sorc is Alpha Geek.
Response #15
By: rorschach
Date: 3/21/00 1:10:14 PM
I'll follow that....
Response #16
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 3/22/00 3:47:18 AM
*blush*
Gawrsh fellas....
I think maybe my GeekOverDrive is a reaction to being moved out of the *Techie World* into the *Corporate Management World*. Now that I'm a "suit" I fear losing my technical skills. It can only be a matter of time before I find myself calling the helpdesk to ask how to change my fonts or turn my computer on.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #17
By: Da Sissop
Date: 3/22/00 7:54:46 AM
"Why do I have to click the 'Start' button to shut down Windows?"
Response #18
By: rorschach
Date: 3/22/00 12:06:34 PM
microsoft never was terribly logical.....
Response #19
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 3/22/00 3:50:41 PM
What's a "font"?
Response #20
By: sooz
Date: 3/22/00 7:14:25 PM
Defag my computer? Why? I'm not homophobic. The fags can stay.
Response #21
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 3/23/00 12:36:09 AM
Am I the only one who sees fstab as a more than vaguely pornographic file name?
Response #22
By: Seventh of Seven
Date: 3/23/00 1:46:11 PM
i dunno about you guys, but i'm appreciating this way faster connection through webnuns.org to jamaica. fang, whatever you did, keep it up!
Response #23
By: Ralf
Date: 3/23/00 4:44:04 PM
Yeppers, it is indeed faster!
I can't even tell nomore when somebody else logs in. :-)
Response #24
By: Da Sissop
Date: 3/23/00 6:50:35 PM
Me neither! I guess, in a way, I kinda miss that.
Response #25
By: sooz
Date: 3/23/00 9:18:23 PM
I miss getting a busy signal when I call.
Response #26
By: Ralf
Date: 3/24/00 5:13:24 AM
Ah, then you're not an AOL user.
[Badaboom!]
Response #27
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 3/24/00 3:35:18 PM
Well, for any of you that care, I figured out a way to do it.
I spoofed an outside IP with my firewall and then allowed traffic to 5631/5632 to come in. Thus, PCA works just fine.
of course, I had to turn up the encription level, but THAT'S another story.
Response #28
By: Da Sissop
Date: 3/24/00 6:17:18 PM
(sung to the tune of Rick James' "Superfreak", which *would* have been the song of the millenium if not for that meddling PRINCE song)
Alpha geek, alpha geek, he's alpha geek-ay.
Response #29
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 3/24/00 7:30:53 PM
Something strange this evening. The board seems to be real slow this evening. Did something change? It's taking about 25-30 seconds between pages.
Sorc'(Rev)
PS - WAYTAGO GOWAN!!
Response #30
By: Da Sissop
Date: 3/25/00 4:06:40 AM
I noticed that too. The Nunnery is probably sharing a server with gad knows how many other websites. Maybe somebody opened up their mp3 stash or something.
But *normally* the response is pretty zippy, neh?
Response #31
By: Ralf
Date: 3/25/00 4:18:15 AM
Yep. Performace appears to vary depending on the time of day. Like now, 04:25 RET (Ridiculously Early Time) it screams. Primetime on a Friday night prolly sucks.
And congrats, Gowan. Ain't it great when stuff works?
Response #32
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 3/25/00 12:25:25 PM
Hey, I just figured out why the following code wouldn't work:
theRez = newMemoryBlock(17)
theRez.long(0) = w.top
theRez.long(4) = w.left
theRez.long(8) = w.width
theRez.long(12) = w.height
rf.AddResource(theRez.CString(0),"wp0z",ID,theName)
rf.close
Response #33
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 4/11/00 8:12:58 PM
Update:
I finally went to the SpeedGuide site and followed the tweaking guidelines and NOW my connection positively ROCKS! I'm getting between 250-300 Kbytes/sec and about 3000 Kbps. MUCH better than
what I was getting before.
So, my opinion of cable modems has changed considerably.