The point I was trying to make is that moving to a cable modem does not guarantee the elimination, or even the reduction, of packetloss. The majority of packetloss does not originate from your modem to the ISP, but rather from the ISP to the host OR internal at the ISP (such as a router). Since cable modems require more recent technology to function, logically the amount of packetloss should lessen. This is not a guarantee, however, as several @Home subscribers found out recently.

The thing to remember is that packetloss has NOTHING to do with connection speed. It is simply the number of packets lost going from the host to your computer. As you could imagine, a lot can go wrong with a packet as it travels to your computer. The only thing you are changing by going to cable modem service is the connection quality from your computer to you ISP, a very small percentage of the trip the packet will take. The rest of the connection remains pretty much the same.
The good thing about cable modems (and all high speed access, for that matter) is that even though the percentage of packets lost may stay the same (roughly), the total number of packets per minute increases dramatically. Because a cable modem can deliver so many more packers than a 56K, you can live with the same amount of packetloss.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: laine@... [mailto:laine@...]
Sent: Friday, June 04, 1999 4:24 AM
To: EverQuest@onelist.com
Subject: Re: [EverQuest] Voodoo3 2000, System, Cable Modem

From: "Mikael Laine" <laine@...>

> A cable modem will do nothing to lower packetloss. What it will do is decrease ping time, which can lessen the impact > of packetloss problems. The only way to (hopefully) lessen packetloss problems is to try a different ISP (which,
> subscribing to a cable modem service, you will accomplish). The main problem with cable modems, however, is that > as more people in your area subscribe to cable modem service, your connection quality will decrease. This is also > true for dial up service, but to a far lesser extent since they are low connection speed to begin with. As I will explain in a > moment, this is not as a real big problem. DSL, supposedly, does not have this downfall.

Well, it's not all that true. You can get rid of the packetloss even if you subscribe to cable modem service within the same ISP. In fact I think cable modem will help you allot. Not only to improve ping times. Since ISPs (mostly) rent higher speed and different routes, at the next wave of ISP or backbone, when they offer their customers higher speed.

This however kind of depends on how good/serious your ISP is. They should be able to answer you if they have guarantied speed to UUNet, or any of the backbones, the eq servers uses and how many concurrent users using the service.

Cheers,

Mikael Laine / MCSE
System Engineer
Exide Nordic
------------------------------------------------------------
Check my Terminal Server site at:
http://welcome.to/wts
------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know each week we feature a ONElist story?
http://www.onelist.com
How has ONElist changed your life? Please share your story.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the EverQuest homepage at http://www.everquest.com