 |
The only visible evidence of the new system. The thing on top is the router, the black box makes the signal more computer-digestible |
Time for techno boasting and the likeliehood of no comments at all. I’m having to live with fewer comments these days (baseball excepted) but I’m wondering, might the UK (presently governed by a Ship of Fools) be ahead of the US in the subject I’m posting about?
Until the day before yesterday I was connected to the internet by copper wire. Now I’m connected by transparent plastic cable. Or, as they say in the trade, fibre optics. Which the US, liking to be different, calls “fiber” optics.
It should have taken two hours but the first bit ran into problems. This consisted of shoving new cable into a hole outside my front door so that the free end made it along thirty metres of underground conduit to a junction with the (comparatively) newly installed fibre optics network.
It got jammed. Delays were gloomily discussed. Then a more muscular shover had a go and lo! that pesky end appeared 30 m away. The rest, ie, inside the house, took less than an hour.
Why? you are asking. Speed is the main reason. Internet info now arrives 38 times faster than the UK average. But that’s a “marketing” claim. For me, more like three times faster (150 megabits per second) given the estate where I live is more technically up-to-date than the UK average and was only developed thirty years ago. Reliability is also improved.
Mostly I’m barely aware of this new speed. But it should show up when I’m doing heavier work like transferring photo images or video. More especially, I’m future protected. The old (copper wire) network, supporting landline phones, is already deteriorating. Fibre optics will last longer.
Besides, it’s more techie: digital rather than analogue.
I'm glad you got the new high speed fiber optic connections. We do like our speedy connectivity these days.
ReplyDeleteNewRobin13: Yeah, but it's kinda mystical too.
DeleteWe still don't have that, and have to rely on the squirrels not chewing through the wires every season. Jealous Good luck on the new system.
ReplyDeleteSandi: Do what Elvis did with what he called "squirls" - eat em. I assumed some people in the US do have fibre optics. Where are they located?
DeleteI only notice how fast downloading or uploading is when it isn't. Generally restarting my computer solves the problem.
ReplyDeleteellen abbot: I noticed it when I took the photo (of the router, etc) used with the post. There's probably a simpler way but I send photos from my phone as email attachments to my gmail account for use in Tone Deaf. This time it arrived like lightning.
ReplyDeleteOur speed tests at 92 mbps download/12 Mbps upload. Local providers offer 1000mbps (1gbps) through fiber connection with symmetrical upload/download speeds. It currently takes about 2 seconds to email myself a photo so I’m not feeling a need to upgrade.
ReplyDeleteMikeM: I've had the same ISP for thirty years and they have various shortcomings, notably to do with email. Time to switch so I thought I why not go all the way from copper to fibre optics. For which 6 months are free and the eventual monthly payments are 25% cheaper than with copper.
ReplyDeleteIt's all Greek to me.
ReplyDeleteGarden: Gardening innures you to the slowness of things, at least it's one of the reasons I pay someone to take the burden off my back. But I don't know anyone who can bear a slow computer. Often it may be just a matter of seconds but, even so, impatience rises like a burp from an excess of Irn Bru. And a slow mobile is even worse; updating the maps function on my mobile endured several days.
ReplyDeleteCuring computer slowness may force you to learn binary jiggery-pokery you thought you could well do without. Causing you, the user. to slow down in your search for a solution. If you can live with slowness, fine. But it means you are a member of an elite minority. We, the majority, are forced to torture ourselves in the pursuit of speed.
Quote: I drink the air before me and return,
Or e'er your heart twice beat
Puck, of course.
I'm no Puck and quite like the sound of being a member of the elite minority. (When family use my computer the lack of speed drives them mad.)
ReplyDelete