Wooo! just got my cable modem (1 Viewer)

[Philip_G]

coming from DSL the extra bit of speed is nice, about 1/3rd faster.
various online speed tests have me between 1.1 and 1.8 m/bit
all at about 20$ a month cheaper than DSL

 

[Kevin P]

Sweet. Now get yourself an anti-virus and a firewall, if you haven't already!

For anti-virus, I recommend Norton. For a firewall, I recommend either Norton or Zone Alarm.

Norton Internet Security 2002 bundles the firewall and the antivirus into a single package.

KJP

 

[Philip_G]

no problem, I have a small network here behind a NAT firewall

 

[Paul_Fisher]

Thats strange, cable modems are usually slower than DSL because you have to share bandwidth with others, unlike DSL. I had AT&T cable modem service for about 3 months, and at peak times it was actually slower than 56k. I hated it, so I got Bellsouth DSL, which is what I have now and its much much faster than the cable modem.

But to each his own!

 

[Paul_Fisher]

Another thing, I personally think a firewall is a waste of system resources. I could understand if there was something important on my computer or if I had my own business, but I don't really need a firewall. I haven't used one for about a year and nothing has happened to my computer.

 

[Philip_G]

it kind of depends paul. DSL you're probably on DCHP, who knows how long the lease is. When I had DSL I had the same IP for months on end so it's more or less static.
Really for a home machine i don't care, unless you have file and print shares open. I don't keep personal info on my machine.. so have at it.
I have a linux box firewalling because it's cheaper than buying a hardware router

 

[Paul_Fisher]

I'm definitely on DCHP, because I get a different IP address every time I connect, which is also another reason I don't really need a firewall.

 

[Philip_G]

unless someone is scanning the IP block that your ISP uses for DSL customers
if you leave something open, like a file share, they will find it.

 

[Mark Paquette]

Another thing, I personally think a firewall is a waste of system resources

Famous last words. I suggest checking out http://www.grc.com Just because you don't have anything important on your PC doesn't mean that your PC can't be hijacked and used for malicious purposes.

 

[Kevin P]

Oh, let's not get me started on my "why you need a firewall" tirade... I would be emailing you a 10 megabyte log file containing all the times I've been scanned in the past year!
Granted, most of the scans won't do anything, unless you have specific services enabled on your computer. File sharing, for one, can let hackers right in. Also, if you run IIS on a NT/2000 box and don't have it patched and secured properly, you could get hit with the Nimda virus or Code Red worm. And just in the past few days, a worm was discovered that infects systems running Microsoft SQL Server. Although it's unlikely that you, as a home user, would be running SQL Server, I have the peace of mind of knowing that my firewall is keeping this riffraff out, and in fact, I knew that something was scanning for SQL Servers, even before the worm was announced, because my firewall told me. If I had a SQL Server inside my network, my firewall would have spared it from being infected and exploited.
BTW, I too use a Linux box as a NAT router and firewall. Personal firewalls like Zone Alarm are also useful, because they not only keep bad stuff from coming in, they can keep bad stuff from being sent out from your machine too. Such as if you get infected by a virus, the firewall will likely block the virus from emailing itself out to others. Or if you get spyware, you can block it from downloading ads or sending personal information without your consent. The resource utilization of firewalls is minimal, and computer power is cheap these days anyway.
You wouldn't leave the door to your house unlocked, would you?
KJP

 

[Philip_G]

You wouldn't leave the door to your house unlocked, would you?

LoL I live in North Dakota.. I do all the time

 

[Brian W. Ralston]

I am very happy with my Cable modem in Arcadia, CA (suburb of LA). With Adelphia here, I am consistently getting 3.1-3.5 MegaBit Speeds. All for $50 a month.

 

[AviTevet]

Yow! Fast . I think I get around 300k here... it's fast enough for me! I usually find the bottleneck is on the other side anyhow.

 

[Travis Olson]

Ah broadband, oh the things I could do if I had it. Unfortunately, it's not available in the sticks of Northern Minnesota. I could get satellite internet, but would be unable to play on-line games so that's a no no. That and the $700 price tag, just for the equipment. The town nearest to me (9 miles) is setting up wireless and they say it will reach up to 16 miles, so I have been praying to the internet gods for that one. The saddest part is that I can only connect at a maximum of 24 kbps, which needless to say, sucks ass.

 

[Philip_G]

man that sucks travis! move to grand forks lol cable and dsl at your disposal

 

[Matt_R]

I can't complain about my cable service here in Northern NJ. Optimum Online doesn't cap the downloads AT ALL. Full 10/Mbs down with 1/Mbs up. To their FTP server I can get 1 megaBYTE per second down. I don't even know what to do with all the bandwidth!

Before I had the cable service, I was paying $90/month for 1.5/384 DSL service. Now I'm getting over six times the speed down for $40/month. I don't know how DSL is going to survive against these big cable companies.

 

[Travis Olson]

move to grand forks lol cable and dsl at your disposal

You know, I have thought about that a time or two for that very reason.

 

[Andre F]

I miss my Cable Modem sooooooooo much! Hopefully I'll get back to it soon. :frowning:
-Andre F

 

[AaronNWilson]

I think that it is pretty important that everyone uses a firewall nowadays in order to prevent hackers compromising your system for a denial of service attack. 70% of the computers used in such attacks came from the @home network (the now defunct).