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FAQs
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| FCC Depiction of wireless technologies and trade-off of speed/distance. |
Wireless Broadband FAQ Q. Does Delmarva WiFi really provide WiFi access as the name implies? A. Yes and no. WiFi
is a loose term that has no defined definition. For our purposes we will use the term to refer to a wireless signal
you can pickup from a computer with a wireless card; similar to the wireless network you can create within your home or office
using a wireless router. Delmarva WiFi provides WiFi service in each of the coverages areas under our "Hotspot"
tab above. Delmarva WiFi also provides a fixed wireless Broadband solution that does not utilize this WiFi technology. We
use Motorola Canopy, Alvarion, Trango and Mikrotik equipment none of which are WiFi compatible nor can be picked up by a computer
without proprietary Customer Premise Equipment installed by a professional technician. Q. Is Wireless Broadband as reliable as hard wired connections such as Cable or DSL? A. Yes. All Broadband Internet Services can and will be affected by conditions beyond our control such as lightening storms,
car accidents involving utility poles, etc. Wireless Broadband is no more or no less affected by these situations. Q. How secure is the connection? A. No provider can offer a "secure" Internet connection. The Internet is historically an insecure network. We provide encryption and Air security to protect
our customers over the airwaves. Understand that it is the customer's responsibility regardless of the Broadband provider
to have Anti-Virus Software, Spyware/Adware Protection and a Firewall to protect against the threats of the Internet. DSL, Cable, T1, Satellite,
Cellular, Wireless Broadband - What is the difference? Cellular Internet: Cellular Internet is perhaps one of the faster growing popular
broadband solutions for customers with little or no alternative. Compared to Satellite connections it wins hands down. There
are several key factors to know how Cellular Internet or Air Cards work. - Cellular Connection Speeds are relative to your signal strength. It is common knowledge if you are
in an area where you would typically have two bars of signal or less on your cellular phone you will have connection speeds
of dial-up at best.
- The connection speed is based on how many customers
are concurrently connecting to the cellular tower. Cellular companies can only speculate at this. If you are located near
a major traffic highway your speeds will crawl when there are many customers on the road utilizing their cellular phones.
- It is difficult to share the Internet connection. Selection
of routers which support sharing an Air Card are limited and expensive at best.
- Data rates based on an Internet Speed Test can be deceiving. These are typically burst rates which cannot be sustained
for more than 1-2 minutes.
- The connection is portable. It works
well for those who travel.
- The latency typically is around 200ms
to the Internet. Compared to Satellite which can be up to 2000ms this is great. Compared to Wireless Broadband which typically
is under 50ms it is 1/4th the surfing speed.
- Most cellular carries
have implemented usage caps and charge for usage over a few gigabytes per month. This can prove to be very expensive for online
Gamers, business users (VPN), users downloading or streaming music or video, etc.
Wireless Broadband:
- Provided by a wireless operator
- Speeds from 768kbps/128kbps to 10Mbps/10Mbps and higher
- Shared access by multiple
users to the available bandwidth at the Tower
- Does not require multiple parties, WISP
generally owns network end to end
- Bypasses all street level cable infrastructure
- Distances limited to 30 miles with line of sight to tower locations
- Can be affected
by severe weather; lightning strikes, ice (rare)
- Cost of Business Wireless Internet: $99.00/month
and up
- Cost of Residential Wireless Internet: $49.95/month and up
DSL is provided by an ISP and the local Telco- Speeds from
144kbps/144kbps to 6Mbps/768kbps
- Shared access by multiple users to the available bandwidth
at the Central Office
- Requires multiple parties to deliver the service (ISP, Telco, others)
- Distance limited to approximately 3 miles from a DSL equipped Telco Central Office
- Maximum
connection speeds limited by distance from Central Office
- Can be affected by severe weather;
downed lines, flooded connection vaults
- Cost of Business DSL: $49.00/month and up.
T1 is provided by an ISP and the local Telco
- Speeds are up to 1.544Mbps/1.544 Mbps
- Multiple T1's can be bonded for higher speeds
- Dedicated access to available bandwidth (not shared)
- Requires multiple parties to deliver
the service
- Much higher distances than DSL, cost increases with distance (local loop)
- Can be affected by severe weather; downed lines, flooded connection vaults
- Cost of
full T1: $599.00/month and up.
Cable Internet is
provided by Cable Companies
- Speeds from 2Mbps/384kbps to 8Mbps/1Mbps
- Shared access by multiple users to the available bandwidth at the Distribution Node
- Does
not require multiple parties, Cable Company generally owns network end to end
- Maximum connection
speeds limited by distance from Distribution Node
- Limited infrastructure to businesses
- Can be affected by severe weather; downed lines, flooded connection vaults
- Cost of
Business Cable Internet: $99.00/month and up
Satellite
Internet Satellite Internet utilizes a satellite in geostationary orbit to relay data
from the satellite company to each customer. Satellite Internet is usually among the most expensive ways of gaining broadband
Internet access, but in rural areas it may only compete with cellular broadband. However, costs have been coming down in recent
years to the point that it is becoming more competitive with other high-speed options. Satellite
Internet also has a high latency problem caused by the signal having to travel 35,000 km (22,000 miles) out into space to
the satellite and back to Earth again. The signal delay can be as much as 500 milliseconds to 2000 milliseconds, which makes
this service unsuitable for applications requiring real-time user input such as certain multi-player Internet games and first-person
shooters played over the connection. The functionality of live interactive access to a distant computer can also be subject
to the problems caused by high latency. There is no simple way to get around this problem. The
delay is primarily due to the speed of light being only 300,000 km/second (186,000 miles per second). Even if all other signaling
delays could be eliminated it still takes the electromagnetic wave 233 milliseconds to travel from ground to the satellite
and back to the ground, a total of 70,000 km (44,000 miles) to travel from you to the satellite company. Since the satellite is usually being used for two-way communications, the total distance increases to 140,000 km
(88,000 miles), which takes a radio wave 466 ms to travel. Factoring in normal delays from other network sources gives a typical
connection latency of 500-700 ms. This is far worse latency than even most dial-up modem users' experience, at typically
only 150-200 ms total latency. Most satellite Internet providers also have a FAP (Fair Access
Policy). Perhaps one of the largest cons against satellite Internet, these FAPs usually throttle a user's throughput to
dial-up speeds after a certain "invisible wall" is hit (usually around 200 MB a day). This FAP usually lasts for
24 hours after the wall is hit, and a user's throughput is restored to whatever tier they paid for. This makes bandwidth-intensive
activities nearly impossible to complete in a reasonable amount of time (examples include P2P and newsgroup binary downloading).
Advantages - True global broadband Internet access availability
Disadvantages - Very high latency compared to other broadband services,
especially 2-way satellite service
- Unreliable: drop-outs are common during travel, inclement
weather, and during sunspot activity
- The narrow-beam highly directional antenna must be accurately
pointed to the satellite orbiting overhead
- The Fair Access Policy limits even moderate usage.
- VPN use is discouraged, problematic, and/or restricted with satellite broadband, although
available at a price
- One-way satellite service requires the use of a modem or other data uplink
connection
- VoIP is not supported.
- Satellite dishes are huge. Although
most of them employ plastic to reduce weight, they are typically between 80 and 120 cm (30 to 48 inches) in diameter.
What is Remote Access? Why do I need it?
Two common methods of remote access are Remote Desktop, and Remote
VPN. Remote Desktop allows employees to use a laptop or other computer to connect to office desktop computers or a Terminal
Server as if they were sitting in front of it. Files, printers, and applications are availble. Remote VPN (Virtual Private
Networking) allows users to connect to the office network as if they were physically in the office giving them access to network
resources.
What is a Static IP?
A Static
IP is like your phone number for the Internet. It allows you to be found among all the millions of networks that exist. Most
ISP's such as AT&T and Comcast provide you with a "Dynamically Assigned" IP Address that changes at regular
intervals and may or may not be visible on the Internet. This makes it very difficult, sometimes impossible to access your
network from the outside. An IP Address looks something like 12.127.17.71
A
Static IP is needed to allow remote access
What is DNS?
DNS
stands for Domain Name Server. Websites, and other Internet servers use IP addresses to deliver information back and forth.
To make locating a website easier, Domain Name Servers translate common web addresses and names (google.com) into IP addresses
(208.67.219.230). Root DNS servers keep track of all of the websites and their associated IP Addresses and are updated daily.
There are more in-depth uses of DNS.
What does Mbps and kbps mean?
Mbps
stands for Megabit per second and kbps stands for kilobits per second. 1Mbps is one million bits per second, and 1kbps is
one thousand bits per second. Mbps and kbps are the standard units of measurement of speed on a network. Most Ethernet networks
(the network between computers, servers, and printers inside your office) run either 10Mbps, 100Mbps, or 1000Mbps (10BaseT,
100BaseT, or Gig-E). This is much faster than your connection to the Internet which is less than 12kbps on typical dial-up
service and between 256kbps and 5Mbps on most broadband connections.
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