TCI@home cable modem: a follow-up
TCI@home cable modem: a follow-up
Security Several users warned of possible security risks, especially with my cable modem hooked up to my Ethernet hub. For example, there was concern of external sites on the Internet being able to "read" my local network traffic. To minimize such risks, G.J. Parker suggested to get a separate Ethernet PCI card for the modem. However, the bulk of the comments suggest that such a risk is minimal and is restricted to a local network that uses TCP/IP. An AppleTalk network should be secure.
Multiple computers on the same modem TCI offers an option to get separate IP addresses for multiple computers to share the same modem. However, John Strung noted that you could use IPNetRouter to share the cable modem with other computers - using only one IP address (of course the "router" computer must be on for others to share the address).
Slow downs and outages Many readers warned that while TCI@home works great when it's working, it has a history of being plagued by "packet loss" slow downs and complete outages. Readers reports that, at certain times, their cable modem speed has been slower than a 56K modem.
Upload cap A related issue is TCI@home's "upload cap." Apparently, they restrict the upload speed of the modem so as to prevent users from using the connection to run a server. The result is that upload speed is, at best, about as good as you might get with an ISDN modem. A web page has more details. (Thanks, Michael Viksna.)
Proxies TCI@home uses proxies in web browsers. Although it still works if you disable the proxies, I found that some web sites would no longer load. However, the proxy server appears to update only about every 15 minutes. This means, for example, that when I upload a change to my web page, I may not see the change reflected in my browser for another 15 minutes. Explorer has an option to have the proxy server bypassed for selected sites. However, I could not get this to work. Surprisingly, Netscape's use of proxies did not have this problem at all. If I asked it to refresh a page, I got the new copy - even at times when Explorer was giving me a copy from the proxy's cache. Such fun!
Bottom line Don't be deterred. Despite all of this, I am still enjoying my cable modem immensely. Yesterday, I experimented with QuickTime's video streaming. Suffice it to say that it is a different universe from video streaming with a 56K modem.
[Note: Many of these issues were also addressed in our MacFixIt Report on Beyond 56K Modems: Cable and DSL.]