Home networking help

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So yeah, we don't mind being guinea pigs.  We'll probably do two lines initially, and deal with fax/email since that would cost less than an additional line, and I'm not inclined to want a traditional fax machine sitting there wasting paper on fax spam...

How do we test the upload rate, and what does it need to be?

Metrocast should have specified the upload rate you get with your service. Otherwise try this.

[MaineShark]

Metrocast should have specified the upload rate you get with your service. Otherwise try this.

They did, but I know they've changed things a few times as they've upgraded equipment, so I wouldn't know what their claimed speed is.  And I wouldn't trust claims anyway

That link says I was downloading at 5997 kb/s and uploading at 367 kb/s.  Is that satisfactory?

Joe

[error]

Metrocast should have specified the upload rate you get with your service. Otherwise try this.

They did, but I know they've changed things a few times as they've upgraded equipment, so I wouldn't know what their claimed speed is.  And I wouldn't trust claims anyway

That link says I was downloading at 5997 kb/s and uploading at 367 kb/s.  Is that satisfactory?

Joe

367k/sec should be more than enough for two calls at once and light Internet usage. If you haven't used VoIP before, keep in mind that heavy uploading can interfere with your phone calls, making you sound choppy to your caller. (The biggest problems come from peer-to-peer file sharing programs.)

I'll have to get hold of a box and that'll take a few days. I'll PM you later with some details.

[MaineShark]

367k/sec should be more than enough for two calls at once and light Internet usage. If you haven't used VoIP before, keep in mind that heavy uploading can interfere with your phone calls, making you sound choppy to your caller. (The biggest problems come from peer-to-peer file sharing programs.)

I'll have to get hold of a box and that'll take a few days. I'll PM you later with some details.

Cool.  We don't use any of the peer-to-peer stuff, so that's not an issue.

Is there any way to have the system guarantee first shot at bandwidth to the telephone side?  I don't mind if the Internet slows down a bit when we're on the phone(s)...

Joe

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Yep, that can be done. Just means buying a different box.

[MaineShark]

Yep, that can be done. Just means buying a different box.

Cool.  Let us know what the costs are going to be.  It looks like the "unlimited" plan will be best, since we both have contact-intensive businesses.  If you can find out whether fax works, it occurs to me that our desire to avoid fax spam means that we could use a fax machine and just only connect it when expecting a fax or (more likely) needing to send one.  I know that the VoIP companies mentioned here list some transmission standard used for faxes.  If not, well, the fax/email setups aren't overly costly, and we could deal with that if needed.

Also, I would presume that we can backfeed into the home telephone system, if we wanted to, right?  I don't expect we will, right now, since these lines are primarily for business use, so we'll likely just use a pair of cordless phones, but we might want to connect a third line to the home phones in the future, if possible.

Joe

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Heh, well, that means I have to buy a fax machine.

As for backfeeding into the home wiring, sure, you can do that. You just have to remember to disconnect the jacks at the telco's network interface box.

[MaineShark]

Heh, well, that means I have to buy a fax machine.

Nah, we have to.  We can do the actual testing.  I just figured you could ask around and make sure that the fax will likely work (I do seem to recall something about having to reduce the baud rate of the fax machine), and we can do the final test to see that it actually does.  If not, no big deal.

As for backfeeding into the home wiring, sure, you can do that. You just have to remember to disconnect the jacks at the telco's network interface box.

Okay, because the Packet8 website seemed to imply that their products wouldn't work that way, IIRC, so I wanted to check.

And yes, I know to disconnect the telco service.  Those 90vac ring signals are no fun!

Joe

[mvpel]

Okay, because the Packet8 website seemed to imply that their products wouldn't work that way, IIRC, so I wanted to check.

They just say that to avoid having some knucklehead plug their box into a live telco house wiring loop, then fry the box when the ring voltage comes in off the telco line, and then blame them.

I've got my Verizon-linked cable dangling on the wall in the basement, with a label that says "DO NOT CONNECT," and the house loop plugged in to the Packet8 adapter so that the DVR can show caller ID on the screen.  The rest of the phones in the house are all on the Uniden 10-handset 5.8GHz cordless phone system.