Using the Internet
The Internet is getting to be a service that's as important as a telephone or TV - but there are many questions that are rarely discussed or if they are, they are in terms too technical for the average user.
On this page, some of these questions are answered or at least discussed so you can decide for yourself.
Phone Line - or ADSL
ADSL stands for Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line - which simply means data by phone line but faster downloads than uploads. In Cobourg, the only supplier is Bell since they own all the phones lines but they provide the service wholesale to Eagle.ca and others. It works by using different frequencies for internet than used for phone then using filters at each end to separate these signals. Equipment is relatively simple - a modem at the user (subscriber) end and a DSLAM at the Central Office (Telephone Exchange). In between is a single pair of copper wires. Likely failure points are the equipment at home (modem) or the cable in between.
Cable TV Internet
Since TV does not use all the frequencies, Cable Internet can and does use spaces between channels. Although wide, these Internet "channels" are shared with a number of other users - much like an office network. Also, because the system inherently carries a wide bandwidth, there are many points where amplifiers must be provided to boost the signal. Likely failure points are the equipment at home (modem), the cable in between or the amplifiers on the cable.
Satellite and Wireless Internet
Satellites can inherently download easily like they do for TV - upload means you need a transmitter and an individual receiver or at least an individual time slot. Since the coverage area is very large, either the number of customers must be limited or the usage per customer must be limited. Also, the user's antenna must have clear line of site to the satellite. In general, the same issues apply to wireless where service is supplied from a nearby tower but because there are fewer customers within range, traffic limits are generally higher.
Reliability
Because Cable TV Internet has more failure points, reliability is worse than ADSL. Wireless has difficulty because of requiring sophisticated outdoor equipment and rain/snow/ice can also cause outages. See the table below for "standard" reliability numbers. Note that the quoted reliability numbers vary tremendously with particular suppliers and location so should be used for overall comparisons only.
| Reliability | Outages | Comments | |
Home phone: |
99.999% |
5 minutes per year |
|
Long Distance: |
99.98% |
19 minutes per year |
|
Web site up time: |
99.95% |
4 hours per year |
Worse for overloaded servers |
Internet service provider – phone (e.g. bell, eagle) |
99.9% |
9 hours per year |
This applies to VOIP phones as well. Mostly line and modem problems. |
Internet service provider – cable (e.g. Cogeco) |
99.8% |
17 hours per year |
Problems are mostly in winter. Mostly cable and modem problems. |
Internet service provider – wireless (e.g. airnet, xplornet) |
99.4% |
52 hours per year |
Can be worse if there are installation or equipment problems |
Performance
Theoretically, the upper limit for Cable is faster than for ADSL - but with improved technology and short distances of copper line (from home to Central office), ADSL can achieve about the same - approx 10Mbps download and about 1Mbps upload. However, it's much easier for an ADSL network to improve capacity if there is congestion than for a cable network. Cable congestion can also occur if too many users are on the one feed line whereas this does not happen with ADSL. Satellite and Wireless will be slower but you usually have it because that's all there is!
Support
This is entirely dependent on the company supplying the service. For cable in Cobourg, you are dealing with Cogeco. If you call support you get someone who speaks good English and who can see if the problem is local or the network - although they sometimes get that wrong. If all else fails they will send a technician to your house. That's because a technician can decide if the problem is the modem, the cable inside your house or the network from your house to their "head end". A problem with the cable can cause TV to also be off but it could be just degraded enough to cause only an Internet problem.
If you have ADSL, you will probably have Bell where the support person has been in India (up till recently) and is knowledgeable but often hard to understand. They rarely send a tech to your house because the connection from your house to their Central office rarely fails. If it does, your phone will mostly likely also be off-line.
Another popular ADSL supplier in Cobourg is Eagle.ca Eagle support is available during business hours only but they speak good English and are competent but unfortunately in many cases, they will have to deal with Bell - they can't handle network problems directly.
Satellite service is mostly Xplornet in Cobourg - if a local tech is needed, they will send one out from the local dealer. Wireless can be via Airnet or Xplornet. Airnet have one capable technician who runs the business, does all installations and provides all support.
For more on this, see suppliers page.
Setting up an account
You can have as many emails accounts on your computer as you'd like. But why would you have more than one? One reason is that you may be involved in several organizations and each has a separate address - but if you are the designated person to receive their emails, you can. Just setup another email account on Outlook, Outlook Express or Windows mail or any other email client.
Another reason to set up a separate account (outside your ISP) is if you have one account you share only with trusted friends and you get another that you give to suppliers or others who want your email account. You can then change it every 6 months or so to minimize spam. Get these "disposable" accounts from Gmail, Yahoo mail or even your ISP.
Sending email
When you set up an account, the address you enter as "your email address" can be anything you like. Even joe@spammer.com. It will be sent and anyone "replying" will send email to whatever you entered, valid or not. You have probably noticed that spammers do exactly this to hide where they are sending from.
To stop spammers using their network but bypassing their email "filters", some ISPs (e.g. Bell) prohibit sending email using another "email sender" and insist you use only theirs. Then if you are a known spammer, they can block you. If your ISP has this requirement, you should configure extra (outside) email accounts such that the receive part is per the outside email setup but the send part is per your ISP's account setup. You can leave the "my address" part per the outside account.
For example, let's say you want an account for joe@joesdiner.com and your ISP is Bell. Setup the email per the normal instructions given to you for joesdiner.com email. Then get your documentation for Bell emails and change the setup for the send part (SMTP) to be per the Bell instructions. You also have to be sure that encryption settings are as required by Bell (e.g. Use SSL or Auto). If you need help, call your ISP - they don't mind you doing this.
For more on email with Bell see this FAQ page.