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Some Secrets of Road RunnerJul 27 '00 (Updated Jan 18 '01) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Cable modems generaly cost the same as unlimited access isp and additional phone line. So why not make the switch? Greetings friends! Is that dial-up modem getting you down? Is AOL bumping you off every ten minutes? Then think broadband! Do you live in a metropolitan city? Do you have cable TV? Then you might be able to get a cable modem! A cable modem is a device that connects to a coaxial cable (the same cable that plugs into your TV) and provides you with a connection to the Internet. If your cable company has an upgraded network in your neighborhood then it’s possible they can provide cable modem service! What a cable modem can offer you is a ‘always-on’ connection to the Internet. Meaning whenever your computer is turn on you are online! Also cable modems can provide you with a download speed close to 1.5 Megabits per second! (See my review on connection speeds to get more meaning from that.) Sounds good? Well one particular cable modem service is Road Runner. I work for Road Runner so I’m going to spill some beans to help you make a better decision if this particular service is offered in your area. I’ll format this rest of this as a Q & A section to make it clearer. What is Road Runner? Road Runner is a cable modem service offered jointly between Time Warner Cable, MediaOne, and some smaller cable TV companies. It offers subscribers a high speed ‘always-on’ connection to the Internet. How fast is Road Runner? Road Runner offers a 1.5 Megabit per second download connection, and a 384kilobit per second upload. In a nutshell that means Road Runner will let you download a 1 megabyte file under 5 seconds. How does the service work? Usually Road Runner technicians will run a dedicated cable line to your PC. Then they will connect a cable modem to that line and in turn connect it to your computer. The modem itself is like a small TV converter. There are usually LEDs on the modems that indicate certain statuses of the modem that are usually important. If my cable TV is out will my Road Runner be out? Unfortunately, yes. The signal used to carry Road Runner over coaxial cabling ‘piggy-backs’ that of TV, hence if there is no TV there is no Road Runner. I hear cable modems are ‘shared’ connections with my neighborhood. What does that mean? The nature of cable TV is the reasoning for this. The way it works is a particular neighborhood gets a ‘node’. A node is what pumps out signal for the TV. Since Road Runner rides on that signal that one particular node is the connection for the whole neighborhood. Everyone getting cable in the neighborhood is on the same circuit. Each of these neighborhood circuits are then connected to a giant area circuit which is centered at a hub. At the hub is where the actual connection to the Internet kicks in. There are switchers and servers at these hubs that connect to OC3 lines usually. OC3 is a dedicated connection that corporations and sometimes, universities use to connect giant networks to the Internet. One OC3 has the bandwidth to meet the needs of hundreds of cable modems. On the Road Runner network these OC3s connect to a giant backbone network that Road Runner has setup. This backbone network allows the service to carry traffic around some of the larger congested spots on the Internet and connect to other backbone providers throughout the country. Anyway, this ‘shared’ connection means you and your neighbors share the same connection, so to speak. The more of you on at once the slower the connection will get. Though this sounds bad, usually Road Runner puts enough bandwidth into its service areas to insure that if everyone where on the service would not slow to a crawl. Also, some people are concerned about security issues because this connection is 'shared'. Road Runner implements a system where every cable modem is assigned it's own IP address. The modem intern acts as a secondary router to the main one in your neighborhood. This system makes it possible to instruct the modems not to share information between themselves, hence preventing unauthorized access to your computer from your neighbor on Road Runner. What’s the difference between a cable modem and DSL? Mainly the way the connection is implemented. Cable modems are delivered through cable lines, as you know. DSL is similar because the phone company pig-backs a signal over your phone line that is split at your end. The main downside of DSL is that the further from the station that pumps the DSL signal the slower speed you will tend to get. What else does Road Runner offer? Well Road Runner is a full service ISP, much like Mindspring. Road Runner offers 5 e-mails per account, web space for a homepage, and USENET news groups. There is free 24 Tech Support that co-ordinates with your local cable company to help you if there are any problems with your connection or service. Hope that helps some of you get some idea of the service. If anyone has additional questions about Road Runner please leave a comment or e-mail me.  |
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