2009/3/5 Andy Random <andy.random@???>:
>
> On Wed, 4 Mar 2009, Stephen Davies wrote:
>
>> Yeah, just like trying to do the same over an X.29 session to a computer
>> 3000+ miles away.
>> (AlemBank, Almaty if you are interested)
>
> Are people still using X.29? I worked on a Triple-X PAD implementation
> back in the late eighties, but I'd assume they had all gone the way of the
> dodo by now!
Similarly ... a sort of terminal multiplexor using ICL internal
protocols over X.25 - and gosh yes, it was the eighties, wasn't it!
People were very excited at the prospect of sixty four kilobits per
second...
>
> On Wed, 4 Mar 2009, Victor Churchill wrote:
>
>> There seem to be a lot of areas where fibre has not reached (heck,
>> where /copper/ hasn't reached) and folks use satellite connections. OK
>> for web browsing and emailing maybe, but the round trip time would
>> make server managing impractical.
>
> Are you sure they were really a satellite connection? They certainly exist
> however I have several non-techy friends in the US who call their
> connections "satellite" - because they have a dish, but in fact they are
> really microwave links and are in fact pretty decent, one of them gets
> better performance from her connection than I do from my (fairly decent)
> cable connection.
>
You have a point. I was looking into actual satellite connections
[e.g. (1)] but I'm sure some users (and dodgy sellers) could confuse
the two . I have heard some quite good things about line-of-sight
microwave relay setups, which seem like a very appropriate technology
for landscapes with a high fractal dimension!
(1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access :
"The signal delay can be as much as 500 milliseconds to 900
milliseconds, which makes this service unusable for applications
requiring real-time user input, such as online games or remote
surgery. ... The functionality of live interactive access to a distant
computer can also be subject to the problems caused by high latency.
These problems are more than tolerable for just basic email access and
web browsing and in most cases are barely noticeable."
