Does the cable modem always have a conection to
>the internet i.e. always signed on to the net? ...I cant wait till its
>available in my area.
>
>
This really depends on what kind of cable plant that your cable company
uses .
There are two kinds of cable modems , one is called a "Telco-Return" or
"One-Way" cable modem . As the name sounds , this is an arrangement in
which all of your downstream comes through the cable line (coax) , but
everything that you upload has to go through a standard analog phone line .
The reason for this is because most cable systems are still the old 450Mhz
one way systems . When they were built many years ago , no-one had any idea
that there would be a need one day for anyone to send a signal from the
house back through the lines to the headend (where all of the stuff at the
cable company comes from) . All they were concerned with was getting
pictures to you . As a result , you must first do a full upgrade to 750Mhz
two-way plant to be able to have a two-way communication , which most cable
companies will have to do to remain competitive .
The 750Mhz Two-Way is pretty much the standard in new cable systems and
allows for not only sending pictures to your house , but also to recieve
digital signals from your house as well , such as Internet , telephany , or
whatever .
The same equipment that is utilized by the end user for One-Way Cable
modems can also be used for the Two-Way cable modem system .
Most all Cable modems are external and are connected through a 10 Base-T
NIC card , although 3Com has an internal version that we did extensive
testing on (way too much trouble though) .
We use the Com21 CP2000 cable modem .
So , to finally answer your question , in a one-way system , no , you will
have to be connected to the phone line to be able to use your Internet ,
but if you are in a two-way system , you should be able to be "online all
the time" as they love to advertise .
As a matter of fact , since even on the one-way you are constantly
connected to the RF side , even if you can't use it because you have to
connect the dial-up side , they can still legally say that you are "always
online" since the modem is constantly recieving signal from the headend,
wether or not you are able to get onto the Net .
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Jack Hilton III
Black 1998 Dodge Dakota R/T Club Cab
Charter Pipeline......the Next Wave.....
http://webpages.charter.net/hemi/jbd1.html
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