[KLUG Members] What is behind this www.onspeed.com?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> Today I read about www.onspeed.com site claiming to give broadband speed
> with their software. I wonder what is so unique about www.onspeed.com.

?  What leads you to believe anything is different or unique?  The make some
bizarre marketting claims (all of which are ludicrous).  Unfortunately, at
least in the USA, it is very difficult to sue a company for making a 
ridiculous
claim.

A modem using a POTS like can NEVER EVER achieve a real throughout higher than
56k.  56k is the bandwidth of a single digitized channel in a trunk.  Call and
ask the phone company if you don't believe me.  You can get 64k with special
provisioning - which you aren't going to get in your home.  DSL hi-jacks your
POTS wiring pair in a device called a DSLAM which bleeds of the 
signalling used
to carry the ATM cells between the DSLAM and your DSL "modem" *BEFORE* 
the pair
is terminated into the POTS switch.    To do DSL you have to have a DSLAM
installed in the local switch house, or a contract with someone who does
(probably....... THE PHONE COMPANY!) in which case you probably ride on the
same trunk back to the central switching office as all the IP traffic for all
the other DSL providers,  and only there is it farmed out to the various ISPs.

So any stupid claim like "Dial Up - 5x Faster, Broadband DSL - 3x 
Faster" should
be immediatly relagated to /dev/null.

-- 
Adam Tauno Williams - http://www.whitemice.org