Can't Argue, when you're right you're right Stephen!

Another great write up, this time by our friends at EzineArticles.com Thomas William VP Partner Solutions Broadband in a Box 1302 Clear Springs Trace Louisville Kentucky 40223 Direct: (502) 426.2067 Toll Free: (800) 761.9149 Fax: (502) 515.3710 Email: tomw@bbinabox.com # # # # # # # # # One Way Satellite Internet Service By Stephen Long

It can be nearly impossible to get good high speed Internet access if you don't live near a city. When you do find that access, it often turns out to be far too expensive. If you feel like you're being punished with lack of access, just because you happen to live in a rural area, you're not alone. Over 25 million Americans living outside the range of DSL and cable feel the same way.

The good news is that a growing number of providers also agree with you. They think that every rural American deserves to have reliable access to broadband speed Internet services, including affordable, efficient satellite Internet access and a service that's friendly and helpful.

You should have the high speed satellite Internet access you've waiting for, no matter who you are and where you live. Even if you're one of the twenty-five million people living outside the DSL and cable service area, you can have access to all your favorite pages without the wait.

One way satellite Internet service uses satellite technology to download data to all 48 contiguous states at high speeds. You'll get your equipment cheaply, too - there's no need to pay the high prices for equipment and installation that come with two-way satellite access.

Equipment purchases start at forty-nine dollars, and annual plans for services are less than thirty dollars each month. That's cheaper than many cable plans, and comparable to a number of DSL service plans. Installation can be done on your own, and takes only a few hours. Otherwise, you can use some of the installers offered by your network. This reliable, affordable service is the solution to your high speed Internet woes.

One way satellite Internet access is a simpler system that offers a better online experience than two way satellite Internet systems. Unlike two-way services, these systems use your phone line as the request path. You won't need complicated, expensive equipment for two way transmissions, that way. This type of system gives you the ability to install the system on your own, lower latency, and significantly reduced rain fade.

Unlike two-way satellite Internet service, one way systems almost never go down. Don't worry about rain or heavy cloud cover - you'll have access to the sites you love. This service is reliable and affordable, and available in all of the lower 48 - no American will have to go without access to broadband speed Internet.

You'll enjoy on-demand movie downloads, streaming video and music, and the ability to do remote study for school. You can watch online TV and enjoy an interactive experience - much more than you can do with dialup! Don't wait any longer for your high-res images, flash animations, video, or updated software. DSL and cable have left you behind, but you don't have to go without Internet service just because of where you live.

Can't get cable or DSL. Set up your home with Skyway's high speed Satellite Internet Access. Skyway USA offers affordable satellite Internet access plans to rural America. Get the speed that you deserve for as low as $29.95 PER month!

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Dial-Up Networking 101

Millions of us have used a dial-up account to get online right? So do you know how it works? Do you really? Here is a very nicely written primer on how it all takes place. by our friends at: PCWorld.com

Thomas William

VP Partner Solutions

Broadband in a Box

1302 Clear Springs Trace

Louisville Kentucky 40223

Direct: (502) 426.2067

Toll Free: (800) 761.9149

Fax: (502) 515.3710

Email: tomw@bbinabox.comWe explain the method most people use to connect to the Internet.

Nathan Garcia, special to PCWorld.com

Dial-up networking: the set of protocols and software used to connect a computer to an Internet service provider, an online service, or a remote computer through an analog modem and POTS (plain old telephone system).

Dial-up networking is the most widely used type of computer connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, over a quarter of a billion subscribers were dialing in to the Internet--more than four times the number of users of other popular access methods, namely broadband DSL, cable, and ISDN modems. Here are the facts you need to know:

• Dial-up networking uses a modem as the interface between a single PC and a network such as the Internet; the modems are typically capable of speeds up to 56 kbps.
• Dialing up with a modem is still the cheapest and most widely available way to connect to the Internet, but because it offers comparatively slow connection speeds, graphics-intensive Web sites can take a long time to load.
• The maximum speed at which you can download data using dial-up networking is limited by the telephone system's analog bandwidth, the line quality, and the Internet traffic load.
• Dial-up networking usually communicates with the ISP using the Point to Point Protocol standard.

While broadband services such as DSL, cable modems, and satellite Internet are rapidly becoming available to more areas around the nation, dial-up networking continues to grow. It's estimated that wireless connectivity will pose the biggest challenge to dial-up networking in terms of subscribers sometime in the future. But analysts predict that, as of the end of 2001, more than twice as many people will continue to use dial-up networking than will use broadband services to connect to the Internet. In 2003 the gap will close, but dial-up networking will still be the most popular method by one and one-half times.

What's in a Handshake?

Dial-up networking is the simplest way to connect to the Internet: You just connect over the phone line using your modem, once you've subscribed to an ISP. For the most part, the software tools you need come built into Windows; some ISPs, such as EarthLink, furnish a user interface that makes setup even easier. Whichever method is used, dial-up customers usually only need to enter a user name and password, as well as the ISP's phone number, into a dialog box. The dial-up networking software uses that information to make the connection with the ISP and does all the rest of the work. After the initial setup, all that most customers need to do to make a connection is double-click an icon.

When you initiate the process, dial-up networking first directs your modem to dial the ISP's phone number, which is answered by another modem at the other end. For a few seconds the modems send control signals back and forth to determine how fast each can connect. The familiar screeching you hear when your modem first connects is the sound of your modem and the ISP's modem harmonizing the connection and deciding on a speed to use.

Once the connection is established, your modem silences its internal speaker, and dial-up networking sends your user name and password to the ISP using a process called CHAP--the challenge handshake authentication protocol. At the ISP's end, a computer checks your user name and password against a database of active customers. Once the ISP authenticates your information, the dial-up networking status window disappears, and you are free to surf, check and send e-mail, download files, and so forth. The process can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to complete.

PPP: Slightly Slower, but More Fault-Tolerant

Dial-up networking also breaks down your data into chunks, encoding and packaging the data before it goes on its way.

Dial-up networking uses a method called PPP (Point to Point Protocol) to package data for transmission over phone lines. As with ethernet, the PPP data packet, often called a frame, includes several parts. There are beginning and ending flags (called "wrappers") that bound the packet. Just like ethernet packets, PPP frames contain wrapper upon wrapper. The wrappers help direct the data within the packet to its destination using different protocols, such as TCP/IP, and also determine the type of data compression used on the packet.

One important distinction between PPP frames and ethernet packets is the capacity of damaged PPP packets to be recovered using a process called the frame check sequence. A packet occasionally gets lost or damaged en route; when it arrives at its destination, a damaged ethernet packet gets thrown out and a request goes back to the computer that sent the packet to resend it--a very time-consuming process if you use a dial-up connection, which is much slower than broadband.

In contrast, one part of a PPP wrapper contains a chunk of data called the validation value, which is verified at the destination. In some cases, a damaged PPP frame can be restored through the validation value, so it does not need to be resent.

While this process saves valuable time that would otherwise be used to resend every damaged packet, PPP's error-recovery features tend to make PPP run a bit more slowly than the simpler protocols that lack such error correction. But the Internet is a dangerous place for a data packet; errors or other problems can cause dozens of packets to drop each second. In the long run, PPP is far better suited to use over the Internet than other, less stringent protocols, so it has survived and flourished.

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