October 25, 2001

So you want a fast Internet connection but aren't sure what to do or get, well I'll attempt to explain the options and then you can decide. 

The way the vast majority of people connect to the Internet is with a modem.  As time has gone by, modem speeds have increased.  The newest modems are 56,000 bit per second (56K) connection speeds.  To keep from getting technical, this is actually faster than the telephone wires running to your home can handle and the main reason modems haven't increased their speeds for several years.  If you are close to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), and have a good phone line, you may be able to connect somewhere between 49K to 50K.  This is mainly due to the wires running to the telephone office.

One drawback to a regular modem is they are susceptible to electrical noise on the phone line.  Noise may not be heard on the telephone but may be at a level unacceptable to the modem.  Also if you live in a condominium or have a shop in an office center, the switches for the phone line can also cause connection woes.  Even if you have purchased a separate line for your modem, the phone company doesn't guarantee digital service with a regular phone line so they will complain and possibly charge you for repairing bad connections, etc. even if the problem is on their end. 

Other devices such as Fax machines, telephone answering machines and telephones can also conflict with a modem if they are plugged into the same telephone line with the modem. 

The biggest complaint we all have with the Internet is the speed of browsing and downloading.  There are a few alternatives but you must keep one thing in mind, all things are relative.  Since a lot of the problems with the speed of the Internet are related to the way the Internet is physically setup, if you get faster access it will still not be instant response and you will still have a lot of waiting to do especially from here in the islands.  It seems much of our woes are from the west coast backbone tie-ups. 

Today, a fast alternative is ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line).  You have to subscribe to this service with the telephone company and pay an additional monthly fee for this service.  The fee, if you go through a local ISP will also be more than a regular dial-up account.  This service requires a separate modem, usually provided by the phone company.  It is always on when it has power applied to the modem so you don't have to wait for it to dial into the ISP.  This modem also requires an Ethernet connection, or USB connection to your computer. 

There are various speeds available, but again, when you check the speed of the connection, it will be much faster to your ISP than it will be to an Internet site on the mainland.  This type of connection is very secure, due to the way the ISP's here have setup the system and there is virtually no way for a hacker to back door into your computer.  At times, the service has been rather erratic but has been mostly stable and there have been very few disruptions in service. 

Another alternative, which is three to four times the speed of ADSL is cable service through Oceanic Cable Company.  With cable service you also have an external modem almost identical to a DSL modem except it plugs into the cable system. The speeds seem good at first but the big draw back to cable service is everyone is basically networked together and as people are added, your speed slows down.  This is referred to as bandwidth.  There have been a couple of times that this problem has occurred, but the cable company has seemed to be able to correct the problems. 

The major problem with cable service is security. Since you are networked to other computers, if one person on the service gets a network virus or worm, everyone on that node is going to get it also. With this type of service it is mandatory you have a software firewall and I also recommend a hardware firewall.  Even these do not guarantee you won't have problems, but the probability is you will be OK.

If you can't get DSL and you want faster service, Road Runner is probably the only other option here. For Road Runner help, click here.

The other type of service, called Clearwire is available here now.  It works as a wireless service.  Your modem, almost like the other two services as far a connection, has an antenna and picks up a signal wireless.  Problem with this service is that you have to be in an area where there is an antenna and the speed is equivalent to ADSL.  I went to their kiosk at Kaahumanu and download the Norton antivirus definitions, which took 30 seconds.  At home, using Road Runner, the same download took 13 seconds. 

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of choices and there are drawbacks to the choices we have but maybe this information will help you make a decision. Some other good sources of information are listed below. No matter what type of connection you have, even a modem, there are registry tweaks, etc. which can in crease your speed. I've had a couple of DSL setups where I've been able to increase the speed by almost 30% just by optimizing the computer.

Regardless of your connection type, your system needs to be optimized and working properly. You can go to DSL Reports to check your systems vulnerability and to CNET to check the speed.

If you have any questions or comments, click