We've all been waiting for 'it'.
Using the Internet has become fairly commonplace - many of us have Internet access these days and do all the nifty Internet stuff - instant messaging, chat rooms, exchanging e-mail and photos, surfing the 'net, etc. As more and more content becomes available such as music and video, we are beginning to get very tired of slow phone line connections. The term "World Wide Wait" is often used to describe those slow loading webpages. High speed Internet has become the Holy Grail of home power users.
There were two primary possibilities for higher speed Internet - new higher speed phone line offerings (DSL) or via TV cable. It was just a matter of who got here first.
For those of us in the Southport / Oak Island area, our dreams have been fulfilled! Time Warner Cable has recently announced the availability of its Road Runner service. Road Runner is Internet service through your TV cable, rather than through the phone line. It works with your current TV cable service (you don't miss Andy Griffith reruns) and it replaces the ISP (Internet Service Provider) that you have now. Since it doesn't use a phone line at all, you will not tie up your phone line when you are on the Internet, or you won't need a second phone line if you had one.
But the most important things are SPEED and ACCESS. The speed is phenomenal for those of us used to phone lines. Although exact numbers are not given out, it is at least 10 times faster than the fastest modem. Pages load in a blink. I downloaded a movie trailer for an upcoming Disney film in just about real time (i.e. the time it took to view it). That's megabytes of information in seconds. Also, there is no dialing or waiting to connect - you are on the Internet whenever your computer is on - 24x7 if you wish.
For current Time Warner users, the cost is competitive with what you would pay today for ISP service plus a phone line. No long distance dial in charges, of course!
Road Runner does have its detractors. Some of its bandwidth is shared, resulting is slower data rates during peak busy times. But it's still much faster than a phone line modem. You also don't get a unique IP address (tech talk for your own computer 'name' on the Internet), so your PC can't be (for example) a web server. But for the average user, these are not major issues.
Road Runner is now available in our area for home users. Access for business users will be later this year. Contact your Time Warner representative or http://www.ec.rr.com for details.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com. Mr. Seidel has no affiliation with Time Warner or Road Runner).