configuring broadband/PC power protection/cable-satellite TV in India...

Aishah

Another question - I have a plan for 2.5GB allowable download/upload per month free. How many bytes is this? If someone could give a clear table re bytes, kbytes, mbytes etc. I would be really grateful as I haven't a clue. My chart for bytes in and out is in just that - bytes. Looks a lot in a day or so e.g. 800,000 on download side but probably isn't?

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shashank.aggarwal

1024 Bytes = 1 Kilo Byte (KB)
1024 KB = 1 Mega Byte (MB)
1024 MB = 1 Giga Byte (GB)

I would advice you to use the plan for a month and see what kind of bill you get. Based on your usage decide on the plan next month.

The speed of internet is mentioned in Bits. 8 bits = 1 Byte.

That means 256 Kbps (kilo bit per second) connection would have the potential to transfer 32 KBPS [Kilo Bytes per second (256 / 8 = 32)]...you also need to check what is the upload speed, as upload speed generally is lesser than the download speed. it would affect the speed at which attachments go and you can upload stuff, like pictures, files etc..

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Aishah

Thanks Shashank - all clear now. I notice this speed is 100MBPS.

brownboy66

That will be the speed of the ethernet connection between the router and the PC (i.e - the two devices are communication with each other at 100 megabits per second).

shashank.aggarwal

as BB pointed out..that is the communication speed between the two devices..(local devices)..it is the maximum speed that your laptop is capable of..however it is not the speed of internet..

btw...it would be 100 MbPS and not 100 MBPS

machadinha

Can't say I've been following the latest on this thread. Anyway that reset thingy is often a tiny little hole that you'd need to stick a pin in. If you've been configuring your modem/router yourself, this will reset it to the original configuration I believe. That's also why it's not easily accessible.

But maybe yours simply has none. I think there are modems (er, routers ) that will reset by pressing a couple of buttons at once.

ps Unless you maintain a website that you need to upload a lot to, or do a webcast yourself (send out an audio/video transmission), or frequently park away your material by FTP (file transfer protocol, it's a method to store your material online or otherwise exchange or access it between machines, simply put), or do lot of file swapping (exchanging files with others), or are maintaining a network with a couple or a bunch of machines, and such, you won't need a lot of upload no. You always need a little to send out page requests and so on, that is to say even "just" surfing or downloading you'll still be sending a bit of outgoing traffic too.

But basically barring such special requirements, any package will give you enough upload for normal usage I think, so you can concentrate on just the D/L (download) speeds and allowance for such traffic. That is to say it will cover enough upload to function, and the latter will always (or usually) be quite a bit lower.

Or all of this as far as I know anyway. So basically you'd only want higher upload speeds (or a higher allowance for upload traffic) if you need to send out a lot of traffic.

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Aishah

Red-face again! You're right bb and Shashank! A novice here learning all the time... Thanks Machadinha for very full explanations, and as I'm not doing many of those functions you've indicated I am sure we have the right plan - it's 500 rupees per month for 2.5GB up and download plus rental for telephone line included. Seems o.k. to me.

brownboy66

he he he......

there are some brands that have a soft reset function (you have to log into the router itself and do the reset from inside the main menu) - which is a bit of a pain since this is sometimes hidden in the depths of one specific sub menu, so you can make a change in one place, back out of the menu - but if you haven't done a save/ reboot the change wont take affect.

ahh.....don't worry about it! Computer semantics (as if it wasn't already hard enough - but to reiterate - a router is a router, not a modem) Its working, its faster than dial up.....the world is good

By the way - good plan! 2.5 gigs plus phone rental for 500 rupees - wow!

ks_bluechip

Right... that 100 is just Local speed. I knew that

But is there anyway one can find out (at any given moment) the actual speed one is getting from the MTNL/BSN - Broad_Band?

... If this is already answered somewhere just let me know where. Thanks.

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brownboy66

within windows...I don't think so, there is no real time monitoring application which will give you the speed of the broadband line. I use a small 3rd party application for that called bitmeter - which sits transparently up in the corner of my desktop and samples both upload and download throughput every second ( and you can set it to read either per bit or per byte - so it will track either speed or volume). It also records daily, weekly, monthly volume stats.

here's the link if you want to have a look -

http://codebox.no-ip.net/controller?page=home

oh, and its thank you ware (it doesn't cost anything - you simply have to say thank you to the author).

ks_bluechip

Wow! .... just looked at that Bitmeter Utility webpage .... seems very good and useful ... I am currently downloading it ... will intall and revert with experience.... KS

brownboy66

If I remember rightly there are two versions (1 & 2 funnily enough), and you need the microsoft .net service pack for version number 2).

Once you have it up and running - right click on a small bandwidth meter that will load into the right hand side of your taskbar, click on "settings" and look for "adapter" and then tick the box next to the name of your ethernet card. If you have more than one network interface (say a dial up modem) then you can monitor that as well.

The under "graph" go into options and choose what you want to monitor (either bits or bytes). If you choose the top options which is kilobits per second - then that will give you a true indication of your line speed (for example - I'm on a 256k line and the monitoring log gives me and average of around 246k per second average).

Now if it hasn't already launched - double click on the little bandwidth meter in the taskbar and bitmeter will launch a small graphical window that gives you an ongoing line graph of you connections performance. If you want to leave it up on your desktop permanently (and not have it get in the way of other windows) you go into "apperance", then "transperancy" and set the window at something like 50% transperancy. Then right click on the little bandwidth meter in the taskbar again and select "clickthrough". When this is selected - the transparent graphical window wont interfere with other windows on the desktop - in effect you'll be able to clickthrough the line graph onto anything else underneath.

Aishah

You asked just the question I wanted to know KS - thank you! But I will be satisfied with not knowing the speed - all this technical stuff is beyond me. (currently on dial-up again - this afternoon re-connecting and server actually is down - not verifying user name and password.. all my wires are in the right places!!)
Ignore the last comment, we're back in business again - being new to all this stuff I just get nervous that I've done something to put it out. No, it was as I said, server down! I could hardly do anything to put it out because I touch nothing!! I'll get used to its idiosyncracies (think that's how you spell it!)

Dilliwala

ksb,

This is MTNL Mumbai's DSL-tester page:
http://202.159.230.232:8888/speed/index.jsp

Click the first link. It will give you the speed at any given time.

Aishah,
U can try the same link, altho BSNL prefers that u do it via the link given on this page.

For everyone,
I was sent an interesting email about how to free up bandwidth on WinXP and Win2K, I'm posting the text here for folks to have a look. I've tried it and haven't noticed any real difference. What do the experts think?

"A nice little tweak for XP. Microsoft reserve 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes (suspect for updates and interrogating your machine etc..)
Here's how to get it back:

Click Start-->Run-->type "gpedit.msc" without the "

This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:

Local Computer Policy-->Computer Configuration-->Administrative Templates-->Network-->QOS Packet Scheduler-->Limit Reservable Bandwidth

Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab :
"By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."

So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO.
This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.

I have tested on XP Pro, and 2000
other o/s not tested."

By the way, ksb and Aishah, I hope that u are both aware that running computers off an invertor that supplies square-wave is not a good idea, and that yours are non-square-wave (if at all such exist, I have no idea). How to check is: turn on a fan with the invertor 'on' (i.e. cut the supply from the main line to the invertor if u don't want to wait for a power-outage). If the fan buzzes where it wud normally be 'silent', then it's receiving square-wave. I've been told by a coupla experts this is not good for computers/peripherals and they shud be hooked up to UPS's only. Invertors make PCs buzz unnaturally too, altho not as loud as fans. A decent single-battery UPS giving 20 mins backup won't cost more than 1500 bucks. Double-battery ones are in the range of 2000-2500 bucks.

I'm also surprised that your routers are packing up during a cut-over if your PCs aren't, most (or many) routers and DSL "modems" are bus-powered (receiving their power-supply directly from the PC and not the mains). Seems yours are mains-powered. Do u have the plugs for different items in different sockets rather than all together on a multi-socket power-strip/board? That wud be the first thing to change, whether invertor-backup or UPS-backup. BTW, this (the reboot/reset) is definitely happening becos of invertor-backup, they are not as smooth and quick in handling cut-overs as a UPS, I've seen this from personal experience.
And as a nuisance-value, computer-suppliers are quick to refuse liability/responsibility if something malfunctions and they know your backup is from an invertor, non-existent or EVEN from a defective UPS, even though the power/backup may have nothing to do with the specific problem. Better not to give them the chance.

Funnily enough, BSNL doesn't seem to be doing what MTNL does - provide free upload. Anyway, since u are up early sometimes, get in as much free online-time as poss before 8 a.m.!
I shud mention that your present plan is useful only if your up- AND down-loads together exceed 1300 MB per month (that's quite a lot, unless u want to d/l entire movies). If not, the 250 plan suits u better.

Dilliwala

Ah yes, MTNL's BS again! Even one of their Div. Engrs. tried it with me - once. And I don't even have the kind of knowledge bb and Nick have.
Unless a w/l is very different from a wired-router (can't think why, bb?), this is rubbish.
Their own helpline was exactly that, helpful, when I had to run thru the reset process for a friend at their place. The next time u have a link prob, just call 1504.
Their field-staff aren't upto scratch yet. They'll get there by and by.

Ok, third attempt --
I use neither a splitter nor filter, yet if the fone rings at one extension, it does not disconnect or drop the DSL connection on another ext., I can pick up and speak. If there's a filter at the junction-box I don't know about it, but I suspect there isn't becos of the lower voice-quality when the DSL is 'On'.
I thought I needed a filter to improve the voice-quality, as per your and Nick's earlier info? A friend who uses a splitter tells me there's still "DSL disturbance" on the voice-line when his PC is on.

Inspiration from another thread: I might ask dzibead to record a message in Old Icelandic for me.