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  1. #1

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    1gbps v 100mbps, is there a difference if...

    ...most of your Internet usage is 'non-Hong Kong' websites?

    I'm looking through PCCW's offerings and see 1,000mb for $2,188 a month vs. 100mb for $588 a month. What I'm really wondering is what's the difference if most of my web browsing, downloads, email, etc is all in the USA or Europe? I know that across the oceans seems to be limited a bit, so I'm wondering would I really see much of an improvement getting the fatter pipe or does it not make much difference?

    Anyone with some real world experience with one of these hyper fast connections?


  2. #2

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    For web browsing and email then 2 or 3 MB is plenty, unless you're downloading huge email attachments.

    For downloading it will make a bit of a difference, but of course there's no way you get 1GB of dedicated capacity across the Pacific for $2,188/month. Last time I looked HK only had some tens of GBs of international public internet capacity in total!

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  3. #3

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    Anything above 2mb is only going to affect downloads anyway. Consider most sites deliberately limit connections to 1.5mb, such as RapidShare, news sites, etc and you have to pay a fee for faster speeds. Torrents will be fast as you will have local peers.

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  4. #4

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    And, it does not make any difference if you're going to be using WiFi ...


  5. #5

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    Thanks for the replies. Related to Shri's comment is something I just discovered about an old router. I just got DOCSIS 3 service at my place in the USA and it is 60mb down. However, the wan-to-lan throughput of my very very old router was only about 7mb, thus I was getting nowhere near the full speed through my network. So I ran out an got a new router and things improved immensely.

    However, I was looking at some charts and despite gigabit routers and switches it appears that the wan-to-lan throughput of many devices is still quite limited, such that I wonder if I even ever truly got 1gbps if that would actually pass through the network I have set up.

    Router Performance Comparison Charts - WAN to LAN Throughput

    Anyone know more about wan-to-lan throughput and whether that is a limiting factor in their net usage or am I misunderstanding the term?


  6. #6

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    many people have issues with their routers and throughputs. They often blame their ISPs connectivity when it in fact their router is junk.

    I saw recently a router that going over the network at 100Mbit pinging the lan interface has a latency of about 14ms. It was a Linksys box provided by PCCW with a customized firmware. As a rule I never use those home routers as they are waste of time and typically will fork out HK$5000 to get something that will do the job right even for home use.


    The issue of high speed Layer 3 IP routing is slow, particularly when you are not working with ethernet ports on the WAN. Routing generally happens all in RAM or at least part of it and some decent devices once they have decided how to route they will pass the learned routing path to a chipset who will switch traffic at high speed for that source and destination pair. This can be reasonably implemented with Ethernet ports, but when you are dealing with DOCSIS and Coax the choice of chipsets is greatly reduced, cost increases.

    Even if you are using Switch chipsets, you still need a routing engine that makes decisions on what ports things have to go and those generally tend to be slow unless you spend $$$'s.

    Getting a 1Gb router which does the throughput does not run hot and is affordable is not something I've come across much, mind you I don't bother with low end stuff. I like the management and debugging that are not available on the toy routers you are talking about.

    If you were not using Coax and not using PPPoE I would look at something like a Layer 3 Cisco 3750G if you want to cane your Internet circuit.

    Last edited by hk.com; 14-03-2010 at 12:06 AM.

  7. #7

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    Or in basic terms, anything above 30-40mbs is going to be very expensive. Gigabit speeds will be US$2,000+. WiFi and home Internet connections are increasing far faster than hardware is getting cheaper.


  8. #8

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    On the original topic, I think anyone paying $2188 a month for 1gbps is nuts and just throwing away money. Unless you are running an internet cafe or something. I have a friend here who runs one and he has a few of these lines.


  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:
    On the original topic, I think anyone paying $2188 a month for 1gbps is nuts and just throwing away money. Unless you are running an internet cafe or something. I have a friend here who runs one and he has a few of these lines.
    These aren't for businesses, which is why they are relatively so cheap.

    Last check charges are about HK$1k for 10mb for commercial entities on the cheapest tier (1 IP), HK$11k for full Internet access. Scale those up and add in a redundant connection to a second telco and you are talking a lot of money.

  10. #10

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    Well I dont know what my friend is paying for his 1gbps lines and whether it is classed as business or not. But he has a clear case for needing the bandwidth.

    But the question remains, who on earth would pay > $2000 a month for their home internet line? I can't imagine PCCW selling a lot of these, do they? Are their people out there actually paying that much and why?


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