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From: Hugh Barrass (no email)
Date: Thu Jan 16 2003 - 10:04:29 EST
Norm et al,
A few points are getting confused here:
1. Ownership of bandwidth
It really depends on who owns the connection and what that person wants. If you
are paying for the internet connection then you will have some agreement with
(typically) a cable or DSL company. If that agreement prohibits you from
sharing, then you may get yourself into trouble opening up the connection to
other people. If, on the other hand, there is no such restriction then it is up
to you. You should make a positive choice whether you want to share or not. Once
you have made that choice, it is a simple matter to set up the connection
accordingly. You could also choose to share but restrict the sharing to a small
group of friends or even to people who you speak to (and give the appropriate
password).
Note that the owner of a wireless access point could also choose to resell the
connection but that becomes a business which is governed by a whole new set of
laws. The equipment to do this is relatively cheap and very easy to run.
Bandwidth is not the same as content. Sharing bandwidth is not the same as
sharing books or cable TV connections.
2. Use of bandwidth
In some parts of the world internet connections are metered and the user pays
"per bit" (in reality they have a "bit allowance" and are charged for exceeding
it). This type of connection is rare and getting rarer. It is much more common
to pay a fixed price for connectivity. If that is the case then you will not pay
more for someone sharing your bandwidth.
Whether you are impacted (significantly) by someone else sharing your connection
will depend on the type of connection. I am using a cable modem from my home.
This type of connection shares the bandwidth of the cable plant between several
hundred homes. Despite some negative advertising campaigns, I hardly ever notice
that my connection is shared because the size of the pipe is large enough to
accommodate all the users without anyone noticing the others. Most sites that I
visit on the internet have very limited server bandwidth and cannot deliver the
content fast enough to fill my local pipe. When I visit my corporate site I can
download large files at very high rate (although I still cannot fill the local
pipe). The only time I get "maximum bandwidth" is when I visit the cable
provider's site.
If, on the other hand, you are sharing a lower speed DSL (or even ISDN)
connection then you may notice the impact of sharing. I would recommend that
any link with a download speed in excess of 5Mbps could be shared without any
impact.
3. To share or not to share?
I cannot emphasize enough that you should make the decision to share or not -
and set up your network accordingly. You should always secure your network
against intrusion - this will most likely come through your internet connection
rather than your wireless connection. If you find the thought of someone else
"trespassing" on your bandwidth then you should lock the door. I find the idea
of someone using my internet connection as they pass by similar to the idea of
using my driveway to turn round (I don't mind at all, some people get very
irate).
Remember that bandwidth is not like diesel - if you don't use it at any instant,
it's wasted!
Hugh
(note that I am not speaking for Cisco - these are my personal views)
wrote:
> I find that very hard to believe.
>
> First you say "would not prevent or interfere" then you say "depending". It
> can't be both. If someone is downloading data on my line when my computer is
> trying to download my data on the same line I do not believe that their
> downloading will not interfere with my download. I do not believe that two
> data streams can download at the same time on one line without any affect on
> each other.
>
> Then you say the interloper will "probably" go unnoticed. Is it like when
> kids snatch a twenty from their daddy's wallet from time to time and it will
> "probably" be unnoticed?
>
> If someone is using my Internet connection without my permission they are
> trespassing at the very least, and if they slow down my downloads by any
> amount they are stealing what I am paying for, and if they are reading my data
> the trespass is just as criminal as if they were reading my snail mail.
>
>
> Of course, if you give permission for others to use the connection, or if it
> is a community connection, it's a much different situation.
>
>
> Norm
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