Brian's Brain

A bit over a week ago, I shared one tangible example of the benefit of 50 Mbps fiber-based Internet download speed, as it relates to online movie distribution. Here are two others, both more quantifiable than their predecessor:

1. iTunes v7.3, introduced late last week in advance of the iPhone launch, was a 32 MByte download payload in its upgrade-from-v7.2 form. My GbE-equipped Power Macs pulled it down from Apple's server Sunday evening in less than 5 seconds.
2. Last Thursday night, I downloaded a free movie from Movielink. Check out the bottom of the screenshot below to see the peak transfer speed. Yes, that's 18+ Mbps. Granted, it's not 50 Mbps. But as this writeup points out, I can only download as fast as the server on the other end of the link lets me. And as this writeup points out, my laptop (which I was downloading to, over CAT5) doesn't seems to showcase SureWest's speed in its best-possible light.

I also wanted to report back to you on OpenDNS, whose DNS servers I configured for the SureWest connection a bit over two weeks ago. I've had absolutely no further issues, either with website access, sending email through Gmail's SMTP server, or anything else. Consider me quite pleased; I'm not sure if, as some folks report, OpenDNS's DNS servers are faster than others', but they sure are more reliable and robust! OpenDNS is also pretty cool in other ways. If you create a free account, you can selectively enable and disable features such as adult content blocking, phishing site blocking and typo correction. You can also define URL shortcuts.

Earlier today, Lil and I finally had the chance to sit down and watch an entire high-def feature film using SureWest's IPTV service (the otherwise forgettable What Planet Are You From?, on HDNet Movies channel 636). The movie froze around a half-dozen times, for around a second each time, but was otherwise smooth and high quality. We're watching David Pogue's It's All Geek To Me on Discover HD right now, with no glitches in around an hour's worth of viewing, so I suspect the earlier stutters weren't the fault of SureWest but of the feed it was receiving from HDNet.

Last Thursday morning I spent a few hours at SureWest's facility in North Sacramento, located within the business complex created after McClellan Air Force Base shut down. Before any more time elapses, I'll briefly share some of what I learned there, during my meeting and plant tour with Senior VP and CTO Bill DeMuth, Director of Strategic Technologies Carl Murray, and Public Relations, Corporate Marketing and Communications Manager Ron Rogers.

Continue reading with 'SureWest: A Short Trip Report'....