SureWest: Broadband, IPTV and VoIP Hands-On

Continued from 'SureWest: Initial Post-Install Fiber Details And Thoughts'….

This topology nuance explains the two CAT5 feeds that poor Chris (wriggling through my home's narrow, dirty crawl space) ran under the house, from the gateway to the standard- and high-definition STBs in the living room. It also explains the redundant CAT5 feed running between the gateway and my office, so that I also can test standard- and high-definition video there. And, as I previously mentioned, VoIP also requires a dedicated feed from the gateway. Unlike other VoIP carriers I've had experience with, such as BroadVoice, SunRocket and Vonage, there isn't simply a SIP adapter tethered to the router (ideally in a QoS-cognizant manner).

I earlier shared with you the bandwidth results of switching on the fiber 'pipe'. I've successfully run the Linksys RV042 router both in its Smart Link Backup 'fail-over' mode (with the SureWest WAN connection prioritized, and the DSL connection therefore used only if the fiber WAN link got disconnected or otherwise was inactive) and in its Load Balance mode (which uses both WAN connections). In the latter case, after I specify the upstream and downstream bandwidth capabilities of the two WAN sources, the router auto-selects between them for each Internet access instance, using a Weighted Round Robin algorithm. I can even override the partitioning algorithm and explicitly route specific services' traffic (such as POP3 and SMTP for email, for example) over a specific WAN port.

One other important data service note; for convenience, I requested a static IP address, which is only an extra $5.99 per month over a conventional dynamic IP connection. As a point of comparison, static IP 'business class' services from AT&T DSL, for example, are much more expensive than dynamic IP 'consumer class' services. The VoIP service works well, but it's pretty barebones compared to others I've used in the past (and with BroadVoice, still use). It's got all the typical features; call waiting, call forwarding, multi-line conferencing, voicemail access via a telephone connection, etc. But there's no ability to access voicemails from a web browser, for example, or to auto-forward voicemails as WAV attachments to emails; both are features that I've grown accustomed to.

Finally, here are a few thoughts on video. First off, why do I have both standard- and high-def STBs in the living room? SureWest's sole PVR solution right now (I'm aware of future plans, but can't share them with you at this time) involves connecting a STB to a Series2 TiVo over S-Video, and controlling the STB channel-changing via an infrared tether to the TiVo. After several happy years' relationship with our ReplayTV, my wife was loath to return to our archaic PVR-less past. But since the Series2 is a standard-def PVR (and is therefore connected to my display over S-Video), I also wanted an AmiNET120 STB (connected to the display over a component video link) so that I could enjoy high-def channel content, albeit in a non-time-shifted fashon.

Channel-changing with the AmiNET110/TiVo Series2 combo is a pretty tedious process, primarily due to the fact that I'm using the TiVo remote control to accomplish the function; the TiVo has to subsequently communicate the request to the STB over infrared. However, the AmiNET110 also generally seems slow; I've had to go into its settings several times (to turn off 'parental blocking' so that I could watch South Park ;-), and to so-far-unsuccessfully attempt to switch it and the TiVo into widescreen mode), and menu navigation is molasses-slow.

The AmiNET120, in contrast, is a much speedier piece of hardware. Channel changing is almost instantaneous, a particularly impressive accomplishment when you remember that my remote control-stimulated request has to head upstream to SureWest's servers, which then transition my STB's dedicated video bitstream to the desired content. One final note on the Series2 PVR; instead of connecting it to TiVo's servers over a telephone link, I plugged a D-Link DUB-E100 wired Ethernet adapter (which the PVR automatically recognized) into one of the USB ports. What I don't yet know is if the TiVo is connecting to my network at Full (12 Mbps) or High-Speed (480 Mbps) USB rates. Regardless, the LAN-and-WAN connectivity will be useful for the media sharing and other capabilities that the Series2 offers, which I plan to report on in the future. TiVo publishes lists of wired and wireless adapters compatible with the Series2; carefully note the applicable hardware revisions of each USB adapter model before proceeding.