It's Time for Broadband: No More Excuses
Written: Jul 18 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: the easiest cable modem to set up in the world; fast and user-friendly!
Cons: no off switch
The Bottom Line: STOP PUTTING BROADBAND OFF: this is way too easy to install, and costs as much as your current ISP. BUY THIS MODEM NOW!
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| unheimlich's Full Review: Toshiba DOCSIS Cable PCX1000 (DAZ8801F-R) |
With the advent of the Toshiba PCX1100U and the mainstream pricing of broadband, there are no more excuses: It's time for you to get a cable modem. If you were like me, you were paying around $20 bucks for an ISP to call up with your modem and another $20 or so to have a second phone line. That's $40 a month, on top of other expenses and issues, ranging from busy signals to slow connection speeds to missed phone calls. Nowadays, most places have cable access to the internet over the same line that your TV uses, and for that same pricetag of about $40 per month you can get:
*** "always online" access, 24/7 -- no more dial-up waiting or busy signals!
*** amazing speed -- a hundred times faster than a 56K modem! Download an Mp3 song in seconds!!!
*** a freed up phone line for talk or fax
*** speedy interactivity with online games, chat servers, etc.
*** your own IP address so you can BE a server for things like games and webhosting
...and that's only the tip of the broadband iceburg. Once you get a cable modem, your whole internet experience radically changes. You no longer suffer the WWW ("world wide wait"): you're truly surfing the big waves.
My cable provider (AT&T Broadband, which is probably available everywhere) offered to rent me a cable modem, or I could buy my own "DOCSIS compliant" modem and install everything on my own. The latter would save me about $10 a month. It was a no brainer: buy and install the modem myself. And my choice was another no brainer: the Toshiba DOCSIS PCX1100U, which is an affordable (under $200) model available at most US electronic warehouses, like Circuit City or Best Buy. It's not only DOCSIS certified -- which means that it meets the industry standard for hooking up through your Cable TV provider -- but it also beats certification tests by "CableLabs" (a modem industry watchdog) and is firmware upgradable online.
Why the Toshiba PCX1100U? It's the only modem out there that's so easy to use, a three-legged poodle could install it. The modem is a snap to set up and even includes a built in Ethernet card. Most cable modems need you to attach them to a separate Ethernet card (or "Network Interface Card," a.k.a. "NIC") in order to assign you an address and make you a permanent part of the network -- just like you might be doing at your home or office. The Toshiba PCX1100 does not have one. The PCX1100U, however, does, and it was purposely manufactured to simplify the process of getting hooked up to broadband. And it also simply plugs right into your USB port. It's as simple as plugging it in and running the installation CD once. As long as your cable internet service is turned on by your supplier (like AT&T, RoadRunner, etc.), the modem sets itself up with ease.
And you can also use the built-in Ethernet card to set up a peer-to-peer network in your own home. Or attach it to a "hub" (you'll need to get one especially made for cable modems) and string up all your computers, giving you and your family multiple ways to both interact and go online! Imagine: playing a computer game like Quake III with your kid AND with others online. Or chatting with your spouse in a chatroom while the husband surfs the sports news pages and the wife does the online banking. Or whatever you wish!
Now, cable modems are admittedy kind of scary for the uninitiated. You might not understand how to set them up. It's weird to realize that your computer is ALWAYS GOING TO BE ONLINE. You might be afraid of hackers who can trace your IP address and log onto your machine while you're sleeping and copy all those important files you've got on your hard drive. You might even be a little afraid of the speed and efficiency, which is certain to feed your already growing internet addiction...
Well, as I said, the easy set-up of the Toshiba DOCSIS modem blows your excuses out of the water. You can protect yourself with a personal firewall, too, if you're afraid of hackers (and you should be). The PCX1100U comes bundled with everything you need to set one up -- a copy of Norton Internet Security, Family Edition -- which is their top of the line product. Getting this $75 piece of software for free makes the modem cost only $100, really. And the Norton Security program includes not only a firewall, but a web site blocker (to filter out things you don't want your kids to view, like porn) and the most recent edition of Norton Antivirus. Wow! Or you could also do what I did, and download the even better firewall offered by zonelabs.com, called "Zone Alarm Pro." (They offer a freeware edition, too). Zone Alarm's firewall puts your computer in "stealth mode" so hackers won't even know your computer is on the net. It's the next best thing to being invisible and even if they know you're there, it blocks people from ever getting their foot in the door. As for your net addiction, well, this modem will indeed make it worse. But you'll come to see your computer as something akin to your television set and realize that YOU hold the remote control.
Once the cable modem is installed, you'll probably forget it is even there. Standing tall on its slim base, it looks something like a long black paperback book sitting on a shelf. It says "Cable Modem" on its spine, just in case you forgot what it does. Sure, there are nice and visible green indicator lamps on the front of it -- these tell you that the power is on, the cable is in service, the pc is attached, and whether or not data is streaming through it. There's also a "test" feature which automatic and built into the modem. But you're not going to need these things: once its in, it's invisible. You forget its there. And that's what makes it so darned good. No waiting for the old fashioned modem to load its driver, dial a nubmer, wait for an answer, and hiss and churn its way online. Now you're online the second you boot up your computer. You can always unplug the cable if you decide you don't want to be online (and the Toshiba's USB interface makes that VERY easy).
This modem is super fast -- the speed is incomparable to a regular 56K modem. You can do all those things online that you otherwise would pass on. Want to install a 30 megabyte game demo just to see if it's worthwhile? Go to gigex.com and do it in under four minutes. Wanna swap Mp3s at imesh.com? Do it in less than a minute. Wanna hear live streaming music? Go to spinner.com and stream away -- your computer transmogrifies into a radio! Wanna watch tv shows? Go to clickvideo at home.excite.com and watch some cool animation or newsclips. You can even use Windows Update and install the latest edition of Internet Explorer (or go to Netscape.com) in the blink of an eye. This is the way it is supposed to be!
It's amazing to realize that it takes longer to install a downloaded program than it does to download it. The Toshiba modem seems faster than some of my disk drives.
Of course, your operating system and computer hardware can influence speed. You should have a computer that was manufactured within the past three years or so. You'll need a USB ready system and a computer capable of running Windows98 at minimum. The faster your processor and ram, the faster your downloads and web surfing will obviously be. I tweaked my speed settings in the Windows registry. The Toshiba "Self-Install Wizard" that comes on its CD automatically gives you the option of tweaking registry settings (like MTU) for optimizing broadband speeds. That's pretty savvy stuff! I used it. And then I tweaked it even further by using a program called "cablenut" at broadbandnuts.com and use that instead.
I knew this modem would be easy to set up and a joy to use. It has beat my expectations. I'm recommending it to everyone -- even people who have no clue how to set up their computers. Because the Toshiba PCX1100U is truly the first cable modem for dummies. It's a one-of-a-kind "no brainer" that is likely to sweep the market once it catches on. In fact, I feel like an idiot for waiting so long to commit to this!
For more information, visit Toshiba's web page -- where you can also order one for yourself. I'll give you the link and meet you there, even though I know I'll beat you to it: http://www.toshiba.com/taisnpd/products/pcx1100u.html
-- Unheimlich, 7/01
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180
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unheimlich
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Location: USA
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Tattooed Everything.
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