Tsunami Deja Vu

On a beautiful South Pacific morning, no one could possibly suspect that disaster was already headed toward the fine sands and lush vegetation of the island shorelines. The wall of water known by its Japanese name, Tsunami, was shooting out at hundreds of miles per hour from its formation on an island of Indonesia. The coastal dwellers never stood a chance. There was no scientific warning system, no natural alerts, no time in which to analyze the situation and act. A giant wave reaching 40 meters above sea level just hit, destroying 165 coastal villages and killing at least 36,417 people. The date was forever etched into the historical record: August 26, 1883.

That's right, 1883. The event that caused this catastrophic tsunami was the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa. The resulting disaster was considered one of the worst in human history. The destruction and loss of life was so unimaginable that it took some time to come to grips with. Now we are faced with a Krakatoa-like scenario perhaps 4 or 5 times as great.

The disaster that struck the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas this year was caused by an undersea earthquake rather than a volcanic explosion. Aside from that detail the results are eerily similar to what happened in 1883 but on an even more frightening scale. Sri Lanka alone has lost more people that the entire death toll from Krakatoa. Indonesia has lost nearly 80,000. India and Thailand have thousands dead and thousands more missing. Half a million have been injured. Perhaps 5 million have been displaced.

One difference between the disasters of 1883 and 2004 is our nearly instantaneous electronic communication infrastructure. The Iridium telephone satellites in low earth orbit. The geostationary satellites that are always ready to receive and retransmit voice and video from anywhere on earth to everywhere else. The undersea fiber optic cable that links countries of the Pacific with other continents. The ubiquitous Internet that binds us all together in a true web.

What's even more amazing is how accessible we've made our communications networks. Most of the startling videos of the tsunami impact were recorded on camcorders owned by individuals. Much of the important communications, including matching up lost family members, is being done by email and web site postings. Blogs have sprung up to help with the relief effort. Individuals as well as international relief organizations and governments are playing a key role is helping a major portion of humanity recover from this stunning natural disaster.

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog or SEA-EAT blog has up to date information on relief efforts and organizations needing your support. The Tsunami Missing Persons blog is linked to missing persons lists and message boards and hot line numbers to find out about missing people from all countries. The Tsunami News Update blog features postings that include SMS messages from the affected areas.

Among the larger relief organizations, we personally support and recommend Doctors Without Borders, the American Red Cross and Heart to Heart International for their expertise and committed involvement. Be generous in your support. This is a far bigger catastrophe than is easily understood.

The Wikipedia is an excellent source of information on both the Krakatoa eruption and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Compare the details of then and now. The resemblance is startling.

Ethernet's Hidden Speed Trap

If you have a local area network, chances are that you're using 10 Mbps Ethernet, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet or perhaps even 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet. So, are you getting all the bandwidth that your network is capable of? Or are you losing as much as half of your potential throughput to packet collisions?

The original Ethernet design included a clever mechanism called CSMA/CD to let all of the network connected equipment share a common party line for transmitting and receiving. CSMA/CD stands for Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detect. That's right Collision. Each device is expected to listen for network activity and only transmit when the line is quiet. But, like pulling out onto the freeway, sometimes unfortunate collisions occur. The packets get jumbled and all parties back off to wait for another opportunity. This need to take turns talking and listening can reduce the efficiency of the network by as much as 50%.

A design update in 1997 added the capability of full duplex operation with separate transmit and receive lines. The original Ethernet used hardware called hubs to make the party line connection between computers, servers, printers, etc. The full duplex approach uses switches instead of hubs. The switches make sure that data from the sending party goes to the receiving party unbeknownst to other equipment on the network. With full duplex you are utilizing the complete transmit and receive bandwidths of your network simultaneously. No, it doesn't speed up the packet transmission rate. But by eliminating all that network congestion, it might well seem that way.

If you are wondering why your network might be running slower than expected, make sure all those ancient hubs are replaced by switches and that all of your NICs or Network Interface Cards are capable of the speed you desire. Ethernet was designed to make digital communications easy and will try to keep working even with a hodgepodge of connections.

If you are interested in getting quotes for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet for Metropolitan, Point to Point or Wide Area Networks, find the latest Ethernet service prices here.

Bonded T1 Lines for Bigger Data Pipes

A standard T1 line will give you 1.5 Mbps bandwidth. This is often plenty for PBX phone, audio transport, business Internet access, and small email and web servers. But what if you need more bandwidth? The next readily available service is a T3 line at 45 Mbps. That's the equivalent of 28 T1 lines. Wouldn't it be nice if there were some choices in-between?

There are a couple of ways to combine the capacities of T1 lines to effectively make a bigger digital line. Some routers offer a feature called load sharing or load balancing. They act like traffic cops to keep two or more T1 lines equally loaded with packets.

A more standardized approach is called inverse multiplexing or loop bonding. In multiplexing, the bit streams from a number of different sources are combined into one transmission line. Inverse multiplexing, or IMUX, divides traffic from a single bit stream among multiple transmission lines.

Bonding sounds a bit like gluing a bunch of T1 lines together, which effectively it is. Bonding is also an acronym for an industry standards group, the Bandwidth On Demand INteroperability Group. You can get dual bonded T1 which gives you 3 Mbps, triple bonded T1 which is 4.5 Mbps, quad bonded T1 for 6 Mbps, and sextuple bonded T1 for 9 Mbps. Above 6 bonded T1 lines it becomes cost effective to order a full T3 circuit.

What are bonded lines used for? A typical application is Internet service for an apartment complex, subdivision or wireless ISP. You might start out with a single T1 line as an Internet service backbone until there are enough subscribers to require, and pay for, additional bandwidth. Then you can bond in a second T1 for growth. Another good use for bonded T1 lines is transmission of very high quality audio or video signals that exceed the 1.5 Mbps bandwidth of a single T1 line but don't justify ordering T3 service.

You can check the latest prices for bonded T1 service here.

Half a T1 is Better Than None

You're sick and tired of that unreliable DSL line going down twice a week. Other businesses you know have T1 lines with service level guarantees and rarely experience outages. But, with only a few telephone lines and computers in the office you're thinking a full T1 service is probably overkill. Do you really have to live with unsatisfactory service until your business grows enough to afford first rate digital service?

In many areas, the answer is "not any more." A full T1 line with 24 voice channels or a combination of phone and Internet might indeed be overkill. Before you write it off, though, weight the cost of putting both your phone line and Internet service on a single Integrated T1 line. T1 phone plans often offer better long distance rates than standard dial tone service. If you make a lot of long distance calls, that could make T1 more attractive. Still too much money? In that case, take only a fraction of a T1 line for a fraction of the price.

Fractional T1 service is available from as low as 128 Kbps which can handle 2 telephone lines or Internet service for a couple of computers. Other common slices are 256K, 384K, 512K, 640K and 768K. 768K is half a T1. Above this rate, the difference between full and fractional T1 service starts to evaporate so you might as well get the full line service.

Check for the latest fractional T1 prices here.

T1 Lines for Audio Transport

AM & FM stations and radio networks started using telephone lines to transport program audio and remote broadcasts back in the 1920's. Even today some stations still rely on pairs of equalized telephone lines as audio links from studios downtown to transmitters out in the boonies. The technology trend of the last few decades, though, has seen stations moving to 950 MHz band studio-transmitter links (STL) and satellite network downlinks. In the digital audio age, why would anyone think of going back to telephone lines to send audio? After all, telephone lines aren't the first thing that comes to mind in high performance audio technology.

The new twist is using digital T1 lines to send digital audio from point to point. It's actually a natural fit. The 1.5 MHz bandwidth of a T1 line using two pairs of ordinary copper phone line is wide enough to send FM stereo and digital radio programs as far as you like. The audio quality doesn't degrade because the digital pulses are regenerated as required along the path. What's more, T1 lines are bi-directional and full duplex. That means you can send remote pickup programs, transmitter data, telephone lines or satellite audio in the opposite direction at the same time.

Equalized analog phone lines are getting expensive and hard to come by in some areas. 950 MHz STL frequencies have become crowded and they need direct line of site access to work. Satellite uplink/downlink systems are very expensive. At the same time, T1 line service is getting cheaper and is readily available nearly everywhere. You don't need line of site transmissions or locations near each other. It's a phone line!

If you are interested in exploring more about broadcast quality audio transmission over T1 lines, you can find the equipment at Harris Intraplex, QEI CAT-LINK and Moseley Starlink. You can get the latest prices on T1 line service here.

When Computers Can't Keep Up

Ever since upgrading to broadband Internet service, I've had one Toshiba laptop running Windows ME that couldn't download anything over 260 Kbps. Another newer laptop running Windows XP peaked around 1.5 Mbps and a desktop Compaq about the same age was peaking over 3 Mbps on download. Today I found out why.

Turns out that there is a TCP parameter in the registry called the Receive Window (RWIN) that can really limit Internet download speeds. It's supposed to be in the range of 29200 and 75920 but my machines were set at 4288, 17520 and 64240 respectively. I downloaded a tool to tweak this value so that they all were set to the fast machine's value of 64240 and Voila! Three computers all running at true broadband speeds.

Now, here's the secret of how I found this out. BroadbandReports.com offers Internet Speed Tests from major providers including Speakeasy, MegaPath and LinkLine. I ran a couple of these and confirmed my suspicions that the computers were performing at different download speeds on the same high speed line. Next I ran the "Tweak Test" that suggested the Receive Window was set too low and offered FAQs and the opportunity to download a tool (DrTCP) to change it. I did that on the two slower machines. It took less than an hour all told and results are like night and day.

In a larger sense, this is the sort of thing that can happen whenever you start making upgrades. Equipment that worked just fine before either doesn't seem to benefit from the improvements or starts acting flaky. Some companies are experiencing disappointments with VoIP deployment. It's not because the technology is inherently flawed. It's just that there are all sorts of characteristics, like latency, bandwidth, QoS priorities, jitter and so on that can rear their ugly heads to ruin a perfectly good signal. You'll have better results when you know what sort of gremlins to look out for in advance. It also makes a BIG difference to have the right tests to run when you suspect all is not well.

Are You Ready To Move to The OC?

In this case OC means Optical Carrier. Yes, you can have it in Orange County or most mid-size and larger metropolitan areas.

Why an OC? Speed! Lots and lots of speed, which equates to lots and lots of bandwidth to support hundreds and thousands of users for VoIP telephone, Internet access, website hosting, video conferencing or sending radiology images between hospitals.

Now don't ask if this is what you need for real-time gaming. It's not unless you have some thousands or tens of thousands of dollars a month to finance your gaming interests. Wait until SBC or another carrier brings fiber to your home and it will be affordable for residential use. What we're talking about here is enterprise level business bandwidth in almost unlimited amounts.

What levels of service can you get on fiber optic carriers? The usual entry level is OC3 which runs at 155 Mbps. That's equivalent to 3 T3 lines or 84 T1 lines. That is enough bandwidth to support standard Ethernet (10 Mbps) or Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) to extend your company network. Want Gigabit capacity? The fastest OC service generally available in major markets is OC48 that runs at 2,488 Mbps. Carriers themselves have backbones that run at higher rates including OC768 at 40 Gbps.

If you really need this level of performance, we'd be happy to provide you with Competitive Quotes for Fiber Optic Carrier Service.

Convergence Without VoIP

Network convergence is the hot buzzword in IT these days. Usually when people talk about "converging" their networks they mean ripping out the PBX system and replacing it with IP phones and an IP PBX that runs on the Ethernet based data network.

But what if you LIKE your existing PBX or key telephone system and don't want to go to the expense and sometimes grief of merging everything into one big IP network? Are you simply out of luck for reducing your telecom costs?

Good news! Keep your telephone and computer networks separate up to the demarcation point where lines go out to the telephone companies, Internet providers, etc. Install an "Integrated T1" line and its associated IAD or Integrated Access Device. This arrangement takes a standard T1 line of 24 channels and splits it into voice only and data only network channels. You connect, say, 12 of the channels to be 12 telephone lines that connect to the PBX system. Take the other 12 channels and make them into a data line of 768Kbps to be used as Internet access for your PCs. You have now converged your separate data service and telephone lines into a single T1 line that handles both.

Why do this? With the reduced T1 line pricing now available it may well be cheaper to have a single Integrated T1 service rather than a bunch of analog telephone lines and a separate business DSL for Internet service. With only a couple of phone lines it may not pay off unless you are in an area where DSL is unreliable and you'd have to go with satellite Internet or a fractional T1 line anyway. With 6 to 12 phone lines it may well be worth your while to make the change.

If you'd like to get see if Integrated T1 service can save you money, get a complimentary Integrated T1 Service Quote through T1Rex.com.

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Welcome to the Explainer

Are you mystified by the arcane language of telecom? T1 Rex will explain it all here on the Telexplainer (formerly known as T1 Rex's Business Telecom Explainer). We'll define those acronyms such as T1, T3, DS3, VoIP, PON, VPN and so on. We'll talk about how to apply the technologies. DSL vs T1, Gigabit Ethernet vs SONET. Packet switched versus circuit switched. We'll also discuss what's happening in the telecommunications industry and how you can benefit. As a user of high speed voice and data lines, this blog's for you.

So, what's the story on the dinosaur? T1 Rex is not only a play on the words T1 and T-Rex, but also a knock on the staid world of telecommunications line pricing which has been nothing short of monstrously high since the Jurassic age (or seemingly that long.) A newly competitive marketplace plus new Internet based search tools developed only in the last couple of years now improve the efficiency of matching customer needs to vendor services. You're the winner when the price you pay for your next T1 line contract is LESS than the contract that is just expiring.

See if T1 Rex can take a bite out your telecom costs. You can get an Instant Online T1 Quote Here with no cost or obligation. Try it. You can't spend more than a few minutes checking the offers and there's a good possibility your eyes will pop out of their sockets. Now who is really the dinosaur? It is us or your traditional telecom vendor? You be the judge.

Please visit us often to keep up with all the exciting developments in the high speed digital line world. Your comments, suggestions and questions are most welcome. We'll do our best to respond quickly.

Best Wishes,

John Shepler, owner
T1Rex.com, Telexplainer