intermawebnets

So this last weekend we did some investigations regarding the interwebs.

I plugged my laptop into his router and was able to access the internet no problems. The only issue might be that my laptop is running Vista. As such it'll have the latest network stuff and could have something that "works out" the connection for you.

My desktop machines are running older versions of windows and so could potentially be more problematic. It's unlikely, though.

So the plan is to run a network cable from John's router right through and across into my flat. I think the preferred route is to come into my place through the door to the attic space.

I should then be able to plug in and go from there. There may be some difficulty over the cable length - John measured it at 20m, which was an over-estimate, so that shouldn't be a problem, but such a long cable could be subject to signal loss and interference, so it may affect the speed.

Still, his cable package I believe is 10megabits, which is some 6 or 7 times faster than my phone-line broadband, so even with it slowing down it should still be quicker. Of course, that slow down may apply to the whole network would be the other possibility and I wouldn't want to affect John's connection.

Speaking of which I looked up Virgin's fair-use policy. I was rather afraid they'd have a bandwidth cap, which wouldn't be good at all, as I use a heck of a lot of bandwidth, as I've discussed before.

However, it seems they use throttling instead. The basic thing seems to be they have a peak period and if you download too much during that peak period, then they throttle back your connection speed.

It seems the amount you're allowed during this time is only 1.5gb, but the good (ish) thing is that it seems the peak period is in the afternoon and early evening. My heavy torrenting is mainly scheduled for the morning, so this may mean I'm okay. It could restrict what I get up to in the evening, though.

The plan, therefore, is to do it on a trial basis. If we hook it all up and see how it goes and if it badly affects John (or me, of course) then we can always not bother.