Broadband Internet Speed test

From the Wikipedia Internet Service Provider article:

An Internet service provider (ISP) is a business or organization that offers users access to the Internet and related services. Many but not all ISPs are telephone companies. They provide services such as Internet transit, domain name registration and hosting, dial-up access, leased line access and colocation.

ISP connection options
Generally, an ISP charges a monthly access fee to the consumer. The consumer then has access to the Internet for an un/limited number of hours, although the speed at which this data is transferred varies widely.

Internet connection speed can generally be divided into two categories: dialup and broadband. Dialup connections require the use of a phone line. Broadband connections can be either ISDN, Broadband wireless access, Cable modem, DSL, Satellite or Ethernet. Broadband is always on (except ISDN that is a circuit switching technology), and varies in speed between 64Kb and 20+Mb per second.

In the early 2000s, ISPs in the United States faced serious challenges. Telecommunications and IT-related stocks fell sharply, and many ISPs were forced to close, restructure, sell, or merge. Some telcos like Worldcom were spectacular collapses. The slower-than-expected growth of broadband services and key decisions on broadband open access matters all added to the industry’s problems.

By late 2005 a 1Mb connection was being described as slow within the United Kingdom. Many modern software add ons demand minimum speeds of 256K or 512K. With the increasing popularity of file sharing and downloading music and the general demand for faster page loads, higher bandwidth connections are becoming more popular.

Virtual ISP
A Virtual ISP (vISP) re-sells to the general public Internet access purchased from a wholesale ISP. The vISP’s role is to provide any services beyond Internet connectivity, such as e-mail, web hosting, and technical support. The vISP must perform all authentication and accounting functions necessary to provide access and then bill their users for it. This model allows for larger ISPs to increase returns on their investment into what is generally a geographically large, high capacity network, a network which smaller ISPs, as customers of the larger ISP, can use to serve customers in locations that would previously have been unavailable to them.

Internet security firm Websense is warning surfers to be on guard for a phishing e-mail that pretends to be from Google alerting recipients that they have won $400.

The e-mail directs users to a spoofed copy of Google’s site, where “winners” are prompted to click on another link to claim their prize money. The next page asks the visitor to enter their credit card number and shipping address.

BBC news reports:

Inmarsat-4 F2, one of the largest and most powerful communications satellites ever built, has succesfully launched from a floating pad in the Pacific.
The six-tonne UK-built craft was carried aloft by a Zenit-3SL rocket at approximately 1407 GMT on Tuesday.

The launch had twice been postponed after a software glitch stopped the countdown sequence on Saturday.

Inmarsat-4 F2 is designed to improve broadband and 3G communications, principally in the Americas.

It is the second in a planned two-satellite constellation.

The first spacecraft launched in March covers most of Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Indian Ocean.

The new satellite will improve and extend communications across South America, most of North America, the Atlantic Ocean and part of the Pacific Ocean.

The two satellites will support the London-based Inmarsat company’s global broadband network, BGan.

Their onboard technology is designed to allow people to set up virtual offices anywhere around the world via high-speed broadband connections and new 3G phone technology.

Those set to benefit include business travellers, disaster relief workers and journalists.

Andrew Sukawaty, CEO and chairman of Inmarsat, said: “The successful launch of the second I-4 satellite means that Inmarsat now has the world’s most sophisticated commercial network for mobile voice and data services.

“It will support an unprecedented evolution of our services - more than doubling the bandwidth available to our mobile users.”

The spacecraft, each the size of a London bus, should continue functioning for about 15 years. They were built largely at the EADS-Astrium facilities in Stevenage and Portsmouth, UK.

The Inmarsat-4 F2 was launched from waters close to Kiritimati (Christmas Island) on the equator.

It used the innovative Sea Launch system, which employs a converted oil drilling platform as a launch pad. The pad is moved into position from its California base.

Sea Launch is a joint venture between American, Russian, Ukrainian and Norwegian companies.

Slashdot has a story on the subject too.

It looks like CBS and NBC are getting with the times. Just like iTunes revolutionised legal music downloading, ComCast and DirecTVwill offer customers TV-episodes for 99 cents, which will let the customer watch the episodes as much as they want for 24 hours.

“This isn’t an acquisition model. This is more of a rental model” says NBC Universal Cable President David Zaslav. The decision to charge 99 cents “wasn’t scientific” he adds. “It’s low enough to attract viewers, and it felt like an amount that’s in balance” with payments for movies and other video on-demand programming.

We think it’s a step in the right direction.

The popular file sharing service Grokster was shut down yesterday, agreeing to fork over $50 million in a landmark piracy case settlement.

Grokster was a popular p2p (peer-to-peer) file sharing service, where users could download music and movies from other users, and at the same time offer their own goods to be downloaded by other users.

Grokster claimed that only a small percentage of its users were trading copyrighted material, something that Justice David H. Souter rejected.
“While there is doubtless some demand for free Shakespeare, the evidence shows that substantive volume is a function of free access to copyrighted work,” he wrote. “Users seeking top 40 songs, for example, or the latest release by Modest Mouse, are certain to be far more numerous than those seeking a free ‘Decameron,’ and Grokster and StreamCast translated that demand into dollars.”

Looks like Grokster is going to pull a Napster though; that is re-emerge with a legal for-pay music service, “Grokster 3G“.