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Speed Bumps III

Toronto Star Fast Forward column for October 19, 2000 

Copyright ©, Myles White, 2000. All rights reserved.

Back in August, I wrote a pair of columns on my experiences with Sympatico's High-Speed Edition (HSE). Judging from your responses, they struck a chord with many readers concerned about their Internet connectivity. I heard from Sympatico and @Home (cable) users and people with dial-up accounts, all with fascinating stories to tell (some good, most bad). At the end of the last column, I suggested that there may be more to come and, sure enough, here it is...

Quickie review

I chose Sympatico HSE initially because, frankly, I bought into the argument and the experiences shared by others that an @Home connection would lose speed at high peak usage periods in direct proportion to the number of people on any one node. And, as late as the weekend of September 23/24 at a local computer show, Sympatico salespeople were still, in answer to the question, "What download speed to you guarantee?" replying that they supplied "1 meg." (More on this one below). 

After some hellish installation hassles that left me firmly convinced I was, after all, dealing with The Phone Company, I ran into two other problems. My download speed never rose above 279 kilobits per second (Kbps) - a far cry from the 1024 Kbps (1 megabit per second or Mbps) that the salespeople promised. And I couldn't share the connection with the several other computers I use. 

After writing the columns, I was contacted by the marketing people at Rogers @Home service, who offered to install their product for testing. As with Sympatico, I chose to have their people come to do the job. But unlike Sympatico, the service was up and running properly before they left the house. At various times throughout the past month and a bit, I've recorded download speeds ranging from a low point of 550 Kbps to a high point of 2380 Kbps (yes, 2.3 Mbps). And, despite some old information that has still to be expunged from the Rogers support site, it shares seamlessly. (I was told at the time that there was only one other user on the same node, but I've also discovered that Rogers is updating its system to ease the load on others).

Now the details

Sympatico's HSE uses a phone line running through a special modem which is then connected to an Ethernet network card inside your computer. If that computer is also on a network, you need two Ethernet cards. There's nothing in the hardware that prevents it from being shared on a network. The problem is all in the software program provided, the dreaded Access Manager (currently in version 1.2). 

Access Manager is not compatible with the Internet Connection Sharing application that ships as part of Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition or Windows 2000 (but in Win2K it's a devil to implement, so we'll leave it for now). 

Access Manager is also widely reported not to work properly with Windows Me and if you upgrade over a previous installation of Windows, that's true. The trick, apparently, is to uninstall Access Manager ahead of time, install WinMe, then reinstall Access Manager. Because no one is warning people about this, however, there have been all sorts of problems. Not only does Access Manager not work properly, but leaving it in during an upgrade can destabilize WinMe in the bargain. 

There are three solutions to sharing a Sympatico connection successfully on an Ethernet network. One software solution costs money, one doesn't, while the third solution, also relatively low cost, is merely tedious beyond belief. The software solutions mean replacing Access Manager with something else. 

One choice is EnterNet 300 from Network Telesys (www.nts.com). Access Manager is actually a brain-damaged version of EnterNet 300 (now in version 1.4). The cost is $29 US (although there's a 30-day evaluation version you can try before paying). 

The second software alternative is WinPoET, from WindRiver Systems. When WindRiver bought the original developers, Ivasion, however, it pulled the evaluation version from its Web site and even more recently pulled a pay-as-you-go version. It's now distributed through Internet Service Providers. However, there's another option. I got it from Seanet.com's FTP (file transfer protocol) site: ftp://ftp.seanet.com/pub/dsl/GTE/PPPoE/ (Note that the address is case sensitive and that you want version 2.0, not 1.4.). I've also had reports from readers who suggest that if you don't approach the seanet.com site through the Sympatico Users Group site, you may not be able to connect properly.  

Both EnterNet 300 1.4 and WinPoET 2.0 are quite happy to run on a Windows Me system and both support Internet Connection Sharing. 

Tedium

Now we get to the tedious route. I haven't had the patience or time to try it, but several readers recommended it and others to whom I've passed it along have written back to report success. What we're going to do is to connect the Sympatico modem directly to your Ethernet hub. That sounds simple enough, but getting there is going to take some time. The good(?) news is that you get to keep Access Manager. 

Please remember to turn your computer and the Sympatico modem off when connecting and disconnecting things as outlined below. 

We're going to assume you have three computers on the network, Aptor, Pendragon, and Rosie (real names of my computers). You may try more if you're feeling adventuresome. We're also going to assume you have at least a 4-port Ethernet hub (or switch). It may or may not have an additional port called an "uplink" port. No matter. 

It may also be necessary for you to have the Alcatel modem Sympatico is supplying to some consumers, not the Nortel modem most of us got.

Ready? Here we go...

The Sympatico modem is currently connected to a second NIC (network interface card) in Aptor. That has to go. Then we disconnect Aptor from the network and plug the modem directly into its remaining NIC. Power the computer up, then get Access Manager connected to the Internet. Once that's done, power everything back down.

Carry the Sympatico modem over to Pendragon. Disconnect Pendragon from the network and plug the modem in. If your version of Pendragon is located in another room or too far from a phone jack for the modem to remain connected to an outside phone line (the one you have the HSE service on), you'll have to find another jack closer to it. Once the modem is properly connected at both ends, install Access Manager on the second computer. Use the same login name and password to connect to the Internet. Once you have a solid Internet connection from Pendragon, repeat all this with Rosie. 

Once you can get an Internet connection from all three computers when they're working independently, it's time to start getting the network back together. Hook the modem up to the hub, using a standard (straight through) network cable to the hub's uplink port. If the hub doesn't have an uplink port, use a "crossover" cable instead (under $20 from any computer store that carries network cables). Now hook all three computers back up to the network. 

From here, you should be able to connect each or all of them to the Internet via HSE by running a separate instance of Access Manager on each system. Apparently, it doesn't care that you're logging in as the same person multiple times. Note also that if you actually do get all three systems online at the same time, they'll split the connection speed. (Gotcha!)

One last note: there are other software solutions (such as RASPPPOE) and WinProxy, as well as sharing software by Artisoft (LANtastic). In addition there are hardware solutions (such as the $240 Linksys router). You can read more about all of them at the Sympatico Users Group. The solutions above, however, are the lowest cost alternatives I could find.

@Home

Sharing an @Home connection (or a dial-up connection) is dead simple so long as you use Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). 

You install ICS (from the Windows SE or ME installation disc) only on the computer that will be physically connected to the Net via the @Home modem. Follow the installation instructions, prepare the diskette it makes, then run the small program on it on each of the systems on your network. Viola! You're sharing. 

Of course, there's a wrinkle or two. The Rogers @Home support site suggests you need to buy additional IP (Internet Protocol) addresses in order to share a connection. Bull. You need do no such thing. 

The same section also says you need to change the Workgroup identifier on the system directly connected to the Internet to read "@Home." No, you don't.

More last notes: 

Over a month ago, Sympatico technical support told me my lousy download speed was "a Bell problem" and that all they could do was report it to Bell for fixing. 

So far, as of October 11, there's been no sign of any fix. So, that's all she wrote. 

By the time you read this, I'll have informed Sympatico that I'm cancelling the service. 

And for those of you who have written extolling the virtues of Look Communications' microwave system, I can only repeat what I said in the first of my two August columns: I've extended an open invitation to Look to install their system so that I can try it, but my house is neatly tucked in behind a multi-storey hospital which blocks the signal from the CN Tower. 

The company sent a technician out to test the signal strength and reported it couldn't be done. If Look ever sets up repeaters to provide service to people like me (and anyone else located behind a tall building, hill, or the horizon), I'll be delighted to give it my full attention.

And one last thought:

Since this column was published, I've had some interesting feedback. Perhaps one of the more enlightening was from someone who didn't think I should be writing about this topic or slapping Sympatico's wrist over my experiences. In part, this reader wrote that:

1. Access Manager works the way it was designed and that Windows ICS is to blame
2. People who upgrade their operating systems deserve what they get (in reference to AM not working properly with Windows Me)
3. My speed problems had something to do with my system being wonky.

My responses:

1. ICS works seamlessly with dial-up, @Home, and even for Sympatico users who choose an alternative to Access Manager. So, which one does this suggest to you is out of step? Networking is not solely a business / corporate use of computers. According to International Data Corp., 30 per cent of Canadians with a computer at home have more than one. According to Intel, that comes to somewhere between one and two million households. Given that the base version of the software used for Access Manager (EnterNet300) does support ICS, it can only be surmised that Sympatico deliberately brain-damaged its product to prevent consumers from utilizing this service.
2. What Sympatico customers deserve is the same level of service that other companies have provided for their customers: timely software upgrades to take advantage of new operating system features or other changes. It isn't as if the company had to wait like the rest of us; beta versions of WinMe have been available for several months for developers and everyone else (including NTS) seems to have been able to meet the challenge.
3. I take great care to keep stable systems in order to make sure I'm being fair to both readers and companies submitting hardware and software for review. For example, I don't review or even load beta test versions of software. And it was Sympatico's people who confirmed the speed problem I was having was their problem, not mine.

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