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if you want an accurate test of bandwidth, try http://performance.toast.net/, they use file sending to various server hosts, and that allows you to bypass the speedboost feature

Mickey Mutant
Yeah, we knew it was coming. Even though I think it is morally reprehensible to fuck with life it's bound to happen, and has been happening for a while.

All we can really hope is that this stage of research is made obsolete quickly.

regedit.exe
Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open
Remove the "ddeexec" subkey (subfolder).
Go into the "command" subkey (subfolder).

Change the (Default) string to this value:

"C:\path\to\mozilla.exe" -nosplash -url "%1"

Make sure to use the full path to mozilla or firefox. Also, keep the quotes.

To test, go to the run menu and type in an http:// URL. It should pop up a new mozilla window to the webpage.

Do the same thing for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\https and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ftp to get the HTTPS and FTP protocol handlers as well.

Mail (mailto: links) is a little trickier. Use this guide for assistance.

First of all, make sure you are not "powered by" anyone. Earthlink and AOL resell the service and most people quickly want to get out of that situation. Earthlink and AOL have really bad support and slower downloads speeds then DirectWay directly.

It is 128kbps up and 400kbps down peak (For reference a T1 is 1540kbps up and down). It's expensive. I didn't realize it was $100/month for the first year and $60/month after that, but it is a two way Satellite system and those are still expensive. Most users seem to get better than 400kbps down, but somewhere around 30-80kbps up. With the one-way (dial-up systems) most users get 18-28kbps up due to the overhead in their protocol.

No phone line is required with the two-way system. There are one-way and two-way services offered.

This is something I wrote when I had the system and using it over SSH:

"I am typing this e-mail over our new DirectWay system, and it is extremely painful. It is far worse than dial-up. Every character I type takes
about one second to appear. I have to count the number of backspaces I want, number of arrow keys, etc.

C:\>ping [My ssh box hosted at Hurricane Electric]

Pinging [My ssh box] [1.2.3.4] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 1.2.3.4: bytes=32 time=1012ms TTL=242
Reply from 1.2.3.4: bytes=32 time=861ms TTL=242
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 1.2.3.4:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 861ms, Maximum = 1012ms, Average = 468ms

Ignore the average, Microsoft apparently counts dropped packets as 0ms.

I seem to be getting about 900ms ping times on average to most fast sites. We are getting about 750ms on average to the first hop.

The speeds vary a lot. When I did a speed test earlier I got 252kbps down/18kbps up. Right now I am getting a lot better:

CA server:

Test running.........
**Speed 827(down)/25(up) kbps **
(At least 16 times faster than a 56k modem)

LA server:

Test running.........
** Speed 653(down)/51(up) kbps **
(At least 13 times faster than a 56k modem)

(For comparison to what I got when I was on cable modem:
2002-03-05 23:03:40 Speed test (la) 780/124 kbps
2002-03-05 22:58:28 Speed test (wc) 772/109 kbps )

I also did the toast.net speed test and got a bit worse results, you can
see them here:
My toast results

I disabled their proxy server to speed up Web browsing, but their software comes up with annoying pop-ups that tell me that I am not using their proxy. I will set it back when I am done. Speed tests do not work through proxies, so that is the main reason I disabled it.

It took me about 20 minutes to write this e-mail and the connection dropped once during writing it."

I use SSH so much that I went back to dial-up before the trial period ended. I get about 150ms over a 56K connection so SSH is about 6 times slower. Web browsing wasn't improved enough to make the service worth it. Some sites seemed slower even. I believe it was any HTTPS sites like checking my bank account were terrible.

DSL reports has a FAQ available. It is a good site to check out when looking at new ISPs.
DSL Reports Satellite FAQ

To be specific, if you want to know if you have a T1 line, as others have pointed out, get it in writing from your ISP. If you want to know what your total throughput is on average, do you want to know the "real world condition" throughput, or the to-backbone throughput? If you just want to make sure you're getting fairly close to normal bandwidth(and not avery bit you can just cause), check out a web-based bandwidth meter. It's not super accurate, but it's not bad. Check out www.toast.net. They've got multiple test sites, so you can get an average based on proximity to your location, etc. If you really want to maximize the accuracy of your results, you'll want to be the only computer on the line, and check your MTU, TTL, etc. settings, just for the hell of it(though it might be overkill for a test that's this loose to begin with).

Bunnygirl Rael...is there a connection? The truth is out there

I have seen and read about several differnet ways to place DI into simulations. I saw one that was demonstrated by some people from NPS using an omnidirectional treadmill. The one I saw was the size of a pool table. Before that they used stationary unicycle type device. There is also the work done by Reality by Design. RastaSaf Expect Anomalous Behavior