World's Fastest Internet Cafe

Thyrus writes "An internet cafe offering connections 50 times faster than typical broadband services has opened in Cornwall. Computers at Goonhilly satellite station, on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, are connected to BT's global internet protocol network. That means users can download data at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps). It is thought to be the first time such high speeds have been seen at a UK internet cafe. The service will be free to visitors."

Comments

Can't be cheap?

[neonprimetime]

The service will be free to visitors.
61 dishes

For how long will it be free? I can't image the 61 dishes being cheap to maintain?

Not that impressive

[CBHighlander]

100Mbps connections are not that uncommon. Besides, it's the overall download speed that counts, and that is often determined downstream from you local connection. The bandwidth bottleneck is rarely (if ever) your local connection speed.

They forgot...

[JoeLinux]

Ok, you have this blazingly fast connection at the internet cafe...

What server, gaming or otherwise, will be able to transfer information that fast back?

I do have to say that this connection would be perfect for the final destination for the "relaying" internet connection in the $100 MIT laptop.

Joe

100mbit? WHY?

[Ossifer]

What's the purpose? Reading emails really quickly? I mean what kind of activity (other than nefarious) does one really need that requires that speed, when sipping coffee?

BT

[booch]

BT's global internet protocol network

That may be the most verbose/obscure way of saying "the Internet" that I've ever seen. And why do they imply that BT owns it?

Re:BT

[lisaparratt]

Um, you do realise the Internet is made up of more than one network, right? And that many of the networks making it up are own by telecoms companies, like, ooh, I dunno, BT? And that some of these companies are multinational, and so have networks that spread across the globe? These companies also have other networks, running other protocols other than "Internet protocol".

"The service will be free to visitors..."

[The MAZZTer]

The service will be free to visitors.

"Visitors" or "customers"? There is a distinct difference, mainly the latter pays money to the business for some coffee and gets the internet perks along with it.

Re:obquote

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt being a "European" would help much.

I only know where it is because my family live down the road.

Re:I wonder what the ramifications are...

[Anonymous Coward]

geerbox, meet the UK's extremely pervasive use of CCTV systems. CCTV systems, meet geerbox. Internet cafes tend to have cameras. Expensive equipment + random people = need to protect expensive equipment, and in real terms that translates to marking it, locking it up, and pointing cameras at it. And they tend to keep the tapes, at least long enough to notice.

Hell, if you look, there are stories about Nigerian spammers sitting in a cybercafe with their laptop, being clocked in real time by angry sysadmins who happened to be in the neighbourhood, shortly followed by police (said spammer, with SendSafe still running right there in the system tray, then proceeds to unsuccessfully try to eat their USB pendrive).

No. Cybercafes, especially high profile ones like this, are by and large very poor choices of a suitable place to do such a nefarious thing.

Besides, it wouldn't matter worth a damn. Anyone who did their homework has known about Warhol and flash worms for years now, and realises that it's not the upload speed of the initial seed that counts, it's the upload speed of the first tier. You could hypothetically launch stuff through a wardrived wireless LAN, without a problem, or even slower networks; even dialup is enough.

And any VXer working to the current fads would release through a multi-proxy chain to an existing, slowly-infected (sometimes manually-infected) first-tier command-and-control botnet, to the rest of the wider second-tier botnet which would seed the worm's release in a distributed fashion.

And then when they have control of a bunch of machines, they rent it out to spammers, do DDoS extortion with it, and password stealing, and spyware/dialer installation affiliate scams, and credit card fraud, and fly-by-night child pr0n hosting and pretty much every other manner of other nasty stuff you can possibly think of doing with a bunch of random machines. Think distributed computing, only a little dumber, and a lot more nasty.

Oh, wait. That's exactly what they do already. Damn.

So in summary; no, you do not need high bandwidth to do nasty things. It doesn't even really help. You need low profile to do nasty things, and cybercafes are not, despite common misconceptions, really all that low profile. Most of the VXers that have tried releasing from cybercafes got arrested. Enough said.

Re:Goonhilly? Lizard Peninsula?

[bunions]

Judge: In that case I sentence you to a lifetime of horror on Monster Island. [to Lisa] Don't worry, it's just a name.

[Lisa and others are chased by fire-breathing monsters]

Lisa: He said it was just a name!
Man: What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula.