Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!samsung!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!gryphon!vector!telecom-gateway From: MAP@lcs.mit.edu (Michael A. Patton) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: T1 vs T2; and Info Message-ID: Date: 18 Nov 89 06:39:23 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 29 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 521, message 9 of 10 Just a bit of additional info on the subject of "T1 required for connection to Internet". In actual fact, "The Internet" is not a monolithic entity. It is a large collection of networks all speaking the same protocols and with agreements to pass each others packets. This means connecting to "The Internet" is a matter of connecting to one of these networks. In my area (New England), this would most likely be done through NEARnet (the New England Academic and Research network, almost called New England Research and Development network, the acronym is left as an excercise for the reader :-). The current NEARnet fee schedule provides for connection speeds of 9.6k bps, 56k bps, 500k bps, T1 (1.5M bps), and 10M bps. We expect to try out T3 (45M bps) as soon as someone wants it bad enough. In New England it is certainly not the case that you need T1 to connect to the Internet. In all cases the "service" that NEARnet provides is a connector (on the back of a NEARnet-owned router) into which you plug a cable from a drop off your local Ethernet (or whatever, various are supported). The actual details of dealing with the T1 line, or whatever, is handled by NEARnet. __ /| /| /| \ Michael A. Patton, Network Manager / | / | /_|__/ MIT Laboratory for Computer Science / |/ |/ |atton [NEARnet technical group] Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are a figment of the phosphor on your screen and do not represent the views of MIT, LCS, or MAP. :-)