Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:20462 comp.sys.atari.st:11448
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!esosun!ucsdhub!jack!crash!dbw
From: dbw@crash.cts.com (David B. Whiteman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Genie?
Message-ID: <3436@crash.cts.com>
Date: 17 Sep 88 07:48:34 GMT
References: <4788@saturn.ucsc.edu> <861@viscous> <1170@atari.UUCP>
Reply-To: dbw@crash.CTS.COM (David B. Whiteman)
Distribution: na
Organization: Crash TS, El Cajon, CA
Lines: 24

In article <1170@atari.UUCP> apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes: ...
>.  Download time (when you get software FROM THEM) is
>charged at the normal rate ($5/hr).  Also, noncommercial GEnie
>subscribers can only call after 5PM local time and on weekends: the rest
>of the day is for GE's commercial customers, who are the primary
>consumers of that whole computer setup. 
>
>GEnie has 2400-baud access at a higher hourly rate (I don't know how
>much higher) but, of course, 2400 baud cuts your download time in half. 
>I would recommend using 1200 baud for interactive online time; log out
>and call up again at 2400 baud just for downloads. 

I have learned from painful experience that on Genie and CIS and other systems
that 2400 baud is not necessary twice the speed of 1200 baud.  The bits pass
thru the modem at 2400 baud, and you are paying a higher rate; however, there
are more pauses and longer pauses at 2400 baud.  If you take two people
downloading under similar conditions and load on the network, but one is
downloading at 1200 baud and the other 2400 baud, it may turn out that the
2400 baud person takes less time than the 1200 baud person, but not close to
half the time.  Under heavy conditions both of them may take the same amount of 
time.  Genie is better than CIS in this regard -- Genie sends the entire file
to the local node that the user is downloading from quickly, and the local node
handles the download.  CIS sends the file in packets across the entire network
which slows the download down considerably.