I don't recall exact numbers on the latency, but I remember it being pretty horrendously high. So high, in fact, that I decided they must be having some momentary hiccup (or some very weird QOS system or something), because it could not possibly be representative of typical behavior if the connection were to be at all usable. Also, that was a while ago, so any results then might no longer be representative. But if you were really curious, I imagine they probable still have a kiosk at one of the local malls or some sort of a store front (looks like have have store right near the National Mall) and you could probably do the same trick I did.
As far as a static IP, you can't just use DynDNS (or a similar service)? My router, for example, will automatically monitor the WAN IP and update the DynDNS entry accordingly (though I have a static IP and don't use this feature). The only thing that could be a problem is if the ISP decided to switch IPs while you're connected. I have a friend in Florida who used FIOS to work from home and had the problem that no connection could be maintained longer than a few hours (I don't know if this experience is representative). However, if you use something with suspend capability (screen for the terminal or NX for GUI) then at least this could be transformed from a major problem to simply a major annoyance. I've never used an ISP who used dynamic IPs, so I can't speak to the time scale over which the IPs change, but many people use DynDNS, so I assume the timescale must typically be long (on the order of days or months, or only on modem resets). Kind regards, Nick On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 12:35 AM, Dustin J. Mitchell <[email protected]>wrote: > On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 11:03 PM, Nick Cummings <[email protected]> wrote: > > There's also wireless broadband from Clear (Sprint's 4G service). I'm > not > > sure about getting the devices to work with Linux, though. > > Ah! I've been trying to figure out (well, I haven't even put in the > effort to google it, so maybe "wondering") how Clear suddenly sprang > onto the scene with citywide 4G. That makes sense now. > > > I will say that (back when it was called XOhm) I talked to one of the > guys > > at the kiosk once, and when I asked about the latency he gave me a blank > > stare. When I asked to use the laptop they had out, opened a command > > prompt, and ran ping he acted as though it were some sort of magic > trick. I > > know that the sales people are not the same as the technical people, but > > this experience did not fill me with confidence. > > I had exactly the same experience - I was talking to a Clear > salesperson in another context, and when he mentioned his job I asked > about latency. He said he'd get back to me, and asked how to spell > latency.. and never got back to me. > > It's not an option for me at home because I need static IPs (I connect > to my home systems when working across the city). > > I'm curious what kind of latency you saw? > > Dustin > > -- > Open Source Storage Engineer > http://www.zmanda.com >
