[vcf-midatlantic] “Comcast at Home” internet speeds 1998 or so?

[John Heritage]

Definitely an odd number - I'm assuming 2.8 some kind of KB/sec --> mbps
conversion issue so it's really 3 mbps down..

Interesting - ok - so maybe the initial offering was 1 mbps before they
went to 3 mbps.  I started myself sometime in mid-1998 with Comcast at Home,
though when I left my parents house in ~early 2002 I remember it was
already 3-4 mbps by then.  I wasn't sure if that 3 mbps was the starter
speed in 1998 or not.

On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 7:50 AM Neil Cherry <ncherry at linuxha.com> wrote:

> On 2/1/22 20:40, John Heritage via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> > Hey folks,
> >
> > I’m trying to remember what download speeds Comcast at Home offered circa
> 1998
> > (when I first had cable modem).  I remember the upload speeds initially
> > being 256-384 kbps but then Comcast cut the upload to 128 kbps.  This was
> > terrible not just because it was slow but it was barely enough bandwidth
> to
> > even request data fast enough to saturate the download speed.
> >
> > I think the initial download speeds were 3 or 4 mbps with cable modems in
> > 1998 (south jersey area - former Storer Cable area), but I have a couple
> of
> > friends who think it was more like 768kbps - 1 mbps.
> >
> > Any one have memories of this time?
> >
> > P.S.  My google-fu sees a lot of ~ 2.8 mbps down on Cox at Home and some
> other
> > @Home providers around 2000-2003 but I’m having trouble finding earlier
> > than that period online.
>
> 2.8 seems like a really odd number. Initial I think they only got up to
> 2/512 as the
> proformance package (not sure they called it that then).
>
> I don't recall all the packages. And problem is I recall from various
> times as
> I started, as a customer, early on with some of the first installs of the
> @Home service.
>
> I recall 2/256 (Up/Down Mbps/kbps) and 1/128 be available. I was one of
> the first to
> get @Home service. I now have 1250/200 (Mbps) with Comcast. My 1.25/2.5
> Gbps Ethernet
> card arrives tonight.
>
> I think the lowest was 128/64 (kbps/kbps). Usually the upload to download
> was 4:1 or 5:1
> although early on the had weird ratios.
>
> --
> Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry at linuxha.com
> http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
> http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
> Author of:      Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
>