Home Network Solution (HONET)

Objective:

  • Provide around the clock, high-speed, secure internet connectivity for Home or Small Office.
  • Connect one or more PCs with different operating systems to the Internet using only one IP address.
  • Allow world-wide access to most Internet application located on the office premises.
  • Allow free PC to PC data flow on the Office premises

    • HONET

    HONET is a fully scaleable low cost Home or Small Office Network solution, that allows one or a group of users fast access to/from Internet via coaxial cable. Unlike the solution used by popular ISPs it will allow the users to keep databases, email, web servers and other Internet services on the office premises. HONET is based on coaxial cable access to the Internet provided by Rogers or Shaw WAVE service, depending of your location. The WAVE currently salles at $55/month, which compared to ISDN at $250/month is the lowest available price on Canadian market. Because the WAVE does not offer security on the Local Area Network, the WAVE is not meant to be used on a network or a computer where the "file and print sharing" capability has been activated. In other words the information stored on your PC are exposed to the attack of network hackers.



    Fig. 1 Single workstation connected via the cable modem directly to the Internet.

    Promoting his book in a recent interview with the Globe and Mail's Geoffrey Rowan, Carroll pointed out: "We all walk around saying we are freaked out about security, but when it comes right down to it we don't pay attention." It is the area where the HONET comes to take care of this issue.

    The HONET bastion host isolates the local network from the Internet via proxy that distributes incoming and outgoing service requests from the Internet to the respective applications. It also allows using non routable IP addresses on the Local Area Network. HONET is scaleable solution that can be sized to the user requirements and because of its modularity the components can be added or removed later on.

    HONET connects the world to your Intranet with a wide range of IP based application and telecommunication technologies. Mixed data, voice and video is allowed because today cable bandwidth is close to commercial T-1. You will be able now to promote your business to the world 24 hours per day and 7 days per week as well as secure share your printers and data within your LAN boundary. The basic installation also comes with personalized e-mail and web interface on your very own Internet Domain. For details and price list please e-mail to honet@leadsource.ca

    * All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

    References:

    PC Magazine test drives cable modems, @Home network

    "When we first looked at cable modems we were blown away by how fast they were," writes PC Magazine's Les Freed in its November 18 issue. "But when we test-drove the @Home network...we found out just how fast downloading can be."

    @Home uses high-speed cable modems and its own Internet backbone to speed up the Internet, which Freed says allows it to perform at rates that approach, and even surpass T-1 lines. Recognizing that speeding up the Internet itself was crucial, Rogers and Shaw became partners with @Home, working alongside American cable companies Comcast, Cox and TCI. @Home is scheduled to be available on the Canadian market early in the New Year.

    PC Magazine also did a quick comparison of cable modems, ISDN 2B, ISDN 1B and regular dial-up, downloading a 3.5 MB file three times and averaging the results. The test was done in "the wee hours when Netscape's servers aren't very busy." The results? Cable modems outperformed regular dial-up by nearly 40:1. (18/11/97)

    Internet Offering Time(secs) Speed(kbps)
    Cable0:29976
    ISDN 2B6:1176
    ISDN 1B8:3255
    Dial-up: 28.8 kbps19:03 25

    High-speed round-up recommends cable

    Windows Internet Magazine writer Cynthia Morgan recently [ ] published a round-up of the fastest Internet offerings around. Her call on cable modems: "Long the target of service and technology gibes, cable TV might come out the [ ] winner in the high-speed Internet access sweepstakes...Cable trials around the country have been a resounding success."

    Morgan, who's using a cable modem and @Home in the United States, gave cable great grades in speed (A+), cost (A-) and usability (A).

    (December 1997)

    Skeptics no more: 1998 Canadian Internet Handbook recommends WAVE

    Readers of the Canadian Internet Handbook may recall in the last edition, co-authors Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead proclaimed themselves skeptical of high-speed Internet access via cable modem.

    After trying WAVE, their view changed this year. "Are we still skeptics? Not a chance," they write. "Since the installation, we have been happily surfing the Internet at some pretty fast speeds; we estimate that while we might get a transfer rate of 3,000 or 4,000 kbps with a standard modem, we are seeing rates of 35,000 or 40,000 kbps with a cable modem."

    "On our first day, we discovered that the speed of the connection was impressive and that we ended up spending much less time waiting for certain sites to download. From our perspective, the cost of the service was definitely worth it, and we highly recommend it."

    Glossary:
    Email-Messages that travel through the Internet.
    Intranet-The local network of interlinked computers sharing digital resources
    HTML-(Hypertext Markup Language): The language that is used to format text, graphics and multimedia components in documents for use on the World Wide Web.
    HONET-Home Office Network.
    POP-Post Office Protocol. The protocol for storage and retrieval of email.
    WWW-(World Wide Web): A series of resources around the world on the Internet identified by their URL. Current resources accessible through the Web include HTML, gopher, FTP, news groups and various graphics formats. The Web (also known as W3) can be accessed through graphical interfaces such as Netscape Navigator or Mosaic or text-based interfaces such as Lynx.
    URL-Uniform Resource Locator. The Address of an Internet site or file. ex: http://www.leadsource.ca
    Telnet-A protocol system that lets you log into someone else's computer.
    TCP/IP-Transmission Control Protocol/Internet protocol. The set of communication conventions that governs how information is formatted, how addresses are arranged, how computers intercommunicate, how software connects to the Internet.
    IP address-The host computer's unique name using numbers. ex: 204.257.34.41
    Browser-Navigation software that allows you to search through the Internet.

    For more info please mail to honet@leadsource.ca or call 905/278-6808