What You Need For Speed?
RCN’s MegaModem
Mach 10 and MegaModem Mach 5 offer you the fastest residential
cable modem speed bar none.
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RCN’s MegaModem Mach
10 offers you speeds of up to 10 Mbps and up load speeds
of up to 800Kbps. |
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RCN’s MegaModem Mach
5 offers you speeds of up to 5 Mbps and up load speeds
of up to 384Kbps. |
These unrivalled speeds far exceed any
other internet provider in your area such as Verizon, SBC,
Service Electric, Comcast or Time Warner.
Why are they so slow, and we’re
so fast?
Because we can, and with their old legacy
networks they can’t.
Because we’ve invested over $4 billion in building our MegaBand
network so you can enjoy the internet the way it was intended
to be – fast and uncapped.
While we strive to offer you these blazing
speeds we CANNOT guarantee them for reasons that have to do
with the way the internet works, and because of factors that
have to do with your PC.
Why?
Three reasons come to mind:
- The Internet
- Your Cable Modem
- Your Computer
1. The Internet
Let us begin by explaining how the internet
works.
The internet is in interconnected system
of networks that connects computers around the world. The
speed of the internet therefore is determined by the speed
of the individual website you are trying to access. When testing
the speed of your connection several factors come into play:
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The quality of the connection
of the website you are trying to access. Think of it this
way - If Manhattan was connected to New Jersey by a single
lane bridge, even though the distance you travel is short,
the traffic jam would have been very long. The same happens
on the internet – if you try to access a website that
has insufficient capacity, it will slow down your internet
experience. |
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The number of people
trying to access the website at a given time. We’ll use
the Manhattan example again. If you are trying to cross
the Holland Tunnel during rush hour, you will be stuck
in traffic. |
2. Your Cable Modem
A cable modem is designed to operate
over your cable TV lines. Because the coaxial cable used by
RCN provides much greater bandwidth than telephone lines,
a cable modem can be used to achieve extremely fast access
to the World Wide Web. However, not all cable modems offer
equal performance. While RCN approves a wide selection of
cable modems to run on our network, in order to experience
optimal performance we recommend you get one of the following
cable modems:
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Linksys Cable Modem
BEFCMU10 |
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Motorola SURFboard®
Cable Modem SB5100 |
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Toshiba PCX 2200, 2500,
2600 |
3. Your Computer
Your PC is your terminal connecting to
the internet. To ensure best performance we recommend the
following:
A. While we support the following minimum
requirements, RECOMMENDED minimum requirements are:
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Pentium III 500Mhz or
better |
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Windows 98SE or better
|
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128MB RAM memory |
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10/100 Network Interface
Card (NIC) |
B. Do not connect your Cable Modem to
your PC via a USB connection. A USB 1.0 connection is slower
than your set cable modem speed, and therefore may slow you
down.
C. Download all operating system patches.
Microsoft updates their operating system frequently. Downloading
these patches is critical to the performance of you PC.
D. Close all unnecessary programs when
you download, or surf the internet. In order to experience
the maximum speeds please close all programs that run in the
background such as Instant Messaging software (AIM, ICQ etc),
email clients (Outlook Express etc.), or any other program
that is connected to the internet as you surf the internet.
These program communicate over the same cable modem thus slowing
your downloads.
E. Install a Virus Protection software
on your PC., and update it often, or as required. RCN recommends
you get McAfee Virus Scan and offers a monthly subscription
for JUST $2.99/MO. To learn more about this offer please go
to McAfee
Virus Scan. In order to scan your PC for Free click
here.
F. Install a firewall. Firewalls are
designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from your computer.
RCN recommends you get McAfee Firewall and offers a monthly
subscription for JUST $3.49/MO. To learn more about this offer
please go to McAfee
firewall.
G. Remove and clear your PC from Spyware.
Spyware is a general term for a program that surreptitiously
monitors your actions on line. It is programming that is put
on your computer to secretly gather information about the
you and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties.
Because these programs connect to the internet, they may slow
your internet experience down. In order to remove their programs
RCN recommends that you get McAfee
Virus Scan and offers a monthly subscription for just
$2.99/MO.
H. If you are using a wireless internet
connectivity, your speed may be slower than your actual cable
modem speed.
By following the above steps, you should
greatly increase your cable modem speed.
To order RCN high speed internet, please
call 1.877.726.7777.
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