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View Full Version : Ambit modems : LAN or USB?


Monserrat
06-07-2005, 11:02
It's good that these cable modems offer the flexibility of ethernet and USB connections. Where one fails or is not present, you can use the other.

Now, when I first signed up to NTL in October 2002, I used USB for about a year. It did mean having to load the driver for it. A year later (and ever since), I switched over to the supplied ethernet cable. The line speed stays the same but I have a good feeling that the latency is less. Also, when I reformat and reinstall Windows, the modem registers itself immediately, of course without drivers. It's like a proper LAN connection.

O.k. Moving the question up to the more advanced people on the forum - In theory and practice, are there advantages of LAN over USB? Is there less latency?

Also, how come that cable modems offer LAN, where ADSL ones only seem to offer USB?

Chris
06-07-2005, 11:24
USB uses up your system resources as the drivers employ the CPU to emulate the networking hardware naturally present on a NIC. So using ethernet to connect is more efficient than using USB.

As for why you often get ADSL products with USB only ... I suspect because it's cheap for the provider, and because you can guarantee a computer will have a USB port but not always ethernet, so it's simpler.