ISP Tech Talk:   Who's the fastest of them all?

Among all the dial-in services available with a local call from the Keweenaw Peninsula, PastyNET gives its members some distinct advantages compared to other Internet Service Providers.  While everyone offers "high-speed" dial-up accounts with email, newsgroups, support, etc., the unique history of this service and its growing resources give PastyNET members the technical edge in several ways.  This has been demonstrated in numerous field test comparisons with the other ISP's.  Here are just a few of the PastyNET advantages:

All ISDN Prime T-1's
You often hear ISP's talk about their "T-1's" - the interconnection to the local phone carrier which has multiple channels to accomodate dozens of dial-in accounts simultaneously.  Two major types of channelized T-1's are available in the Copper Country:  older ADTSE and (more recently) ISDN Prime.  The older ISP companies (1995 and earlier) made their major equipment investments before the widespread use of the faster, more reliable ISDN Primes.  PastyNET was developed in 1999 in reponse to the need for greater accessibility (no busy signals) for our staff and sponsors hosted at Pasty Central, the region's most active e-commerce portal.  This allowed us to commit resources to the faster technology up front, while the other services must either re-fit or live with second-rate, slower connections.  Ask your ISP if they use ISDN prime lines.  PastyNET is 100% ISDN prime.  This not only enables every connection to be up to a full, digital 64K per channel, but enhances analog modem calls as well (56K).

Unique, world-visible IP addresses
"Internet Protocol" (IP) numbers are used to identify and locate connections to the Internet.  In this way, the exchange of "packets" of information are accomplished between sources and destinations.  Many Internet providers use a cheap alternative to assigning world-visible IP addresses to each incoming call.  It's known as "IP masquerading", where dozens of callers appear as the same address, with cycles of overhead required to determing which packet goes with it's respective caller (port).  This causes a measurable decrease in speed, compared to a service like PastyNET, which uses unique "real" IP addresses.  Ask your ISP if they use IP masquerading, or call us to see how you can test for yourself.

Low latency pathway to the Internet's 'backbone'
If your ISP touts itself as being connected by satellite, ask them if they also go to work with a horse and buggy.  While satellite is an effective way of reaching Third World countries where land fiber does not exist, this is 21st century North America.  "Latency" is the measurement of response time in acknowledging packets of IP information.  It is a function of the effective distance between information source and destination.  The extra 42,000 miles to hit a geo-synchronous satellite may be the real reason for the slow service, not your modem.  Call us to find out how you can measure your ISP's latency.

PastyNET is the only full service ISP based in Keweenaw and Houghton County.  PastyNET is also the only ISP whose entire staff of support personnel live in Keweenaw and Houghton County.  Still Waters Assisted Living in Calumet houses our high speed bandwidth access to the backbone of the Internet.  This gives PastyNET the added benefit of having 24 hour on-site staffing and powerful in-house generator backup power.

Have other questions?  You can reach us at hookup@pasty.com or call during business hours Monday through Friday 337-5979.

After hours phone support is available at 337-0569.