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They're
here!
by
Ken Knight
The
first shipment of 360's has started hitting the doorsteps of people
around the country on July 13th, 2001. So don't be surprised if
your's shows up shortly.
Now,
I certainly wish that I could have posted my observations on the 360
much earlier, but due to the Non-Disclosure agreement, I was unable
to. Amazingly enough, I don't really have anything negative to say
about the 360's, so I was a little shocked I wasn't able to post the
positive information.
To
start with, the 360 "feels" much faster than the 180. This
is due in part by lower ping times. Mine hoover around the 600-650ms
mark. Although I have seen ping times below 600. I am very impressed
with the way FTP and Telnet protocols handle through the 360. They
look very similar to the way a descent dial-up connection handles.
Now
for the big question on quite a few peoples minds. Does the 360
support a hardware router? Yes AND No. Yes, if you want
to lose all the acceleration of the protocols and I'm not just
talking about a little bit of loss here either.... it's major. No,
if you want fast browsing, FTP, etc. My personal opinion is that
just to have a router in place of a PC is not worth the loss. Whether
you agree or disagree is fine with me, this is just my opinion.
About
the only problem I encountered with the upgrade was the detection
and uninstall of the 180 software, however, it is my understanding
that they have this corrected on the CD that has been mass
distributed. If by chance, you encounter problems with this, ask in
the forums here and you'll get the answers you need to get the 180
software off. I'm also working on an 180 uninstall program...just in case.
As
far as "raw" speed differences, I've found that comparing
what I get to what someone else gets is almost irrelevant. This is
because there are so MANY factors involved. I will say that on the
180 I saw around an average of 320 or so down and about 26-36 up. On
the 360 I see around 600+ down and around 80-90K up on compressed
exe's. UNDERSTAND: Like I've said before, experiences may vary
greatly and everyone is not on the 360 network yet, so this may drop
a bit.
Ok...
here's the part that I am MOST impressed with. Do you know how the
180 feels when it gets down below around 150-200K in the speed tests?
It feels like you could take the thing apart, extract the data by
hand and put it back together before you'd get it automatically. Well
folks, the 360, even if it tested out around 50K on the speed tests
while maintenance was being done... it still felt FAST! I was
completely knocked out by the differences between the two units
regarding this fact.
To
the people who actually created the 360... my hat is off to you.
Rating:
 
(compared
against Model 180)
Note:
I truly do understand those who do not want to give up there
hardware routers, however, I honestly feel that if I must use a
machine to get the throughput and responsiveness then I will do so
until they release something better.
For
more detailed specs of the 360, click here
(Gilat's site).
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