Networking

What are internet data caps?

A data cap is a limit that internet providers place on the amount of data that each client can use in a given month. A data cap accounts for the data you send and receive.Essentially, this means that your provider is monitoring your internet usage, determining how much data you are using each month. Different activities require varying amounts of data. For example, downloading a movie or watching a show on Netflix uses significantly more data than sending an email.In years past, your cell phone provider likely charged you based on the number of texts that you sent and received or the amount of time you spend talking on your phone each month. Nowadays, most phone plans have either unlimited data or allocated amounts large enough that you rarely consider whether or not you’ll surpass your monthly limit. Internet data works the same way, but many activities that are done online use more data than sending a text. As such, it’s important to understand how much data your internet plan allows you to use.The plan you choose determines your data cap. Varying amounts of streaming, downloading, and browsing is available to users depending on their pay each month. The amount of data you need depends on how much time you spend online and what you do. Simple tasks such as Google searches and sending emails take up a relatively small amount of data, while streaming movies and tv shows require much more data.See also: Best internet service provider 2021: Top expert picks

What do you need to know about data caps?

Data caps apply to mobile phone service plans in addition to home internet plans. Mobile internet use is likely where you will go over your allocated data limit more easily. Especially now with smartphones, scrolling through social media, checking your emails, using a navigation app for directions, and even checking the weather all drain your data.If you aren’t careful about how much data you consume, you can very easily surpass your given limit, resulting in a higher monthly bill. 

What happens if you go over your data cap?

Going over your data cap, intentionally or unintentionally, generally results in increased charges on your internet bill. Once you surpass your allocated amount for the month, your internet provider will charge you based on the amount that you go over. Most providers charge between $10 and $15 for each additional 50GB used. These rates are generally significantly higher than the rates built into monthly packages. As such, it’s important to understand your household’s data needs and internet habits before you choose an internet data package. See also: Best cheap internet provider 2021: Affordable ISPs

How big are most internet data caps?

All Internet providers structure their plans a little differently. Internet caps often range from 10GB to 150GB. Almost all providers offer unlimited plans, but for the most part, they aren’t necessary.Data caps put a limit on the amount of internet access users can have. For the most part, many normal activities such as shopping online and checking your email won’t cause you to exceed your limit, but it is important to understand your month-to-month data consumption. If you stream Netflix frequently, you may want to consider a larger cap. 

What size data cap do you need?

When determining how much data you need, it’s best to start by considering how much time you spend online on a given day. If you turn on your laptop to check your email once a day, you can get away with a small data cap, which will save you a lot of money. But if you live with your spouse and three children and you all have iPads, laptops, gaming systems, and other internet compatible devices, you’ll need a much bigger plan. If your family spends a lot of time on Netflix, checking social media, and playing video games, you may want an unlimited plan or a plan with a high data cap. If you have kids, your household is likely to use a lot more data during summer vacation. But in the winter, you may be able to get away with a much smaller plan. Be sure to research the options provided by your current internet service provider and its competitors to get an idea of your options and how much you can expect to spend.While the concept of data caps may seem complicated, in reality, you just need to be mindful of how much time you spend online and choose a plan that aligns with your usage.See also: How much internet speed do you really need?

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(Image: DreamHost)
I’ve been running websites on DreamHost for over 15 years, using a variety of their plans. They haven’t stood still like the internet, now offering a competitive range of products and services for individuals, small businesses, and enterprises.But this isn’t just a review of DreamHost. It’s a meta-review of the spurious precision of host ranking. Because when you check out different eval sites, the numbers are all over the place. So I’ll review DreamHost, covering feeds and speeds, and at the end, I’ll give my take on who should give DreamHost serious consideration.Hosting companies don’t make it easy to compare plans. There are many variables in their offerings. How many websites? Storage? Email addresses? SSL certificates? One-click installs? Malware scanning and removal?Then there is how much the annual price jumps after the initial teaser rate ends, which can require some math. DreamHost’s Shared Unlimited teaser rate starts at $2.95 per month billed annually but then jumps to $10 per month — and malware removal is another $3 per month.On the other hand, the Shared Unlimited plan is exactly that. Unlimited websites, traffic, bandwidth, storage, and email accounts. Plus automated backups, free WHOIS masking, and a number of one-click software installers, including WordPress, and support for installing or mapping to other popular services such as WooCommerce, Shopify, or Zen Cart for e-commerce, phpBB forums, or the Moodle learning platform. And there are no startup fees.Other features of Shared Unlimited include:Unlimited MySQL DatabasesUnix ShellAccess to Raw Log FilesCrontab AccessReseller & Sub AccountsRails, Python, Perl SupportUnlimited SFTP UsersAnnually billed hosting plans compared. 
(Image: DreamHost)
Don’t gets

But DreamHost doesn’t try to be all things to all people. They have strengths and what might be weaknesses for you. Here are a couple of things that might be deal killers. First, they’re a Linux shop and don’t offer Windows servers. If you require Windows for some specific software, look elsewhere. But a plus for Mac users is that the support staff is usually conversant with the Unix underpinnings of macOS as well as Linux. Also, they don’t offer telephone support. That’s not a negative for me because getting a problem solved takes just as long on the phone as it does in a chat. I prefer DreamHost’s 18.5 hours a day of free online chat support. But you may want that extra level of soothing handholding that a voice can offer and are willing to pay for it.Buying criteriaSome people like to pore over spec sheets and test results, looking for the optimal solution. That’s not me.I prefer “satisficing” — good enough is good enough — most parameters and focusing on the two or three that matter most to me. For example, in a mobile computer, weight is critical, but I don’t care much about thinness or sound quality. If it fits in a messenger bag and I can hear a video clip, I’m good.With my perspective in mind, here are the key buying criteria for a hosting service.First, don’t buy hosting on price. Companies mostly buy the same servers and storage, rent the same colocation space, and tap into the same networks. They don’t have big cost differentials. AWS, for instance, uses its massive scale to juice margins and fund R&D rather than passing big savings on to small customers. What you are actually buying from a hosting company is a utility service. Issues such as uptime, response times, ease of management, and support are the most important factors. But, as we’ll see, it’s not easy to get reliable numbers for any of those parameters. UptimeUptime is usually measured every month. A 30 day month has 43 200 minutes, so 99.9% uptime translates to a little more than 43 minutes of downtime a month. Each 0.1% of uptime is 43 minutes up or down. Most downtime will be scheduled for system maintenance and planned for off-hours, such as 0200 Sunday morning. Then there is episodic or semi-planned downtime, usually for critical security updates to system software. A botnet exploits a new bug, a patch to fix it is issued, and your hosting company needs to install it before everything is pooched. Then there are the accidental, unplanned outages that you read about that have affected every major service provider, including Apple, AWS, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. A maintenance update goes awry, or a tech misconfigures a router, and things go south, usually for hours. The truth is that uptime has a pronounced stochastic element. Chance, or luck, if you will.Measuring uptime can vary wildly depending on the time period — hour, week, month, year. If you pick a host based on a monthly uptime ranking, be aware that another one is likely to be best next month. For example, hrank.com lists DreamHost’s uptime performance over the last several years.  They’ve found that DreamHost’s annual uptime ranged from 99.877% in 2020 to 99.948% in 2018.But over at WebsiteSetup, they say that DreamHost’s 2020 uptime was much worse, 99.62%. So which is it? Hrank’s 99.948% or WebsiteSetup’s 99.62% — which is almost 2.4 hours less? Who knows? Moreover, I’m inclined to say, who cares? There’s a larger question here. That difference is nothing. But if smart folks who are sincerely trying to measure uptime are so far apart, how much should we rely on published stats? Which takes me back to satisficing. I’m willing to bet that any hosting company that has been in business for 10 or more years — DreamHost is 25 this year — probably has decent uptime. Some hosts achieve 100% uptime for limited periods. But when even multi-billion dollar firms staffed with PhDs have outages lasting hours, well, what can you conclude other than downtime is variable. If a host is consistently poor, avoid them. But don’t compare the latest numbers thinking they’re carved in stone. As financial firms say, “past performance is no guarantee of future performance.”LatencyOften referred to as response time, this is another number that looms large in hosting reviews. I’m a big fan of low latency in storage and critical of cloud-based storage due to internet latency. But choosing a hosting company based on published latency? I don’t think so.Why? The same reasoning as in uptime numbers: they’re all over the map. Hrank sees their 2020 latency as averaging 436 milliseconds, which is good. WebsiteSetup sees, for the same year, 1,161 milliseconds, an almost 3x difference. So, again, which is it? Who knows? Ease of managementMany hosting companies use cPanel, a product from cPanel LLC that is something of a de facto industry standard. Its biggest advantage for hosting companies is that it is inexpensive: 17.5¢ per account in bulk.  But DreamHost uses its own panel. Looking at both of them, there’s not a lot of difference beyond the layout. This is not a surprise, given that they both perform similar tasks. Here’s a partial cPanel screenshot:cPanel screenshot.
(Image: cPanel, LLC)
Here’s a DreamHost panel screenshot:DreamHost control panel homepage.
(Image: DreamHost)
The big difference is that DreamHost aggregates all the functions in the upper left corner. Each topic is a drop-down menu. Choose Manage Websites under Websites, and you get a list of your websites with their main features and another Manage button. That takes you the details of that website with, where appropriate, more management options. The cPanel, offering more choices on the main screen, seems to be flatter, but the demo mode doesn’t let you see how far you might have to drill down. The DreamHost panel seems to require one or two more clicks to drill down into the specifics of a domain or an email account. Unless you are a cPanel wizard, the differences between the two user interfaces aren’t likely to sway you in either direction. SupportAccounts come with 18.5 hours a day — 3:00AM – 9:30PM PT — chat support, and 24/7 email support. I’ve found their support to be generally good. Sometimes they are a bit quick to shuffle you off to a knowledge base article that covers your problem — RTFM! In quieter periods, I’ve found the techs happy to go above and beyond by quickly fixing issues that a user could handle themselves. Wait times, in my experience, generally range from 3-10 minutes, depending on the time of day.  Being a Linux shop, they are knowledgeable in Linux/Unix and associated free and open-source software. And they are really good on WordPress and the usual plug-ins.Who is DreamHost for?How can you tell if DreamHost is for you? Here are some key factors to consider.You are a WordPress user. WordPress.org has recommended DreamHost for hosting since at least 2005. If WordPress is your jam, that’s about all you need to know. If you are a professional web developer designing and maintaining multiple sites, you will find a lot to like on DreamHost. If you resell hosting, DreamHost could be a good fit. If site traffic warrants it, upgrading to a VPS or dedicated server takes minutes. Adding DreamHost management services can lighten your load and give you professional site reports that remind clients just how valuable you are.Who isn’t DreamHost for?If the sight of HTML code gives you the creeps, you probably want a simpler web builder service such as Wix or Network Solutions to build your website. DreamHost offers a website builder based on WordPress, but it isn’t as simple. I find the website builders require a lot more pointing and clicking than I like, but if you need something quick and easy, they may work for you.If you are thoroughly immersed in the Windows world, DreamHost may not be a good fit. And if you don’t care about WordPress, then you’ll be ignoring one of DreamHost’s core competencies.SummaryThe hosting market is fairly mature, which means most vendors have similar cost structures due to running on commodity hardware. The statistics on uptime and latency aren’t particularly reliable, so I would use the online report cards to eliminate the worst companies rather than rely on them to choose “the best”. Choosing a hosting company is worth investing time in because moving to a busy site is non-trivial. Keep in mind that a lot of the effort in starting a site is something you only do once, which makes it worthwhile to consider hiring experienced help. But once the site is up, you should be able to handle most of the management and updates yourself, unless it’s a big site. With no HTML experience, I started a blogging site 15 years ago on DreamHost. It worked out well, and I’m a satisfied customer to this day.Comments welcome. 

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Google has announced a subsea cable, called Apricot, that will connect Singapore, Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia. The Apricot cable is expected to be ready for service in 2024 and will complement the recently announced Echo cable that will connect the US, Singapore, Guam and Indonesia.  

Combined, the two new cables give Google “unique routes through southern Asia, ensuring a significantly higher degree of resilience for Google Cloud and digital services,” says Bikash Koley, VP and head of Google Global Networking, and head of technology and strategy for Google Cloud for Telecommunications. SEE: Google’s new cloud computing tool helps you pick the greenest data centersThe cables will provide businesses in Asia with lower latency, more bandwidth, and increased resilience in their connectivity between Southeast Asia, North Asia and the United States, Koley notes.Echo is expected to be ready for service 2023.Google has also been building out its subsea infrastructure between the US and Europe, earlier this year launching the Dunant subsea cable that connects Virginia Beach in the US with Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez on the French Atlantic coast. The cable took two years to build and has the capacity to deliver 250 terabits per second across the Atlantic.

Google’s other subsea cables include Curie, between Chile and Los Angeles; Equiano, between Portugal and South Africa; and Grace Hopper, a cable connecting New York to London, UK and Bilbao, Spain. The company has investments in 18 subsea cables, alongside 27 cloud regions and 82 zones around the world.SEE: The best Samsung phones: Which model should you buy?Koley points to a recent study of Google’s APAC network by Analysys Mason, which looked at the $2 billion Google has spent on network infrastructure in the region since 2010. The study found that Google’s investments led to 1.1 million additional jobs as of 2019 and an extra $430 billion in aggregate GDP for the region between 2010 to 2019. In July, Google also announced the new Firmina cable, an open subsea cable that will run from the East Coast of the United States to Las Toninas, Argentina and other markets in South America.

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My first corporate web server, set up before the days of “the cloud” and AWS, cost my company nearly $10,000 and months of time. Not only did we have to order and pay for the entire machine, we had to wait for its delivery, configure it, run wires, and find a place on our rack for it. Then we had to pipe a dedicated T-1 link into our offices, a process that was unbearably frustrating and time consuming, not to mention costly.  And the beast in the closet spewed heat like a dragon, and it ate parts for snacks. 

Yesterday, I spun up a mid-level web server in the cloud. It cost me $34, and was charged to my credit card. In return, I got a Linux login, virtual RAM, virtual storage, and all the bandwidth I can eat. The entire process, from sign-up to operational “hello, world” site took less than five minutes. The contrast is astounding. Earlier me, who had to come up with the cash for full machine purchases and dedicated broadband installation, would have loved to have had access to the cloud-based services we have today. In many ways, the cloud is incredibly empowering. Breathless stories (and even HBO TV shows) highlight the nimbleness of modern-day tech entrepreneurs, who simply need a Kanban board, a credit card, coding skills, and a barrel of snark to create the next Pied Piper or Hooli. But what very few “gee wow” cloud stories discuss is the lock-in that comes from adopting cloud solutions. It might take five minutes and $34 to spin up a new server for a website, but it could take months and thousands of dollars to move that site to a new service, if that becomes necessary. A lock-in example Building a website is a complex process, involving many technologies and configurations, running on top of a server environment provided by a hosting provider. The switching cost is the time, effort, and dollar cost of switching to a new provider. The inability to easily switch is called lock-in.

Also: How to create a website: The 2021 step-by-step guide As I originally discussed in my article on how to create a website, if you run an active website for any number of years, it is almost guaranteed that you’ll need to switch hosting providers. These are just a few of the reasons you might need to switch: Your provider may become unreliable, may increase prices, or may start to offer reduced quality support. Your site might simply outgrow the provider’s capacity.The hosting provider’s server software might not keep up with the security requirements of a payment processor.You may work with one provider for three, four, five years, or more. But if you’re running a site for the long haul, it’s rare to stick with one hosting provider unless you simply have no way out. So, planning to be able to switch is useful.

Many web builders are proprietary, so if you want to switch to another service, you’ll have to rebuild your site either mostly or entirely from scratch. At the very least, there will be a ton of cutting and pasting between services. For smaller sites, that’s not much of an issue. Rebuilding five or 10 webpages is no big deal. But if your site is 50, 100, or even thousands of pages, that’s a lot of copying and pasting (or, if you’re very lucky, exporting and importing). Think about this: If you do one blog post every weekday, you’ll have at least 261 pages by the end of a year. Content expands very quickly. The above example sums up the concept of switching cost. Moving that 261 pages, especially if you have to either cut and paste everything or pay a service to automate it, costs both money and time. The fact is, you’re likely to decide to say, “F-it” and stick with the existing host. That’s how switching costs become lock-in.  More lock-in examples Use of cloud-based storage services often leads to lock-in, especially if you have a lot of data in the cloud. Moving a few gigabytes from one server to another is no big thing, but if you have tens of terabytes of backed up video files, moving that is going to take months of effort. Also: What happens to your G Suite unlimited storage when Google moves you to Workspace? Some services, like Amazon’s AWS long-term Glacier service, even monetize their lock-in. While the company does charge a monthly storage fee based on how much you’re storing, they don’t charge anything for uploading data to the service. You can upload a gigabyte or 100 terabytes and still pay the same $0.00 transfer fee.

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But data transfer above 1GB/mo out of Glacier to the rest of the internet is charged, ranging from $90 per terabyte transferred down to $50 per terabyte, depending on how much you’re moving. Granted, it’s not a tremendous fee for the amount of data, but it’s still shows how Amazon wants to reduce the friction of uploading data, and increase the friction of moving it back out. Also: Dropbox’s business plans now cost more and offer less than they did last year Another example is cloud accounting service QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks seems to regularly increase its pricing, but moving ten years of data out of QBO to some other service can be prohibitive or impossible. For example, if you want to move a decade of QBO to FreshBooks, it’s pretty much a non-starter. On the other hand, Xero offers a QBO migration service that can help you move to their competing service (with some limits), but what kind of lock-in situation are you going to wind up in there? Overcoming lock-in This brings up a corollary to the cloud lock-in theory: where there is lock-in, there is likely to be a fee-based service that will help you to overcome it. I migrated my company’s surprisingly large email store twice, first when I moved from a third-party Exchange hosting provider to Office 365, and again when I moved from Office 365 to Gmail. In both cases, I used a service called YippieMove. I sent them a few bucks and they made it all happen. Unfortunately, they shut down in 2019. I also moved my help desk library from one provider to another using a migration service. This, too, involved paying a fee, waiting a week, and letting them do their job.

Another way of overcoming lock-in is to use open source products. I talk about this at length in my article about how to create a website guide. Many web hosts (like SquareSpace and Wix) lock you in because all your pages are constructed using their proprietary CMS. But if you use an open source CMS like WordPress, you can move the files and database to any other WordPress-compatible host. The migration will still be time-consuming and painful, but possible. Words of advice When signing up for a cloud service, you’re usually just trying to get a problem solved. But keep in mind that solving one problem opens up the potential for future problems — particularly if your cloud vendor goes under, changes policies, changes prices, or just pisses you off. Also: A terabyte too tight? Small businesses, beware the cloud storage ceiling It’s always good to evaluate how risky the choice of vendor is, and whether the risk you’re taking is an acceptable risk. Are you okay with losing the data entrusted to the cloud vendor? Are you okay with the cost and effort in migrating off? Do you have a backup plan in place? Finally, develop strategies that will allow you to implement a migration plan relatively quickly. At least yearly, evaluate the validity of those strategies (for example, my email migration service of choice is no longer operating, so I need to find a new option). The bottom line is this: be aware and be prepared. Cloud solutions have very little barrier to entry, but their barrier to exit can be considerable. What cloud services do you use? Have you ever experienced lock-in or switching costs? Share with us in the comments below. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV. More

Image: Vocus
Vocus announced on Monday it has signed construction contracts worth AU$100 million that will see a 1,000-kilometre link span the North-West Cable System and Australia Singapore Cable to create the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable (DJSC). Once completed by mid-2023, DJSC will be a AU$500 million network linking Perth, Darwin, Port Hedland, Christmas Island, Jakarta, and Singapore. At Port Hedland, the cable will connect to the Project Horizon cable, running from Perth via Newman, Meekatharra, and Geraldton. Vocus also announced on Monday it has completed its project to put 200Gbps per wavelength technology into its Adelaide-Darwin-Brisbane fibre network. The company said its routes now have 20Tbps of capacity, for 480Tbps in total, and it was planning to deploy 400Gbps when it became commercially available. “We’ve delivered Terabit Territory — a 25-times increase in capacity into Darwin. We’ve delivered a submarine cable from Darwin to the Tiwi Islands. We’re progressing Project Horizon — a new 2,000km fibre connection from Perth to Port Hedland and onto Darwin. And today we’ve announced the Darwin-Jakarta-Singapore Cable, the first international submarine connection into Darwin,” Vocus Group managing director and CEO Kevin Russell said. “No other telecoms operator comes close to this level of investment in high-capacity fibre infrastructure.” In June, the purchase of Vocus for AU$3.5 billion was completed by the consortium of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets and superannuation fund Aware Super. Related Coverage More

Cisco Systems has long been considered the industry’s premier networking company, with products spanning the entire scope of enterprise requirements and service-provider networks. Historically, Cisco was known as the top-selling network hardware maker, and while it still produces best-in-class hardware, the last decade of innovation has been led by software.One of the more interesting aspects of the renewed focus on software has been the rise and evolution of Cisco’s developer program, DevNet. For those not familiar with DevNet, the program was created in 2014 and is designed to enable developers, network engineers, and other IT pros to create applications and integrations with Cisco products using application programming interfaces (APIs). The program has enlisted more than a half-million members and spans most Cisco products, including all major ones in the areas of networking, security, collaboration, cloud, and data center.To take DevNet to the next level, Cisco brought in Grace Francisco to be its new vice-president for developer relations strategy. Networking is somewhat new to Francisco, but the world of software and developers certainly is not. Francisco joins Cisco after leading developer relations at a series of unicorn companies: Atlassian, Roblox, and MongoDB. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with her to discuss her goals for DevNet, developer relations, and what Cisco customers can expect. Q: Please describe your role at Cisco and what changes have been made to the position.Cisco Systems VP of Developer Relations Grace Francisco.A: I lead the massive DevNet community but also am driving awareness of the Cisco opportunity with developers who are operating and building apps for a cloud-first world, so that’s a broader charter than what was currently in place. From an audience perspective, this includes activating and nurturing the existing community of over half a million network engineers, DevOps practitioners, and ops developers–but also cloud-first developers. I have a strong background with cloud as I was at Microsoft for eight years, including with early versions of Azure. I was also on the open-source side for part of that time, where I built bridges with open-source communities to enable and unlock the potential of their open-source products on Microsoft’s platformsAt Microsoft, I served as the sole representative with popular open-source web communities, where Microsoft wasn’t the most welcome member. But I do like big challenges, and it took a good two-and-a-half years in developer relations to build bridges and drive interoperability between these open-source projects and Microsoft’s platforms. I see a similar opportunity here for Cisco and the DevNet program to expand its traditional base of IT professionals to include software and cloud developers. Q: How are you building on the relationship aspect of the program?

A: I spent a lot of time doing this at Microsoft, and it’s something I feel is critically important. The relations part of developer relations has a capital “R” for me, and that helped Microsoft become a welcome member of the open-source community.  At Cisco, we need to focus on building stronger relationships with the developers who are building for cloud-first, which has grown in influence over the past five years. It’s commonly said that software is eating the world, and that’s never been truer than today. It’s easy to create APIs but the challenge is, once they’re published, how do you get people to use them? How do you grow adoption? And how do you help people learn?  Those are all super important pieces, and my charter really is about continuing to nurture our existing community and base but also to start to nurture relationships and build pathways to this very influential developer, who now has a lot of power, particularly cloud developers. Q: How is DevNet changing to be more relevant to cloud developers? A: We are building a set of cloud-native offerings.  We have some now and are expanding on them. To help with this, Stephen Augustus, formerly of VMware, has joined the team and is part of the broader ET&I (Emerging Technologies and Incubation) sister organization. He will be working on several key initiatives, such as open source, Kubernetes and CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation) to make sure we are creating that connective tissue to tie security and networking to cloud-native, and we’ll be partnering closely with him on these efforts.Q: There are currently half a million DevNet members. What does the “next level” look like to you? A: This isn’t about adding more members but rather activating and engaging them. What we need to do is have more developer empathy and up-level what we have on developer.cisco.com. This means rethinking the developer journey we need to pave for them. We need to start with an understanding of who’s coming and what they need to do, whether it’s learning about it, AppDynamics, or any of our other products. This means helping them learn more about the topics and technology they care about, kicking the tires, using one of the learning labs, or using one of our sandboxes. Right now, many of our experiences orient around this assumption that you’re already committed to one of those products and you want to dive deep, and that’s great. We have a lot of wonderful hands-on offerings there, but we also need to start from the very beginning of the journey. This could mean helping guide them to certification, becoming a champion, or even being in the partner program. To me, the next level is really having an engaged and active community. We have wonderful events, like DevNet Create coming up in October. Last year, we had 33,000 attendees registered, and our big focus this year is making sure we’re focused on creating the most thoughtful and engaging learning opportunity for all developers. Q: Where do you see Cisco’s biggest opportunity with cloud? A: What I see as unique about Cisco is that we can support a true hybrid cloud–meaning that it spans across on-premises, in a data center or hybrid cloud and having a virtual service mesh to enable developers to deploy things and that can span a private cloud, GCP, Azure or AWS. We can make the developers’ lives easier in that the hybrid cloud environment is managed seamlessly. We have done work with TerraForm and HashiCorp to make sure Intersight and HashiCorp can interoperate for seamless deployments and leading to seamless infrastructure as code. Having the ability to securely deploy an application without having to worry about where the infrastructure is should always be seamless for a developer. I think this is a problem we can uniquely solve as security and networking are in our DNA at Cisco.——————————————————————-As this focus on software and applications continues to drive the innovation priorities of Cisco, it’s Cisco’s Developer Relations organization that can drive the imagination–the creation of possibilities–from networking engineers adopting automation to developers engaging with Cisco in new ways. As a sign of things to come, Francisco’s words are as much an inspiration as they are an invitation to keep an eye on Cisco. Those who want to learn more about DevNet should check out the developer site or register for the virtual event, DevNet Create 2021 More

Despite a booming, fast-paced population, the average Phoenix resident has limited options for internet providers. Cable and DSL are the most common types of internet connection available in the area, though fiber has been introduced and is slowly expanding in the less rural locations.Selecting an internet provider in Phoenix can seem like a task with so few options, but that means making a selection that is right for you is all the more important. We’ve done a thorough review of the internet providers in Phoenix to help you with your selection.The 3 Best Internet Providers in PhoenixThe Best Phoenix Internet Providers: Summed UpCenturyLinkCox CommunicationsPhoenix InternetDefining traitPrice can be locked for life of planMost affordable pricing optionsLocally-owned and operated in PhoenixConnection typeDSL and FiberCableCableDownload speeds (Mbps)DSL: 100 MbpsFiber: 940 Mbps10, 30, 150, 300 940 Mbps25 MbpsPrices starting atDSL: $49/mo.Fiber: $65/mo.$29/mo.$50/mo.Contract lengthN/A1-yearN/AData cap1 TB1 TBUnlimitedAll information accurate as of 02/21/2020.

Best for Coverage Area

CenturyLink’s origins go all the way back to the 1930s when William Clarke and Marie Williams purchased the Oak Ridge Telephone Company. In 1971, it was renamed Century Telephone Enterprises and became what is known today as CenturyLink. The company currently offers DSL internet to over 95% of Phoenix, Arizona.Its Fiber Gigabit service is newer, with a much smaller coverage area, but CenturyLink expands its fiber coverage area regularly. Additionally, CenturyLink offers phone and television packages.CenturyLink’s DSL packages start at $49 per month for speeds up to 100 Mbps and Fiber Gigabit packages starting at $65 per month for speeds up to 940 Mbps.Its user-friendly website includes a tool to help you decide what speeds you truly require for your internet-usage needs. This helps to ensure you do not pay for a package with way more speed than you need or that you do not sign up for a package that doesn’t offer the speeds you need.Unfortunately, CenturyLink does not come out shining in customer reviews. Yelp reviews give them a low one out of five stars, with customers claiming poor speeds and subpar service. Some customers report that the highest speeds are only available within close proximity to CenturyLink and that those a bit farther out struggle to get adequate speeds. It is important to remember that your unique usage will determine your speed needs. This should be assessed before selecting an internet service provider in Phoenix.

Best for Internet Package Options

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Cox Communications is one of two primary internet service providers in Phoenix, Arizona, based on coverage.Its cable internet packages start at $29 per month for up to 10 Mbps download speeds (the Cox Internet Starter 10), and go all the way to the Gigablast package at $99 per month for up to 940 Mbps download speeds.Its Panoramic Wifi, offered as an add-on to any package, is an all-in-one modem and router that acts as the hub for your entire home’s wifi.Also offered for all packages, Cox Complete Care is a hassle-free support service to help resolve any of your internet questions, troubleshooting, etc.Unlimited data gives customers the peace of mind of ever having to worry about their data usage. All Cox Communications’ internet packages are based on a 12-month contract.Much like its main competitor CenturyLink, Cox Communications suffers a bad rap on Yelp. Customers have rated the Cox Communications in Phoenix a one out of five stars. As is the case with competing internet service providers, these reviews include all services provided, including internet, phone, television, and home security. Customers complain of frustrations with customer service and feeling a lack of internet options in their area.

Best for Locally-Owned and Operated

Phoenix Internet is one of the only internet service providers we reviewed that is exclusively located in Phoenix and focuses solely on providing fixed wireless cable internet to Phoenix residents. Fixed wireless allows Phoenix Internet to provide non-satellite coverage to rural areas.While its website did not include much on the company’s history and isn’t as user-friendly and informative as its competitors, we were able to find that it offers high-speed internet packages starting at $50 per month and promises coverage to many areas that are not serviced by competitors.Customers also benefit from unlimited data and speed up to 25 Mbps.Phoenix Internet fares only slightly better than its competitors on Yelp with a two out of five-star review. Though some complaints are related to customer service, most are related to a lack of speed.

How We Found the Best Internet Providers in PhoenixCoverage. We looked for providers who offer the largest coverage areas in Phoenix. While no single provider seems to offer 100% Phoenix coverage, the providers we’ve chosen offer the largest percentage coverage.Value. We researched each provider’s offerings and the value they offer consumers. We assessed things like range of speeds, contract lengths, data caps, and special offers. The best internet providers in Phoenix typically offer reliable speeds, fair prices, generous data caps, no hidden fees, and concise agreements.Customer Satisfaction. We used customer satisfaction ratings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and J.D. Power to use company reputation as a factor in our rating. Because reviews are negatively biased on the whole, and because smaller, locally-owned companies like Phoenix Internet have not been rated by ASCI or J.D. Power, we relied heavily on customer review sites and compared providers against one another for a more accurate comparison.

Why do many customers complain that they are not receiving the promised download speeds?

The distinction of a promised speed versus an “up to” speed is a very important one. None of the internet providers reviewed promise certain speeds. Instead, the companies give an “up to” speed that is dependent upon factors like location.If you assume that because a package offers “up to 1,000 Mbps” that you will definitely get 1,000 Mbps speeds, you may find yourself disappointed if your exact location affects that speed. Speak with internet service provider representatives to discuss your specific speed needs, locations, and what you should expect.

Can I use my own modem and/or router with these internet providers?

Though the internet providers offer their own recommended modem/router combinations, most offer customers the flexibility of using their own. It is important to note that if you use your own equipment, you will likely not receive technical support for the equipment from the internet provider. Additionally, the companies do not provide any warranty on the equipment, if it is your own.

How can I be sure I am getting the right speeds?

The true test of speed is actual usage. Are you able to perform all the tasks you need and desire to perform using your internet? For example, if streaming television is a high-priority need, are you able to do this with your current speed? If so, we consider that a success.If you would like additional information on the speeds you are receiving at any given time, you can ask your internet provider for usage reports or download any number of speed test apps, like Ookla, to test the speeds yourself.You may be surprised that you can achieve your internet usage goals with much smaller Mbps than you imagined, which could eliminate your need for higher speeds or a more expensive package. More

Discover the best 4G mobile broadband service providers with our in-depth reviews of four of the most highly rated and common carriers in the country. We looked at AT&T, Cricket, T-Mobile, and Verizon and ranked them on four main criteria: price, speeds, data caps, and customer service. The results reveal several options regardless of what’s important to you in your 4G mobile plan and mobile internet service.  

Best Data Caps

PROVIDER SCORE: 5/5Verizon performs strongly across the board, securing our No. 1 spot for 4G mobile broadband service. It offers unlimited data with the option for premium data during high traffic periods, which is ideal for customers requiring large data usage.Its lowest-ranking category was pricing compared to the competition, although Verizon does have a range of options for different budgets. Best For:  Heavy data usersNot For:  Tight budgetsPricing4th place – Plans start at $35 per month, but go up to $55 for one line, which is about average compared to its competitors.Download/Upload Speeds2nd place – Verizon download speeds start at five Mbps and go up from there. While you won’t be able to stream 4K, you’ll definitely meet the three Mbps required for regularly streaming.Data Cap1st place – The highest plan comes with unlimited data, plus 75GB of premium data gets you faster speeds during peak traffic hours.Customer Service2nd place – Verizon ties for second place with a four out of five rating from J.D. Power.

Best Variety

PROVIDER SCORE: 2/5With the exception of low 4G plan prices, AT&T ranks at a mediocre level in the other categories. Download speeds start at the cusp of streaming capabilities and while data caps are unlimited, you’ll notice a slowing between 50 and 100 GB (depending on your plan).While providing lower-priced plans can appeal to customers, the potential for slower download speeds and negative customer service rankings may be off-putting for some.Best For: Budget-friendly options Not For: Exceptional servicePricing2nd place – Plans range from $35 to $50, making AT&T a lowered-priced option for consumers in need of low-budget plans.Download/Upload Speeds4th place – 4G uploads go up to a maximum of 7.1 Mbps, although you’ll experience faster speeds if you upgrade to the 4G LTE network.Data Cap4th place – Unlimited data is great, but users in need of constant and high-performing speeds can find the data caps frustrating.  Customer Service4th place – AT&T has one of the lowest customer service scores from J.D. Power, so if you’re unhappy with your plan, you may not receive a lot of help in solving your issues.

Fastest Speeds

PROVIDER SCORE: 4/5T-Mobile ranks first in three categories: price, speed, and customer service. The downside is its data caps, which can slow data speeds down after 50 GB of use. As long as you pay attention to how much data you’re using, you’ll benefit from exceptional speeds for both downloading and uploading.Best For: Fast speeds Not For: Constant data usePricing1st place – At a minimum, you can spend just $30 on a T-Mobile plan with 4G. On the high end for a single line, the cost only jumps to $50.Download/Upload Speeds1st place – Download speeds start at 9 Mbps and go up to 47 Mbps — enough to stream in 4K.Data Cap5th place – T-Mobile users get a max of uninterrupted 50GB of data included in plans, and while it does include hours of streaming video and music, your data prioritization could slow down speeds. Customer Service1st place –  J.D. Power ranks T-Mobile first among full-service carriers for service. If you have an issue with your account, you’ll be confident in the resolution process from T-Mobile.

Best Flexible Plans

PROVIDER SCORE: 3/5Cricket’s third-place ranking is strong, considering it’s the only no-contract carrier on our list. In addition to taking advantage of quality customer service and a high data cap, Cricket customers can sign up for month-to-month plans, which helps customers not interested in long-term plans.Best For: No-contract data plans Not For: Fast speeds Pricing3rd place – Cricket plans start at $30 per month and max out at $60 for unlimited data and a mobile hotspot. This range provides cheaper alternatives for unlimited data than other well-known carriers. Download/Upload Speeds5th place – Download speeds range between just one and four Mbps, so you’ll only be able to stream video at the upper end of that range, likely outside of peak hours.Data Cap2nd place – Cricket offers unlimited data, so even though you may not be able to stream all the time simply based on speed, you at least don’t have to worry about your data running out.Customer Service1st place – Cricket ties for first in our customer service ranking, and is J.D. Power’s top-rated carrier with no contracts. Knowing you have a reputable company providing solid customer service is a plus for new customers.

Guide to Mobile BroadbandBefore you pick a provider and a plan, it’s imperative to learn the differences between each type of mobile broadband service.3G vs. 4GGenerations of mobile data technology have progressed successively recently and the generational window may shrink even faster as technology improves. Simply put, the higher the number connection (3G vs. 4G), the faster and stronger you can expect your mobile data connection to be.As new mobile data networks emerge, older ones become obsolete. Today, 3G networks are rarely used and most new mobiles only provide 4G. Although no longer the fastest iteration, 4G networks are still common nationwide.LTELTE is the acronym for “long-term evolution.” It’s a version of 4G that is much faster than 3G, particularly when downloading media on your phone. While many networks carry LTE, it’s not as fast as pure 4G.5G5G mobile broadband is the latest network available — and consequently, the fastest. However, it hasn’t made its way into every locale yet. Verizon currently offers 5G in 31 cities in the U.S. and T-Mobile has extensive coverage nationwide, but it’s still not comprehensive. Consider fiber or cableFor fast data speeds and streaming capabilities at home from wireless internet providers, consider fiber or cable internet. You can still connect your smartphone to your home wi-fi network to use data from your internet plan rather than your mobile plan. While there may be geographic limitations in some rural areas, most places in the U.S. have internet service providers to compare.

How Did We Choose the Best?

 We looked at each carrier’s 4G mobile broadband offerings in terms of price, speed, data caps, and J.D. Power customer service rankings. Next, we ranked the carriers in each category and averaged the numbers.

Will my 5G phone work on 4G/3G networks?

 Your 5G phone should automatically select the best signal according to your network, including 4G or 3G networks. 5G-capable phones are not strictly limited to the 5G signal. Your phone will automatically select a network according to what signal is available. If signals overlap, your phone will grasp the best signal and automatically change to the next best signal if the device travels beyond the network area.

How does 5G coverage compare to 4G?

 5G is still in its infancy, although the United States has installed numerous 5G towers over the last year. That being so, the coverage is still just a portion of the 4G coverage that currently exists. Metropolitan areas and their neighboring cities will likely be the first areas targeted, as was the case for 4G when it was first implemented.

Will 5G cost more than 4G?

 At this point, 5G will not cost more than a 4G plan. 5G is simply a more powerful, efficient radio transmission. What this means is more information can be broadcasted through 5G signals without interfering with other broadband signals. Ultimately, however, down the road, your network provider may adjust rates according to their infrastructure or signal quality. More