:: Cable Modem Reviews

The performance evaluation of cable modems can be undertaken for its speed and reliability. Speed tests are the most common and these are conducted to simulate the most common instances of use by the Internet user.

NetBench 6.0's Disc Mix Test measures throughput and response time of a network using standard networking protocols.

WebBench Static Test measures throughput and response time of an Internet or Wide Area Network using standard Web protocols.

These two simulate the activities of browsing, downloading Java scripts and Java applets and other browser-based activities.

FTP file transfer tests can measure the throughput using standard FTP protocols. This will indicate the speed of downloading applications and documents from the web.

Among tests reported in 1999, 3COM and Toshiba were found to be consistently best in all the tests, showing highest throughput levels and fastest response time. Compared to these Motorola’s Surfboard, RCA and Askey have showed lower results. While RCA and Surfboard have been found almost 20% lower performance compared to the first two, Askey’s performance has been a shade lower than these also.

This review has been shown at www.techtv.com and www.zdnet.com

In terms of market share, Motorola is reported to be holding the # 1 rank, followed by D-Link, Best Data, 3COM, Zoom and RCA.