The examples coming out of the pre-release/beta users are definitely getting me excited (that hedgehog!! ) but the one last point of concern for me is how well the GF will work with slow internet. I’m aware of the resume feature, but haven’t heard anything about how much bandwidth the GF is using/needs/etc coming out of beta users.
Despite being ~20 miles from Seattle, living in a mountainous, rural settings does me no tech favors. The best I can get is 7mbit down/768k up DSL (!!!) I’m 1200 feet from a cable drop, which they’re happy to charge me $6 per foot to trench, but I’m not going to do that (sadly, because then I could get 500mbit).
Anyway - do any of the beta users have poor/slow/intermittent internet or done any connectivity tests? Any network issues at all? Have actual slow network tests been done at GFHQ?
Last info on forums seems to be from January when the resume feature was again touted as the reason not to worry. That’s great, but if it’s trying to upload/stream multiple 10Mb camera images, then keeps pausing/resuming, and ends up taking all day to cut a 2" circle, I’m hosed.
EDIT: I should point out that I’m not opposed to the cloud-nature of the product. I wouldn’t have bought into the GF if I was And my internet streams Netflix and other download services fine, but upload streaming devices like Nest cameras have to run at their lowest resolution (360p )
Two different things here…
Regarding the resume feature, it mostly doesn’t matter for internet connectivity. I believe we can hold multi-hour prints in the local buffer now, and we’ve never seen one fail to finish a print when the internet goes down - and the internet definitely goes down on us.
Regarding bad internet, we all take Glowforge units home, and use them semi-regularly with hotspots and in other questionable internet circumstances. No problems.
My home internet’s not super fast anyway - my upstream is, as of this moment, 0.6 mbit. Works just fine to print from home.
While I currently have 100 Mb Down, 7 Mb is no slouch. I wouldn’t be worried in the slightest. Heck, haven’t you ever streamed anything using 3G on your phone? That’s about 400 _K_b. And that’s streaming video. Glowforge commands will be absolutely tiny in comparison. And, as I understand it, the entire job gets sent and then it begins forging. Like a laser printer buffers (minimally) one full page before printing. (Very much _un_like an inkjet printer that streams line-by-line.) So even if you had 56 _K_b you should still be fine. And I bet you wouldn’t even notice an increase in TTF (time-to-forge ) at that.
I’m not sure if Up makes a difference at all. I imagine the only thing coming back up the pipe is an ACK.
Uhhh is that what you pay for, or all you are getting? I dare say something is wrong if you’re not getting a minimum of 5Mbps in this age… If you recently switched routers, dlinks are notorious for crappy traffic shaping, turn it off and your upload should jump back to whatever you pay for.
Plus all the camera data I presume, as presumably it is de-warped in the cloud. And when it does the pro alignment features I assume all the head cam data will go to the cloud for analysis.
You’re spoiled. Where I live the maximum for most people is telephone DSL. (1.5Mbs down and 768 Mbs Up) And that’s when it works right. A large number of people across WV are getting glorified dial-up speeds even when paying for DSL. I’m lucky by having a decent local telephone company. Federal Stimulus money allowed them to run fiber to my house just last year. 20 Mbs down and 7 Mbs up, though I could pay for faster.
Unfortunately with DSL, the longer the telephone line is from the DSLM (were the DSL signal pushes to the home), the lower and less reliable DSL internet is.
If someone’s service is 12,000 feet or more from the DSLM, 1.5M/.8M is the max down/up DSL will be.
Yep, we are on about 2 miles of cu line from the fiber tap and get about 8M down and .8M up.
It’s mostly the upload I would be worried about, but looks like Dan has similar figures.
Prior to the fiber tap, it was 4 miles to the CO and download varied between 800 and 256k, depending on which tech last fixed the line; after one bad rainstorm we were stuck with 256k for 2 years till they came through with the fiber tap…it’s great to be bit out of town, but this is one of the drawbacks…
I cheap out and buy the slowest data plan that AT&T offers…I think it’s something like 1.5 Mbps down…haven’t had a single problem with the file downloading and printing, and I have been doing some very heavy data-intense engraves over the last few days. It takes about a minute to download, and that’s usually enough time to go refresh the coffee before starting the print.
These files are nowhere near the size of a streaming video. (And I getreallycrappy streaming on things like Youtube.)
Even though Centurylink out here advertises 40 Mbit service (with 2 Mbit upload), they have lots of little ******* next to the fine print.
DSL was (and still is in many parts of the country) a great alternative to dial-up modem service, but once there are higher speed sources, I am baffled how the teleco’s can charge the similar rates and claim high speed performance.
I live in the city (in an older section that has original buried wiring from late 60’s. Because it is fed from the Central Office (CO), the line distance was measured at over 13,800 feet. I relied on ISDN until the cable company finally got internet. It wasn’t until 3 years later that the telco FINALLY put a remote DSLM in the neighborhood.
They still think that their service is better than the cable company and falsely claim that they offer $40 a month 20Mbit service. More **** refer to having to have premium phone service to get up to 20 down and .8 up ( which makes the service nearly $85 per month). The worst part is that the buried cable is so poor that even with the DSLM visible 3 blocks down the street, 5 Mbits down and .5 up is all it can do.
Still get charged for the 20 Mbit service though.
Thankfully in Northern Colorado, there is a choice of DSL, cable internet and 2 WISPs for my clients to choose from.
Yep we’re all spoiled! I was honestly thinking “slow internet” = 14.4k dial-up modem. LOL! How soon we do tend to forget.
Here, we have 5Mbit/768k DSL and 50Mbit cable, but the cable provider (SuddenLink) is so unreliable that I constantly see friends whining on Facebook about long service outages. I can’t remember the last time I had an outage with DSL, because it’s either been so long ago or was so short-lived it wasnt a problem.
Envious. There is the residual child in me that longs to live deep in the woods.
Born in N.C. the Appalachians, some of the oldest mountains on earth have always been a love of mine.
Centurylink in Denver had a major fiber push campaign, but that seems to have died down.
NoCo has a lot of backbone fiber going on. Microsoft has a new data center in Cheyenne WY, that had inter-connects in Denver. Fort Collins has a lot of direction boring, but the companies doing it are mum as to who it is for.
So one huge advantage here in boston western suburbs (to counteract extreme housing prices) is that we get kick-butt internet. We have Verizon FiOS (actually my house has never had copper other than power from day 1) , which also forces the competition (comcast) to keep it’s speeds up too, which has been great for keeping both honest. So I have up to 500mbit symmetric, although I have no use for that level of insanity, so I only pay for 75mbit symmetric. It’s great from work to be able to live monitor the camera in my 3D printers (octoprint). I’m kind of shocked seattle has such poor internet speeds. If I go up any more in speed I will need a new fiber box on the wall, since my box was installed in 2006, when the top speed was <100mbit so only has that internally…
) but the one last point of concern for me is how well the GF will work with slow internet. I’m aware of the resume feature, but haven’t heard anything about how much bandwidth the GF is using/needs/etc coming out of beta users.
And my internet streams Netflix and other download services fine, but upload streaming devices like Nest cameras have to run at their lowest resolution (360p 
)
) at that.