Internet feeds

[Bob Heisler <bheisler@xxxxxxxxxx>]

For those of us who are currently receiving data via the Net, or for those
who have tried, it normally turns into a love-hate relationship.  Internet
outages are not uncommon and usually occur at the most inopportune times.
This is further compounded if the platform you are using does not have
auto-refresh capability (TS2k) as you will be left with holes in your data
once the connection is restored.  And if that isn't enough, we then have to
deal with the quality of refresh data (or lack thereof) at the end of the
day.

But receiving data via the Net is not without it's advantages either, with
lower costs near the top of that list.  And if you are unable/unwilling to
receive data via satellite or dedicated phone line for whatever reason, or
if your chosen data provider doesn't support your preferred delivery method
or platform, this can leave you with precious few alternatives if you find
the Net unacceptable.

Since I prefer to use the Internet if possible, and also stay with TS2k/PCQ,
I have been searching for a solution to the reliability issues.  And while I
am not a technical person, a very good friend of mine is and has recommended
a product from a company called Vicomsoft at www.vicomsoft.com.  He has
installed a number of these and has been extremely pleased with both the
performance and reliability, but none of these installations have been in a
trading scenario.  The cost is in the $200-300 range.

This solution involves setting up a secondary PC to use as a gateway or
server to manage the Internet connection.  Vicomsoft has a product called
Fallback Server which provides automatic backup for Internet connections,
with support for different connection types including DSL, cable, dialup,
ISDN, wireless etc.  With this feature enabled, a second, designated
connection is automatically and seamlessly opened should the primary
connection fail.

I am not associated with Vicomsoft in any way, but this appears like a very
attractive solution to at least try before scratching the Net and going to
satellite/dedicated line.

I am hoping to get a thread going here where some of the more technically
savvy members could provide their thoughts, ideas, experiences, etc. with
this idea.


Thanks in advance,

Bob Heisler
www.rjhtrading.com