Internet Access

More corners of the country would have high-speed Internet access and existing connections would become much faster under a sweeping proposal to overhaul U.S. broadband policy that is being unveiled today. The plan from the Federal Communications Commission is meant to guide the government's strategy on broadband for the next decade and beyond. It reflects the Obama administration's concern that the nation that invented the Internet is in danger of falling behind in the development of online applications to other countries that have faster broadband at lower prices.

Servers that host internet service for more than 30 state agencies are vulnerable to a cyberattack, according to a legislative audit released this week. The Maryland State Archives, which oversees the five servers, did not update the operating systems in more than five years, auditors found. Without the protective software patches and updates, Internet service for nearly the entire state government could be at risk, Legislative Auditor Thomas J. Barnickel III said. Auditors said there was no evidence of hacking, merely a weakness in the system that could hypothetically knock most state agencies offline or direct state Internet traffic to malicious sites.

Bell Atlantic began providing dial-up Internet access to Baltimore and Washington area residents yesterday, with rates that analysts say are low enough to compete with the majors and a brand name strong enough to drive minor providers out of business.The service, Bell Atlantic.net, provides unlimited Internet access for $19.95 per month, a rate that is competitive with most providers, including AT&T Corp., said Gary Arlen of Arlen Communications Inc. in Bethesda. The package also includes a Netscape Communications World Wide Web browser, electronic mail, chat rooms and the search engines that other providers supply.

It's been more than 25 years since Douglas H. Ginsburg asked that his nomination to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice be withdrawn. The prospective high court justice nominated by Ronald Reagan, it turned out, smoked marijuana and ended up admitting to it. Such were the times that there was a vast political divide on the subject of recreational marijuana. The Reagan-Ginsburg side was squarely against it; the opposition joked that everyone knew Ginsberg had smoked marijuana, but their Ginsberg, beat poet Alan Ginsberg, was a standard-bearer of the American counter culture.

Tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Walk into a coffee shop, airport or hotel lobby, and invariably someone is tapping away on a laptop. It's all about connectivity 24 / 7 / 365. And, if it's not a laptop people are glued to, it's a wireless BlackBerry. Or a cell phone. Connectivity has become an obsession for some, a necessity for others. No wonder hotels are wired to provide their guests high-speed Internet access (HSIA for short) from the comfort of their rooms -- normally for a price. Or public spaces with Wi-Fi, short for wireless fidelity, a wireless means of connecting to the Internet.

IN THE RACE to connect homes to the Internet, the cable industry is pulling ahead of telephone carriers in technology and customers. But a regulatory battle appears to be on the horizon as the Federal Communications Commission examines Internet access and services and the fees charged to customers.On the one side are telephone companies, or "common carriers," which must allow customers to subscribe directly to any Internet or online service through their Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL). Typically a customer pays the phone company a flat rate for the phone line (including local phone service)

B altimore might not be willing to follow the lead of Topeka, Kan., and rename itself Google for a month to catch the attention of the search engine giant, but there are plenty of reasons why Charm City would be the ideal place for the company's ultra-high-speed Internet pilot project. Baltimore has an active, engaged tech community pushing hard for the project, but it is at a stage in its development that the attraction of super-speed Internet access could really make a difference.

With online activity surging, the inevitable has begun. Demand is growing, and the costs of connecting to the Internet and staying in touch are increasing. First, America Online, the No. 1 Internet service provider, raised prices. Last week, EarthLink, the second-largest in the field, raised prices. Put simply, we're hooked on the Internet, and ISPs are in position to go for profitability. But from the consumer's point of view, the good news is that there are alternatives and they increase daily.

When Donna Pool used to upload video clips of Sunday services to her church's Web site, it would take her hours on her otherwise reliable dial-up service. But since Pool, 46, and her family bought into their Arnold community association's new wireless broadband network last fall, getting clips of special music performances from Heritage Baptist Church in Annapolis and even selling her old Macintosh computer on eBay takes mere seconds out of her day. "It's been working great," said Pool, who moved from Texas to Ulmstead Gardens five years ago with her husband and two daughters.

WASHINGTON -- A monthly phone bill of $50 includes as much as $10 in taxes. And some in Congress warn that consumers soon could be hit with similar assessments for high-speed Internet access. For nearly a decade, the lines carrying the Internet into homes and businesses have been a virtual tax-free zone. But that could change Nov. 1, when a federal ban on Internet access taxes expires. Almost everybody agrees the politically popular moratorium should be extended to encourage continued investment in the high-speed lines crucial to delivering phone calls and video.

Senator Barbara Mikulski has yet to publicize or state her position on U.S. military involvement in Libya. Considering her "No" vote on use of military force in Iraq in 2002 and her reliably consistent Democratic party line voting, one can only assume she is dodging the issue. But remaining mute is not why Maryland voters pay her the big taxpayer bucks, benefits and pension. It is an insult to our armed forces that Senator Mikulski has time to publish a press release on her website glorifying taxpayer largess of $10,331 to bring broadband Internet access to an elementary school.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is now over a year old. While our economy has yet to fully emerge from recession, the media's focus has naturally shifted over the past year to other important matters, such as the health care debate and the horrendous Gulf oil spill. For Marylanders, though, the time to revisit attention on ARRA — better known as the federal stimulus bill — is now. ARRA provided the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)

Doug Spicher's seventh-grade science students focused intensely on the assignment at hand — an Internet-based computer program that allowed them to manipulate the color of a rabbit and its surrounding environment to teach natural selection and species survival. The room at Wilde Lake Middle was relatively quiet. There was no clamoring over shared computers with Internet access. Each student worked on his or her own laptop. "This is much easier, and they have total control," Spicher said while watching his students work diligently on the assignment.

O n the information superhighway, Baltimore is being passed by other major U.S. cities, including Boston, Washington and New York. Access to faster broadband Internet service is increasingly viewed as an economic imperative, and not just a privilege for those who can afford it. But many rural and some urban communities, such as Baltimore, are worried that they're being left behind as commerce, innovation and prosperity are increasingly intertwined...

More corners of the country would have high-speed Internet access and existing connections would become much faster under a sweeping proposal to overhaul U.S. broadband policy that is being unveiled today. The plan from the Federal Communications Commission is meant to guide the government's strategy on broadband for the next decade and beyond. It reflects the Obama administration's concern that the nation that invented the Internet is in danger of falling behind in the development of online applications to other countries that have faster broadband at lower prices.

Baltimore might not be willing to follow the lead of Topeka, Kan., and rename itself Google for a month to catch the attention of the search engine giant, but there are plenty of reasons why Charm City would be the ideal place for the company's ultra-high-speed Internet pilot project. Baltimore has an active, engaged tech community pushing hard for the project, but it is at a stage in its development that the attraction of super-speed Internet access could really make a difference.

Baltimore has drafted a skeleton proposal to bring wireless Internet to neighborhoods across the city and will ask communication companies and other experts this week to weigh in with their own ideas, the first step in creating a citywide network similar to the one proposed for Philadelphia, officials said yesterday. Mayor Martin O'Malley's administration expects to release a 16-page request for information to at least 20 companies to seek a broad range of proposals for bringing wireless Internet to Baltimore, said the city's technology advocate, Mario Armstrong.

PHILADELPHIA - Last-minute taxes were e-filed, digital baby pictures were viewed, and homework topics were Googled by customers of Comcast Corp.'s high-speed cable Internet access service Thursday night - and the company breathed a sigh of relief yesterday. The "intermittent" service disruptions that had pestered the company and its 7 million customers on several of the previous seven nights didn't materialize Thursday, Comcast reported. The root cause was identified as a "memory leak" in computers that direct Web surfers and e-mail to the right destinations.

When Baltimore County schools reopen their classrooms to students in August, the system is expected to be the only one in the region with wireless high-speed Internet access in each of its buildings. The development would be the realization of a goal for district-wide connectivity set by Joe A. Hairston when he became county schools superintendent nearly a decade ago. "This is an important and exciting step in our ongoing commitment to provide schools with access to the type of technology that is available in our businesses and homes," Hairston said in a recent e-mail.