Hi, I'm just curious whether anyone uses Interactive Brokers' "extranet" or dedicated line services. Has anyone installed it, and is it worthwhile from a performance point of view? Will it fall back automatically to the public network if it fails? I"m looking for ANY feedback, really. I'm paying enough in commissions that I can get it installed. Just not positive it's worthwhile... or whether there are any other fees involved.
Ya know... other than the "wow" factor, I really don't think I need it. I'm not using IB for my data-feed anyways... I have Barchart for that. I'm only using TWS for trading, and I'm not that sensitive to execution timing.
What is it that a T1 connection can give you that a cable modem cannot? Is it used in commercial buildings or residence?
T1 should reduce absolute delay as there are no extra routers etc in the way to ib and also reduce variability in delays ... there is zero risk that the teenagers on the block can all download 40910 at the same time and slow you down.
First, note that I'm not using a cable modem... (just to repeat, I'm actually on a hosted server.) But in theory, it would be a dedicated line... so that your neighbor downloading a porn library doesn't affect your bandwidth. Keep in mind too that "link quality" refers to more than just bandwidth, but also latency/packet loss. A dedicated T1 line would eliminate all of that. The other factor is physical layer security, in case you cared. I don't think I really do.
T-1's are great for reliability and latency, but keep in mind that they offer a fraction of the bandwidth as cable and dsl. Where I live, I could have a T1 for $350/mo., which would give me 1.5Mb (megabits -- not bytes), or I could pay $40 per month for a 7Mb DSL line. Thats almost 5 times the bandwidth for about 1/12th the cost. But like I said, the latency may or may not be as good. But what good is low latency if all your data is bottle-necked anyways?
Get a FIOS connection. My reponse time to IB is a steady 24-28ms even during the day. I get 50mbps download and 20mbps upload. Blows aways a T1line for speed. Fiber optic lines are pretty quick.