09.26.06
Posted in Rant, Rural at 10:22 am by Randy
My blushing bride, who shall now be named “The Broadband Hunter”, has located another wireless broadband company who has installed broadband (just last week) to our neighbor down the hill from us. They are scheduled this coming Monday (October 2) to install a new wireless broadband connection at our house.
Normally, I would be whooping and shouting at this news, but based on my former experience, I’m going to sit and just watch quietly until it actually happens.
Wish me luck.
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09.23.06
Posted in Rant, Rural at 4:23 pm by Randy
So, apparently, starting this coming Thursday, I’ll be enjoying mucho DSL again (oh, happy day!) Of course having been stung by false promises, I take this all with the caveat of, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But I do so totally hope that I’ll come home Thursday, fire up my computer, patch my WoW to the latest rev, and log in for the first time in over two months.
That paragraph quoted up there is what they call in the business “a naive fucking dream”. The Broadband Gods gazed upon me and sayeth, “Thou shalt tarry a while more in Purgatory (aka Dialup), thou hath not proven thyself worthy of bitrates in excess of 28.8kbps.”
In short, DSL crapped out. They confirmed (as I originally expected) that we are too fucking far away from the CO to get DSL. Period.
So, that is a bit like being sent back to square one (again) in order to find the next candidate solution to the broadband problem. Each avenue we exhaust brings us closer to satellite internet (which spells doom for my gaming habit and VoIP phone).
This sucks, it just sucks, pure and simple.
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09.16.06
Posted in Rant, Rural at 10:16 pm by Randy
We have been in discussion with this one local (i.e. two-man operation) wireless broadband company to get hooked up. Well, after many broken promises and countless delays, the guy has basically sent the message of “don’t call me anymore, I’ll call you if and when the needed hardware shows up (but don’t hold your breath).”
This was the week before last, and I have been living in Dialup Hell for so long, I usually wait to read my email and keep up with the forums while I’m at work (BAD EMPLOYEE).
Anyhow, this lead to a full-court press to find an alternative source of broadband that a) wasn’t satellite, so I can use VoIP and do gaming; and b) doesn’t cost $500/month to have a T1 dragged up to the ranch.
Now, imagine it’s Thursday, September 14. You’re my wife and you’ve just found out that your neighbor down the canyon is selling their 35+ acre parcel, site fully prepped for someone to walk in and start building, for a cool 2.5 million clams. As you read the MLS listing online (at groaning dialup speed), you spy the words “DSL ready”.
“DSL ready”? It’s gotta be a typo, those guys are less than a mile from US and we are a looooooong way from the CO (like 10 miles). You call up AT&T (formerly SBC) and lo! they have checked the phone line and of course we can sign up for the 3 megabit DSL service!
So, some backstory: as part of the preparations to sell that multi-million dollar property, we believe our neighbors paid (dearly) to have a portable CO/DSLAM put in at the end of the county road (a mere 0.96 mile away from our house).
So, apparently, starting this coming Thursday, I’ll be enjoying mucho DSL again (oh, happy day!) Of course having been stung by false promises, I take this all with the caveat of, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But I do so totally hope that I’ll come home Thursday, fire up my computer, patch my WoW to the latest rev, and log in for the first time in over two months.
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