FINALLY - You get (some sort of) broadband at home.
Congrats!

(Still think you shoulda tapped into the fibre optic running by your house. Should be able to google a solution in 3 minutes that requires only aligator clips, a cutting tool and electrical tape. ;-)

-Posted by Quinn MacDonald on July 18, 2003 11:24 AM

Ouch... Luminary's residential rate is "Please Call"?
That's always a bad sign.

I have comcast cable (formerly attbi, formerly att@home), and the speed is more than reasonable, and mostly reliable. I've had a very few times with problems, but they were mostly resolved quickly (except the ice storm that pulled down my cable line; and the whole att@home fiasco). I can't say that'll apply to adelphia, or even other comcast locations, but generally speaking, cable is pretty reliable.

Wireless is cool. Sometimes expensive, but cool. It's too bad you couldn't get it with those other guys, since their contract basically said "go ahead and cancel when cable finally makes it in"

Personally, I'd get the cable and put up an AP for your powerbook so you can have both. On the other hand, if the wireless doesn't require a big directional antenna or something, it'd be cool to be able to go wherever you want within their service and get connected with your laptop....

-Posted by JC on July 18, 2003 11:57 AM

The wireless connection does indeed require a directional antennae in the form of a roof mounted microwave receiver that's about 1' by 1' by 1" and that connects to a device that has ethernet out that I can connect to whatever I want.

The plan is to take the connection (from the roof), pump it into a Linksys BEFW11S4 (on the second floor) and plug the Xbox and TiVo into that directly. And then on the first floor, get Linksys WMP11 Wireless-B PCI Card for my WinME box. My TiBook already has an Airport car in it, so that's cool.

The real trick will be getting the cat5 cable to go from the receiver to the second floor. That might require a little dry wall demolition.

-Posted by Dan on July 18, 2003 12:07 PM

Re: the PCI card for the WinME box... you'll probably need to get a different antenna for it, one with a short cable... those PCI cards don't work very well unless the access point is behind the computer... big metal boxes make good insulators. :-)

The USB wireless things work pretty well, too, and they come with a short cable. I've found the connection is significantly better with the USB one sitting on top of the pc than the PCI one resting there in back.

-Posted by JC on July 18, 2003 02:15 PM

Oh, and seconding quinn.. congratulations! But isn't that always the way? It's like being single... you won't just meet one great woman, there'll be two, and then you have to choose (or risk certain death)

-Posted by JC on July 18, 2003 02:22 PM

Ah! great tip, many thanks.

-Posted by Dan on July 18, 2003 02:22 PM

Another suggestion... the cat 5 coming from the roof... you could put the access point up there in the attic or wherever and use a Linksys WET11 for the devices you wanted to plug in via ethernet. Those also have a big advantage over the WUSB because they allow you to connect a better antenna and I think they also have a bit more power. At a bit over 100, they are twice the price though. Hyperlinktech is a good place for antennas. The patch antennas seem to be a pretty good deal.. moderately directional, very low profile... 75° 8dbi for 28 bucks; 30°14dbi for 40... they come with a foot long cable and you can get a little mounting thing to aim them with for under 10

-Posted by JC on July 18, 2003 02:43 PM

Well, that's an interesting twist on the story. After hearing about it for the past two years, though, I have to say that at least something's finally happening in the area, even if it seems like a glut of (perhaps dubious) riches at this point.

We had Adelphia at first as well. (And were also lied to by them, strangely enough. They said they had no service in our area, and then come to find out, when they were installing our cable, the guy asked if we wanted high speed internet. Apparently, the guys in the field know a lot more than corporate headquarters.) Eventually, we moved over to wireless. It's a helluva lot faster and more stable, for about $20 more per month.

The problems that we have revolve more often around our internal wireless network than in the wireless broadband. It seems like every time someone turns on a microwave, I get knocked off.

Still, for that "nyah nyah" factor (which I feel comfortable saying because I know you'll just lob a foam dart at me for this), we ended up keeping the Adelphia, and Bill has set up a Linux box that will check to see which connection's up and use that one. Eventually, it'll be able to see who's faster and route through there, and then after that, he has plans to move all of one type of traffic through one service and all of another type of traffic through the other one. God bless living with a techie geek.

Good luck with the broadband!

-Posted by Lee on July 24, 2003 04:13 PM