Wooooo! I’m ready to let out a Howard Dean scream like my favorite jacked Gingah!
Finally. I have high speed internet again.
I have been relying on an aircard that goes into the USB port. My Compass 597 Aircard from Telus works pretty good in town. Out here in the sticks, I was getting only one bar. According to their customer service, that is “plenty for full speed downloads”. It isn’t, unless they were refering to the blistering full speeds of dialup. The signal would drop right at the most inopportune times as well, such as just after typing in a post and pushing the publish button, or right after typing in an email reply and hitting the send button. And after about half an hour, the aircard starts getting pretty warm. Then nothing works anymore.
I was forced to sign a one year contract for this aircard. I’m glad it wasn’t a three year deal.
I also had a Rogers Rocketstick aircard before the Compass, and it was even worse.Fortunately, I was able to return that one for free. You really can’t beat Rogers customer service, I’ll give them that.
Yesterday, a helpful young guy named Robert came by and installed a Galaxy Broadband satellite dish. So far, it seems to be working pretty well. Satellite internet isn’t super fast, but it’s faster than my aircard is in a full service area. In other words, compared to what I’ve been using, it is da bomb, baby.
I actually watched a Youtube video! I know! Amazing. Later, I think I’m gonna dowload a couple of those pesky updates that have been stacking up. With pages loading faster, I might visit a few sites that were downloading too slow for me to bother with.
The only thing I have to watch out for, is on the plan we are on, there is a maximum 300MB per day download policy. That’s right, the dowwnload police could shut me down for a few hours. I’m sure the kids will set that one off eventually.
nice post, i feel your pain, i was at the parents’ house for turkey time yesterday and it is internet darkness and i can’t bring myself to use an aircard.
Man I love these keywords! I’m
trappedrelaxing at my in-laws’ house this weekend 300 miles north of my own house and they’ve been fighting with their DSL modem to get internet access.Oy. To. The. VEY! Um, but they got it and I feel like I’ve been released on a short-term parole to say hi to my peeps. But I can hear the sirens blowing, so it’s time to get back in my cell.
p.s. I got paininthebutt as my anti-spam word. Not sure when I’ll be able to come back (before Monday) to pull the slot handle one more time.
Come on Sweep the Leg, momma needs a new pair of shoes!
.-= cardiogirl @ Jacked Gingah´s last blog ..The book of questions, Volume 69 =-.
Don’t you miss watching YouTube videos that are all slow and delayed? I have to tell you that I would have a serious issue with that download limit because I am a download fiend who needs more than 300 MB!
here in the uk i used a mobile dongle for some time from BT ( british crappy telecom )
all was well for some time, good speeds and good dowloand transfers, UNTIL
got this huge bill, so i rang them to ask wtf is this bill all about as it supposed to be free as it is tied in with my normal business broadband package
OH NOOOOOOOO they say you have a 1gb limit per month!
not according to my contract says i, but oh no they say that all changed some time ago, yet our admin didnt send out the updated contracts
try as i might, they would have none of it and as such have had to seek new suppliers of mobile freeness to be able to keep up with business when away from base
thanks talktalk even though you use the same backbone at least now i can roam freely without fear of enormous bills
Tim,
Glad you got your (high speed) internet back.
I vaguely remember the days of “dial up”, but now can’t imagine living without high speed access. That’s like life without coffee… or beer… it just ain’t life!
Steve, the addicted-to-my-internet-and-make-it-fast trade show displays guru
.-= Steve@trade show displays guru´s last blog ..Are Trade Shows Obsolete? =-.
Ow, a built-in governor on your aircard? Ick. That would be a dealbreaker for me.
.-= Marvin´s last blog ..Inching toward friendship =-.
You’ve got to love those cell companies that lock you into a contract for crappy service. But, hey, it’s much better than “dial-up”…Ewww
I wouldn’t be able to get by with a 300mb limit either, but if it’s a big improvement in speed and reliability I’d take it anyway! What’s the point of having unlimited bandwidth if it’s dial-up speed?
dsl and other high speed internet is like a water connection now which everybody must have…
good you have you internet back
“you’ve got to love those cell companies that lock you into a contract for crappy service. But, hey, it’s much better than “dial-up”…Ewww”
OMG, I totally know what you mean. Furthermore, the other day my cell company went down and I lost all my service, and please don’t hate me for this, but I was so frustrated I started wishing I could go back to dial up! Ughh why can’t these things just be more awesome!?!? Such is life.
Wow man 300MB per day? That’s pretty sad. D:
The first thing to decide is if you are going to use your aircard at a single location, or if you are going to roam. If it is at a single location, you can focus on that location to measure performance. If you can find neighbors in your area with 3.5 G phones, ask them to run a mobile speed test.r
I still experience slow times when I travel to Asia (Philippines) on business
.-= Sal Sidell@Stop Snoring Products´s last blog ..Snoring Cure CPAP =-.
Down at the Lake of the Ozarks cell phones are finally pretty much fully functional. The same cannot be said for aircards. I love to get away, drink some beer, and catch some rays, but I still need to check up on things. Hopefully reception will be better by the spring.
.-= Jennifer @ Natural Hair Restoration´s last blog ..The Causes of Hair Loss in Women =-.
Many times I have experienced this problem, and for a webmaster is very frustrating. The software has advanced greatly, but the Internet connections are still weak.
Those things never seem to work the way they are supposed to. Even on major highways they are poor. Until they make Satelite cards we are all screwed.
I am using usb Smartbro, and its good. I don’t see any problems when it comes n internet connections. Though it is a bit expensive.
Rogers screwed me around for months with their aircard. Worst custoemr service I’ve ever come across
Thanks for this amazing informative article. I do like your website and love to read your writings. Do keep up your good work. And I do agree with you, I have undergone many such incidents like these, and it really suck
Your post just reminded me that I need to check with my satellite TV provider to see if I can get Internet at a reasonable price. I’m not in the U.S. and my “DSL” connection is barely dial-up. I know exactly how difficult it is to watch a video. Usually, I need an hour to watch 15 minutes.
.-= Raymond F´s last blog ..Technorati Blog Claim Code =-.
i always love to visit your blog since you always come with something new idea and i really enjoy all the reads. keep posting.
Yes now also in rural areas, there is internet with very slow speed. Some people are now also using dial up internet connection instead of Broadband.
i really enjoyed while reading your blog since you always come with something new which may not be find in other blog. keep posting
300Mb/day bandwidth cap? That’s just wrong, but I guess it’s better than nothing. The bad thing about satellite Internet service is that it’s weather dependent. Periods of heavy rain, snow, cloud cover or dust storms, will usually interrupt your service, but you can reduce the effects of bad weather to a certain degree by getting a larger dish. A larger dish provides more dish surface area. More dish surface area equals higher signal gains. In addition, for the winter months, you can purchase a specially designed dish cover to help reduce snow and ice buildup.
Just so you are aware of all your options, if you live out in a rural area with a weak mobile phone tower signal, you can try using a 3G or 3.5G modem with an external antenna for your mobile wireless broadband service. This should boost the signal to a usable level (Some providers offer several different external antenna options, some of which are meant to ‘super-boost’ the signal speed).
If you are in an area with an extremely poor or non-existent 3G signal, then satellite is probably the way to go. A 300mb daily download limit is the norm for satellite connections in remote areas. If providers allowed people a larger download limit then the satellite would run out of capacity.
Now that it’s been a few months, how has it been working? Have you had to switch to something else by now? I ask because things that seem good in the beginning sometimes suck later. My Droid was awesome for the first few weeks, now the GPS stopped working. What’s the point of making something that stops working soon enough.
Yeah i know how is when you are used to high speed internet and then fall back. We even dont know how priviledged we are in our country to have those speeds of internet.
When I went to stay with a friend in Weymouth in the UK, it was like stepping back a couple of decades. We were staying out in this place where the internet connection was so bad I gave up after a while with trying to open more than one window. Tabs? Don’t be silly. I appreciate my connection so much more now!
Good for you, you have your internet back! I think your internet is very important.
Nowadays you can set your smartphone up to be a wireless hotspot. Its still not as nice as having your internet actually work, but it beats an aircard for sure.