We’re going high-speed. At least we hope we will be able to. It all depends on whether or not we can receive the wireless signal.
We live in an area where we cannot receive DSL because of old technology on the lines that blocks the signal which the local phone company has no immediate plans to upgrade. And the local cable company has no immediate plans to string their coax in the vicinity of our house. It’s the price we’ve paid for buying a house in this particular area. After three years of dial-up internet access, though, we jumped at the opportunity to go with a point to point wireless internet service provider.
Everything hinges on a site survey to see if the wireless signal will reach our house. If it does, then the installer will install the receiver (probably on the roof) and run the Cat 5 cable to our computer, or to a router for home networking.
Home network ready to go
I went to the time and expense of running coax and cat 5 to several locations on the second floor, and all the wires meet at a point in the basement. The idea was that at some time in the future, I would set up a structured media distribution center. There was no hurry, since our daughter is likey NOT going to have her own television in her room until she’s in high school, and will use our PC for any internet access so that we may monitor her activities on-line. Besides, sharing a dial-up connection would be frustratingly slow and tedious.
I figured that it would be another five to ten years before we had access to some sort of high speed internet service. Then along came Xplornet, which offers satellite and point to point wireless internet. We are confident that we will be able to receive the point to point service and it could be installed within the next week or so.
The best of both worlds
I want our home network to be hardwired for speed, but I also want it to be wireless for convenience, since we have a laptop in addition to our PC. Most wireless routers allow you to do both.
Gone fishing
I had planned to set up the rest of the home networking capabilities in our house as I renovated. It’s much easier to run wires through open walls than to fish them through finished walls. But to get the wires to the bedroom and to our computer room, fishing is what I will have to do.
No ambition….no ambition at all….
Our budget took a kick in the teeth this week, with the purchase of some networking supplies and a bit of Christmas shopping thrown in for good measure. Now the plans for the heating update are pushed even further into the future, meaning that I have even more time to finish the painting upstairs. Instead of having pressure lifted off of me, what I need is a kick in the butt to get things done.
For the last week, my life has consisted of little more than going to work and then coming home and sleeping. Last weekend, after our daughter’s hockey, we spent some quality family time dining in at McDonald’s, going antiquing and stopping at the supermarket to buy our groceries. This weekend, after our daughter’s hockey, I came home and slept for about fifteen hours. I must have been tired or something.
Maybe it’s the approaching winter that does it. Maybe it’s just the fact that no matter how much time and money I spend on the house, we never seem to get ahead. Whatever the reason(s), I am overcome with a crippling laziness. I wish I had the money to pay someone to finish everything for me. I wish I had the ambition to do everything myself. Right now, I lack both.
I hope you can get the wireless signal! We are in the same kind of no-service area but have a local provider who has set up a Morotola Canopy wireless system. It works great!
Comment by Bill — Sunday, 5 November 06 @ 4:39 pm