Byte by Bite

Needs Headline

by Marv Dealy

A much longer missive comes from Tamara Mitchell, who writes “My significant other and I really enjoy reading your columns. I've found your suggestion for adding the Desktop to my toolbar incredibly helpful. We are cheering on your efforts to promote high-speed internet connections in Tuolumne County!”

“We live in the deep dark shadows of Phoenix Lake Estates where no DSL is available and no hopes for it in the future. I'd contacted Mother Lode Internet a couple of years ago and they got permission from Phoenix Lake Water Co. to put a tower on the property where the water tanks are located across the valley on Bear Cub Drive – but that seems to have died out after their initial excitement. Seems like at least they could put a repeater over there without neighbors getting upset, but there must be good reasons why they decided not to serve the hundreds of people in this area who are anxiously awaiting high-speed internet!”

“I am a consultant to several clients in the Bay Area, doing online research, website design, development and maintenance, and now I've been asked to develop online training courses which require a high-speed connection. Limping along with my 26.4 Kbps connection is no longer an option. I know you said you had finally resigned yourself to a satellite connection and I would love to hear about your research on companies, options, prices, and conclusions, along with your current experience with the company you decided on. Who was it, what connection did you get, how much does it cost, and are you happy with the service? I need to act fairly quickly to get this up and operational within the next month or so. I appreciate whatever information you can provide.”

While I find sobriquets like “significant other” troubling, Tamara – it could be a parakeet after all – I do appreciate you both reading my column and cheering the effort to find broadband possibilities for the half of Tuolumne County that seems to be ignored by all current providers.

I agree with you that it’s mysterious why, after having received permission to provide service in your area, Mother Lode Internet faded into a Cheshire cat-like grin and failed to follow through on their promises. Perhaps they looked at their cash register and decided they had enough money, but that’s hard to believe. Perhaps they’ll enlighten us all.

I can speak to your question about satellite – if you’re tired of waiting for someone to “do something” get a WildBlue satellite, but be careful which company you have do the installation. To the good stuff first – I used a WildBlue to feed both my office and home office in Big Oak Flat over the winter and spring and it worked like a charm. Only the very last Sierra cement snowfall necessitated cleaning the dish, unlike DirectTV which seems to go out with every passing downpour.

Downloads came through at a pretty reliable 1.5 Mbps with uploads about 256K; the least expensive package at $49/month comes with up to 512 Kbps and 128 Kbps. Note they say “up to” as the satellite is a party line and if everyone calls at the same time, it won’t work as fast.

The latency in the system (the extra time it takes for the signal to get to where it’s going because it has to zing out into space to the satellite then back to earth before completing its journey) didn’t cause any problems, as I’m not a last-second bidder on eBay and I don’t play online shoot-em-up games that require a fast land-line to compete.

WildBlue refuses so far to hand out static IP addresses, but in my case that wasn’t a problem, either; we used a DSL to serve our email and web sites. I know that doesn’t help you when you can’t get DSL.

In short, the service was great – my experience with WildBlue tech support was limited to one phone call, but it was a good one. I screwed up my computer quite thoroughly, then waited to call on a Saturday morning to see how good the weekend crew was. The fellow who answered (was in Colorado, I think – certainly easy to talk with and understand) not only helped me reconfigure my TCP/IP settings, he didn’t even question how they had gotten – ahem – changed.

I thought I’d get a “call back on Monday” when I popped a question about my bill, but don’t you know he answered that as well. I’ll be danged.

Now, about the installation. That’s another matter entirely. I had the good fortune to have a competent installer but in some cases that doesn’t seem to be true. I’ve had reports of one company who sent out a fellow who aimed the dish the wrong way. I just got a report yesterday that another installer insisted on aiming through a tree due to “company policy,” even though there was a clear spot quite available. Reports are numerous of broken appointments, calls not returned and considerable waits for equipment and installations.

The problem seems to be that the company that dispatches installers for our area (if you buy right through the WildBlue web site or phone number, anyway) will hand out the job to the first eager person to waive their hand and say oh, I can do that. Some of the reports lead me to believe that some installers aren’t even completing the basic WildBlue School U.

Jason Niedens, who attended said school and graduated with flying colors (what are those colors, anyway?) assures me that a graduate should not have been making any of the mistakes that’ve been reported to me. You can read user reviews at DSL reports about their WildBlue experience at http://www.dslreports.com/reviews/2554 -- lots of negativity about the installation experience.

So what to do? I’ve use one company for several installs, including one they’ve just finished up that provides service to the front desk at the City Hotel in Columbia, CA as well as to the Hotel’s business office. This company also helped me with that project, as well as one at the San Jose Family Camp that provides access for both the business office there and free access for guests (for now, anyway).

The same company is also helping with an install at Berkeley Family Camp that will once let their business office get about their work; guest access at BFP is still up in the air at this writing. This particular installation company’s people show up pretty much when they say they will, they return phone calls, their installation work is top drawer, and they’ve clearly done this many times before.

Unfotunately they aren’t in our area and will negotiate a driving time charge, but since WildBlue continues to give away the installation itself, charging only for the equipment ($299) it’s not unaffordable even with a travel charge. Get together with a neighbor or two and the travel charge can be divvied up. Call them – Blacksheep Satellite – at 877-203-1884. They are in Georgetown, CA.