Byte by Bite

WildBlue and VPNs

by Marv Dealy

VPNs are quite common among telecommuters. They are a secure way of connecting a computer with one or more computers located at a great distance in a network. Hewlett Packard, for example, provides VPNs for folks who work part or full-time from their residences many miles from the Cupertino offices or to vendors such as ourselves who need access.

This method is how Colleen Castro “hooks up” to the HP computers when she is working on managing the variety of projects for our customers within HP. It does have its drawbacks—when Colleen is VPNed into an HP server, the computer she is using can’t also see our local network, so printing to a network computer or transferring files to another of our networked computers doesn’t work. Jason Niedens assures me that by adding a second NIC card Colleen will have access to both the VPNed connection and the local network. We’ll see how that works out.

Bob has had a VPN set up so he could connect to the office network for some time, and because it connected over a barb-wire provided dialup account it would take hours and hours to make a file transfer. I pointed out that he could grab the file anytime he went by the office with a thumb drive, but that apparently wasn’t the point.

Bob reports that the VPN doesn’t work with the WildBlue satellite, and comments from network dominatrix MAT&T Ashe lead me to believe it’ll never work well with any satellite. The latency and the high amount of handshaking that has to go on to keep a VPN connection open and running combine to make it next to impossible to use a satellite ISP solution if you need VPN access.

Admittedly this technology failure won’t have any effect on the vast majority of people out there, but if you’re considering installing satellite service and you need VPN, recognize that you’ll still need a land line to get that to work, at least until we can figure out some other solution that Windows doesn’t readily provide.

A follow up to last month’s warning about WildBlue installers. First, WildBlue doesn’t have any “feet on the street.” They don’t employ any installers, at least not that travel anywhere near us. They routinely use a company called DSI Systems to send out installers, at least in our area. Some of the folks dispatched flaked, and the stories just get worse.

The deal to hire DSI was announced by WildBlue on their website last January—check it out in detail at http://www.wildblue.com/company/doPressReleaseDetailsAction.do?pressReleaseID=2.

Or just go to Google and search for wild blue + dsi and you’ll get the link numbero uno.

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I’ve received a couple of emails from Morris Gaede, reader number unknown, concerning his mis-adventures in getting his WildBlue satellite installed. Here’re some excerpts.

“On Monday, I recieved a call requesting to reschedule the installation for Friday. Dawned on someone that the crew would be off on July 4th; will see what happens on Friday. It sounds like this crew from Visalia is doing quite a few install somewhere in the area so may actually know what they are doing.”

“An update. The AT&T Wild Blue adventure has turned into a disaster. They did not show on the 7th (Friday) or call or anything. Called AT&T who something in my account did not make sense. Said they would contact the installation department and someone would call. They did not. Called again the next day and a helpful AT&T rep named Mike listened to my sad tale and investigated. Called me back and said that the installer who had my account was fired 2 days prior to my scheduled install and someone would call on Monday to reschedule. No one called on Monday. I attempted to contact AT&T. Could not get through. All reps busy with Wild Blue complaints I imagine.”

“Called again on Tuesday and talked to a candid and helpful tech support woman. She said that she was getting an unacceptable number of complaints and spending way too much time trying to communicate with installation dept. Gave me the direct number and account number so that I can deal direct with them, which turns out to be a company called DSI, who said that someone named Peter Schumate had my installation work order. Told DSI that I wanted Black Sheep based on the fact that they were the only reliable provider. She had no idea who Peter Schumate is or where from.”

“I have not been contacted by anyone so will have to call to start the process again. I see from the Wild Blue web site that Black Sheep is listed as being at your address now. I am going to contact you regarding the above and see if it is possible to get my job assigned to Black Sheep if Peter Schumate is not associated with them unless you know who Peter Schumate is and that he is competent. About ready to pull the plug on the order.”

I’d like to note here that we’ve allowed Blacksheep Satellite to list our address as theirs when you search for an installation company at the WildBlue website in our local ZIPs. We don’t get any compensation for this, we’re just trying to steer you folks to someone who, in my experience, knows what they’re doing and pretty much keep the appointments they set. And no, I don’t know Peter Schumate, although if someone out there has had good installation experiences with him, I’d be glad to pass them along. Back to Morris.

“I continued to have zero luck with installation via DSI, the AT&T Install Dept. contractor. The AT&T tech support people said that they were swamped with complaints and gave me the direct number and name of installer assigned (Peter Schumate), account number, etc. Still no response and could not get through. I contacted AT&T again and demanded that my account be assigned to Blacksheep or cancel. Advised them that was the only reliable (and acceptable) local provider. Suggested they advise upper management or suffer the consequences of the inefficiency and incompetence of their agents. They said they would see what they could do.”

“I contacted Blacksheep to get information and spoke to Trish. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had just been approved for AT&T service and that they had just received 3 work orders. She checked and mine was one of them and installation is scheduled next week. Assuming that the installation is satisfactory and everything works, it appears that the mileage surcharge for them to come from Georgetown is going to be the remaining issue. I may try and get AT&T to pick up the tab or provide some type of compensation. Doubt it will fly but worth a try.”

Morris, I’d just pay the travel charge. Try to get a neighbor or two to get installations on the same trip, and you can divvy it up. In any event, you’re saving $199 as the installation continues to be free.

Morris continues that he wonders if advising AT&T that he was keeping this column apprised of his experiences has helped in getting their AT&Tention.

It never hurts, sez I. A column I wrote for the Union Democrat ended up in the hallowed offices in San Francisco of AT&T, leading to some skirt rustling and a contact by an actual AT&T person with news. Of course, it was all off the record, so a lot of good that was.

For more information about WildBlue, call BlackSheep Satellite directly at 877-203-1884. They are in Georgetown, CA. They can tell you more than we can, we’re not a dealer and we don’t do installations. If your computer needs help getting up to speed with the satellite, that’s something we help with. Or, if you want a wireless network to enjoy your faster Internet hookup, that’s the kind of thing we can help with. And no, we still don’t build “custom” computers. Company’s like HP, Acer, Toshiba, Sony and other well known international companies take care of that.

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That’s it for this month from The Computer Guy — e-mail me any rants at marv.dealy@throck.com For your review, these columns are posted on our web site at www.throck.com/articles

Marv Dealy founded Throckmorten Enterprises in San Francisco in 1988 and moved the company to Big Oak Flat in 1996. The company has branches in Boise, ID and Sutter Creek, CA. Throckmorten provides support to companies such as Hewlett Packard and The Griffin Company in producing, conducting and tech supporting on-line, on-demand or live events or “webinars” in addition to marketing, graphic design, newsletter production, web design, computer lessons and repair and upgrades (Mac or PC), and network mending. Big Oak Flat office open Monday thru Friday, 8 to 5-ish. Phone 209 962-7308