Posts Tagged ‘internet connection’
Slowly Approaching
We’re talking fiber, baby. A cable of optical fibers to carry data in pulses of light. It will be buried alongside the electric cables that already bring power to our house. Our rural community is slowly but surely being connected to the global information highway bringing speeds that have been the norm for people in cities and suburbs for years.
On my bike ride last week, I found the spot where they had stopped for the day and was thrilled to see the optical cable getting ever closer to our street.
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On Saturday, as Cyndie and I were walking Delilah around the hayfield fence by the road, a utility car stopped and a technician got out to survey the power poles along our street. I was able to chat with the guy and learn the phases that remain before we will finally get connected. It will be longer than we wish but it’s closer than ever.
Until then, it’s cell signals and 15GB of full-speed data per month limits. If we use that up, they throttle our speeds to insufferable levels. A fate that they offer to lift if we agree to give them more money. I’m too cheap to give in to that ploy.
Hassles and limitations that seem more tolerable with the pending improvement becoming more visible on our horizon every day.
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Frail Connection
I had hoped to share a collection of images I captured yesterday in a stroll around the lake property, but our location on the fringes of robust signals are hampering my upload abilities.
The one image that made it through the static speaks to the serenity of scenes we get to enjoy here, but it belies the chaos that played out in an afternoon of community games marking the annual Independence Day (adjusted for the nearest possible weekend) celebration.
I tried a good dose of patience, but doing the same thing over and over with no change in result has only brought me to the start of this morning’s World Cup game between Spain and Russia, so the tales of yesterday’s adventures will have to wait until we get back to the ranch.
I’ve got a beautiful game commanding my attention…
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Speedy Stability
Oh. My. Gosh. The signal booster kit arrived yesterday. Without a moment of hesitation after getting home from work, I opened packages and inventoried the goods.
Got what I wanted!
Everything matched my expectations. Still, I was not overly confident it would work for us. Sellers of this equipment clearly express the ultimate results are dependent on a lot of variable factors. I wanted to take as few steps as possible toward testing things out before putting in the effort to permanently install and wire all the components.
There was no getting around needing to have that outdoor directional antenna mounted on the peak of the roof, though.
With Cyndie inside the house getting readings from my phone and the internet hot spot, I adjusted the outdoor antenna in every direction for her to record levels. Using two-way radios, we methodically ran through the steps 8 different times. It didn’t seem all that critical, because all the readings showed improvement, but I settled on splitting the difference between two of the best decibel readings while aiming it toward a hint of an opening between trees.
After doing a little web site surfing and making a test phone call, the results were exhilarating enough that Cyndie suggested we not disconnect the hastily routed cables and use it as is until I can work on the more permanent installation over the weekend.
We took advantage of one of the window screens Delilah wrecked and duct taped around the cable as it passed through the screen to get the signal in a window from the outdoor antenna to the amplifier.
We are now enjoying an unprecedented 3 strong bars of 4G LTE signal without interruption. The best we had prior to the signal booster was 1 flaky bar of 4G every other day. On days it couldn’t grab 4G, it would settle on 3G, but usually reset every few minutes, or simply drop down to 1x and provide little to no forward progress on getting anything accomplished.
What a difference this makes. Pictures uploaded to my blog library in one try! Shocking! And no waiting!
It’s almost like living in the suburbs again. Except, we don’t have houses nearby, or traffic, or the sound of leaf blowers.
I tell you, the kit is not only improving our connectivity, it is boosting morale!
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Online Waiting
It’s what I do. More and more lately, what precious little free time I have to be online is being spent in wait-mode. Whether it is solar flares, our rural terrain, or just a humming-bird sitting at some critical spot on the cell tower, our signal has been toggling on and off at a painfully frequent rate of late.
It’s exasperating, especially when it comes to loading images. Over and over I try, because it always starts out looking like everything is working fine, until it’s not. Then comes the mysterious pause.
Did it stop for just a moment? Did the connection get dropped and it is automatically resetting? Is it down for the count and nothing more will happen no matter how long I stare at it?
Today’s picture is so great, it is worth the wait for me to get it up, but if waiting won’t help one bit, the best picture in the world won’t do me any good.
Who wouldn’t love to see this shot of Delilah with wet hair after her bath?
Today is a rare Friday for me because I am at the day-job. Since I went back to work earlier this summer, I have been putting in a 4-day week, taking Fridays off as the first day of my 3-day weekend. There is just… Too. Much. To. Do. So much so that, not only am I working Friday, but probably Saturday, too.
What!?
I know. I am just as flustered as you. When am I going to get the mowing done? What about all the other chores!?
My sentiments, exactly.
It was tough enough getting thrown out of Eden and forced back into the long commute to industriesville. Now I’m additionally burdened with unending customer requests that exceed my ability to respond successfully.
I’m getting no sympathy from Pequenita. Instead, she just demands more attention from me, starting as soon as I walk in the door and continuing all the way through my feeble attempts to do some writing on the laptop before sleeping. Yesterday, while I wasn’t paying attention to her, she strolled out the open front door through which I was conversing with Cyndie out in the yard.
Suddenly our indoor cat appears calmly in my view on the front steps beneath me.
I don’t blame her for wanting to escape. I know exactly how she feels. I’ve got my eye out for the off-hand chance somebody leaves a door open at the day-job.
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Relative Something 