[Coco] Stories of Internet Connections

[Christopher Hawks]

J.P. Samson said the following on 04/03/2010 03:54 PM:
> On Apr. 3, 2010, at 10:36 AM, Steve Bjork wrote:
> 
>> As for Internet connections, Verizon has two services (three is you 
>> count dial-up) out here in Los Angeles... I have spent 9 hours over 
>> two days trying to get my DSL turned back on after they disconnected 
>> it by accident. (Then they charged me $160 for early disconnect fee.)
>>
>> And there is Verizon FIOS, a bright story with 21th century technology 
>> and great customer service!
> 
> It is interesting to read Bob van der Poel's multi-year plight to get 
> something other than dial-up in the backwater he now lives.  Despite all 
> the pleading with the government and various commercial providers, a 
> local non-profit society was the only entity to come through:
> 
> <http://www.mellowood.ca/documents/broadband/index.html>
> 
> So I guess if you live in a rural area and you want fast Internet, you 
> basically gotta do it yourself.

	Most of the time, but, not always. When I lived in Indiana (1995-2004, about 6 
miles from New Carlisle, pop 950), I had dial-up service. Soon after we moved 
back to Illinois (Harvard, pop 9500, The Milk Capitol of the World) we got 
wireless broadband from dls.net. I don't live in a rural community. I live in 
the country! The wireless tower that serves Harvard, Capron, and Us is about 
1/2 mile away. There are three (3) houses between us and the tower. (Harvard is 
about 5 miles the other way.)

	Coming up on 6 years and the worst "problem" is the occasional 15-20 seconds 
to re-connect the first time I use it once every couple of months. Oh, and once 
when they upgraded a server, it 'lost' my wife's password. A quick phone call 
(to a human being in the US) and 5 seconds later it was fixed!


-- 
Christopher R. Hawks
HAWKSoft
---------------------------------------------------------
Ignorance is no excuse for not thinking!