Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Internet Access - Here's What I Did


Here's a picture of what I've got.  It's a Verizon USB modem, which means that when I want to connect to the internet, I have to "dial" in.  It's technically a broadband device, but doesn't have a strong signal here in the woods, so is rather slow.  I'm halfway through a 2-year contract.

I asked what you folks thought about satellite and got mixed opinions (which mirrors what I've seen online when I read reviews).  I called the local cable company to see if there was any chance that cable would come out here (no).

I decided to try and maximize what I have before I make any more commitments to new providers. So, here's what I did (unfortunately after an absurd amount of time-consuming research).  I bought an external antenna, a few cables and connectors and a router.  Ideally, the signal will get stronger (faster), and I'll be able to set up that home network I've been looking forward to in a week or so.  If those don't work well enough, I'll buy an amplifier - but I'll try this stuff first.  We'll see how it goes!

2 comments:

  1. Jordan,

    I have a Verizon modem in my upstate NY city -- and my dsl connection is very slow, getting slower over the four years I've had it.

    I know from the complaints I've made (that I am not getting what I paid for) that Verizon ruled out a signal problem -- the signal is very strong here in the city.

    There is more to this story than signal strength. My hunch is Verizon oversold its service and did not expand whatever it needed to do to take care of more customers. You might be competing with other Verizon customers.

    Quite often, too, my service just cuts out, gone. After they keep me on the phone for an hour walking through technical things, they tell me it is their problem, something with the server.

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  2. Hi Kate - when I use this USB modem in the city, where the signal is strong, it works great. But not out here in the sticks. I was hoping that a stronger signal, via antenna or amplifier would do the trick. My signal comes from cell towers. Is your DSL coming through phone lines or cell towers? If this doesn't work, I'll have to try satellite, but at least I tried all the options first.

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