“Houston, WE HAVE INTERNET!”

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Those who read this blog know that I am something of a “bi-coastal” person; that is to say, I stay at my wife’s house in Elk Grove (otherwise known as Baja Mack Road or Ghetto Centrale) and also at my house at the 4,000-foot elevation in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Fornicalia.

I’ve had my house since 1993 and it’s a two-story open-loft cabin surrounded by trees and a landscaped, fenced terrain.  I own it now, outright.  It is a stone’s throw from the original Central Pacific Railroad line built in the 1860s — now owned by the Union Pacific.  Because of this, I found a reinvigorated interest in history, video and photography (I was, at one time, a paid stringer for The Sacramento Bee).  This interest also spawned my train blog (which I highly recommend), Milepost154.

That said, my only connection to the internet at the cabin was via — no, I’m not kidding — a “dial-up” connection.  For those who wish to relive their horrible dial-up past, click here.  Because that was the story of my internet life for many years.

Of course, I tried alternatives.  Hughesnet and SkyBlue were an incredibly expensive abomination which penalized you at the first sense of pressured bandwidth.  ColfaxNet was simply incompetent.  DigitalPath couldn’t make things work.  Luckily, AT&T came through the area with the offer of their U-verse.

So, roughly an hour ago, AT&T left my cabin, leaving behind a vertical black plastic monolith with little winking green lights, hooked directly up to my Toshiba DX-735  “all-in-one.”  I’ve disabled the wi-fi until I can figure it out.  However, I’m “on the net” to the tune of up to 12 mbps.

At this point I’m listening to Hugh Hewitt over streaming radio, watching YouTube train videos, creating this post and clicking between seven open tabs.

A few minutes ago, I set fire to the tin cans and twine I used to access the internet.  Because now — holey moley — I may not have the fastest internet connection known to Man, but it’s infinitely faster than eastern red-backed squirrels, carrier pigeons or this.

I’m a lucky guy.

BZ

 

 

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11 thoughts on ““Houston, WE HAVE INTERNET!””

    • Yeah, it only took me 27 dead carrier pigeons, 46 dead eastern red-backed squirrels, 79 tin cans and 768 yards of heavy twine.

      ;^)

      BZ

  2. We did a bit of juggling and price checking, comparing what we have to what we want and tomorrow, sometime between 8A and 10A the Verizon people are installing Verizon FiOS… Fiber Optics, TV, ‘net and phone… And about $20 a month less than we’re paying now for all of it, and the TV won’t go out every time we get a bit of cloud cover…

    I have DSL now and it’s fast, but not like FiOS and U-Verse… It makes a hell of a difference too… As you said, you’re now able to multi-task, look at the new horizons that just opened up!

    I can’t verify this, but Rob claims that porn is really intense on U-Verse… Just sayin’.. 😕

    • I chatted with Steve, the AT&T tech, and it’s not fiber optic. It’s “U-verse,” which becomes a Big Deal in the local router station but zips around on the AT&T copper wiring from “there” to “here.”

      TV is not yet available in this area. Internet is the first incursion.

      As of now, AT&T is the only game in town. But, on the other hand, I am WAY grateful for the connection.

      BZ

  3. Welcome to the SECOND DECADE of the 21st century BZ. Actually we have U-VERSE and like it for the most part. I think the FIOS system is probably a little better, but where we live, it is not an option. Regardless, dial-up is like Chinese water torture. Death or insanity is a sure result, just slowly.

  4. Your house sounds like heaven on earth!

    Don’t feel to bad, my friends laugh at me because I don’t own or know how to use a Smart phone, i-phone, etc.

    I have a little generic phone with a pull key board. It is only capable of receiving phone calls and texts, that’s it! And I am happy with that.

    If I want to be on the net, I can do that home and quite frankly. I don’t want to become phone obsessed. A few weeks ago at the dentist’s office I was the only person in the room, reading an actual book! Everyone else on their phones.

    So, it’s okay to be old-school.

    • I’ve got to agree, the cabin is exquisite.

      That said, I think I finally have a handle on this internet thingie.

      I can make my iPhone 3Gs work.

      I’m about to purchase a Samsung Galaxy SIII, because it got an incredible rating in Consumer Reports.

      And still, yeah, I’m Old School.

      I have over 2,000 VINYL albums from my radio days.

      BZ

  5. 1. Congrats!
    2. Related: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405805,00.asp
    3. I’ve got FIOS and all my local wires are below ground… Great value.
    Seriously, eight (8) years, not one interruption. Yikes! Did I just jinx it?
    4. The wife has a data plan and a Droid. Now that’s effing killing my (our) wallet. Contract ends in 5 months. She’ll go into withdrawal, I’ll be diving into a bottle of Ketel One and a jar of black olives.
    5. Wi-Fi: If you unplug your cable and turn on your Wi-Fi; click the little icon that looks like two computer screens on your task bar. Click connect or disconnect. The next screen will show you any network that your Wi-Fi sees. (It will probably only see yours) (it should read security-enabled network) Click that and click connect, usually that’s all you need to do as it will recognize your computer because the handshake was already made through the wire. In the event that it does ask for the WEP key, that’s the 10 digit code under the bar-code sticker on your router (and your paper work). Enter that and your done.
    Every once in a while the “handshake” gets forgotten and it will seem that you have lost service. I keep 4′ of coaxial cable on my router at all times for that reason. I reconnect through the coaxial and I’m good until (for whatever reason) my router and computer become estranged.

    You’ll be blogging from the can in no time. 😮

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