Technology Hell

Well, I’m scheduled to have fiber optic cable completely installed in my home this coming Wednesday. Until then I’m still hamstrung by both very expensive HughesNet satellite service and total systems failure due to rain or clouds or whatever atmospheric anomalies parade themselves between the dish adjacent my home and a satellite some 22,000 miles (or so) above my head.

Here is a recent speed test.

I had to double check my math on the download speed. It’s 680 K. It’s 680 K most of the time when it works. Once a month my usage meter resets and I gain high speed (supposedly 25 Mbps). but that last for about 2 days as which point I’m throttled back again.

The ‘ping’ and ‘jitter’ figures are terrible. Shit don’t happen anywhere near real-time on my system!

Hughes is charging me a little more that $100 monthly for internet access and VOIP telephone service. My new cost will $90 with unlimited long distance. Importantly the speed is an unlimited 250 Mbps (both ways). The speed of fiber optic means that I can now stream vice pay Dish Network $150+ monthly for their lousy TV Line up (190 channels of Home Shopping Network and Come to Jesus TV). A Youtube Live package is $65 monthly and covers all the stations I need covered.

All and all a no brainer, more than 10 times the speed day in and day out while reducing monthly costs by almost a hundred bucks. There will be a small fee for equipment rental tagged onto the bill for the modem, but I’m willing to spend the 10 bucks or so just to be able to check email without taking a nap between the send/receive cycles.

Patience.

Comments? Whatcha Got?