BROADBAND!!!

After six months of dial-up Internet service over some pretty shaky country phone lines, we are finally getting a high-speed connection.

We didn't realize when we moved out here that we were moving back in time. We went from high-speed Internet plus unlimited local and long distance phone calls and multiple computers online at the same time, to single use, 28k dial-up and expensive, bad phone service.

I was an early adopter when cable modems came out. I had been on Roadrunner for, let's see... about eight years. When we moved into our new place, we discovered that there was no cable, no DSL, and the only satellite provider was Direcway. They wanted $300 up front, plus $100 a month for pretty mediocre speed, and from everything I've heard, horrible customer service. The one person I knew who had it told me that if you try to use VPN over Direcway, it slows it down almost to dial up speed. (VPN is a way to securely connect to somewhere, like I need to do for my job pretty much all the time.)

Then along comes Wild Blue. They are a satellite Internet provider, but their prices are half of Direcway's, their speeds are faster, their service is great, and they can handle VPN. I was on a waiting list to get signed up with them, because, not surprisingly, they had filled up the capacity of their satellites for my region. Yesterday they called and said there were 48 slots open, and my name came up on the waiting list. Did I want it?

YES! PLEASE!

So Monday morning we will rejoin the world of the (semi-) high speed Internet. I won't have to hesitate before clicking on photos, downloading software updates, visiting high-end web sites... and I can actually be more productive when I'm working from home (which is four days a week).
And Lori will be happy because she won't have to wait until I'm eating lunch or done working to get online. And we can drop our overpriced, staticky second phone line.

I know this is very close to meaningless to y'all, but I'm excited. I'll come up with something more interesting tomorrow...