Well Connected

Our transition from satellite to cellular Internet coverage hasn’t been as smooth as we’d hoped. Our remote location, the very reason for needing satellite Internet as long as it lasted, makes cell coverage iffy (see Telecomplications).

We’ve limped along on a cradle booster designed for vehicle use. It has given us somewhat better coverage than we would have without it, but we wanted more.

Friday, we received the next attempt, a higher powered (and priced!) booster from the same company’s product line. This one claims to be the most powerful unit available, able to reach the farthest for cell towers. As soon as I turned it on, we knew our troubles were virtually over.

The new booster. We'll mount it properly soon (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

The new booster. We’ll mount it properly soon (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

The first connection zipped to five bars and stuck there most of the time. All of a sudden, we had fast connections, the kind we’d always had to go to town to approach.

What a rush! For a while, if both of us wanted to be on line, we had to tag team. I learned to open one browser at a time, instead of multitasking across two or more. Now, we can do all that, and more.

Of course, our mileage varies. We’ve had periodic, brief reduction in signal, and a moment or two of no coverage at all. We’re not, as it were, completely out of the woods. Even so, we now feel as if we’re well connected. As a bonus, we paid considerably less than we might have had to for full coverage. It’ll take us a while to recoup the cost in monthly fees, but it’ll come.

In the meantime, what’s the URL for those cat videos everyone talks about?

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