Was it really a good idea?
Just over a week ago, Mr Knits and I had satellite internet installed at our house. It only took me 5 years to convince him it was a good idea. Oh, the thought of being able to download a 1 meg file in less than 20 minutes was so alluring. We would be able to check our email without taking an hour out of our busy day. Just think of all the knitting patterns I could download! It was sounding so good.
Or so we thought.
A few weeks earlier, there was an installation special offered by the local dealer, and we took advantage of it. I believe the equipment was free, instead of $500, and the installation was around $200. In any case, even though it was less than the thousand dollars we had been quoted before, it still would buy a bunch of yarn!
We had the xplornet.com guy there on May 26th just before 8 am and he installed the huge dish in a spot that is sheltered from snow and rain - just perfect. A bit ugly, but perfect none the less. I left for work at that point, and left Mr Knits in charge of overseeing the rest of the install. A few hours later, he arrived at work saying all was well. When we got home that night, I tried the "hi speed" out, and yes it was faster than dial up, but certainly not fast. Can't say I was thrilled with the speed, but it is what it is - rural hi speed. The price of living in the country with black flies, bears and whip poor wills (that's another story!)
Next morning - Thursday - I got up all excited that I could do some work before going to work, but there was no satellite service. I called xplornet's tech support, but was told the service was down due to a storm in Winnipeg. Okay, I know storms sometimes interfere with satellite reception, so I went to work early to get started. When we got home that night, all was well with the satellite service - for about 20 minutes, and boom, down it went again. It was back to the friendly folks at AOL.com dial up. I dialed up, checked email, sent some files, and logged off in less than half an hour. Thank goodness I hadn't cancelled it yet!
It was the same story on Friday night - satellite service for about 20 minutes and then down it goes. No service at all on Saturday or Sunday. You know, the storm in Winnipeg was causing the outage. So I have had the satellite service installed for 5 days at that point and have used it for about 2 hours total. To say I wasn't favourably impressed would be a understatement.
I called xplornet each time I had no service, and that in itself was trying. When a customer calls xplornet, one gets an automated message, a preamble that takes over 2 minutes 30 seconds before you can even select the option to speak to someone. Crikey, I'm already peeved - don't make me listen to your sales pitches, etc before I can get some help! I think they have this long message to discourage users from calling and complaining. It works - I hung up a few times in disgust.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, no service again. But I did learn on Tuesday how to power cycle the modem and was successful in restoring service that day and Wednesday. Thursday was simply a bust. But I did have no problem with the service last night. It is interesting to note that the xplornet customers with xplornet modems don't have problems with the service - it's just the customers with the Hughesnet modems that are experiencing difficulties.
Apparently, there is a 30 day money back guarantee with xplornet. I'll probably be exercising that option. I did more surfing in less time with a dial up modem and AOL - at a lot less cost. I'm not seeing any value with the xplornet service at all - especially at three times the price per month.
I'll be away starting tomorrow - Saturday June 5th until Tuesday June 15th. Matty's birthday is tomorrow, the Eagles concert is on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm off to Columbus for the TNNA show to get high on yarn fumes. I love me some yarn fumes.
Or so we thought.
A few weeks earlier, there was an installation special offered by the local dealer, and we took advantage of it. I believe the equipment was free, instead of $500, and the installation was around $200. In any case, even though it was less than the thousand dollars we had been quoted before, it still would buy a bunch of yarn!
We had the xplornet.com guy there on May 26th just before 8 am and he installed the huge dish in a spot that is sheltered from snow and rain - just perfect. A bit ugly, but perfect none the less. I left for work at that point, and left Mr Knits in charge of overseeing the rest of the install. A few hours later, he arrived at work saying all was well. When we got home that night, I tried the "hi speed" out, and yes it was faster than dial up, but certainly not fast. Can't say I was thrilled with the speed, but it is what it is - rural hi speed. The price of living in the country with black flies, bears and whip poor wills (that's another story!)
Next morning - Thursday - I got up all excited that I could do some work before going to work, but there was no satellite service. I called xplornet's tech support, but was told the service was down due to a storm in Winnipeg. Okay, I know storms sometimes interfere with satellite reception, so I went to work early to get started. When we got home that night, all was well with the satellite service - for about 20 minutes, and boom, down it went again. It was back to the friendly folks at AOL.com dial up. I dialed up, checked email, sent some files, and logged off in less than half an hour. Thank goodness I hadn't cancelled it yet!
It was the same story on Friday night - satellite service for about 20 minutes and then down it goes. No service at all on Saturday or Sunday. You know, the storm in Winnipeg was causing the outage. So I have had the satellite service installed for 5 days at that point and have used it for about 2 hours total. To say I wasn't favourably impressed would be a understatement.
I called xplornet each time I had no service, and that in itself was trying. When a customer calls xplornet, one gets an automated message, a preamble that takes over 2 minutes 30 seconds before you can even select the option to speak to someone. Crikey, I'm already peeved - don't make me listen to your sales pitches, etc before I can get some help! I think they have this long message to discourage users from calling and complaining. It works - I hung up a few times in disgust.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, no service again. But I did learn on Tuesday how to power cycle the modem and was successful in restoring service that day and Wednesday. Thursday was simply a bust. But I did have no problem with the service last night. It is interesting to note that the xplornet customers with xplornet modems don't have problems with the service - it's just the customers with the Hughesnet modems that are experiencing difficulties.
Apparently, there is a 30 day money back guarantee with xplornet. I'll probably be exercising that option. I did more surfing in less time with a dial up modem and AOL - at a lot less cost. I'm not seeing any value with the xplornet service at all - especially at three times the price per month.
I'll be away starting tomorrow - Saturday June 5th until Tuesday June 15th. Matty's birthday is tomorrow, the Eagles concert is on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm off to Columbus for the TNNA show to get high on yarn fumes. I love me some yarn fumes.
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