Baby steps into the 21st Century

Our internet experience at home just got a bit nicer. Just so readers back in the US can measure how much nicer, consider where we’re coming from. Dial-up (groan); 28.4 Kbps connection speed (kill me). The worst part is that there’s never enough bandwidth and the connection spins its wheels for 80% of the time. I spend most of the time online looking at a command prompt so I can ping the server to see when we’re actually connected. Of course, this was only when the access number being dialed got patched through by TELMA, the state telecom.

Well, in the time since we’ve been gone TELMA has introduced a wireless phone base station. Most folks are using them on the street as a pay-phone, but they have another use that is more relevant to us—the internet. Our neighbors got a unit and couldn’t stop talking about how fast their connection was using the wireless base station. Well, seeing is believing. So, I went out and bought a unit yesterday, and friends, I’m here to tell you that I’m surfing the net at the blistering speed of 231.8 Kbps. Hot Damn! Bring on those fat attachments...oh, wait a second; I’m still a bit lightheaded from the excitement. I should sit down. I’ll let you know when to send the fat attachments.