Apologies to my readership for the inconsistency of the posts at the moment but EV is going through a bit of a broadband slump (temporary til mid-December when I move). We were running a decently fast ADSL2+ connection that was awesome for any rich web content but unforeseen circumstances lead to me getting kicked out of my place and at very short notice!
My new place has painfully slow "broadband". For you North Americans and Europeans you may not fully understand what slow broadband actually means in Australia/New Zealand. I'm talking slower than 56K downspeeds, streaming a YouTube video without buffering for an hour is out of the question, rendering web 2.0 almost impossible to use. I'm guessing my flatmate is on a 64kbps plan because its cheap but the phone line signal degradation and connection sharing mean that the actual speed is even slower. And to make things worse the ADSL modem is patched to a separate Wireless Router - extra links in the chain are never good. Lost packets anyone?
3G + dongle is almost out of the question seeing as I don't want to sign up to a 24month ridiculously priced plan - the only feasible options in this country.
So I ventured out to the nearest university armed with my girflriend's wireless login details and voila I found a (just) usable speed that could almost stream a standard def YouTube video. Not exactly convenient internet but it would do. Alas the signal dropped every 2nd minute and because of a hokey software authentication method it would take up to 10 minutes to reconnect. And then the unthinkable - my girlfriend graduated just days after I had found this university connection and her access was simultaneously and permanently revoked!
So now I sit in the state library, again with a horribly inconsistent and slow "broadband" connection, about 40 minutes public transport from home, struggling against my blogging platform which only succeeds in uploading photos 1 in 5 tries make that never (do you see a pic above that I was trying to upload?) (i found a new hotspot - public Federation Square) and a WiFi signal that drops constantly.
On the upside I'm sitting at a table with my Wind with two girls, one using an Acer Aspire One and the other an Asus Eee PC 901! A sign not to give up perhaps?
3 comments:
I was just turned onto your site today so I have plenty of catching up to do. It seems you have provided a great source of resources to others. I am sure many of your loyal fans will be here upon your return. Until then I am catching up and am anticipating your return. Good luck with the signals! Netbooks Rock!
Hi Jonathan, glad you are enjoying the site. I've just found another wireless hotspot which seems to be a bit better but its actually outdoors so far from ideal. Anyway, I'm not disappearing I'll still do my best to update the site, just letting people know updates might be a touch patchy for a while!
Thanks for your comments.
If there is a McDonalds anywhere near you, they have wireless hotspots. I've heard they are now free, but may not be.
Anyway, if you don't like the food (fair enough...) you can just buy a 30c ice cream cone, and bin it.
Hope you get online soon...
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