TOPIC: Good high speed internet value

Like many, years ago I started out with dial-up internet access. Then, when cable TV started offering high speed internet, I subscribed to it. But I ran into a series of apparently insoluble problems with Comcast's predecessor, so I switched over to the phone company's DSL service, for which I was paying something like $36 per month for a relatively low level of access speed.

Then, in the early winter of 2009-10, I decided to look into the U.S Internet Wireless (USIW) service with which the City had entered into an agreement for a citywide franchise that would provide "affordable" wireless internet access (WiFi) to the city and its official vehicles, for free, and to residents at reasonable costs.

Over the past year (since the USWI system roll-out has been done) I had occasionally used my laptop to check out the WiFi signal's strength via accessing the unrestricted City of Minneapolis web page that is the default USWI home pages. The signal seemed pretty good, considering that the nearest antenna was a short block away from my house. I live at 5800 Park and the nearest antenna was at 5800 Columbus.

So I called them up and arranged to have them come out and set me up for the household service. It consists of an external antenna/modem that I had them mount on the front of my house, right next to the mailbox. (See above, left) Then they run a cable into the house (basement, in my case) and connect that external antenna/modem to a wireless router I already had inside my house.

Then I have that wireless router hard-wired to my desktop computer in my basement office, and the laptop we use in the upstairs den accesses the net via the wireless router. We also have another desktop computer on the 2nd floor in Jane's "office" which is also accessing the internet with the wireless router in the basement.

We've had this set-up in place for over 90 days now and it works very well. I would recommend the USWI service. I have the "second from the slowest" access speed they offer (referred to as "up to 3 megabits per second") for which I pay $227.40 on an annual contract. That comes out to $18.95 per month. The closest Qwest DSL offering runs about twice that much for 1.5 MBps, but it is very difficult to do a side-by-side comparison because of the bundles and promotional rates that both Qwest and Comcast offer. One other advantage with the USWI package, is that I have city wide WiFi from any WiFi enabled mobile device. That means that if I wanted to take my WiFi enabled laptop in a canoe with me to go down Minnehaha Creek, I could do so and get high speed WiFi on the entire journey through the city.

Paul Linnee

5800 Park

Let's try a blog for the East Diamond L'achers

Greetings to all "Achers" (that would be those with aches and pains) in the East Diamond Lake area (hence the name East Diamond L'achers).

The purpose of this blog would be as a form of communication amongst those who choose to keep up to date with the activities of our little "co-op" effort.

Let's start this experience out with the blog being somewhat free-form and see how it goes.

Here's an example:

Kudos to the City Public Works Folks:

On Monday, 3/8/10, just as the "big melt" was beginning, the north end of the alley behind the 5800 block of Oakland/Park Avenue was a huge mess. As usual, the ice there was 6-10" deep and had started to break up and there were major ruts developing. Entering the alley was a real challenge. If you went too fast, you ran the risk of damaging your tire, wheel or suspension. If you went too slow, the risk was that you'd actually get stuck in one of the ruts.

So, I went out with my trusty heavy duty ice pick and shovel and tried to start assisting Mother Nature with breaking it up. I was able to get some of it, but the end result wasn't much better than when I began, despite some pretty heavy chopping and lifting.

Wheezing and sweating, I retreated to my house to gain my second wind and have a cup of coffee. Then, to my amazement, one of those wonderful street department front end loaders showed up and spent a solid ten minutes meticuoulsly breaking up the huge ice chunks and clearing the mouth of the alley down to the bare concrete, full width.

Nice job guys.......in the suburbs they doen't even (usually) have alleys, much less this kind of good service. It all makes living in the city PROPER worthwhile.

Paul Linnee
5800 Park