[NCLUG] Broadband ISP options in Fort Collins

John L. Bass jbass at dmsd.com
Tue Jan 18 18:37:42 MST 2005


	> CWX wireless ($125 plus equipment to start, $30-40/month for 128-256K
	> connections. Requires line-of-sight to ridgeline behind Horsetooth.)
	> 
	> I don't remember from your original question if 256 is fast enough for
	> you; I think Quail Hollow is off Overland between Prospect and Mulberry,

	256 is a little slow than I'd like...

CWX has been slowly transitioning to Canopy. Green will be completely converted
this week, and most of Horsetooth should be in a couple months. The Milner
conversion has been more or less on hold due to the County Planning department
flexing it's authority to correct some long standing permit and zoning issues
left behind by the owner that passed away some years back.

We haven't updated the web site, but we are probably only going to
support 802.11b off Buckhorn by summer and have not been accepting
802.11b customers due to heavy interference since this time last year.

The canopy gear isn't readily available for member purchase as the 802.11b
gear was, so we are providing it with a refundable $300 deposit to cover
the radio/dish costs. $150 startup to cover common equipment, and $50/mo
billed quarterly for 512-768kbps nominal service which is several times
the bandwidth we could stabily offer on 802.11b gear.

Still need to be responsible for your own install, but most people are
self installing as it requires lag screwing the modified satelite dish
to a high wall or roof with minimal effort to get aimed, and run a ground
wire and CAT-V to the dish/radio for cable. None of the FCC mandated issues
about RF cabling and professional installation as with the 802.11b system.

Because we are small and a cooperative, we still are governed by the base
every everyone pays there fair share, and are hands on owner operated with
mostly volunteer effort for major projects. Bandwidth remains a major cost,
so we have a 3.5GB per month quota and over quota fees for very heavy users.
We now do not count 56kbps or less billing samples, so you can rate shape
bulk large transfers to that limit and transfer about 600MB/day or 18GB
per month that don't count toward the quota. This allows heavy file
transfers without trashing the interactive performance of the network
for everyone else.

John



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