[UFO Chicago] Question: wireless internet access in Chicago?

[Neil R. Ormos]

Brian Sobolak wrote:

> I've been an Ameritech DSL customer for 2 years
> and while the service has been pretty solid
> (except when they shipped me bum hardware and I
> spent a month figuring it out), it's too damn
> slow.  My download are at 227Kbs, a far cry from
> the minimum of 384 I should be getting.  I'm
> also $15 paying for a phone I never use, so
> what's the point?
  [ . . . ]

> My questions:

> 2.  Anyone have experience with it?  Are the speeds close to what was
> promised?

> Any and all suggestions welcome.

I recently had an occasion to use a fixed wireless
link set up by a WISP in the Lockport/Romeoville
area.  I forgot the name, but I'm pretty sure they
don't serve the north side of Chicago.  I can find
the name if you need it. I didn't measure the
speed, but it seemed about as zippy as my SBC DSL
(I usally get about 1.2 Mb/sec), and latency on
SSH connections seemed similar to what I was used
to via SBC.  I've used similar setups in the past
and my recollection is that I was similarly
satisfied.  Since I wasn't paying for the link in
any of these cases, I don't know the level of
service promised by the vendor.  Thus, believe
it's possible to get acceptable wireless service,
but can't generalize whether any particular vendor
will provide satisfactory service in your
situation.

Why are you on SBC's 384 kbps plan?  Have you
asked them to try a different pair?

--neil