We're A-Movin' On Up
It's official: Gretchen, Sprocket, and I will be moving in a few weeks. Not too far, though. We'll be going deeper into the city of San Francisco starting on the first of September. Lori and Norm were here over the weekend (for a photo shoot); in between sets, Gretchen invited them to join her hunt. They came upon a house located in one of the busier parts of town. With only street parking available, I wasn't too thrilled about investigating the property. However, my wife seemed optimistic. We kinda knew what we were looking for in a residence (and its neighborhood), but also knew we'd have to make certain concessions in the process. We parked (literally) up the hill and found our way to what would turn out to be our future home (at least, for the next year or so). It has lots of usable space - which is a premium here. Plus, the landlords are extremely dog-friendly. Winner! The pictures and videos will come, never fear.
First order of business: get broadband! According to AT&T's Web site, cable modem service is not available in the area. However, DSL is an option. So, it looks like I'm going to be purchasing an external DSL modem in a few days. Any suggestions? Yeah, I'm not even sure who I'll select for my provider. They currently use SBC to get online, so I might just stick with them for continuity's sake. Verizon has been solid enough for me here, but I believe our loft complex has a unique infrastructure. If I could make contact with someone from any capable system, I'd probably go with them. I should probably get the ball rolling soon, though - I'd hate to play the waiting game for too long. I've heard of installation nightmares, so I'll probably be rolling my own (again). 56k is quaint, but hardly enough pipe to get any real work done. When you download as much as I do, every bit counts. Oh, and did I tell you about the bites?
There are plenty of unique restaurants in just about every direction. Plus, we're right up around the corner from a Peet's outlet! If you need me, you know where you can find me. I'll probably also be setting up a Wi-Fi network before too long, too. My Proxim hardware still works, but I wasn't sure if I needed a crossover cable to connect it to my router. Furo tells me: “If the hub has an uplink port, then a straight cable should work between the two, as it provides the crossover for you. If both have uplink and non-uplink ports (workstation attachment ports), then you would need a crossover cable between like ports. For instance, if you were connecting a workstation port on one to a workstation port on another, you'd have to use a crossover. Same for uplink to uplink.” How's that for home network helpfulness? Oh, if only he'd do a free Gnometome for us…
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17 Comments
Anonymous
July 14th, 2002
at 11:57pm
Sounds sweet Chris! Can't wait to see inside the gnome's locker ;)
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 12:20am
Congratulations
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 12:28am
Does the new place have a backyard for Sprocket to run around in ? Congrats on the new home Chris. The first thing I got installed is the internet connection. It's a must have ! I go through withdrawls if I haven't surfed the WEEEEB after a few days. Also (off topic) I just got a new iBook …I'll be setting up a wireless connection next week. You and Leo , convinced me to try out OSX. I'm very happy with the iBook and learning a new operating system is a lot of fun. Thanks and good luck in the new Spread. “Weesey and George”… “Movin on Up to the East side…..We finally got a piece of the pie” LOL
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 12:39am
Wow, congratulations to the both of you.
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 1:50am
It took us 3 weeks here before we got DSL installed (after requesting the install 5 weeks before we moved). I thought I was going to die… Congrats on the new place — can't wait to see the pics!
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 5:53am
Perhaps a Cisco 827…
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 8:36am
Don't take the AT&T Web site as gospel. The qualifier that they use as an address lookup is notoriously unreliable. I work for the cable company in Minneapolis and we use the same engine; my home routinely comes up as unserviceable although I've had cable modem service at home for 2+ years.
Give them a call to be sure. Your new place may well be unserviceable, but the fact the Web site says that doesn't necessarily make it so. Obviously I have a bias, but everything we hear from our customers tells us that on the whole, cable is better than DSL in terms of installation, reliability and, certainly, speed.
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 12:08pm
Be sure to buy lotsa Caffeinated soap for all your new bathrooms ;)
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/caffeine/5a65.shtml
Caffeinated soap, lol, what will they think of next.
:)
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 2:36pm
DSL being better than cable? Not neccessarenly in all areas. In my small town of Joplin, Missouri, we have DSL and cable. DSL came in last year's spring while cable is coming this winter. The speed on DSL is 1500/128 while cable's speed is 800/200. If I could get DSL, I would, but I live too far away. I'll have to wait and see how 'good' cable is compared to DSL.
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 5:41pm
when i had dsl, i used dslextreme, which i found to be very good in terms of setup time & service. i'm not sure if they serve the bay area or not though, since i reside in southern california. but congrats on the new pad…techtv must be paying you well! :)
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 5:47pm
Yay for new houses, and yay for DSL ^_~ Congratulations!
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 9:21pm
w00t! you'll be getting your b-day present from me soon, btw. no peeking!!!!!!
/e
Anonymous
July 15th, 2002
at 10:30pm
Verizon in the east is very good, no downtime(knock on wood) since november of last year. The modem they gave for free is what I use it's westell. Before you choose, make sure it's not a company that limits broadband use, specially if you're going to have a Wi-Fi network in the middle of town.
Anonymous
July 16th, 2002
at 11:35am
If you're looking for a DSL provider in the bay area, check out Sonic.net. Our Pacbell DSL offering is outlined here:
http://www.sonic.net/sales/dsl/pacbell/
-Jeff
Anonymous
July 16th, 2002
at 12:35pm
Congrats on the new place dude! Sounds pretty awesome! Good luck with the moving.
See ya' at Gnomedex!
Anonymous
July 17th, 2002
at 11:21am
After years of frustration waiting for AT&T to actually provide cable access to my area (as opposed to just sending me 10,000 mailers, phone solicitations and other spam each year telling me how great it was) I finally hooked up to DSL two months ago.
Personally, I wouldn't go with SBC, based on my experience in the outskirts of Chicago….although they actually provide the service, I bought through DirecTVDSL. DirecTV offered the same price (after the “special intro prices” run out) but gave me a STATIC IP address. SBC wanted a whole pile of additional money for a STATIC IP….one woman at SBC even said “I don't know how they can do that at that price.”
I was glad about my decision to buy service through DirecTV rather than SBC when the installation took SBC about 1.5 months to get me hooked up and working….I had an SBC guy marching through my house and yard for 3 hours one Saturday trying to find the problem. He didn't have a clue…I had to explain to him how to read the screens on his diagnostic PC. Finally, over a month into the ordeal, SBC admitted they'd hooked me up to the wrong connection and “started over.” They finally got it right.
Throughout the order and install process I worked with help desks at both SBC and Ameritech. Wait times were reasonable at DirecTV…the techs were professional and seemed pretty competent….they remained patient when I wasn't. SBC help desk was all long waits, vague answers and many transfers (”Oh, you need to talk to the ______ desk. Let me transfer you to them” Muzak for 10 minutes then the _____ desk picked up).
Just one man's opinion. San Francisco is a different town from Chicago (how many ways is that statement true?).
Anonymous
July 20th, 2002
at 2:09pm
If you go through your local phone company to get your DSL, most of them have some sort of package deal for hookup, modem, NIC's, etc. Mine at the time came with a Cisco 678 and has worked without a hitch for me. While usually more expensive, Cisco seems to be tops from all of the articles I've read on the subject and it's ease of installation and use and reliability far outweigh any price in my opinion.