Where’s Marko ?

I didn’t want to spend time retyping a post so I’m going to paste the following from a thread on Dream.In.Code.

It’s likely no one has noticed my absence yet because I’ve only been gone for a day, but you may see it more in the coming week, here’s why…

Some of you may know I have been “Borrowing” my neighbor’s (car dealership next to my house) open access point as my primary means of internet. Well.. I come home from work yesterday to find that my neighbor has decided to get some smarts and encrypt his network with not just basic WEP encryption, but 128 bit WPA encryption. One of my special areas of knowledge is network security and I knew right away I was screwed. This kind of security on a low traffic network is nearly impossible to crack.

Some people have asked why I would depend on something like this; why not get a high speed connection of my own?

I live in a small town in northern MN; there is no conventional high speed solutions out here. In fact the only internet options I have are DirecWay satellite, and a local company called Genesis Wireless.

Genesis is a WIFI hybrid based ISP, they put up non line of sight towers around the town and using their modified WIFI hardware you’re able to connect to their network. The problem with Genesis Wireless is that their prices are horrible and their uptime is even worse. I know this first hand because the neighbor has them. So choice number 1 is Genesis, they want 149.00 down for install and 50 a month for 200 kbps down 56 kbps up speeds.

DirecWay is faster but more money. If you get a good install they can be somewhat reliable.. I think. Their speeds are more like 500kbps down and 56 kbps up, they have a weird Fair Access Policy so if you try to download more then 200 MB at a time, they will cut you off for a few hours. Also with the satellite latency you can’t play online games. DirecWay wants $ 100.00 down and $ 100.00 a month and you get tied into a 2 year contract.. So that’s option number 2..