Sally Brooks

Okay, when I checked into a package deal with SBC back before
Christmas, the ONLY reason we could not get the deal is because DSL is
not available in our area. Nor can we get cable. We do have satellite
(God's answer to the rural folk who wish to watch more than 3
channels). So now the question is will the router work with dial up?

Sally

nellebelle

Have you called the company you get the service from? They are likely to
know. They will also usually tell you whether you can buy/rent any needed
equipment from them or need to buy it elsewhere.

I LOVE having multiple computers on-line. We have two in my home office,
one in dd's room, and a hookup in our bedroom for dh's laptop. The router
is in the office and we ran two of the lines under the house's crawl space.
I bought extra long cables from tigerdirect.com at a good price.

I can be on-line doing stuff yet also available to help and watch the kids
on-line, or both kids can be on-line at the same time. Jackie started a new
neopets account and asked me to spell lots of words today. Sometimes we
instant message one another for fun, even though we are in the same room.

The two side by side computers are very popular with neighborhood kids as
well.

I can't imagine unschooling without high speed internet.

Mary Ellen

Lars Hedbor

Heh.

The other night, my DD(6) looked around at myself, my DW, DD(17), DMiL, and
DSBiL (step-brother-in-law) all sitting around the living room, surfing on
our respective laptops, and said, "I wish I had a laptop, too!" Okay, so
things have gotten a bit carried away here.

I have Comcast cable internet ($55/mo), and a standard wireless router (the
same model - the Linksys WRT54G - is available now for about $50). We've
switched over to Lingo voice over internet telephone service (~$25/mo),
which gives us unlimited long distance to the US, Canada, and most of
Western Europe.

Our total home telecoms expense is about $80/mo, which compares favorably
with our old local phone service (which was running us ~$65/month) plus a
standard dialup account (say AOL, at $25/mo). And we have the whole wealth
of the Internet available to everyone in the house, as fast as we could like
it - and we can call our relatives and former exchange students at no
additional expense.

Before we went wireless, I had run wires through much of the house, and I
can tell you for certain that wireless is easier. Do read up a bit on
securing your wireless network (the key acronym here is "WEP" - wireless
encryption protocol), as otherwise hackers passing by on the street may be
able to see into your computers.

If your existing computers are not set up for wireless access, you can add a
card to handle it for about $10-15 per machine. (Adding a card like this to
a laptop is as simple as plugging it in to the side of the machine; a
desktop is only a tiny bit harder, really!)

If you have a large house, be aware that wireless networking does have a
somewhat limited range -- more than a few dozen feet away, or any
substantial amounts of metalwork in the intervening walls, and you may lose
your network signal, or suffer slowed-down connections.

I sincerely hope that this helps -- finally, a topic here that I actually
know a bit about! :-)

- Lars D. H. Hedbor
  Author, Small Business Projects/INTERNET

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of nellebelle
> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 4:32 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [UnschoolingDiscussion] Computer question, continued
>
> Have you called the company you get the service from? They are likely to
> know. They will also usually tell you whether you can buy/rent any needed
> equipment from them or need to buy it elsewhere.
>
> I LOVE having multiple computers on-line. We have two in my home office,
> one in dd's room, and a hookup in our bedroom for dh's laptop. The router
> is in the office and we ran two of the lines under the house's crawl
> space.
> I bought extra long cables from tigerdirect.com at a good price.
>
> I can be on-line doing stuff yet also available to help and watch the kids
> on-line, or both kids can be on-line at the same time. Jackie started a
> new
> neopets account and asked me to spell lots of words today. Sometimes we
> instant message one another for fun, even though we are in the same room.
>
> The two side by side computers are very popular with neighborhood kids as
> well.
>
> I can't imagine unschooling without high speed internet.
>
> Mary Ellen
>
>
>
> "List Posting Policies" are provided in the files area of this group.
>
> Visit the Unschooling website and message boards:
> <http://www.unschooling.info>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Lisa M. Cottrell Bentley

> Okay, when I checked into a package deal with SBC back before
> Christmas, the ONLY reason we could not get the deal is because DSL is
> not available in our area. Nor can we get cable. We do have satellite
> (God's answer to the rural folk who wish to watch more than 3
> channels). So now the question is will the router work with dial up?

Have you checked out this:
http://www.wildblue.com

We are moving to the country in a month and this is what we are doing
(satellite internet). We can't wait! We almost always have at least 5
computers on the internet at once. There are other companies as well,
but we like this one the best. We wouldn't be happy Unschoolers without
our computers! We can (and do) live without a landline phone, but
internet connection is non-negotiable. :)

-Lisa in AZ