Cohousing-L Mailing List: Internet Service [was Wireless dislike

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jul 23, 2016, at 2:53 PM, Sue STIGLEMAN <sstigleman [at] bellsouth.net> 
> wrote:
> 
> Perhaps we can all go in together on a common wireless network, reducing the 
> total from all of us to just one, although our Common house Internet provider 
> has said that that kind of redistribution is not allowed. 

We have a central “supply” in the form of two business class modems that 
provide service for 43 units. We pay for them out of our operating budget. We 
have ethernet wiring to 4-5 jacks inside each unit. But increasingly our 
connections are with wireless. The community has put in three so units in all 
areas of the building have wireless. Many individual units have their own 
wireless routers and most use a common password so we can all hook in to the 
strongest signal. 

The signals distribute oddly depending on what is in the walls. I got my own 
because there is a firewall or something between my unit and the closest 
wireless. I purchases a high quality Apple wireless so other people could use 
mine too.

We have modems from two different companies so if one goes out we still have 
service from the other. 

15 years ago there was some irritation with some people using services that 
most people didn’t— gaming, streaming movies, etc.—and slowing down the system. 
Working on the web on Friday nights, for example, was torture. The community 
solution was to switch from a local internet service provider who blamed lack 
of speed on the telephone lines, to modems from cable companies. That was much 
better but some of us still got our own modems for speed and dependability, 
using the building’s modems for back up.

As new people moved in who expected first class internet the standards changed. 
Their attitude was not to ask people to limit use but to increase service until 
everyone was happy. That was more than 6 years ago. It is much less expensive 
for all of us than if we had individual service. 

We went to business class modems and got much more speed and bandwidth at the 
same cost. We also got much better service— “today" instead of “next week.”

We had our reserve study done last week by a construction consultant who said 
don’t put any money into wires. Everything is going wireless. I have difficulty 
now with my television-cable-blueray-AppleTV-sound bar set up because some are  
wireless only  and others wires only. They won’t all work on a multi-device 
remote. So the next round of replacements for me has to be wireless.

I am surprised when I hear that communities don’t share internet services as a 
community expense. It makes everyone’s life so much easier.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org