Tribe of the Ring Fort

Friday, May 05, 2006

Communication Breakdown / Screams of the Doomed (Barry)

Update on our communication scenario:
We are having difficulty arranging broadband internet access at the Cobh house...there had to be a catch, right? This means the future of our internet phone (the one that allows us to call all the U.S. and Canada as a local call, and all to call us as if we were in Montpelier, Vermont) is in doubt. Since the phone line in this 1914 house are not DSL-capable, we have only the wireless and satellite options. Satellite is prohibitively expensive for us while we remain unemployed (which we do for now). Wireless is difficult for this location. We have struck out with the first few providers we've tried.

The next wireless broadband provider we've scheduled, Nova Networks, looks to be the (last?) best hope. Or so we are told by the word on the street. We know the approximate location of their Cork-city-area tower (Carrigaline) and it seems as if the signal could reach us along the required line-of-sight.

This is a very big deal for us. We are crossing our fingers and toes. Job searching, internet phone, and all other internet services and luxuries of course are at stake here. We can and have been improvising to maintain internet access. Right now I am at the Cobh Heritage Center just down the waterfront from the house. Here--significant stroke of luck--we can pick up both an open wireless network and, as backup, a pay Eircom network. We can sit at a cafe exploiting it, while listening to the endlessly repeated screams of the doomed victims of the Lusitania disaster, for which Cobh was port of departure and to where survivors were returned. (To be honest, until I was told this, I imagined the Heritage Center was showing a loop of the delighted shrieks of roller coaster riders in some formerly glorious amusement park around here.)

So, no, we are not (yet) the screaming doomed. Cross fingers with us that we escape this horrible communication fate. i continue to pine for you all.