Finally Getting Wireless

As some of you know, I am on dial-up. Really slow dial-up in fact. 24.0 kbps.
Well, Saturday morning, I am having wireless installed. Thru DishNetwork, which is where I have my tv though. They are working with a WildBlue, which is new to our area
.http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/our_products/internet_access/high_speed/index.shtml

I know this probably won't be the greatest. Our tv goes out occasionally with the weather, but it has to be better than my dial-up.

Looking at the costs, I think it compares pretty well.

Any advice? I have never had wireless before.

 

Your correct its likely to go out as your tv does, but like you said, when it works it beats dialup. Best advice is to make sure you get the tech who does the install to inform you of any reset type procedures in case it needs to be done. That way you can get a step out of the way before calling wild blue tech support if needed. Also dslreports.com has a isp section, probably one for wild blue as well, usually this is a good place for to find customer reviews and advice. Good luck and enjoy broadband.

 

I would do this, but it is more expensive in my area, and the latency is huge. The dish stuff sucks for game playing. I am patient enough for everything else.

 

Thanks Coleman and Burning monkey for replying.
I did look up WildBlue at dslreports. There are good and bad reviews, mostly about weather, but I expect that. I am just fed up with dialup and this has to be better. I will keep the dialup for backup, as that is only $15 a month.
I don't play many online games, so that is not a problem for me.

 

Yep weather is a big trouble with wireless of that nature, curious did you find out what type of equipment wild blue uses for there wifi?

 

They are coming out to install it tomorrow morning, and will be raining here, so we'll see if they can get it to work.
This is what i found about their equipment.
http://www.wildblue.com/aboutWildblue/equipment.jsp

 

Being I will be at work when it is installed tomorrow, is there any other questions my daughter should ask them besides the reset procedures?
I am all new to wireless.

 

I may be getting that too i did not know Dish started offering internet till you posted about it. i been waiting for dish to offer internet for along time now good luck let me know how it is and which one you getting?

 

I do NOT have my wireless yet. They called yesterday morning to say the equipment wasn't in yet, so now I am waiting till next Sat.
They already have my money for installation, so they better not cancel again next week.

 

I am finally hooked up. So far, so good for working.
Took them from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm to get it hooked up. They work for Dish, not Wildblue, so had to follow a manual for setting everything up. In fact, I helped them out when it wouldn't connect because of my firewall. I was their guinea pig. First one they hooked up. I learned as they were doing it, and I think they did, too.
I am connecting at 1.04 mbps using
http://www.internetfrog.com/myinternet/voip/

Now, I have a question. What do I have to do so we can connect my daughter's laptop to this also? What do I have to buy?
Thanks

 

Simplest thing would be a Linksys wireless router, and get her (or be sure she has) a wireless network card in her laptop.

You'll love it. Easy to configure.

 

Will I need to get a wireless or wired router? Do I need any cables or do they come with?
Also, can I also connect my laptop to it?
We would have 3 computers using it, but probably not at the same time.

Thanks for the help.

 

Sorry I am asking questions that maybe seem really easy to some. I get confused with the wireless and the wired.

 

Actually, you can get both. My wireless router also had 4 ethernet outputs, which I use to distribute as well as the wireless. It's not too difficult, but I'd use the security features like WEP (Wired Equivalent Protection), a simple encryption.