Broadband Wireless Internet is now available in the Spring Creek Housing Section. It's less expensive than DSL and much faster than Dial-Up. Like DSL, it's always on and there when you want it, but you don't need a phone line. Just $24.95 a month and possibly an initial equipment cost.

If you have a laptop with built-in wireless capability, you may be able to connect, but your experience will probably be far more satisfying with an external wireless device. You can get various wireless devices locally at Office-Max, or peruse wireless devices at Amazon.com, Linksys Wireless D-Link Wireless. A Linksys WAP54G Wireless-G Access Point configured as a Client-Bridge works quite well if you are very close to a hotspot. I prefer the Rootenna with a Senao CB3. They are available in the $150.00 to $200.00 range and can be easily mounted to a pipe or a retired dish mount. Here is what it looks like, Rootenna Pictures. If you use a Rootenna on the outside of your home, you should also use network surge protection, such as the Tripp Lite Network Dataline DNET1 RJ45 Protector for 10/100BT TR AS400. Anything connected to your computer should be connected through a UPS, at a minimum a quality surge strip.

It all depends on many factors, the health of your pc, your wireless equipment, distance from the nearest hotspot, obstructions to line-of-sight, Internet traffic, and time of day. My Frontier DSL was very poor between 6:00 and 8:00 PM when I got home from work. Now we have a T1 at 1.544 Mbps up and down. Wireless access is currently set at 1 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. This prevents monopolization of bandwidth by a single user/system. I've tested the Rootenna from various locations. From 0.9 to 3.05 miles I've been able to download at full configured capacity. I use it everyday at 0.9 miles and it is rock solid. I tested it from the summit towers (9.95 miles) and was able to download at 680 Kbps. I tried it at 12.7 miles (just south of the corner of Lee and 16th in Luck Nugget 2), but it was really smokey and I couldn't see where I was pointing the Rootenna. I acquired an address via DHCP, but was not able to browse. I'll do better next time!