Time for a users report on our satellite systems

We got Wildblue satellite broadband about 4 months ago. After some initial tweeking, we got both ME and Firefox to work pretty much like they're supposed to. Wildblue does seem to like ME better connection wise than Firefox. We haven't had any major problems with the system, and the speed is pretty good- even according to the wife (who's used to RoadRunner at work). We got the lowest priced package @$49.95 (plus tax) and about 500K download speed and 125K upload.
We haven't had the frog-strangling downpour test yet, but our reliability is fine.

The bad part,Vonage doesn't work for chit on it. Something about the latency. The only reason we're paying the lowest rate of $14.99 is for those international calls home. We can call out and it's usually fine, just can't call in 8 out of 10 trys. With Wildblue and Vonage, we're paying about the same price as we did for just SBC(now AT&T), with about the same phone quality.

The Sprint cell phones work alot better, still have alot of iffy areas in the house. We found if we stand next to the window, we have cell contact- works for us.

The only problems we've had with DirectTV is the intermittent power outages. If we loose power for too long, or get a too-close lightning hit, we have to reset the boxes. Kinda a PITA, but better than Charter cable. We only lost the signal once because of the FSD-with lightning.

The new ceiling fan controller (wireless) switch is a beauty- hey! I got that for Karen for Christmas (and Karen appreciates it very much -Karen). The hardware is wired and hidden in the base of the fan and controlled by a battery powered remote. It even has a dimmer switch. Not bad for less than $50.

That's our wireless round-up of the year.