I feel like I’ve just reached a new level of geekiness and of course I wanted to share it with all of you :o) This week has been pretty eventful. Tuesday I had a T1 line put into my house (Gadgeteer HQ). There were problems getting it to work and as a result, I had the opportunity to learn several new things. I learned how to make a quick and dirty loopback cable (small pigtail CAT5 cable that you can use to test Ethernet jacks) and I learned how to wire up my own CAT5 patch cables end to end with connectors. Check out my handy dandy crimper tool in the following image…
Of course I screwed up the first connector because 2 of the 8 wires inadvertently got crossed. But hey, I feel like a true geek now! :oD Time to go finish wiring a CAT5 wall jack…
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Crimping cables is always an exercise in frustration for me. It is very rare I get a cable that works the first time.
I’d do anything for a T1 line 🙂
I have to admit I’m jealous of the static IPs, upload speed, low latency, and 24/7 reliability. But not, I’m sure, of the price 🙂
Yeah, the price for the installation was crazy considering that I am 90,000 feet from the central office and they had to put in 7 repeaters… The monthly is also ‘out there’, but this is so much better than my satellite. It’s like night and day! :o)
I live within 1 mile of a CO, and to get a T1 it would still cost more than my cable connection. I still get about 7 to 11Mbps download and 1Mbps upload.
So my upload is slightly slower than a T1, but my downloads blow it out of the water.
Plus. it only costs me $60/month. 1/10th what a T1 to my house would be.
Joshua:
You’re very lucky and I’m envious. Unfortunately for me, I live in the woods. 12 acres of woods to be exact. It’s a rural area with no DSL, no Wireless and no Cable. I’ve been using HughesNet satellite as my ISP for several years. I finally decided I deserved something better and went on a T1 adventure. :o)
Of course next week the phone company will probably add DSL and the cable company will run cable to my area. ;o)
> Of course next week the phone company will probably add DSL
Well, now that you’ve paid to install all those repeaters, why wouldn’t they? I’m sure your neighbors will appreciate it!