any suggestions on home office solutions?
im getting close on an opportunity where i can spend tons of time in the 'virtual' office at the shoe. while i have a home office in my primary location, just looking for ideas on the 2nd office.

i can definitely walk to the village for the free starbux hispeed hookup and get some cell signal with cingular but looking for some lower cost home solutions.

anyone have experience on mtn with frontier's dsl? bawalker brought up a good point about 'line distance' and failure problems. also looking at cell phone boosters. i
may explore the flat rate calling plan with frontier. any other carriers available, embarq, etc? not sure if i want to explore the voip option or not. definitely dont want to explore the cable modem route w/ adelphia- hell, they cant even get cable right. directv hispeed may be an option, its pricey but may be worth it to chuck the rotten cable and get that and good hispeed.

any other ideas?

It really depends on how you want to set things up for your home office. I specialize in being able to get things like that setup for any home, person, or situation. The issues with Frontier are distance based. Frontier's recommended distance for customers is 15,000-16,000 feet from the CO. However there may be a CO near or at the shoe, I couldn't say. I doubt there is cable modem access down there, but again, I don't know.

Frontier's total bill for monthly phone service (flat fee) along with high speed DSL runs about $105 after federal taxes each month. If you could get cable... get it and run voip, disconnect your phone line and use it or cell service. In fact, I'm working on building a VoIP PBX that can be used at home or in small offices for around $500 that gives call waiting, auto attendant... but best of all, call redirection. So say someone calls, the PBX answers and auto directs to your cell when you are on the road after 3 rings of the house phone when no one answers.

I have a second office in my condo and sometime when I've got time, I will update/replace the computer (and give to bawalker for his non-profit purposes) but I've had Frontier package now for two years (DSL/Voice). I also have a wireless installed in the condo. I added a fax machine, color laser printer, a heavy-duty cross-cut shredder, wire router, laminator, etc. The office setup is open to renters to and I'm happy to say have never had a problem. The wireless network is open so it's easier on guests. Actually I've had three people at the same time do work in the unit and no problems.

The only glitch is that every time I go to the condo I have to reset the DSL box. It has happened even when I'm there. Don't know why but it will stop reception about once a week for ten or fifteen minutes and stay in the stuck mode and then I have to reset the darn thing. Also it would be nice to extend the wireless range.

I also installed Dish Satellite to my four TVs and it works like a champ. But for some reason, the SNowshoe cable now comes in full of static and snow. I'd rather have the 300-some satellite channels than the cheesy selection from Adelphia anytime...

Get a pringles can and point it at Starbucks.

Does adelphia have cable internet service at SnowShoe??

one of my neighbors (moved now) had the dsl and iirc he said the nearest substation (is that what CO means, ba?) was in cass, 9 miles away. that was 2 yrs ago so it may be better now but probably not. u can still see the substation on the right before u cross the g'brier bridge. heck, comcast ca modem went out tons in nova and had to reset all the time, along with the wifi.

ill check but dont even want to explore ca modem at the shoe, its the only spot in NORTH AMERICA where cable comes in crystal clear on some (fox, tnt, cnn, etc.) and the next channel gives old school 70's 'rabbit ear' reception (cbs, abc, etc). i tracked down the local tech two years ago (which took months of calling adelphia) and actually visited him at their substation, in the maintenance lot across from a'springs. the idiots actually use an old school 'antenna' to receive the network channels and transfer to the ca system. i know a little about tech but know that coat hangers (literally) plugged into electronic components probably isnt a good thing. their idea of a cable run on west ridge is literally laying it on the ground and dancing it from house to house (maybe they cant dig to disturb the so called endangered buggers). ca on the mtn is a major sore spot for anyone who has ever experienced it- especially when u are trying to watch 'the game' or the super bowl. the resort blames it on adelphia's owners, the rigas' family internal embezelment issues (like bernie ebbers at mci). this aint the case as my grandfather in d'ville, va has adelphia with clear reception across the entire system. rumor has it ss is investigating a new system, possibly satellite, but cant incorporate the 'channel 6 snowshoe tv' on it, which is a deal killer for them. i swear that pringles can (and some duct tape) might work better than the current system.

if my deal goes thru, ill definitely get the dss which im very familiar with. my hoa allows me to deduct about $20/mo if i ditch the cable. i spoke with a guy last week who has the high speed dss off the mtn, think he said that alone was about $110/mo with dss channels additional coin.

lou, is it possible for the syst to get any worse? i definitely need to talk to u about your setup, it sounds primo.

Yeah, CO stands for Central Office, Substation, or any place where the telephone exchanges are centralized. For example, in Wardensville the CO is the building that houses the telephone (and internet equipment) equipment which controls the 1-304-874-xxxx exchange. That is how when I or anyone else dials 874-xxxx is routed quickly to the person I'm dialing. The signal leaves my phone, travels down the various copper lines to the CO. The CO determines that I"m dialing within the exchange and routes me to the appropriate port on the switchboard. In the case of long distance, the equipment then routes me to the CO/substation that it gets it's connection from (this case Romney) where the switchboard database is checked. That procedure is elementary, but the basis for our PSTN (public switched telephone network) all over the country.

As for DSL, the process is similar. Think in terms of ethernet networking. Just like you the end user goes to circuit city and gets a little Linksys router, with connections branching off of it to individual computers, same happens with DSL. On a larger scale. The same CO in wardensville (or ANY community) has the centralized switching equipment and DSLAM. The copper telephone pair that runs to this house of mine is connected into the DSLAM and DSL network. In the case with frontier, they do authentication so my PC/router sends the signal to their main database in New York, it authenticates, and I'm allowed on.

Now... with DSL, the main issue is distance. Currently I'm at 19,400' from the CO in Wardensville. The signal strength leaving the CO for the DSL signal is around 19.95db. By the time it reaches my house, it's around 1.9db with major signal loss. This causes more line errors, disconnects, etc. However speed is still the 1.6mb rating.

There isn't anyway Frontier has a CO 9 miles away from SS and providing service. They would have HAD to build a CO dedicated for SS or one in the nearby community.

One idea I had was to share a WIFI connection with a neighbor or two. That would reduce costs. I've also raised the issue of setting up WIFI for each building in my condo development (similar to what you get in hotels such as Holiday Inn Express) and making it a common element. To me, paying $105 a month for a Frontier DSL system that I'd use once a month doesn't make sense but if I could spread the costs between 3-4 owners, that might work.

This can be accomplished fairly easy with a little planning. The first issue that you or anyone would have to deal with is the 'reselling' of services to other building members. Some ISP's have different policies about this than others. I'm not exactly sure what Frontier's policy is, but if it's strict, they could immediately cancel your service/account if they found out you was reselling. That is obviously if you advertise it. For small home sharing and neighbor sharing, you could get away with it regardless.

The second thing is what equipment to use and how to set it up. There are *TONS* of options available. First and foremost you would want to go with the Wireless Pre-N standards or the MIMO based wireless. Increased distance and speeds means better signals through walls, floors, etc.

For the actual equipment, there are a couple options available. You can go with a standard wireless router which sends out a signal anyone can jump on. There are other wireless routers which actually let you resell the signal for $$$ hourly, monthly, weekly, etc. A person can try to log on, be presented with a PayPal or credit card page and deposit money for X amount of days. That way you don't have to walk from door to door to track down someone to get paid.

Lastly there are routers that I have hacked that allow for total modification, operating systems to be installed, and everything from signal boosters to more. The whole wireless idea for your situation is very doable... just depending on how you want to do it.

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First and foremost you would want to go with the Wireless Pre-N standards

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I'm not that techonologically inclined but I agree with bawalker. I have the Pre-N router, in my basement, against the corner wall, and I have no problem picking up the signal on my laptop two floors up.