End of May
Friends,
This is what we often call a "time of trial" for the project. "We're fucked," Santos said, and his laugh brought the despair up from my belly. I saw it on my laugh-breath, tangible, and laughed until I was sure it was all out. It felt like sweating out a sickness. Nicaraguans know how to survive.
What's happened is this: for several weeks, the quality of the satellite signal was poor. It came and went frequently, at times only 30% of the traffic would make it through, and the people who resell our service to tourists were losing business. Not good. Two customers refused to pay May's bill until something improved.
Last Friday I made a trip into Managua to work with our ISP to stabilize the connection. Things seemed to be OK until Monday morning, when the satellite terminal went down and didn't come back up. It wasn't just a question of the signal; the device just doesn't power on. This is verily a Bad Thing™.
I went to Costa Rica Monday to renew my visa and returned Tuesday to find our Internet offerings in a state of death. The next morning I had a meeting to present the idea of putting computers with Internet access at the high school in Altagracia, but I didn't have any idea when we'd actually be able to give them Internet access: next week, in a month, or next year.
I don't know the chances the terminal can be repaired, nor how long it would take to send a replacement, nor if we'd have to pay for one. I have four weeks left on the island to do something. The option of throwing in the rag and trying again next year, doing it right this time, is attractive but rash. We'll have to feel this one out a bit yet.
And that's where I'm at.
This is what we often call a "time of trial" for the project. "We're fucked," Santos said, and his laugh brought the despair up from my belly. I saw it on my laugh-breath, tangible, and laughed until I was sure it was all out. It felt like sweating out a sickness. Nicaraguans know how to survive.
What's happened is this: for several weeks, the quality of the satellite signal was poor. It came and went frequently, at times only 30% of the traffic would make it through, and the people who resell our service to tourists were losing business. Not good. Two customers refused to pay May's bill until something improved.
Last Friday I made a trip into Managua to work with our ISP to stabilize the connection. Things seemed to be OK until Monday morning, when the satellite terminal went down and didn't come back up. It wasn't just a question of the signal; the device just doesn't power on. This is verily a Bad Thing™.
I went to Costa Rica Monday to renew my visa and returned Tuesday to find our Internet offerings in a state of death. The next morning I had a meeting to present the idea of putting computers with Internet access at the high school in Altagracia, but I didn't have any idea when we'd actually be able to give them Internet access: next week, in a month, or next year.
I don't know the chances the terminal can be repaired, nor how long it would take to send a replacement, nor if we'd have to pay for one. I have four weeks left on the island to do something. The option of throwing in the rag and trying again next year, doing it right this time, is attractive but rash. We'll have to feel this one out a bit yet.
And that's where I'm at.
posted by Peter Abrahamsen at 5/26/2005 02:29:00 PM
2 Comments:
Well, Peter, we really wondered what had become of you. I'm glad it was problems of the hardware sort, and not of the wetware sort.
I hope David can be of some help, as far away as he (probably) is.
Have you checked the fuse in the satellite terminal? Have you turned it upside down to see if any loose thing falls out?
Love, Dad
Fuses are fine. I'm hoping its power source got fried somehow, and that that's easy to fix.
In any case, it looks like the equipment is under warranty, and there's some sort of spare in the country. I'll post again tomorrow.
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