Day 25, Private Training in Palm Springs

First, if you see the jump from day 20 to day 25 and think, what the heck? You're right. I missed some days. A family emergency took me to Texas for a few days and in the process my blogging....well....it didn't happen. Sorry, perdon', entschuldigen sie, or atvainojiet for my Latvian friends, it just didn't happen. Add to that the fact that AT&T limits you on how much data you can use on a monthly basis with the air card (remember I'm using the MikroTIk 3G HotSpot for internet access on the road...) and it stopped working and so I was kind of "unconnected". Back to the internet access issue...Yes, those of us who operate ISP's really did ourselves a disservice a long time ago when we decided to offer "unlimited" access. Think about this for a second, does the water company give you unlimited water? What about the electricity guys, do they let you use all you can burn? No, they meter it and you pay for what you use. But not us ISP's, use as much as you want, use it all, it doesn't matter, that is, unless you are AT&T and most other cellular providers. They have remembered this stuff is finite, has a fixed cost and they let you have 5 gigs of transfer and then WHAM! No more roadshow cam, no more blogging ,and to add insult to injury, you cant "refill your tank". They wont let you buy more at an exorbitant rate without calling them and basically hocking your kids.

So, not to be outdone I decided to let AT&T not have my internet traffic until the next billing cycle begins and I have purchased a Verizon MiFi Hotspot. This thing is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and about 1/4 inch think and battery powered. It combines a WiFi hotspot with a cellular modem in a plug and play package...that is plug and play if your name is Steve Discher. Anyway, with a wireless printer in the motor home, and other wireless toys that rely on the network I decided to keep my existing MikroTik AP in place and add the new toy, thereby requiring a second MikroTik router and some cables and stuff, anyway, I managed to integrate it into my existing network without any visible changes to the way things currently work. Net cost, well a lot but who's counting right? The only real change I see is the fact that I now have so much wireless radiation in the motor home, popcorn pops on the counter all by itself. And what's that strange pain in my brain?

This week I am doing some private training with the Desert Water Agency. Since they read my blog I am obligated to say they are extremely intelligent and super nice guys...Actually, they are just that. Everyone at the agency was very accommodating to me today and made me feel at home. In training we scratched the surface of the RouterOS and tomorrow it will be heads down, and dig in deep. The MikroTik Training Roadshow will be here in Palm Springs all week and then on south Saturday. Please bring over some popcorn, we are out again!