1 GB FIBER Coming Soon to Wrightwood

[lwt42]

Any recommendations as to what type of gigibit wifi router I should purchase?

For nearly everyone here, when they say "router" they mean Small Office or Home router/firewall/access point.

I would start by asking "what devices are you going to use?"

If everything in your house is on WiFi, then WiFi is going to be the bottleneck, and you want one of the higher-numbered AC routers -- something with MIMO and multiple streams.  Try to get the router near the middle of your devices.

It's better if you can get some or all of your devices on wired connections.

That's if you think you can get close to actually using a full gigabit.

I've actually been measuring my bandwidth (I use a commercial router on my crappy Frontier DSL) and my usage is peaking at around 2 megabits.  I don't see bandwidth as an issue with Frontier, I see latency.

I think a 100 megabit router would be just as good, except that you wouldn't be able to brag about speed test results (or watch more than 3 4K UHD video streams).

That said, we all want to optimize things.  I'll keep my (commercial grade) router in my office, and add a Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-LR in the living room, near the ceiling.  I'm also going to run a wire to my Roku to take it off the WiFi, just because I can.

[lwt42]

Thank you Laura
I know you all have worked hard to make this all come together

I really appreciate the fact that you tried to keep the price down
At $70 per month without a contract it's only $5 per month more than I'm paying mow for 5 maps

Thank you

I'm paying $74/month right now with Frontier, 3 megabits down, 768 up.

When I moved, Verizon charged me $150 installation.

So, two years is $1926, on the worst circuit I've ever seen.

I need a static IP, so UIA will cost me $1380 for two years.

[MerlinSilk]

I'd love to sign up for the two years, and there is a good chance that I will not move away during that period - but what if I do?
I guess there will be an early termination fee, but what would that be? As a fair solution I could imagine that that fee would be equal to the difference between what I would have paid had I not signed the 2 year contract???

[TimG]

I'd love to sign up for the two years, and there is a good chance that I will not move away during that period - but what if I do?

The contract says early termination is half of what you'd pay total if you stayed ... so by my math, the most that could be is $630 -- that being, if you moved away the day after you signed up.  That number goes down by $20/mo the first year and then $40/mo the second year, until it gets to zero.

[lzuber]

Yes, please read the agreement carefully.   Yes, early termination would be at most $630.00. We are also offering a month to month agreement which is $70 per month. We will get that option up on the website soon, but in the meantime if that is your preferred agreement, you email me with your name and phone number to fiber@uia.net.  Please specify that you are a Wrightwood resident.

Wes is out of the office today but I will ask him your technical questions and post his reply here over the weekend. 

Thanks everyone.  Good questions. 

[Bob C]

Any recommendations as to what type of gigibit wifi router I should purchase?

Any answer to this question yet?

[lwt42]

Any answer to this question yet?

It does depend a bit on what you have in your home.  A couple of computers, a couple of phones, a tablet or two and streaming to a TV aren't going to tax the router much.

A Linksys WRT 1200AC, or the Netgear or D-Link equivalents should be more than enough to service what I listed above.  Better if you can wire the TV instead of wireless.

The Linksys WRT 1900ACS is faster.  Netgear and D-Link make them too.

I see Linksys has 3400ac and 5400ac routers, but I'd only get one of those if you were moving big files around in your house.  I suspect that "gaming" routers are all about packaging.

I've used gear from all three companies.  At the moment I'm using Netgear, but I suspect it's because that's what the store had when I bought them.

Try to put the router in the middle of the house.

[AvocadoFlyer]

NETGEAR WNDR4500 N900 Dual Band Gigabit Wifi Router is what I have (currently in a box)...I think it should work but I am a technology idiot.  Thanks for your advice - all of it great!!

[lwt42]

NETGEAR WNDR4500 N900 Dual Band Gigabit Wifi Router is what I have (currently in a box)...I think it should work but I am a technology idiot.  Thanks for your advice - all of it great!!

It will definitely work, and it will probably be faster than you need.

The "900" means it's 0.9 gigabits.  That's 90% of wire speed, *if* you have a Wireless-N device that'll do 0.9 gigabits.  They're unusual.

If you're really unlucky, all of your WiFi "clients" are Wireless-G or older and you won't be able to get huge "speed test" numbers through WiFi.  You'd still be able to stream several videos at once.

You can always put that Netgear router into service, and replace it in 3 to 6 months if it's somehow slow.  That's what I'd do.

Edit: remember that perfect is the enemy of good enough.

[spellbinder]

I have the Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 dual band wireless gigabit router
the model r7000

Love this router...never had a problem with it

[lzuber]

For our customers in Helendale who ask for us to recommend a brand, we do love the Nighthawks. 

[AvocadoFlyer]

So has the fiber begun installation and if so, is it on schedule?  Does anyone have it up and working yet?

[spellbinder]

I was wondering the same thing
I cancelled my Frontier account a couple of weeks ago so now I am without Internet until October
Hoping all is going as planned with no glitches

[lwt42]

... and I've been wondering who won the lotto.

[Iris]

I'm in Section 1 and emailed Laura today for an update. They are working on stuff this week (splicing, something else) but it is supposed to be soon. I've been on a hotspot for way too long so I am anxiously waiting as well.

[lzuber]

Update:  Splicing is almost complete.  There is still a little more work to do, and I don't have the exact finish timeframe yet, but we are very, very close to installations.  I'll post as I know a bit more.  No one is more anxious than we are of course.  We are almost there!

[lwt42]

Update:  Splicing is almost complete.  There is still a little more work to do, and I don't have the exact finish timeframe yet, but we are very, very close to installations.  I'll post as I know a bit more.  No one is more anxious than we are of course.  We are almost there!

I saw people in bright UIA shirts working on Saturday, presumably splicing, so they aren't taking their time, they're working hard.

Now if I could just convince them to do section 5 next.....

[Daniel.Rorie]

Since we have a brief moment of retreat (Thanks firefighters!), it's time to get to the important questions:

How did/is the fire affecting the fiber? Besides the obvious delays of closed roads/can't work. Were there any switch buildings in the Cajon Pass or anywhere that burned down? Will we be looking at a considerable delay (as in structural rebuild, burned down telephone poles, etc)?


Also, side questions, what type of fiber will it be? GPON? Will fiber be ran to the house? If so what type of house connection (terminal) will be used?

Thanks!

[lzuber]

We are of course evacuated, so work has been delayed.  We will be back on it as soon as possible.  We are very close to beginning installations.  They way it is being completed is as follows:  We will bring our ONT (Optical Network Terminal) into the house/ garage, run ONE run of ethernet to a central location and install the router which has wifi.  You can connect a hardwire connection to the router and it also has wifi.  You may need a wifi extender if your house is large, sprawling or multi storied.   The best speeds will be accomplished with a CAT 5 or CAT 6 ethernet network and Travis Maupin, a local, can wire that for you.  We are evacuated so I don't currently have his number with me. 

[lynnc]

When I signed my contract, I did not ask for a modem as I do not know if I need it or not. Can that be added during installation if it is deemed necessary?