The Internet

About three years ago, Rachel and I finally broke down and got high-speed internet. We started service with ClearWire. It was basically internet over the cellular network, and you had a modem/antennae that you could plug in to any wall socket and as long as you were within the coverage network, presto, instant internet. It was very handy, until the modem started to break down. I had to take it apart three times and re-soldier components back into place. They locked me into a two year contract when we signed up, and the contract was almost up when they sent out notices that they were going to start offering free upgrades and equipment replacement to all existing customers. I was starting to get pretty frustrated with the hardwarem but liked the idea of mobility, so I decided to stick it out till the new hardware came. I'm glad that I did. The free upgrade trippled my DL speed and we got a shiny new modem. The old one still sits on the windowsill, looking old, pathetic and outdated next to the new one. The new modem feels a little more solid as well. I have been fairly pleased with it overall, even though they did get rid of the option to bill me annually instead of monthly... I liked just having it paid and not having to worrk about another bill every month.
Anyway, the real reason I am writing about this is because today, I went into the Clear store in Seattle and purchased a new USB modem for true mobility. The USB modem is about three inches tall or so, and sits unobtrusively off to the side of my laptop. I did have to download and install some software in order to get it to work, but that was fairly easy if only a little annoying. The installation software that comes in the box is only good for WinXP... Vista has been out now for a while... Come on Clear. As far as the connection goes, I am very impressed. I was able to play League of Legends without problems, and streaming video has not posed any problems so far. I haven't tried to DL any large files yet, but I will write about that later.
As of this moment, I am happy with my "$55 Home+Mobile internet for life" deal.