Comments on: Evaluating Decatur Wi-Fi

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:15:30 +0000

Seconding this. I’ve gotten full signal strength in two different 30030 locations (one on W. Howard Ave, one on Trinity).

By: Nelliebelle1197

Nelliebelle1197 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:38:40 +0000

My internet was down for a few days during a transition of providers and I tried to subscribe to Decatur WiFi using one of the pay as you go options. It was a mess. Gave me headaches. No signal, couldn’t get it load so I could actually PAY.

By: Stationary Dave

Stationary Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:00:43 +0000

Could barely get a Decatur WiFi signal on Columbia, so haven’t used it much.

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:10:35 +0000

I bought the getthespeed modem for $75. It is in the window closest to a repeater (maybe 5 houses away). I am pretty disappointed. I wanted to use it to get rid of our terrible AT&T DSL that drops every day but Decatur WiFi seems to be very slow. I have the middle tier of DSL and the specs on Decatur WiFi are better than the DSL I am paying for but it is much slower. It also looses it’s signal when it rains. I am going to try to return the modem when my month trial is over.

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:46:56 +0000

Coventry Resident, check out the link to Dave’s site above…he bought the wireless modem for $75 and it seems to be working quite well for him. Again it’s going to depend on your location in relation to a wifi station on the street, but it does seem to do quite a bit to improve the signal quality indoors.

By: Stan

Stan — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:32:08 +0000

I have a mac too, but I use only the home base station anyway with a AirPort Express wireless router. Works great. The main cool thing is that you can put the modem pretty much anywhere in your house. They say you need to put it near a window, but the signal is so strong I get 5 bars in the middle of my (stone) house. It’s much more convenient than needing a phone jack or cable outlet nearby.

I pretty much use my iPhone for my mobile computing, so I didn’t opt for the mobile plan.

By: jared

jared — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:19:59 +0000

I switched out Comcast for clear after ditching cable tv and not wanting to pay the $20 penalty per month to keep the cable modem I have found their WiMax service very fast and reliable once you find a spot in your home that gets 4-5 bars. I live in Decatur near Adair.

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:28:53 +0000

I’ve often attempted to use Decatur WiFi a few feet from the router/transmitters without luck. Sometimes the signal is there, sometimes not, sometimes it connects, sometimes not. I once tried streaming a popular Internet radio station at the lowest possible quality (~ 33k) while outdoors on the ASC campus (allegedly covered entirely by Decatur WiFi…in reality not so much). It would sputter and give up, so I’d keep trying continuously; and then the connection would just drop entirely even though I hadn’t moved. The last time I was indoors at ASC, we couldn’t use Decatur WiFi on laptops in multiple buildings. Thankfully the library has their own WiFi that actually works.