CONNECTED to Internet!
- Nurse Karl
- Jan 29
- 3 min read
22 Oct, 2022
We are CONNECTED!
When we first moved into the real house, we moved our WeBoost cell signal booster from the RV we had been living in, to the house, and had the cord running in through a window with foam all around to keep the bugs out. It worked OK, but of course, we wanted more.
Our internet or lack thereof has been somewhat of an issue since we bought this property. We are in the country, so not unusual, we are not alone in this. We discovered that in our area, the company you choose is dependent upon your line of sight to the tower. If you can see Baldy Mountain, Intermax is your company. We had a guy come survey our land and show us where the best place would be to mount the small dish that would face their tower. Trees, buildings, and other things that would obscure your direct line of sight of the tower will impact your service quality.
First, we dug a trench with our excavator from the house to the pole location. We laid Schedule 40 pipe and dug under the foundation and into the crawl space. The pipe was doubled or protected within a larger diameter pipe under the driveway due to risk of crushing injury from vehicles driving over this area. This pipe is for the cable that connects from the dish to the house, where the modem connects to. Luckily our ground is mostly sand, easier to dig than dirt. We used the old vacuum the string trick (tie a plastic bag to the end of the pulling line and suck it through the pipe from the other end) so it will be easier to install the cable.
Intermax gave us a drawing and instructions on how to make the pole for the dish. We did not listen the first time and had to do it over. [Advice: Do not deviate from the instructions!] Instructions stated to dig a hole and set metal pole in concrete. We dug a hole and buried a flag pole and used dirt and rocks to compact it. Wrong! Upon inspection, we were advised to try again. Inspector leaves and then had to make another appointment for inspection.
The correct way is to dig a hole, set a metal pipe in concrete to mount the dish on. We did this and had an inspector come again. We should have done it like we were told, but we thought we knew better : (
After we were done, we called to have it inspected again and once approved, we were able to make an appointment for the installer to come and install our wifi. We anxiously awaited for Connection Day and I was so happy when the installer came. He mounted the dish on the pole. The dish looked pretty heavy, which explains why the instructions were for a metal pole in concrete. Then he crawled into our crawl space under the house and knocked on the floor from underneath until he was under where the modem would be installed. He drilled a hole and pushed the cable through into the house. The cable went from there to the area where we dug the pipe under the foundation of the house (still in the crawl space). Then the cable was fished through to the dish and Voila! We had connection!
The dish is about 75 feet from our house (see above photo, pole to house). We watched everything that day from Netflix to Paramount+ to Hulu and Disney+. Perfect. It has been perfect ever since. We have been able to stream shows, use to internet, and video conference without a glitch…all for the bargain price of a flat $69/month.
One thing at a time, one more thing accomplished on our short list of making our house a home.
(Though Intermax works for us, it does not work for my neighbor right next to me because they have huge trees in their front yard that they are not willing to part with and thus, do not have a clear line of sight to their tower.)
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