Now I Know

I think now I understand why my wireless ISP is called Ricochet: everytime my laptop sends a packet of data out the antenna, that data ricochets off every nearby, flat surface...bing, bing, bing...and finally runs out of energy and collapses on the ground where it's ground to bits under passing feet. OK, maybe it just seems that way. Seriously, the available bandwidth is near zero far too often. Many sites time out on me. For someone involved in web publishing, this can be more than frustrating. It can mean the difference between being the first to market with a story or being the 20th link in the chain.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not quite ready to trash my modem card just yet. But as soon as there's more competition in this market, I'll begin looking. Ricochet needs to get the backend of their system upgraded and make the total data path from me to web as speedy as it usually is from me to their transmitters. This is a wonderfully useful service, but really frustrating when it works slowly, or not at all.