What computer infrastructure is needed to do WTM online classes?

[Pen]

We are out in country with only dial up connection. At this time, we cannot get much contents and also cannot post pictures etc.  We can do the sorts of basics that are needed to read and write on this forum.

 

 I am wondering if considering geography from WTM academy would be realistic or total fantasy. Can anyone taking one of these classes tell me what is needed to make the class work reasonably?

[Lanny]

If your Internet access is with Dial Up I suspect you would have frequent issues with your connection dropping, if you try to stay connected for any length of time. Also, if there are any videos you need to view, or large files you need to download, I suspect there would be issues.

 

I believe it would depend upon whether or not the "online" classes are Synchronous or Asynchronous.

Synchronous would probably not work for you on Dial up, Asynchronous might.

 

It would also depend upon whether their "online" classes are entirely online, or, as in the case of my DD, are textbook based.

 

I suggest that you write an email with your questions/concerns and send it to the WTMAcademy for their comments. GL

[Amira]

I don't think it would work although it's not impossible. You would need to download the software to listen to the classes and you can sign up for the delayed classes so it wouldn't be as much of a problem if the connection were dropped.

 

Can you do Skype or something similar over your connection?

[Pen]

Cannot Skype, no. How does that relate?

[Amira]

I'm thinking that if your connection isn't good enough to Skype, it's not going to be good enough to listen to the class.

[deerforest]

They list the requirements in the FAQs:

 

http://www.wtmacademy.com/faq/#

[Lanny]

I believe this would be extremely problematic. Call or go to the local office of your phone company and ask if they can provide ADSL service to you now, or if they expect to be able to do that in the near future. We live in a huge rural subdivision and we have ADSL. We are probably about 2 or 3 air miles from the phone company installation in our city.

 

Also, where we lived before, in a very Rural section of the city of Cali (it was very rural when we lived there, it is very built up now) we had Cable Modem service. We've lived here for 10 1/2 years, so that was probably installed about 14 years ago. One of my friends came to visit us then, he lived in a rural location near Houston. He was amazed that we had Cable Modem service where we lived, because he was on dial up. I believe he has ADSL or Cable Modem service now.

 

DD does Skype Video calls with a girl in a tiny town in Texas weekly and they have no problems with their calls.

 

So I suggest that you try to get better/more dependable/faster internet access, before you try Online courses. And yes, if you cannot use Skype, that's an indicator that your access speed and the quality of the connection isn't going to hack it.  My wife is out of town now because her mother is in the hospital. In that house they have what I assume must be Cable Modem service. If my DD tries to talk with her mother on Skype, even Audio only, their connection drops out frequently. Our ADSL is very solid and does not drop out.  ADSL bandwidth is guaranteed to your phone line so it is the best (IMHO) and most reliable Internet access available at this time. Cable Modem bandwidth is shared with your neighbors.

 

If you cannot get ADSL then try for Cable Modem service.  One of my childhood friends lives in UT in a very rural location and I believe his Internet access is via terrestrial radio.  I can't remember exactly what it is called as I write this.  Possibly that would be available to you. I have done  Video calls with him on Skype. GL

[Lanny]

WiMax is another possibility for you. Cali, Colombia was one of the first cities in the world to have that and that was my "dream" Internet access, for years, when we were on Dial Up in this house, but they never offered it to where we live now... I believe San Diego was another of the first cities to have WiMax. Possibly WiMax coverage is available to you. That works via a radio link from your house to the repeater of the WiMax  provider and no cables in the street are involved. Your phone company or some other company may offer something like WiMax Internet access.

[Lanny]

Follow on: 

Regarding my comments about the Cable Modem service in MIL's house dropping out frequently during Skype Audio calls, I discovered yesterday it wasn't their Cable Modem service. It is their computer. DD and my wife (she has been out of town for a week because her mother was in the hospital until yesterday in the afternoon) were talking on Skype Audio. After awhile, I realized the Skype connection was not dropping out on them. I asked DD to ask her mother if she was using her Dell Latitude E6400 laptop, or the computer in the house where her mother lives. She was using her laptop...  They had an open Skype Audio connection most of the day yesterday. So, I suggested to my wife that she Delete the Drivers for the Network chip and the Wifi in their computer and then restart M$ Windows. Possibly that will help their PC...

 

I still believe Dial Up will not hack it for any online courses. Possibly an alternative would be to go to a Public library or some other place, where your DC can use a computer with a solid connection for the course.   GL

[Pen]

Thanks!

 

I hope that a good wired type connection will arrive here eventually, though electric arrived in this area in 1948, so I won't hold my breath. I don't want a WiMax to come here due to health/environmental concerns.

 

We do use high speed at the library about once per week, but it is a bit of a drive to get there--more than I'd like to do for a frequent class, and I don't want to have to get there if roads are icy or that sort of thing. So, I'll wait on such classes, and we'll see what comes. We were able to do the Bravewriter class because of the way it is set up, so sometimes there may be things we can do already. Most of the time, I guess not.

[Lanny]

Thanks!

 

I hope that a good wired type connection will arrive here eventually, though electric arrived in this area in 1948, so I won't hold my breath. I don't want a WiMax to come here due to health/environmental concerns.

 

We do use high speed at the library about once per week, but it is a bit of a drive to get there--more than I'd like to do for a frequent class, and I don't want to have to get there if roads are icy or that sort of thing. So, I'll wait on such classes, and we'll see what comes. We were able to do the Bravewriter class because of the way it is set up, so sometimes there may be things we can do already. Most of the time, I guess not.

 

Respectfully, I truly do not believe your family would have any health issues if WiFi coverage became available where you live. Where we lived before, at that time a very rural area of the city of Cali, we had 2 phone lines. One was a traditional "landline". The other worked via radio, so it was slower. They put a little antenna on our roof as I recall and there was a cable from that antenna to the phone inside our house. That was the company that was a WiMax pioneer....

 

I *would* be concerned about high voltage cross country power lines near my house, for health reasons.

 

This year, we had a special meeting of our homeowners association, because one of the cell phone providers made an offer if they could put a cell tower just inside our property.  I thought long and hard about that. One of our neighbors is an Electronic Engineer and he worked for that cell phone provider for many years. He studied the issue quite thoroughly. In the end, all but one property owner voted to approve the contract. The money will help us with our infrastructure. If we had not approved it, they would have planted their tower just across our property line and someone else would have received the money and if there were any health issues, the added distance from our houses and the tower would have been only a few additional meters.  There was a LONG discussion about this at that meeting, before we voted to approve the contract.

 

One family claimed their daughter had an illness due to something like that and we all deeply sympathized with them for what she had experienced, but I truly doubt their daughters problems were caused by what they claimed.

 

You probably get a lot more electromagnetic on your body from using a foot massager, or a man using an electric shaver. 

 

I understand about driving on snow/ice. Been there and done that. I sincerely hope that they will offer some kind of Broadband internet service (or even mobile internet from a cell phone provider) in the near future.  

 

Oh, for a long time, in the house of the Electronic Engineer neighbor, they had Mobile Internet. Since he worked for them, possibly they got it free so he could test it...

[Pen]

Respectfully, I truly do not believe your family would have any health issues if WiFi coverage became available where you live. 

 

 I know of a number of people who do seem to have problems from it.  Lead, germs, and cigarettes have all been poo-poohed in their day as just craziness that anyone could think they are anything but safe. I am one who believes that all this wireless stuff will end up in that category. I also know people who think that it is safe, including my Dad, but also note that he has had 2 cancers in the vicinities of where he carried a pager and then cell phone for many years. 

 

I *would* be concerned about high voltage cross country power lines near my house, for health reasons.

 

Me too!

 

 

You probably get a lot more electromagnetic on your body from using a foot massager, or a man using an electric shaver. 

 

Not me nor my family since we don't use these things. And for anyone who does, they will get more still (that is, it will not be an either/or thing, but a cumulative both together thing, if there is Wi-Max, and presumably the Wi-Max is 24/7, not just for a few minutes a day to shave, or however long someone would do an electric foot massage.

 

I understand about driving on snow/ice. Been there and done that. I sincerely hope that they will offer some kind of Broadband internet service (or even mobile internet from a cell phone provider) in the near future.  

 

I hope the wired service via the phone company will come. In the city area nearest us they have started fiberoptic service which supposedly is great. Also our local schools got in a special long distance wired service under some rural educational grant. And it is fabulous. We don't have cell phone service here except for if climbing high into a tree...and I like it that way just fine.

 

Oh, for a long time, in the house of the Electronic Engineer neighbor, they had Mobile Internet. Since he worked for them, possibly they got it free so he could test it...

 

 

Anyway, I hope you are right since, globally, it is getting pretty ubiquitous. Respectfully, though, I think the people who have shown that it changes things in everyone's bodies, even people who are unaware of any ill effects, and at least a good number of the people who say, like your neighbor, that they have symptoms from it are telling the truth.

[Lanny]

I share some of your concerns. We use our cell phones very little. I believe in the future a percentage of people who use them constantly will have a higher percentage of problems than people who do not use them at all, or, who like us, use them infrequently.

 

I would NOT want to live very near to high voltage cross country power lines!

 

I have worked on projects involving Radar, etc., and am aware of the concerns people have about different things. 

 

I sincerely hope that your family will have access to Broadband Internet or Mobile Internet in your home ASAP!

[Pen]

Update: Possibly of interest related to this:

 

 

"The abstracts of these 2014 studies state that RF should now be regarded as a “Group 1 Human Carcinogen,†placing it in the same category as tobacco, asbestos and benzene. "

 

http://www.prlog.org/12421346-researchers-conclude-wireless-radiation-causes-cancer-after-latest-scientific-findings-announced.html

 

excerpt:

 

"PRLog - Feb. 3, 2015 - The National Association for Children and Safe Technology (NACST) is taking action after two recently published studies indicate there is sufficient evidence demonstrating exposure to wireless radiation, also known as RF-EMF, causes cancer.  Wireless routers and devices such as tablets, laptops, baby monitors and cell phones all emit this type of radiation.

NACST is calling on children’s health and cancer prevention organizations to make the issue of children's health and exposure to wireless radiation in educational settings an immediate priority for 2015.

The State of the Science:  The Debate is Over

 

 

...

 

Scientists Call for the World Health Organization to Reclassify RF-EMF

In 2011, the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified RF radiation as a Class 2B, “possible human carcinogen.† Since 2011, several of the World Health Organization invited scientists have called for a reclassification to an increased risk level.  The abstracts of these 2014 studies state that RF should now be regarded as a “Group 1 Human Carcinogen,†placing it in the same category as tobacco, asbestos and benzene.  "

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure why the priority should be educational settings rather than home, but for home schooled kids it is the same thing.

 

 

 

Since our phone company says a wired service is unlikely to come to our area through them, I am now trying to figure out if satellite service with only hardwired connections from the dish to the house and devices (no wifi or wireless routers) is possible.

 

Cancer is serious, but some time in forming. Equally I am concerned about research I've seen that shows that EMF radiation breaks DNA--even for people who have no symptoms, and that headaches and other symptoms affect others in the short term as well as there being long term issues. 

 

As well, our area used to have plentiful bees and bats...something has happened to them. Not sure what. But increased EMF radiation is a part of environmental changes around here.