Quicker than a Ray Of Light

I’ve had the opportunity to live in Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond, Carnation & Issaquah since I first left my alma matter back in the days of when Mosaic ruled the web. However, of all those places, I’ve loved my current home the most.

What do I love about my current home in the Issaquah Highlands, you ask? To quote a cell phone company’s ad “It’s the network”.

fiberWe’re talking about the only housing development in the Pacific Northwest that I’m aware of that has fiber optic network connectivity in to the home. The community’s network is run by the Highlands Fiber Network (although ISOMedia is my ISP and Ecuity provides my VOIP service).

One of the nice things about a community owned network, is that the operators of the network are more focused on customer service than profitability. We probably have the best performing residential network in the county. Are you ready for HDTV over IP? I didn’t think so. If that wasn’t cool enough, our network traffic goes straight to the Westin building in downtown Seattle, so it’s very reliable (I’d say it’s very close to ‘five nines’ level of uptime). BTW, if your ISP is Qwest, Comcast or Verizon, your internet traffic usually goes to San Jose first, before it comes back to Seattle (which leaves you vulnerable to backhoe denial of service attacks).

Nearly every room has a phone jack, cable/satellite TV jack, and an ethernet jack. All of the cables get routed into a wiring closet in my master bedroom. So equipment upgrades are pretty painless. Even cooler, some outlets have 2 TV jacks, so if you have a dual tuner TIVO, you can record 2 TV shows at once, or watch live TV while recording a show on another channel at the same time.

Perhaps, best of all my network speeds are FAST. My download speeds currently approach 10 Mb/sec (typical DSL speeds are about 768 Kb/sec). My ISP says I could go even faster if I was willing to pay for it (contrary to popular belief network bandwidth isn’t free).

Yeah, the eco-friendly building materials, the gas stove w/ stainless steel appliances, the clawfoot tub, the easy access to I-90, the nearby parks, the new elementary school and kid friendly neighborhood were all things that my wife & I both love about the house & the neighborhood. But you can get all that stuff in many neighborhoods.

So, if you’re tech savvy person with a family, and want a nice place to live, look no further than here. Builders (& their real estate agents) are standing by.

Robbie

10 thoughts on “Quicker than a Ray Of Light

  1. Robbie, I just read this. That’s what I get for missing a day or two of RCG. I am so glad to know you love it, too. Whose’s your builder? I day trade so need super fast speed and it sounds like we’ve got it. Can I ask questions now and then about how to use the system correctly? I understand you can hook it up to your furnace, lights, etc. I’m really pumped. I’m the gray house below the Burnsteads. Fab view. come visit when we move in in March.!

  2. My builder is Specialized Homes. As for the networking, you should have a World Wide Packets switch in your wiring closet after you call up Isomedia/HFN to install your net service. I haven’t hooked up my furnance and lights up to the internet. Maybe that’s a new feautre of House 2007? I’m still living in the 2005 version.

  3. Robbie, can you post a quick update for us please. It’s been 17 months since your last post. Are you still loving it? I am asking because I am considering buying a condo there. Also, if you don’t mind me asking, are you on the lower 6Mbps tier ($41.90 per month)?

  4. Pingback: Windermere’s Web Site Strikes Back | Rain City Guide

Leave a Reply