So today I went to KBC to work on the Internet connection. Alister Sammons, our doctor friend from the UK had a MiFi unit that he has setup with a Vodacom SIM chip and account. I borrowed it so I could test it out at KBC to see if we could work with Vodacom’s Internet service instead of the TTCL DSL line. Using a trick I learned a while back, I was able to setup a wireless bridge to the MiFi from the KBC network. The resulting Internet speed was astounding. With this device we clocked Internet speeds that were more than 20 times the speed than that of TTCL’s service. Changing over to Vodacom? It’s was a no brainer. Now the difficultly we faced was how to get a hold of a MiFi unit in Kasulu. Certainly, it would not be available locally in Kasulu or Kigoma. Perhaps we might be able to get one in Mwanza. But the most likely scenario is that we would have to get it in Dar Es Salaam. We checked with the local VodaCom Shop and as I suspected, we would need to get the unit in Dar. That could take a while to get, probably past the time we are here. So for the moment I went with Plan B, which is to install a Vodacom Cellular modem (the red thing in the picture below) in the server and then setup Internet Sharing to the rest of the network. That worked very well. Afterwards, when we returned to the compound, we discussed our options with Bishop Makaya. As it turns out, there is someone from the Diocese flying back from Dar on Monday. Perfect!! So the Bishop called them and instructed them to purchase two MiFi devices to bring back with them. One we will use at the Bible College and the other will be setup for the Diocese office network.
To add to the increase in speed, the other blessing in all of this is that the Internet fee’s for the Doicese and KBC will be cut significantly. For instance, at KBC, we are paying 210,000 Shillings per month for unlimited Internet access. That’s about $150 per month. With the Vodacom MiFi setup we will be paying 20,000 Shillings per month. Basically 1/10 of the cost. This is a significant savings for the Bible College, which struggles enough with the month to month finances. So with the financial support from St. Paul’s their Internet fee’s are fully covered and then some. I could not be more pleased for them that we found this solution.
Tonight we had dinner at Canon Wilson Mafumbi’s home. As usual, we were treated as honored guests with all sorts of food; chicken, fish, rice, peas, greens, cooked banana and of course my favorite pineapple. Hawaii has nothing on Tanzania for the most delicious pineapple. And talk about avocado’s!!
At the moment, we are sitting here in the dark, both of us writing blogs and sending E-mail. In downtown Kasulu, there is a fire. Looks like one of the shops caught fire and was burning out of control when we passed through town. They probably cut the power because of it. I’m just hoping they can get it under control as it could easily spread from shop to shop and take out a large section of the market area. As far as I know, there is nothing such as a fire-brigade in Kasulu, and certainly no fire trucks. This could be devastating to the shop owners. It’s not like they have insurance of any kind here. They stand to loose everything. Lord may it not be!
Ah! The lights are back on. That’s a good sign. So with that I’ll say good night and look forward to another beautiful day in Kasulu tomorrow.
Bill
Today we spend a fair amount of time at the Diocese office. I had figured out most of what was wrong with their network, but still wanted to see if I could get the outside wireless access point working properly. Long story short, I came close to getting it working, but there is definitely something wrong with the configuration of the device that I have not yet figured out completely. After doing electronic battle with it from about 10 AM to 1 PM, I figured it was time to put it down, have some lunch and get back to it on another day; hopefully with a fresh mind. Sometimes it just best to be patient and let it wait. I’ve had to do that a lot here in Tanzania over the years. In our culture, we often expect instant results and instant satisfaction. But out here where resources are limited, I had to learn to wait a day or two to get the result I am looking for.
After lunch, we went to the Bible College to continue to setup the new thin client computers. We have all five of them in operation now. I also started to download a new printer driver to get the new printer working from the main server. Interestingly, I found that the Internet connection (which is a DSL connection through the local Tanzanian telephone company – TTCL) is not running all that fast. The download was taking a really long time, or at least longer than I would expected for a “2 Gigabite” connection that we are paying for. I did some testing and found that the Internet connection at the Diocese compound has the same problem. Effectively, the connection speed is about 1/10 the speed of what they are paying for. Hmm??? I’m going to have to look into this further tomorrow, as I’m concerned that they are not getting what they are paying for.
I would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and guidance as I look into this and bring it to the attention of the TTCL rep. Unfortunately, you find quite often this kind of practice of quoting one thing and only giving partial of what was promised happens in this part of the world. I’m hoping I can approach this with patience but also with firmness with TTCL so that we can improve their Internet speed.
That being said, I’m still pleased that we were able to get some more of our planned work done today. We were planning to practice some song together (we know we will be asked to sing on Sunday), but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow and perhaps get some time in the afternoon to do that.
It’s 10:30 PM now, so I think I’ll shut things down soon for a good nights rest. The room we are in staying in at the compound has worked out nicely. Cathy is writing about it in our other blog; http://trips.schrull.us Be sure to link over to it to see what her perspectives on the day are.
Lala Salama
Bill