2.4 GHz	First Step Internet,  $35.00/mo for 800K/128K
2.6 GHz	Clearwire, $34.98/mo for 768K/256K
5.8 GHz	Cactus SkyLink, $34.95/mo for 1600K/400K

Moscow Map 9/26/07 SkyLink access points are located at: Cactus at 211 S. Main Courthouse Residence St. near the water tower Russett at 231 Lauder Ave. Western end of Paradise Ridge Moscow Mountain, first saddle east of the highway (not shown on map) Moser St. 506 N. Jefferson Quail Run - near highway Hillcrest Motel

Pullman Map 7/29/07 SkyLink access points are located at: Port of Whitman Industrial Park Off Albion road Greystone Apartments at 430 NE Maple St. Cougar Place - 850 N. E. C St. Coffee House at 1000 SE Latah St. Glendimer Apts - Wayne St. Glendimer Apts - Turner St.

If you think you qualify or just don't know, phone us with your street address and Monica or Frank will zoom in on it using Google Earth, which can be made to show the land contours, trees and buildings.  They will start with a "virtual survey".  Phone us at 208-883-5500.

If it looks like it will work, we’ll arrange a time for our technicians to go and make really sure it will work, along with installing the radio equipment.  Your computer will need an Ethernet port, and we can install one if you don't already have it.  If you have multiple computers, you'll need a router or switch so they can all be on the Internet at the same time.  Let us know if we should bring one.

We normally use outdoor wireless antennas for the 5.8 GHz service.  But under certain circumstances an indoor unit makes sense.  If your home is less than one mile from the access point and you have a window or frame wall facing the right direction near your computer, the indoor unit is much easier to install.  If you are a short time resident or renter, an indoor unit is practical when spending 3 hours installing an outdoor unit on a building which doesn't even belong to you is not.

In the chart below, the pricing includes monthly equipment costs.  All of the wireless providers have a $50 installation/setup fee, except for the Cactus SkyLink indoor radio which has no installation or setup fee.  (Note:  Due to a recent change, First Step Internet's 2.4 GHz wireless prices have gone up!  The prices are now $35, $40 and $45 instead of $30, $35 and $40 respectively as the graph below would lead you to believe.)

Speed and Cost for Wireless Internet

You can see from the chart above (data gathered October, 2007) that Cactus SkyLink is faster or less expensive (or both!)  than our wireless competition.

Call us at 208-883-5500.  Why pay more for less when you can have it all!  Call 208-883-5500 now.

Advanced Features Included

Point-to-Point Connections

Using a unique, patented antenna arrangement, our SkyLink wireless network is classified by the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, as a point-to-point wireless system.  This means that your connection is not competing with anyone else's for use of the access point (the other radios know that they're not supposed to be talking when your radio talks), unlike a 2.4 GHz system which is a free-for-all at the access point (where radio collisions are common because the radios don't know when they're supposed to talk).  Also, being point-to-point allows us to use much higher power to overcome the interference which slows down 2.4 GHz radios and to achieve higher speeds over longer distances.

Better for Urban Environments

2.4 GHz works poorly in crowded urban environments because the signal bounces off buildings, cars, and other objects, garbling the original signal.  The 2.4 GHz 802.11b standard has no way of handling this except to reduce the speed of the connection.  SkyLink's 5.8 GHz radios use a special OFDM process to bring those reflections back into synchronization, which allows the radios to increase their speed.  So SkyLink works extremely well in urban environments.

Better for your home or office

Because our equipment uses 5.8 GHz, it will not interfere with your 2.4 GHz wireless LAN (and vice-versa).  With nearly three out of five people buying laptops and setting up wireless LANs, this has become an important consideration.  The same holds true for 2.4 GHz wireless phones.

High Availability

SkyLink is a self-healing, redundant mesh network, using advanced techniques to keep you on line.  For example, your SkyLink radio can automatically switch access points if your preferred parent goes down because of routine maintenance, equipment failure or interference.  It can do this even if it has to switch channels!  No one else on the Palouse has this ability.

Wireless access points have a "backhaul" path, which connects the access point to the Internet.  Using the same feature that allows your radio to switch access points in case of emergency, the access points can also switch backhaul paths.  This is the meaning of "mesh network" and Cactus SkyLink is the only mesh network on the Palouse.

High Stability

SkyLink optimizes your connection over time, discovering the best modulation rate to achieve a consistent, fast connection.  The process is quite complex and the radio needs to be on for several hours to complete it, but it prevents the SkyLink radios from unnecessarily reducing speed when faced with moderate interference - a problem for radios which react only to the moment.  As a result, you won't see the frequent slowdowns common to other systems.

Frequently Asked Questions

Tricks for optimizing your indoor SkyConnector

The Palouse's Oldest Wireless Internet Service Provider

Yep, believe-it-or-not, Cactus is the Palouse's oldest Wireless Internet Service Provider.  We set up our first link nearly a year before First Step Internet.  However, we were unwilling to jump on the 2.4 GHz bandwagon.  We set up a few long distance links for customers who couldn't get broadband any other way, and we find it works okay for very short distances of a few blocks.  It also works in small towns where there are only a small number of 2.4 GHz devices.  It isn't that there is anything wrong with the 2.4 GHz as a frequency, but there is with the 802.11b and g protocols that make it unsuitable for wide area networking in our opinion, then and now.  We designed our own fantasy wireless network and waited for it to become a reality.  It has.  The manufacturer is SkyPilot Networks and we have dubbed our network SkyLink^TM.

Come join the fantasy.  Call 208-883-5500.

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SkyLink^TM is a trademark of Cactus International, Inc.
Copyright (c) 2006, 2007 Cactus International, Inc.