Frequently Asked Questions

New Source Broadband uses a two-way radio and antenna system called a “Subscriber Module” or “SM” installed on your roof, an exterior wall, or some other structure outside your home or office to provide an Internet connection via sophisticated wireless technology. This combination transmitter/receiver/antenna system is carefully aligned by our installation technician to point at a corresponding Access Point on a nearby tower, and must have a clear line‚Äêof‚Äêsight (no trees, buildings, or hills blocking the path). Depending on how far your SM is from our tower, the SM may be a small rectangular unit, or can be a dish (similar to a satellite dish in appearance) up to 24 inches in diameter. When you send and receive information over the Internet, it goes over the wireless link from your radio/antenna to our Access Point. From there that information travels over our “backhaul,” which is a point to point wireless or fiber-optic connection hooked directly to the Internet. Our service has very low “latency” (or delay) compared to satellite Internet, where signals must travel thousands of miles into space. NSB’s service is well suited for digital phone (also known as Voice over Internet Protocol/VoIP) and other uses such as VPNs or gaming.

New Source Broadband’s installation technician professionally mounts your Subscriber Module radio/antenna unit in an outdoor location with clear “line-of-site” to a nearby tower. Depending on the specific requirements for your situation, it may be on the roof, high on an exterior wall, or even on a pole or small tripod unit. The technician then runs an Ethernet cable (Cat5e cable) from the outdoor unit along the outside of your home or office (we try to hide the cable by following rain gutters, or using other ways to disguise the wire), to a location where we can then bring the wire inside to a location agreed upon between you and the installation technician prior to installation. Bringing the wire inside may require drilling a small hole or may follow an existing entry such as a duct or prior cable, phone or satellite TV installation entry.

New Source Broadband basic installation will include a single Ethernet connection inside your home or business. If you need to connect more than one computer or other network device to the internet, you will need to purchase a router either from New Source Broadband, or from a store that sells computer hardware. A router acts as a “traffic manager” that permits connecting multiple devices to a single internet connection. As an added benefit, it also provides some additional security for you since it acts as a basic “firewall” device. Many routers for home and small business use have “ports” for up to four computers to be connected using Ethernet cables. Wireless routers also include the capability of allowing you to connect devices using Wi-Fi technology.

Weather does not cause a significant degradation of service even in many severe storms. Your connection will remain stable even during winter months or other stormy periods. Rarely, heavy rains that are continuous over several hours/days may cause a degradation of service. Wireless Internet access requires a “line-of-site” connection from your house to one of our towers. This means that any large trees, buildings or other obstructions may cause a degraded level of service. Our installers do a site survey before installing to make sure that there is a good signal. The most common way in which weather can affect service is indirect, when weather conditions cause intermittent “line-of-site” obstructions from tall trees or other obstructions blowing into the path.

Yes, New Source Broadband High Speed Internet Service is always on, and always available, as long as your Subscriber Module has power. You do not have to do anything to either connect to the service, or to log on. Your connection is a secure link “locked” to your Subscriber Module.

New Source Broadband High Speed Internet does not have any specific or minimum computer requirements, other than that the computer must have the ability to communicate over standard Ethernet networking via Cat 5e Ethernet cable (or via Wi-Fi, if you have a Wi-Fi access point or router). Windows-based PC’s, Mac’s, and most Linux-based systems with internet capabilities are all welcome. We do recommend that if you use Windows, you use Windows 7 or later, or make 3rd party security arrangements to protect your computer. Versions of Windows prior to Windows 7 have many security issues that expose them to significant threats over the internet.

We typically schedule a Site Survey and Inspection by our Installation Technician within a few days of placing an order. Once we’ve determined that the service will work at your location, the technician can usually do the installation on the same trip. Basic installation usually takes 2-3 hours to complete, unless there are unusual installation challenges or requirements that call for hardware or materials that are not normally carried by the technician, or that are not stock items and require a special order.

The high quality Subscriber equipment we use in order to provide the level and quality of service offered by New Source Broadband is not appropriate for installation by the end user, and only professional installation is available.

If you already have hosted email accounts (i.e., Yahoo!, MSN, Hotmail, Gmail, etc.) you can access these accounts over the New Source Broadband Internet connection. We also provide email accounts that are included with the Internet service, and they can be accessed via the web or from a PC based email program such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird.