yep i did like bein with a signal company my year there
as for gettin onto CA and d/l'ing you should be able to get on once in a while whatever yer circumstance and checkout whats goin on. (unless your really in BFE, like the border) downloads on the otherhand are another matter. i had my own in room internet in Kandahar (good ole candyland) for Skype'ing with the wife and could sometimes d/l on that. however it took a long time (26 hours for all parts of NF4+!). and our CO wasnt much for morale use of the network other than email Google and planned videoconferences back home, so not so much d/l on NIPR. another option if you have your laptop and a good friend/family in the states is to get a thumbdrive sent with some d/l's to add to yer game. also assumin your on a budget (like most soldiers) get Gimp and try your hand at skinning/decalling. hey ya got nuthin but time to give it a go.
ok sorry just read ya post on location. still our teams that went to start ups like that said they went up pretty quick. and if you have a JNN team in the area and you got a useful jobset (supply, cooks, mechanics) make nice with em quick. they got yer internet (however slow!)