The Frustrations Of Rural Internet AND Netflix

[dadster4]

Why is that? Is the cable buried or aerial? Typically splices have no real impact on service unless it is a bad splice.

Trees have taken the aerial line down several times. I've had two repair men tell me it took them way too many tries to find a pair that worked all the way down.

 

[Oaktree]

Let me introduce you the the wide wide world of Shortwave listening and AM band Dxing with proper receivers and antennas. Or if you would like to participate as well as passive listen you can easily get your Amateur radio license and you can "fight back" You can talk and communicate as well as passively receive.

You have alternatives, you just need to explore them. With thousands of stations to listen to in the electromagnetic spectrum, surely you can find something that interests you.

Is there anything worth listening to left on shortwave? Maybe 30+ years ago, but many countries have discontinued (or sharply curtailed) SW broadcasts in favor of satellite delivery/local rebroadcast. Even here in the U.S....seems like after 7pm 'most every NPR station is just a relay of the BBC. I suppose if you're interested in fringe religion or conspiracy theories...

Isn't ham radio pretty much dead as a hobby too? I'm a boomer, and even growing up it seemed to be something my father's generation did (or at least guys a good 10 years older than me) more than anyone my age.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Very interesting replies but I have to go back and read them. The (lousy) winter weather here has kept me occupied.

I thought my install for the new internet was for today, but there was some miscommunication, so it's not until next week. The weather would not have permitted it anyhow.

Many Internet supported things (Especially Apple TV and Netflix) take forever to come back up again, even if the Internet connection is re-established. If you have your own LAN (possible trouble) and an iffy Internet connection, you often don't really know where you stand.

In other words, repair a bad connection or plug in an unplugged cable and it's not light a light bulb. It doesn't come back on instantly, so it's very hard to troubleshoot.

Maybe someone that knows the Internet can say. Is this to protect the Internet? So if there is an outage, everything isn't trying and retrying desperately to get back on?

 

[Industrial Toys]

Read the posts. Thank you. Good information about Netflix quality (bandwidth) options. Despite the marketing hype about needing HI Def, your brain, engrossed in subject matter could care less about picture quality. I watched some crappy 10 or 12" wireless tv monitor for over a year when my Toshiba 35" CRT TV died an untimely death. In fact, often if I can't sleep, I'll watch some youtube documentary on my tiny I-Phone in bed, never thinking, I wish I had a huge hi def screen!

I share my internet with mostly absent weekend neighbors. They paid for it for years using Bell, and now is my turn. We use an Engenius link about a quarter mile away. Something maybe to consider for people that can virtually see good Internet, but don't have access to it.

Funny. There was a high speed provider with a hundred foot tower across the road, about five minutes walking. Government funded. Whenever I called to inquire, they INSISTED, I wasn't in their coverage area. And you wonder why they went belly up?

 

[k0ua]

Is there anything worth listening to left on shortwave? Maybe 30+ years ago, but many countries have discontinued (or sharply curtailed) SW broadcasts in favor of satellite delivery/local rebroadcast. Even here in the U.S....seems like after 7pm 'most every NPR station is just a relay of the BBC. I suppose if you're interested in fringe religion or conspiracy theories...

Isn't ham radio pretty much dead as a hobby too? I'm a boomer, and even growing up it seemed to be something my father's generation did (or at least guys a good 10 years older than me) more than anyone my age.

No, not at all. There are more "hams" now than ever before. Many people have predicted the death of Amateur Radio, but it has not come to pass. It is true that many of of are long in the tooth, but there are many newcomers too. Ham radio is so many different things to different people. But the overall trend is one of growth. It is also true that many SW broadcast's have been curtailed, but I never listened much to the broadcasters even during their heyday. I was much more fascinated with listening for the "utility" stations. All those services like marine, aeronautical, and yes clandestine. I had a nice conversation with an airliner pilot in the air over the ocean one day, many decades ago, and it turns out he was the king of Jordan. He flew his own plane over here for some sort of a conference in Washington. Not a whole lot of folks can say they have spoken to the king of a country, even one as small as Jordan. So there is still plenty to hear and do if you are inclined.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Weird. I worked with a somewhat genius of a black man in the 80s that spoke of some association with this King of Jordan. I never remembered this until your remark, but sadly, don't remember the details.

 

[bigdeano]

Exede satellite is advertising full speed up to 150GB then throttling if the sat is overloaded. Sat internet seems to be changing with the new sats they're putting up.

 

[k0ua]

Weird. I worked with a somewhat genius of a black man in the 80s that spoke of some association with this King of Jordan. I never remembered this until your remark, but sadly, don't remember the details.

On the flip side as a very new and young Amateur Radio Operator, I spoke to the station they had set up at Jones-town Guyana. They made a lot of contacts for the time that they were there. They also used Amateur radio to try to recruit people, and ask for funds from sympathetic Americans. Then they all drank the purple drink and that was that. It seemed to me that they were on 15 meters nearly every day.

 

[marchanna]

Do you guys all have cell signal where you are?

I use a Cradlepoint IBR560 cellular modem with a yagi antenna. I just point the antenna in the direction of the nearest tower, which is about 12kms (7.4 miles) away and happens to be on the other side of a pretty big ridge, and I get excellent LTE service between 15 - 25 Mbps up and down. Our regular cell service here is almost non-exitent, so I actually need a separate cell signal booster for our cell phones also. It's expensive for the service where I am, but in the US, you guys have some pretty decent cell data plans, as mentioned on another thread - $20/mo unlimited AT&T.

 

[3Ts]

Let me introduce you the the wide wide world of Shortwave listening and AM band Dxing with proper receivers and antennas. Or if you would like to participate as well as passive listen you can easily get your Amateur radio license and you can "fight back" You can talk and communicate as well as passively receive.

You have alternatives, you just need to explore them. With thousands of stations to listen to in the electromagnetic spectrum, surely you can find something that interests you.

I've been thinking about getting a HAM setup, but I've been unable to find out how to get an antenna installed, other than DIY. I'm down in a bowl and at my age, climbing towers is not going to happen. I can't find anyone with info on towers - I'm probably looking at 40 to 60'. I see that Solid Signal has towers, but who installs them?