Pixius Internet

TresCrows · Dec 30, 2005

One of the resaons I have not been on TBN over the last year very much is lack of a viable internet option. We live out far enough that there is no cable and no DSL--NADA--ZIP! Struggling with a dial up and AOL was more than I could handle. Recently another service came to my attention. Pixius Wireless Internet. It is a Broad Band wireless service that uses line of sitght towers. The tower I am on now is about seven miles distant. This requires a small dish on a tripod high on my roof. Next year they promise a tower near our area that will not require a tripod and dish--just a small antenna on our eve. Anyway, it is broad band, it is fast and so far relaible. It is also fairly cheap at only 45 dollars/month for upgraded performance and a few dollars less for a slightly reduced speed. The speed compared to dial up is amazing and my speeds are running about 150% typical T1 speeds.
Several neighbors now have the service as well. In the past some folks had Sprint but they no longer are adding customers and it was expensive!!!! Very expensive.

Does anyone use this service for their internet or what do other country folk use?
J

TresCrows · Dec 30, 2005

Here is a picture of the tripod antenna on our house. Like I was saying is that as the network expands with additional tower locations the tripod antenna will not be needed. They do not generally put up dedicated towers but rent space on existing towers. The tower we see now is quite a ways off at around seven miles, perhaps a bit more. The tripod tower is needed to clear a neighbors house and a cottonwood tree on the horizon. J

DUMBDOG · Dec 31, 2005

This is one of the reasons that we have not yet moved to the farm. Lack of a viable internet servie other that the telephone line. Now we have the same type system as you do, the tower is about two miles away. Now there are putting in high speed cable to the area.

Have high speed in town and could not go back to dial up.

Now that the obstacle to building is gone, we have to save our pennies to build.

cowboydoc · Dec 31, 2005

I think a better option is the Verizon Wireless DSL. I got it this summer and it has been nothing short of great. I have been all over the country and in some remote areas and it has never failed. Basically anyplace you can get a cellphone signal you can get the internet.

TresCrows · Jan 1, 2006

Amazingly we called Verizon over and over since we have been Verizon cell customers for years. They do not offer that service in this area. Beats me why, I gave up arguing with them. Some of our neighbors had Sprint wireless but it was much more money and after talking to them I find out they are no longer taking new customers here--why---again--I get no clear answers--sooooo--that left Pixius and it does work so far just fine. It is also cost effective.
Regardless of which service, any broad band is so far superior to the horrid dial up that there is no sense in trying to make a comparison. I don't know about you guys but our dial up was getting slower and slower and slower. It got to the point I could do virtually nothing including TBN. Pages just would not load. It may have to do with the spying or just more and more info being crammed into pages optimized for DSL and then being on dial up to open them. My wife does some of her work from home and it too was becoming impossible to access her work with the dial up.--now it is instantaneous. I uploaded MS SP2 a few weeks ago and it took over 12 hours. I uploaded it for my other computer--- took the dogs for a walk and talked with the neighbor and came back in and it was done--totally fast.

As a result of Verizons odd behavoir we left them behind, moved over to Cingular for cell service, probably a mistake but I don't care, it is just money, I just have to work some more, what the heck and the wife likes her new sleek Razer black phone she got for Christmas. Did not hurt that her battery was going bad and cost more to replace than getting up on Cingular, me too. Verizon is a good company, I hope they continue to do well, probably be back with them sometime.

Oh, happy New year to each of you for real now--it is 2006--wow---holy cow. J

Bird · Jan 1, 2006

( moved over to Cingular for cell service, probably a mistake )

I don't know why it would be a mistake. We've had Cingular almost 7 years (used to be Southwestern Bell Mobile when we first started) and have no complaints with them.

mudcat · Jan 1, 2006

DirectTV offers internet service via satelite.

jeffinsgf · Jan 1, 2006

Just took a look at Pixius' site. Nice service, but its only available in Kansas. Most wireless internet providers are focusing on major metros. It is nice to see someone adapting the technology to rural areas.

I had WildBlue satellite internet service installed a couple weeks ago. I am thoroughly satisfied with it. I first found out about WildBlue here on TBN. They have struggled with hardware supply problems, but that seems to be getting worked out. I was on the waiting list for about 3 months, but now I am not sure there is a waiting list at all. Comparing service plans, Pixius is on par with WildBlue at the low end, but for faster speeds and more service (I am running a business with my connection, as well as enjoying it personally) WildBlue is less expensive.

The installation was fast and simple and the guy made sure that I had all my computers up and running on the system before he left, even thought that is not part of their agreement.

The connection is always on. Satellite systems have some latency. What this means is that when you enter an address and request it, it takes a few seconds for the request to be processed. However, once the transfer starts, it is as fast as DSL or cable.

Best of all, unlike DirecWay, WildBlue is reasonably priced. I imagine that DirecWay will have to lower their price, now that they have some competition for satellite service.

cowboydoc · Jan 1, 2006

I had the same problem with them saying it wasn't offered. Which this isn't true because it's offered all over the country. Apparently the DSL service is in another department and all the phone part knows about is the dial up part. Anyway we went into the verizon store and got it. Anyplace you can get a cell phone signal you can get this. It's available anywhere basically.

It isn't dial-up either. It's a satellite system. It works very well. The thing I like about it is wherever I go I have the internet. There is a little card that you plug into the side and anyplace you are at you have internet if you have a phone signal.

Nasty135 · Jan 1, 2006

( They do not offer that service in this area ) Probably because the cost of the initial installation would out weigh the revenue, Maybe? Verizon would rather bide their time and have another vendor install the imbedded base and then by them out ... (It used to be Ok eat the cost for consumer loyalty)

Gte if Im not mistaken had most of the midwest and they were notorious for being shorthanded (by design) on management and technical side alike ,Where as Bell Atlantic before merging with Nynex was more service oriented lots of people to get the job done, Once merged with Nynex becoming Verizon then merging again with GTE it has been a downhill slide ever since from service to cutting heads and buying up the competition, Now I think they are to big for their britches as the stock is the lowest I have ever seen it and now they are cutting off the pensions as of JULY 2006 for the management which means if you don't have 30 yrs of service by that date you can't receive your full pension /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
" Going with the national trend" BULL

Although I am on the associate side (union) It will eventually hit me more than likely at the next contract as well as the health care situation....(like a cheese to go with that whine)

OK now thats off my chest, Verizon and Verizon wireless are two different companies that only hold hands under the table /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

TresCrows · Jan 1, 2006

Thanks cowboy, I will investigate further then, I figured there was something odd going on. Probably have to stay with Pixius but there have been a few times I would have like to be able to get my lap top up when away from home.
Nasty135, yeah, this pension thing I getting out of hand, first they want to cut SS and now pensions. Where did all that money go we have been paying in. Well, fortuanelty I am not dependeent on it and since I am healthy--I think--I just plan on working forever--lol. Verizon was making me mad about a few things--I doubt Cingular is any better thoguh, it seems Verizon has bettrer rural coverage to me but I guess I will soon find out.
I think Pixisu is available other places, just may be called a different name, it uses a Motorola developed technology so it just probably goes under differeng names in various local markets. All this stuff can get real confusing real fast, heck, I was still trying to program my VCR the day I tossed it into the garbage can. J

beagdog · Jan 1, 2006

Cingular is now offering a similar service. I don't have it personally, but my employer is providing it for me for my laptop. It's provides 256 up and down and is pretty reasonably priced (there may be other plans available offering more or less speed, I'm not sure). The service is available anywhere there is s a signal, and so far (the last three weeks or so) its been very reliable whenever I've tried it. I travel the entire state of Kansas, and there's only been a few places so far that I didn't have a signal.

TresCrows · Jan 1, 2006

OK, just did some more looking and not coming up with a Verizon acess ---cowboydoc--can you direct me to a link that describes the satellite system you are using because I must be over looking it.
Beagdog, that is interesting--how does that work--cell phone towers?
The Pixius system which is a Motorollo packet technology probably in many markets under other names is showing around 1600KBps on tests both up and down. The slowest I have seen is 1200.Try the speakeasy web site --look for speed test in the lower corner.
We have a doctor friend a few houeses off and he was satellite but it was expensive and only HS on the downlink and dial up going out. Two way satellite, is that the Verizon service you are talking about cowboydoc? Guess I am confuesed.
When the provider did the install they did a speed test over their equipment and said it was T1 plus speeds average. The speeds seem to fluctuate a bit especially on my laptop but in all cases way faster than the dial up.
Sooo, the Motorollla packet technology is bound to be used in other markets? J

_RaT_ · Jan 1, 2006

I had wireless broadband up until about 2 months ago. It was very nice after having dial up. There are newer wireless types with incredible speeds popping up out here all the time. We paid $29.95 a month for our wireless broadband, but that was the slowest speed package. It was plenty for us and the advantage of being on all the time was great. Many folks who lived over 20 miles away from an antenna sight could still use it provided they had a line of sight to the reflector antenna or main antenna. Remember too, since I'm in the foothills, many times you can see far beyond the 20 miles. Any way, it has really been great when you don't have other options. Even if you do have other options like cable or DSL, it is still an excellent alternative.

beagdog · Jan 1, 2006

Not sure exactly how it works, it must be related to the cell network, but the speed seems to make me think there has to be more to it. The service we have is 256 up and down, and when running speed tests on it, it seems to be very close to those speeds everytime I've checked it. I just checked Cingular's website and can't find anything about it, except in the government section here.

TresCrows · Jan 1, 2006

The Pixius is a local name/company but the service which is a Motorolla canopy or packet (?) technology is offered in many areas. The companies that offer this service tend to concentrate on rural areas and offer both residential and buisness packages usually starting arounf 30 to 40 dollars a month. So, Pixius is a local company offering a solution that is offered in other markets but by differnt companies. A quick serch for Extend Wireless and a few other things turned up several providers in other areas. I should not have named the thread Pixius--me dumb. I noticed they all seem to have similar packags which is about 99 dollars install unless you need a tower and then it goes up as high as 225 for the intial install but monthly fees remain the same. So, if your in an area without traditional land lines available this still may be a solution for you, just have to research your area. These companies don't seem to advertise much so you kind of have to dig around. The phonebook only has a small entry, nothing to catch the eye, we were told about it word of mouth. In my neighborhood and across the road there are now I think five or so of us on this service. The neighborrhood just to the east of us cannot get the service until they get another tower location due to a line of trees and other obstructions. J

cowboydoc · Jan 1, 2006

Tres,
The system we have is completely mobile. I just have a card in my laptop. I can carry it anywhere and get the internet. It's called broadband wireless. It is available anywhere in the country. I was all over Kansas this summer and I never couldn't get the internet. I really like it because it's so mobile. Here's the link.

Jagmandave · Jan 2, 2006

Allright, another Kansas TBN'er!

Trescrows, what part of our great state are you located?

RonR · Jan 2, 2006

Hey, I'm here too (Wichita).

ron

TresCrows · Jan 2, 2006

Jagman and RonR, I am up just north of Park City, exit 19. LOL, I am not new,might notice I am an "Elite" member. Just have not been on TBN much for a while, other interests and dial up. TBN is and always has been the best website out there, great folks, good info on tractors and rural living and all that kinda thing.
The horridness of dial up can not be over exaggerated. I was also on aol. I don't like jumping around providers because it is then a problem for people to keep up with my email and I do some buisness also like stock trading and some ebay and I just cannot be hopping around. On this connection I am running over 1500Kbps, but if I switch over to aol via this connection the speed drops by 2/3s. My wife cold not access her work either--now--with wireless broad band and IE or Mozilla all things are possible, the difference is huge--huge. It is a new world. J