Rural High Speed Internet

[RobS]

Well, I'm finally sick of dial up at home. Like many on here I suppose, I have no cable or DSL on my street. What are my options for high speed and what can I expect to pay? Equipment needed and installation costs? DIY? Also, any pitfalls or "watch out fors"? We don't have satelite TV and I'm not particularly interested in it either. Kids are used to the seven channels we get and that's fine.

Thanks!

 

[Podunkadunk]

Hughes.net works, but it's costly... 3 packages if I remember right. Below are monthly charges.
1. 79.99, their fastest
2. 69.99 pretty fast
3. 59.99 still pretty fast

Takes anywhere from 300-500 bucks to get set up. You own the equipment after that.

Like I said, it works and is a lot faster than dial-up, but it's pricey. Also, if you need to use VPN to get into anything work related or what not, don't buy Hughes.net. They don't allow VPN. Note: if you don't know what VPN is, that's a good thing, pay this part no mind. : )

I knew this had been discussed before, so I did a search and found it. All you wanted to know:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/related-topics/102925-broad-band-options-help.html

Podunk

 

[JESSE1]

You're in the same situation I'm in. I can't get DSL, cable or broadband. My only alternative is www.gethughesnet.com and go with satellite internet service. There's other satellite services but Hughesnet is the only one sold in my area. About twice the cost of AOL dialup and you have to buy the equipment but supposed to be pretty fast.

 

[WTA]

Our highspeed connection is through the phone line.

It works pretty good but the pitfalls I have noticed and become very annoyed with are the companies now offering ISP's are now taking it upon themselves to sensor incoming emails. I was ticked when I finaly discovered it! I probably lost hundreds of prospective customers due to it. I am in the gun industry and anything related to firearms is by default blocked in many of the firewall programs now. Barracuda and the new version of zone alarm. My ISP was using barracuda and I have zone alarm on my machine.

When I made the switch to the new ISP last year I went from receiving maybe 50 or so legitimate emails a day to less than 20 for about 4 months untill a customer called and asked me why I hadn't been responding to his emails. It was because I never got them. In researching why I found out about these default settings blocking firearms stuff. He had the word M-14 in the subject of his emails and the powers that be deem that particular weapon an assault weapon. It's not but that still got his emails blocked.

I told the ISP to turn off their firewall alltogether for my account. I would rather manage it myself so I don't lose any more customers.

In many way you and I are alike. We do have a sat dish but I heavily sensor the things my kids are allowed to watch with the parental control settings. I do the same on the computer. I also put the router on the nightstand next to my bed and it get's turned off when I go to sleep. I don't trust and don't care for much of what is on tv and the internet thee days. It is my responsibility to keep my kids safe from it.
When a internet company does it though it's going too far.

Just beware of that. High speed is almost a necessity nowdays. I feel sorry for people trying to open either one of my websites on a dial up. It would probably take over an hour for even the smallest page to load.

 

[charlz]

Same boat here.... no cable, no dsl etc. I ended up going with a local wireless company. Had to pay $250 for the antenna but then it is only 39.95 a month for a very fast connection (1.5mbps up and down). Clearwire is a new wireless service available in a lot of areas now, you might want to look into them.

Charles

 

[jimg]

Your options are based on where you are but satellite gets most areas. Be aware that all of the wireless solutions (satellite, via cell phone provider) have usage caps described in the fine print of the contract, none are unlimited. If you can live w/i those youre all good. If not the provider has various actions from charging huge fees to reduction of service. Also if you tunnel into a work place satellite wont work.

I work remotely so a HS link is mandatory. I went thru this drill several months ago and have a choice of the various satellite providers and Verizon wireless. Neither DSL or cable is available where I am. I barely fit into Verizons extended net so I get very good access speed but pass more data than theyre usage cap allows. I could easily run over the cap mid month and wind up w/ well over $1K of usage charges + $60 monthly charge. So I wound up renting a small office in a neighboring town. For home use only I expect the Verizon wireless link would be OK but you really need to watch out if youre given to DLing songs, movies that sort of thing. It can add up in a hurry and youll find a use for the extra bandwidth. The nice side of the Verizon wireless solution is that it can travel w/ you using a laptop. So, as long as youre in their extended net youll get excellent service no matter where you are. All the other solutions are stay at home only.

In my state theres a new initiative (nonprofit) thats trying to get rural communities connected w/ HS. You might have something similar where you live and I expect they could help you out. That said I doubt whether things are going to change in the mid-term for rural addresses. When we want the net at 'home' we either run into town and park in the library lot and use their wireless or wait until my son goes to school and use a local restaurants wireless. Being mobile (having a laptop) is a good thing when youre in a tech poor area.

 

[SnowRidge]

We use 128K dial up dual channel ISDN. ISDN, Integrated Services Digital Network is a tariffed service from the phone company. For $50 a month, including all taxes, we get two phone numbers, both of which can carry voice or data. We also pay $25 a month to a separate ISP to connect to the Internet. They are cheaper than the phone company.

The ISDN line connects to our ISDN Terminal Adapter, which routes data traffic, generates our dial tone, rings our phones, and automatically dials voice and data calls. Our computers think they are connected directly to the Internet. Because they are fully digital, ISDN data calls connect in just a few seconds. The Terminal Adapter automatically dials the ISP's ISDN number when any machine on the network sends a packet to the router. Unlike satellite, there is no delay and no bandwidth sharing.

Our data connection, which defaults to the dual channel 128K mode is the rough equivalent of a 150K asynchronous modem, which doesn't exist. Another way to look at it -- we get roughly 3 to 3 1/2 times the speed of most peoples 56K connections. We can make and receive phone calls while on line. The 128K connection automatically switches to 64K while the phone call takes place. It switches back to 128K automatically at the end of the call.

ISDN is cheaper in Tennessee than anywhere else in the US. In any other state, you will pay more.

 

[AlanB]

We went with Wildblue.net

From my perspective, about midway between dialup and DSL.

Gets slower in the evenings.

Was just discussing it with another guy, and it is really the best option.

Read the fine print on the installation thing (I did not till I was already committed) the Free installation was on the side of the house, etc. etc.

I needed a post, extra wire, and was going to charge me like $150 to bury the wire / conduit in the trench I had to dig for the directTV cable..... (that was $150 on top of some other ridiculous amount like $200 or something for the post etc.

I would do it all again tomorrow, but would be there during install and would have read more carefully the install stuff.

 

[MikePA]

The Cingular (now ATT Mobility) cellular card I use costs $52/month and has no per byte charge. When connected to their High Speed network (not the EDGE network) achieves about 1 meg down and 300K up. In fact, I am using it now.

 

[RobS]

Wow, thanks guys, some great info. I'll do some more checking based on your inputs. Looks like my options are satelite, ISDN, cellular (my Verizon cell phone barely works where we are but I understand Centennial works well) and maybe this Wildblue. Is that a satelite service or what?

I do use VPN for work (spoiled with high end service here and wifi on the laptop). We're supposed to get BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) but I don't want to wait that long.

Thanks again, keep the ideas coming.

Oh yeah, someone mentioned that satelite is fast one way (downloading?) but slow the other way. This person said the slow way is actually over the phone line so it still ties that up. True?