Rural Satellite TV not available everywhere?

[VABlue]

My 15, or so, years with DirecTV have been great - including the move to a new house and difficult location on top of my garage. No complaints about service, signal strength, or picture clarity. On the couple of occasions that I needed a new receiver, it arrived the next day via overnight Fed Ex with a return shipping label for the offending box. I'm in no hurry to dispose of DirecTV.

Hughesnet internet, though, can fall off the face of the Earth tomorrow and I wouldn't care. Painfully slow downloads; a download limit of 200MB/day; the 'fair' access policy that limits you to 56K download if you bust through the 200MB/day limit (those commercials telling you to watch the latest videos - no way, can't watch a video or you bust the 'fair' access policy)... I've already gone through the limit 5 times this month alone and have no idea why. Wife and I were just surfing message boards (incl TBN) and all of the auto SW update features are turned off at home. I hate Hughesnet with a passion! Did I mention the piss-poor customer service from 'Mike' in India? And they get mad at you when you can't understand their second language! The very second any other option opens up I'll take it! I have nothing good to say about Hughesnet...

 

[rekees4300]

The very second any other option opens up I'll take it!

You appear to be covered by Verizon Broadband. I switched from Hughesnet 2 years ago and never looked back. Verizon is much better.

 

[rjkobbeman]

I live in a subdivision that has the local cable co high speed Internet. However I have a 13 acre lot and my house is 1000' feet from the curb. The cable co will not run their infrastructure to get me service. (You can't just run the coax that far.) DSL is not offered in my area.

So one choice was a wireless provider that operates in the area. No go with them because of trees.

Another choice was satellite. I love sat for TV, but have never hear anything good about Internet service.

My third choice was an AirCard. For those that do not know, and AirCard is a cell phone company card (phone really) that plugs in a computer. It provided computer users Internet access on the go. If you have cell phone (data) service in your area, you can use this. I have the AirCard plugged into a router so my whole house shares it.

Slow? Yes, by high speed standards. But lightning fast compared to dial up. For regular web browsing and VPN connections to work it is fine.

 

[VABlue]

"You appear to be covered by Verizon Broadband."

I've looked into that several times, and it just doesn't look like it'll work for me. I use laptops in the house off my wireless router, and the Verizon USB modems don't connect directly to the router (although I could get a new router). They also have a 5GB/month download cap, which equals ~170MB/day (less than Hughesnet), and the overage fee's are charged per minute (=$$$).

Overall, for a brand new set of startup costs, I don't see where that service would be much of a change from what I have now. It was a good thought, though - thanks!!

 

[rekees4300]

"You appear to be covered by Verizon Broadband."

They also have a 5GB/month download cap,

If the 5GB/month cap isn't enough then, yes, Verizon isn't suitable for you. If you change your mind checkout the MBR1200 router. MBR1200 - Failsafe Gigabit N Router for Mobile Broadband | Cradlepoint Technology

 

[rjkobbeman]

If the 5GB/month cap isn't enough then, yes, Verizon isn't suitable for you. If you change your mind checkout the MBR1200 router. MBR1200 - Failsafe Gigabit N Router for Mobile Broadband | Cradlepoint Technology

Verizon air card and the Cradlepoint router is my exact setup. I was worried about the 5gb per month cap because I am in IT and had a lot of servers hosting various things on my previous high-speed Internet connection at my old house.

Because Verizon air card was my only option, I gave up the hosting and became a "regular" Internet user. I don't do big downloads, but I do browse the web a lot... watching flash-type videos and what not. Pretty much your average user now. To date, after almost two years of use, I have only reached 3gb in one month. Even then, I think I was installing a lot of Windows Updates on all of our computers in the house... so that was more than average.

 

[user.69169]

Well I read through this whole dang thread and now I'm moreconfugelgated than I was yesterday.

We had us a little tree fall situation here a week thyrsday last, and the tree went and sort of ate the Time Warner cable. I probably ought to point out I still ain't missed the TV one bit, but I got 4 neighbors and a wife that are getting a bit upset.

Them Time Warner people, well they just don't seem to talk the same language anybody here does from the reports I'm getting, seems instead of just coming along behind the power company and hanging their cable onthe new lines they Time Warner fellows rode up in their little van with the bucket, rode that bucket up to the box at the pole the cable for our neighborhood came from and cut the cable loose. Then they rolled up about 30 feet to the tree that cable was hanging in, and cut it there and stuffed the cable in the van. We still got lots of cable and that steel wire it hangs from and the loopie wire that holds everythng together laying on the ground, and the Time Warner went and told 2 of the neighbors it ain't there cause their computer says it ain't.

Honest I'm about fed up with the whole cable deal anyhow, can't see payng money for 70 some channels when only 3 are worth watching, and actually thats more like 2 cause I seen enough dang crab pots pulled out the ocean as I care to in this life.

Went and looked intot he satellite thing over in the store in town, and it would have been a nice enough way to kill the afternoon, but I had work to get done and stuff to learn. Truth is I don't think I got 1 straight answer out of that salesman fellow anyhow. He was always saying the dish work so well, then he say it might not work at my place. Then I run into another fellow up the road who tells me he got the free satellite TV cause he uses something called FTA Satellite. Took me right in his house and sure as green grass he have all kind of TV almost like the store over in town, and he swears it all free. Well free my kind of price so I went to googlin and sure enough found all kinds of sites about the free satellite. Trouble was I found so much information I may not sort it out till I'm buried 3 years.

Any of you fellows ever get into that free satellite TV?

 

[ultrarunner]

Never heard of Free Satellite here... it was common when I worked in Austria a few years ago.

The mountains made reception via antennas very problematic... satellite was the answer because the signal was right overhead for most... all basic is free and then you can pay for premium channels.

I don't watch much TV and not really into watching sports... I guess it is hard to miss something you never had and then, I still have rabbit ears and can get over 30 channels with em.

Spoke to the Direct TV installer yesterday up in Washington and leaned a few things.

The new dish requires a bigger field than the old round ones... He admitted that he could get a signal, but couldn't install because the signal would be lost as soon as the wind started to stir things... something about 5 degrees left, right and down being clear and the best site only has 1 degree on one side, 2 on the other and two down...

Taking out an old 36" way tall Doug Fir in the center of the garden and topping a a few trees would be enough...

Switching Topics to Cable... still don't understand Comcast's bid of 12k to trench 600 feet or 6k if someone else did the trench??? neighbors all have comcast strung through the trees... apparently, this is type of install is no longer permitted.

 

[user.69169]

I spent a couple hours doing the google look into it thing last week, and found this whole website of folks that are doing it best I can tell.
ABA DSS - Free to Air Satellite TV Community

Truth to tell, just about every bit of what they write there is over my head beyond it looking like just about all the programming other than Time Warners can be got for free.

The way these Time Warner folks are acting here we just might have come up with our own solution. 5 of us flat ain't got cable any more and don't look like Time Warner much cares, so we dang well ain't going to pay their bills for something we ain't got. Did a little adding up Sunday night, and we oughta be able to just run our own cable from the fellow lives next to Sid's place to our places. Sid says it's just a matter of finding some cable called RG6 and connectors and we are pretty much home free. His neighbor is all up for it cause we all split his cable bill and he only gotta pay 1/6 of the bill instead of all of it.

I tell you the uppidy people working for that Time Warner could use a good introduction to a switch to get their brains working.

 

[Snapper Head]

"You appear to be covered by Verizon Broadband."

I've looked into that several times, and it just doesn't look like it'll work for me. I use laptops in the house off my wireless router, and the Verizon USB modems don't connect directly to the router (although I could get a new router). They also have a 5GB/month download cap, which equals ~170MB/day (less than Hughesnet), and the overage fee's are charged per minute (=$$$).

Overall, for a brand new set of startup costs, I don't see where that service would be much of a change from what I have now. It was a good thought, though - thanks!!

The speed is much, much, much faster; and there is no 'throttling back' if you encroach on your allocation.

Household satellite internet is crap. There are no quality providers. It's a shame, because commercial satellite internet is excellent, but of course, very expensive.

We just moved to the country and went with DirecTV. Zero complaints.

Went with the local cell provider (Cellular South) and the signal was very weak outside, and worse inside (metal roof on the home does not help). Popped for a dual band Wilson amplifier and shazam! 5 bars on the phones (including my daughter's AT&T phone), and the broadband card.

As a footnote to all this satellite business - the alignment with the satellite is very critical for internet, as it is two way communication. TV is one way, and you can get good, stable reception without being dead nuts on the azimuth. With internet, if yer not DNO, yer not on at all.


Big Al