Unreliable internet

[brokenknee]

Been a long year, but finally got moved. Unfortunately the place we moved to have very poor internet. We only have Frontier available for a land based internet. I was excited when they said I would have connections of up to 40 mbs. The problem is the connection is very poor and we get kicked off several times a day. We have had the tech guy up three times and have been on hold to tech support more times than I would like to count. I tried posting this earlier and got kicked off when I hit submit new thread.

Has anyone had a similar experience and was the company able to resolve the issue?

It is getting to the point I am considering a satellite internet provider such as excide or hughs net. I have not heard much positive about satellite providers but have heard they are getting better.

Comments, thoughts, suggestions?

 

[livingthelife]

I live in a very rural part of Arkansas. We are able to get dsl Internet here but our speeds are somewhere around 1.5 mb/sec. It goes down quite regularly. I stopped calling and complaining when it would go out around 5 years ago. It hasn't improved or changed any.

Not to be a Debbie downer but don't expect them to fix it any time soon.

 

[sseelhoff]

I live in a very rural part of Arkansas. We are able to get dsl Internet here but our speeds are somewhere around 1.5 mb/sec. It goes down quite regularly. I stopped calling and complaining when it would go out around 5 years ago. It hasn't improved or changed any.

Not to be a Debbie downer but don't expect them to fix it any time soon.

We have a WISP provider. Speeds are supposed to be 3mbs up and down. We average 2.4, and service can be wonky. Welcome to country living.

 

[brokenknee]

We have a WISP provider. Speeds are supposed to be 3mbs up and down. We average 2.4, and service can be wonky. Welcome to country living.

The funny thing is, I used to live in the country, now I am only an hour a way from a major city. My connection in the "country" while not fast was reliable.

 

[zzvyb6]

How smooth and reliable is the electric power to your router/access point ? I have U-verse and it was dumping a lot until I started powering the AP from a car battery with a 12v battery maintainer. Now the hour counter is almost out of digit spaces. It was the occasional hiccups or blips that trashed it, not 1 or 2 minute disconnects. Not the same as a surge protector, just a giant smoothing filter.

 

[CADplans]

Is this DSL type service (over phone wires) or what??

We had an issue with our phone wire based system,,, and it finally got fixed,,,

 

[mddorange]

We have Centurylink, the only provider here, and their DSL runs about 1 Mbps out here in rural Alabama. They tell us we are too far away to get anything better.

 

[RNeumann]

No matter the problems you are having satellite won't make you happy. The problem with any satellite is latency- the time it takes for an action to take place- like clicking the mouse. The signal has to travel to outer space and back before something happens. This drives most crazy. If your current service isn't working look for a wireless ISP in your area. Sounds weird but the radio type internet is working wonders in the rural areas.
Is Frontier a cable company or something else?

 

[oosik]

I've had satellite service for over 12 years. First it was Starband and then HughesNet in 2008. Its the only thing available. It works just fine for me. There will always be those few time a year when it doesn't - lightning storms and HEAVY snow storms. One thing for certain - its a **** of a lot faster than I am.

 

[livingthelife]

We have Centurylink, the only provider here, and their DSL runs about 1 Mbps out here in rural Alabama. They tell us we are too far away to get anything better.

We have CenturyLink as well. When you call them with an issue they tend to act like we should kissing their boots and praising them for "allowing us" to have Internet out in the sticks.

 

[jbadkins7o]

I have Frontier also, it can be a pain with connectivity and speeds at times. However for the price and the speeds (most of the time) I'm happy with them. It seems to slow down when all my neighbors are home. I just go find something to do in the garage and wait till it works again. We stream two tvs, two I pads and our phones are connected. Usually the picture quality will go from 1080 to 720 and the impending loss is imminent. I did manage to make a huge improvement in the quality by cleaning all the wiring and terminals to clean shiny copper in the owner side of the connection box at the front of the house and running a dedicated new line directly to the modem. I used some dielectric grease on the connections to prevent future corrosion and I would say it solved 80% percent of my issues.

 

[PJSprog]

We have had HughesNet for several years. My Wife had it before we were married. It's not bad, but it's certainly not great. I had DSL in the small town where I lived before we married. I was 2 blocks from the phone company office, and I got seriously spoiled by the speed of my internet there, so that definitely colors my opinion. Unfortunately satellite is our only option where we are, short of reverting to dial-up, and that's not going to happen. Yes, there are latency issues, as well as atmospheric interferences. But, it's still better than dial-up.

 

[GaryM]

I have Centurylink DSL. It's 1.5 Meg on a good day. But here's good news! They received Federal money, OK, it's our money, to install fiber in their entire service area. At least in Missouri. They've run the fiber down the county road, but haven't completed the hookups yet. They say it will be 10 Meg. That's about seven times faster than what I've got now. I can hardly wait.

 

[TractorGuy]

I'm another Centurylink DSL customer limited to 1.5Mbps.

All of the research I've done on other suppliers where I live are more expensive and have data limits. Having had TV on Sat and reading the latency issues and data limits I would not consider any of the SAT suppliers.

My Centurylink DSL experience is pretty good overall. I can stream with it in decent quality and as far as I know I don't have any data limit. Mine is on the same phone line I've had since 1979 but I have it for DSL only service now. They do try to double my rate every year and I have to call and haggle with them to get it back down. They charge the same rate to those that have 10Mbps service so that and being an old customer gives me a little bargaining power. The actual service has been rock solid for the last couple of years but I have gone through times of intermittent connections. Overall I have never talked to anyone at Centurylink that was less than polite and I am pleased with what I have for what I pay.

 

[dmccarty]

Unfortunately, I think poor Internet access is a problem living in the country. We have CenturyLink and their reliability and speed sucks. The people at CenturyLink are helpful but they simply can't do much to solve the problem. According to the Wall Street Journal, CenturyLink's revenue is mostly from business which makes me think house holds are not a priority with them.

There is a smaller company that is based in a neighboring county that is quite rapidly providing fiber connectivity in our county. They seem to be taking over from CenturyLink in the areas they provide service due to faster speed and better reliability. We hear constant complaints in our county from CenturyLink subscribers so as soon as their is another choice CenturyLink is dropped.

Our tax dollars are supposed to be providing us with faster CenturyLink access but I am not holding my breath. The boxes are supposed to go in front of what is now a cattle ranch and this should provide us with faster speed if we are connected to those boxes since they are closer to us. Supposedly the cattle ranch will be turned into a golf course once the owner dies. We have heard nothing on when the boxes will be installed and we and others have asked. Nothing but crickets....

Later,
Dan

 

[coldsteelva]

I live in a rural area as well and we use Exede Satellite internet. I have my contract direct with them, but both DirecTV, Dish Network, and my local electric power co-op are resellers for Exede. Have you heard of them? Can you look into them and see if they service your area.

Satellite internet (although capped) is fast enough to stream video, so assuming you only want it for emails, bill paying and TBN (obviously) then it should suffice.

 

[Looking4new]

I realise I am in a different country that you guys, but I-net access here or there is about the same.
I have a Telus (based in British Columbia, Ca) air card for my laptop. Telus allows me 9 gigs/month for $85.oo + tax
For the PC I have Bell, it is like an air card only it's a router. Bell allows 100 gigs/month for $148.oo/month+tax is $160.oo/mth.

 

[hawkeye08]

We had microwave based (5.7GHz) internet (11.3 miles line of site) to top of local mountain. It was slow and unreliable (past the distance spec and the AP on the mountain would get icing when conditions were just right)... We had it for 10 years (nothing else available other than expensive cell or satellite), until about 2 years ago. Wifi (I think they call it WISP) several miles to relay, relay ~5 miles to AP. We get 10Mb down and 4Mb up. I also have cell internet AP for ATT that shares my data that I use for backup. I have only used in a couple of times in the 13 months we have been on the new service.

Keep searching, know that technology keeps changing. You might get something that is less than what you want today, but 6 months from now, something else comes along.

 

[TnAndy]

We have CenturyLink as well. When you call them with an issue they tend to act like we should kissing their boots and praising them for "allowing us" to have Internet out in the sticks.

And charged me $60/mo for my lousy 512k DSL connection, whereas over in town, they give 20mb for 19.95/mo if their billboard ads are to be believed.

We finally got a new wireless company to connect to our tower that I built years ago for a previous wireless company that died out. Now we have a 40mb up/down connection + they pay me rent on the use of my tower.

Check your area for wireless companies, consider putting up a tower and do the same.


Our signal comes from that range of mountains in the distance, about 25 miles away.

 

[kcflhrc]

I install broadband for a living. Don't blame the Telco's for where you live. The Federal money, or CAF, Connect America Fund, is to build out rural areas that have no broadband service. It's basically fiber to a Node in the middle of nowhere and then using existing copper to feed the homes. I wouldn't get all Giddy about it because it is a 5 year plan and some areas won't even see it. Government mandate is a minimum 10 mbs download.