Rural USA broadband

[justjoinedtopost]

Moving to the woods. It is possible I can get DSL, not sure. There is another DSL account at the residence, but the apartment I am renting has no phone line, not sure if they will allow another DSL account at the same residence even with new phone line.

Can also get Exede, or HughesNet satellite (ripoff, but what can you do?)

If dsl/satellite are both available to me, dsl the right way to go?

 

[Sevrin]

With a new phone line, you should be able to get a DSL account. I've never tried satellite, but DSL will probably be more reliable, and cheaper.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Satellite is a last resort. They are usually horrible. One of my brother's had Wild Blue and they over sell it to too many customers. So in the evening the bandwidth speed he got went way down. Usually less than dial up modem speeds. He was paying, at that time, for 3mpbs and usually had less than 56kbps.

Even when you are getting the speed you are paying for there's still lag. It takes time to upload your request to the satellite, then back down to their servers (usually in New York), then get the data over the internet, then back up to the satellite, then back down to your computer. Because of that live communication always has a massive delay, making it really impossible to do. So no skype video or calling, no google hangouts, no VOIP...none of that.

Then the signal is also a weak one. So if you have thunderstorms in your area you'll be lucky to have internet. But also if there's storms over their server area (new york again) it goes out also from that end.

Seriously, satellite sucks. Only get it if you have zero other options, and then learn to live with crappy internet.

DSL means you'll be limited on how fast you can get overall. But at least you're much more likely to always have that speed.

If you can't get another DSL line in. I would go talk to those people who already have it. Offer to pay half their bill and then bring in a wireless router if needed to have it in your apartment. If it can be done that way.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

With a new phone line, you should be able to get a DSL account. I've never tried satellite, but DSL will probably be more reliable, and cheaper.

Here's hoping. Was too late to call them today.

I was using satellite a while back, not a big fan. Accidentally managed to just about shut the account down torrenting (mistake of ignorance). Went down to like 56k speeds or something for who knows how long.

So no skype video or calling

That's the deal breaker there. Never tried skyping over satellite.

I would go talk to those people who already have it. Offer to pay half their bill and then bring in a wireless router if needed to have it in your apartment.

Actually, they talked to me. Said no way, no how, are we sharing our internet connection. Rent the apartment, you are on your own with that.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

shut the account down torrenting (mistake of ignorance). Went down to like 56k speeds or something for who knows how long.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing. EVERY single satellite company has 'Fair Usage' policies in effect. Usually it's a horrible 4Gb in the past rolling 30 days or something like that. Go over that amount and you are throttled down to dial up speeds until it gets lower than that amount. Torrenting 4 or 5 tv episodes and you're done.

 

[JoleneBrody]

Having a second line run for DSL is your best bet. I used to work for a large telecom and this is a very standard every day tech order for them. I doubt you would have any issues.
If you are unable to for whatever reason though, do you have good 4g/LTE wireless speed? you may be able to get a hotspot but that data will be expensive.

I've recently been looking into satellite internet for camming from a motorhome and they do have some great new packages with hughesnet plus a brand new satellite launched but it's still going to be less reliable and more expensive than DSL

 

[KylieJacobs]

I would not recommend HughesNet, my sister uses them, and her internet is a LOT faster on her cell phone. I think they also locked her in a contract.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

If you are unable to for whatever reason though, do you have good 4g/LTE wireless speed? you may be able to get a hotspot but that data will be expensive.

Oh no, not at all. Have to walk around a pasture with my phone held up in the air until I can get a bar, never seen 4g show up on it. 4g is a good 3,4 mile drive up a dirt road.

I would not recommend HughesNet, my sister uses them, and her internet is a LOT faster on her cell phone. I think they also locked her in a contract.

The one I screwed up torrenting was Wildblue, and I just read they are Exede now. To hell with that. Same complaints I read about Wildblue I was reading about Hughes.

 

[JoleneBrody]

I would not recommend HughesNet, my sister uses them, and her internet is a LOT faster on her cell phone. I think they also locked her in a contract.

The big bonus about hughes is that they do offer many different speed and data usuage packages now, as well as business account but the price goes way up on those higher packages.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

If you want a fun read about HughesNet.....


https://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/hughes.html

 

[justjoinedtopost]

If you want a fun read about HughesNet.....


https://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/hughes.html

m'kay, lemme just cross hughesnet off the list.

Wonder how many hoops I gotta jump through to get a T1 line (assuming the 2nd dsl line doesn't pan out).

 

[JerryBoBerry]

m'kay, lemme just cross hughesnet off the list.

Wonder how many hoops I gotta jump through to get a T1 line (assuming the 2nd dsl line doesn't pan out).

If DSL doesn't pan out i'd seriously talk to neighbor's with DSL already. If they are within a routers wireless signal, or you could run ethernet from their modem into your place, then offer to pay half their monthly bill. Even if you have to bring in a new router, or hub, and a couple hundred feet of ethernet cable, it's still cheap in the long run. You'd probably find they're willing to share if you give em $30 or so a month to split the bill.

That's how I do it here. I brought in the best speed I could. Then I have two neighbors (use to be 3 but one moved) who share my routers wifi. They give me $35 a month. So I get better internet and pay very little. Of course I also bought a better router with a guest network I put them on that I can limit the bandwidth. So I always get the lions share of the bandwidth too. But they don't know that.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

If DSL doesn't pan out i'd seriously talk to neighbor's with DSL already. If they are within a routers wireless signal, or you could run ethernet from their modem into your place, then offer to pay half their monthly bill. Even if you have to bring in a new router, or hub, and a couple hundred feet of ethernet cable, it's still cheap in the long run. You'd probably find they're willing to share if you give em $30 or so a month to split the bill.

That's how I do it here. I brought in the best speed I could. Then I have two neighbors (use to be 3 but one moved) who share my routers wifi. They give me $35 a month. So I get better internet and pay very little. Of course I also bought a better router with a guest network I put them on that I can limit the bandwidth. So I always get the lions share of the bandwidth too. But they don't know that.

No, they were very emphatic about it when they said no way. They said I could get satellite or whatever, but I wasn't sharing theirs. Maybe because the Wildblue account I f-ed up was theirs, but that's just speculation on my part. The main reason given was that they have an 18 year old, and they are worried I might infect him with pornography.

Anyway, the kid stays up all night gaming online on Xbox. To tell you the truth, I was a little concerned that was going to eat into my cam watching bandwidth. Starting to sound preferable to satellite tho'.

 

[WebcamStartup]

Moving to the woods. It is possible I can get DSL, not sure. There is another DSL account at the residence, but the apartment I am renting has no phone line, not sure if they will allow another DSL account at the same residence even with new phone line.

Can also get Exede, or HughesNet satellite (ripoff, but what can you do?)

If dsl/satellite are both available to me, dsl the right way to go?

Welcome to the boonies! Where nobody bothers you, and your chickens, weed plants and stills can all exist in peace!

A local cable / internet company finally started serving this area, and interesting how it happened. I convinced the marketing coordinator to do a complete saturation mailer with simplified addressing (save a lot on postage, bindery and mail-prep) and they got such a high response from this particular area that they expanded their coverage in response. Not saying that course of action will work with you, and it helps when you've got a print shop at your disposal, but the story demonstrates that cable companies will expand their service area if it can be demonstrated that it will result in an ROI.

Used to have satellite before that. Can't remember what brand. It sucked at life and went down all the time. Not to say that is the same with all satellite providers, and I'm sure it varies from place to place (Colorado out here), but from my experience, Satellite sucks.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

Well a lengthy chat with the phone company. Sorry, no dsl, limited number of slots, they said. Sorry, no dsl, I got no use for your phone service, I said. So they decided they probably could get the dsl on the phone line, will know for sure Monday.

Also requested info about a T1 line, but that's probably a pipe dream.

Welcome to the boonies! Where nobody bothers you, and your chickens, weed plants and stills can all exist in peace!

Broadband (not counting satellite as broadband anymore) really ought to be like electricity. Everywhere nearly.

 

[Nikola Tesla]

Edison. hmphh. I never liked that guy. Stole all my patents.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Also requested info about a T1 line, but that's probably a pipe dream.

Go with DSL if they have it. A T1 only does 1.544 megabits per second. DSL is likely to do around 10. Granted that 1.54mbps is not shared. But I suspect DSL will still be faster most every moment of the day.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

Go with DSL if they have it. A T1 only does 1.544 megabits per second. DSL is likely to do around 10. Granted that 1.54mbps is not shared. But I suspect DSL will still be faster most every moment of the day.

Well I am really optimistic after today, by the time we got done talking it sounded like there was a good chance.

The T1, really only pondering it as a maybe if satellite is the only other option. Still haven't gotten any responses from the companies I requested quotes/availibility from, but it's probably going to be too expensive even if available.

Edison. hmphh. I never liked that guy. Stole all my patents.

He did it because you are a lunatick. The mentally ill are not welcome here. Go away.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Well I am really optimistic after today, by the time we got done talking it sounded like there was a good chance.

My brother was in a similar situation. His town did have high speed offering up to 12mbps...on paper. However the small company who brought that in has a monopoly on the town and brought in far less (and less expensive) equipment than is required to handle the number of people they sold plans to. As a result most people usually get less than 3 normally. And you can tell when kids get home and start streaming netflix and games because it goes down to 1/2 at best. So it's been horrible for years.

But the local electric company got a federal grant to help offset the costs of bringing in crews to bury fiber optic cable to the entire area they cover. My brother JUST got his hooked up this morning. For $50 a month he now has 100mbps down and 100mbps up speed. For $10 more he can go to 250/250. And for $100 he can get full gigabit up/down speeds.

He went with 100 because his routers, switches, and pc's all only have 10/100 ethernet ports anyway. So he's thinking over the next year or two he'll slowly upgrade all his equipment and up the speed.

The cool thing is the electric company had an 'open house' where they invited people from other small town electric companies to go over how they did this. There was around 145 people from different companies around the country there. All of them were wanting to do the same thing for their rural customers. So there's hope it's starting get to more remote places.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

The cool thing is the electric company had an 'open house' where they invited people from other small town electric companies to go over how they did this. There was around 145 people from different companies around the country there. All of them were wanting to do the same thing for their rural customers. So there's hope it's starting get to more remote places.

Curious, you mind sharing what state this was in?

 

[justjoinedtopost]

Well, a 7 to 10 day wait before the phone company is going to know if they can give me dsl or not. Was supposed to find out today, didn't hear back, so I called and had to put the whole order in again.

Looking into a T1 line, that I can get. Price is doable (233/mnth), but a shitload more than I want to pay. Not sure if it's worth that much to avoid satellite or not.

 

[KylieJacobs]

Well, a 7 to 10 day wait before the phone company is going to know if they can give me dsl or not. Was supposed to find out today, didn't hear back, so I called and had to put the whole order in again.

Looking into a T1 line, that I can get. Price is doable (233/mnth), but a shitload more than I want to pay. Not sure if it's worth that much to avoid satellite or not.

Holy crap, $233 per month?!?! Wow!

I hope you find out one way or another soon.

 

[TacoBelle]

Well, a 7 to 10 day wait before the phone company is going to know if they can give me dsl or not. Was supposed to find out today, didn't hear back, so I called and had to put the whole order in again.

Looking into a T1 line, that I can get. Price is doable (233/mnth), but a shitload more than I want to pay. Not sure if it's worth that much to avoid satellite or not.

For $233/month, you'd be better off just getting a hotspot or smartphone to tether if you can.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

For $233/month, you'd be better off just getting a hotspot or smartphone to tether if you can.

I've been told the coverage in the area I am moving to has changed. Not happy with the idea of that, but looking into it. $233 is freaking steep; desperation is only reason I would consider that much.

Resource for anybody in a similar situation:
https://www.broadbandmap.gov/about/state-broadband-programs

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I've been told the coverage in the area I am moving to has changed. Not happy with the idea of that, but looking into it. $233 is freaking steep; desperation is only reason I would consider that much.

Resource for anybody in a similar situation:
https://www.broadbandmap.gov/about/state-broadband-programs

Have you considered NOT moving there? Seriously, in this day and age it would be a deciding factor for me. I never want to go back to the horrors of dial up.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

Have you considered NOT moving there? Seriously, in this day and age it would be a deciding factor for me. I never want to go back to the horrors of dial up.

I have. Moving there after a particularly bad apartment hunt in the area I currently live in. Rent is too damn high.

The internet issue didn't come up until after I had made arrangements to rent down there, pretty much assumed I would be able to share the dsl. This does have me rethinking things. Will see what the phone company says.

Wow, I remember having 56k, then going to dsl when it became available. I consider that the moment I truly began to live.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

Looked some more into things while waiting to hear back from the phone company about dsl (after 3 calls now, pretty sure they are just bs'ing me trying to get me to buy a phone line w/ no intent of offering dsl).

T1 is out. The steep-but-doable prices aren't available. The ones that are available are several hundred dollars more.

Did a lot more looking at Exede satellite, hoping to find a snippet of positive in the mountain of negative reviews they have. No way. No way. This is a company that deserves to be boycotted, the executives tarred and feathered. I will switch to smoke signals before I use them.

Good news is, Verizon 4glte coverage good in the area now. Still going to be pricey as hell, going to have to change my internet habits, but it's something anyway.

 

[justjoinedtopost]

It's official. DSL is out.

While the phone company cannot fulfill their 100% broadband coverage in their area pledge, I will give credit where credit is due:

1. During the several calls I had to make after not receiving a promised call-back from them, I was forced to wander through their labyrinth of an automated answering system in the hopes of getting a live person. Along the way, I noticed that after I answered the automated system's question, it played a recording of keyboard typing noises. Guess it is intended to make you feel like you are dealing with a real human and not a machine. Very convincing. Wtg AT&T. You f*ckt@rds...
2. When I managed to actually make contact with a live representative, though they never had any record of any of my previous calls, they were quite adept at trying to push their TV services on me. This irritated me badly enough that it led to a situation on the last call where I may or may not have acted out.

Looks like if I want internet, South Korea is a better bet.

 

[Sevrin]

Looks like if I want internet, South Korea is a better bet.

Or anywhere that's not in your house.

 

[Jesse0328]

Do any wireless ISP's service the area? They're common out here in corn country where cable and DSL aren't available in many rural areas. Basically the ISP installs an antenna within line of sight of a tower or whatever they have a repeater on, and that's your broadband connection. The concept is similar to satellite, but you don't have the latency issues, or data caps.

The downside is that you have to be in line of sight, so trees, valleys, etc will prevent one from getting service. Also, the bandwidth is not as good as a lined connection.