You don't have a high speed Internet connection??

[jymbee]

I think too many people just assume that *everyone* has a high speed Internet connection (especially my urban friends~)-- not realizing that for many that's just not an option. Of course satellite has gone a long way to reach rural folks but satellites come with other issues such as high latency and cost, and in general are not as desirable as cable or DSL.

We're lucky here in that there was big build out some years back assuming a local resort would be developed more, but even though that did not materialize the cable did get much nearer to our house that it would have normally. Just not a big incentive to cable companies to target us living in rural areas.

But things do seem to be improving with more and more initiatives to expand broadband. Given the demographic here is largely rural, I'm wondering how many still don't' have a viable broadband option?

 

[Trkrd]

None here. AT&T actually abandoned the land line coming to my area. Got tore up by the county road graders so much that the few people that live out here switched to cell only. Even when it worked, all that was available was dial-up. Nearest DSL was about 12 miles away.

 

[kcflhrc]

You can always go the local library and get on line.

 

[EddieWalker]

I went from Hughsnet satilite, which was horrible, to Verizon, which was great, then made the HUGE mistake of changing to the Verizon wifi. That sucked up data from every computer, laptop, ipad and phone in my home. It didn't matter if we turned them off and unlugged the wifi, as soon as we turned them on, they updated, backed up and did whatever possible to used more data. My usage went up no matter what I did to just over what I was paying for. If I was a conspiracy type person, I would think that there is some sort of partnership with Verizon, Windows and Apple to do this.

Last months I changed over to Skynet. SkyNet Country There is no limit on data, and the speeds are what you pay for. Higher speed cost more money. It's basically an antenna that they install at your house that is pointed to the tower with the best signal in your area. I have several towers, but I'm right at the edge of there area. Speed is just as fast as Verizon, but the cost per month is a quarter of what I was paying for Verizon. I could pay a lot less if I wanted to, but when both my wife and I are online and one of us is downloading a big file, the other notices the slowdown. This happened when I upgraded to Windows 10.

 

[RobS]

We are on Hughesnet now as it's the only viable choice. It's miserable, but at least it's expensive :laughing: Our power company is putting in fiber and we're slated for hookup in the next few weeks. Can't come soon enough!

 

[TSO]

We had tried HughesNet originally and hated it...

Only other viable option for us is "WildBlue /Excede" and it actually isn't terrible. We pay $65/mo total, 10gb bandwidth at "full speed" (which is up to 15 Mbs) and unlimited bandwidth "less than full speed" (1-5 Mbs). You get used to it.

Our landline is thru "Frontier" but no DSL on our ancient lines, and cable is about 1/2 mile away, so no option there either.

 

[PSEbowhunter]

No option other than satellite for us. Cable and dsl all around us but too far away for them to run our stretch of roadway.

 

[bcp]

If you can get a county official to build a McMansion farther out, you will soon have upgraded power lines, cable, and a repaved road.

Bruce

 

[aeblank]

I have a miserably capped AT&T 4G connection. It is a SIM a professional grade router (bandrich), which makes a huge difference. The router was leftover from my previous 4G provider that was awesome (and closed its doors). I have maintained unlimited data on my phone, so I download files with that. Bleah.

 

[rekees4300]

Compared to other civilized countries, USA high speed Internet access is in the Dark Ages. Availability completely depends on geography.

 

[motownbrowne]

We're 4 miles from a University of WI school and have no high speed options other than satellite or through our phones. We do 99% of our browsing on our phones and tether the computer to them if we need to.

 

[Kenneth in Texas]

im on exceed satellite, some goberment program for rural people where i get 1 mps for $39.95/mo, beat dial up but for true high speed internet in my area? I will be dead before that happens.

 

[JMER817]

I went from Hughsnet satilite, which was horrible, to Verizon, which was great, then made the HUGE mistake of changing to the Verizon wifi. That sucked up data from every computer, laptop, ipad and phone in my home. It didn't matter if we turned them off and unlugged the wifi, as soon as we turned them on, they updated, backed up and did whatever possible to used more data. My usage went up no matter what I did to just over what I was paying for. If I was a conspiracy type person, I would think that there is some sort of partnership with Verizon, Windows and Apple to do this. Last months I changed over to Skynet. SkyNet Country There is no limit on data, and the speeds are what you pay for. Higher speed cost more money. It's basically an antenna that they install at your house that is pointed to the tower with the best signal in your area. I have several towers, but I'm right at the edge of there area. Speed is just as fast as Verizon, but the cost per month is a quarter of what I was paying for Verizon. I could pay a lot less if I wanted to, but when both my wife and I are online and one of us is downloading a big file, the other notices the slowdown. This happened when I upgraded to Windows 10.

I had the exact same issue with Verizon...I would end up powering it down when I wasn't using it and I swear it would fire back up on its own

 

[EddieWalker]

I had the exact same issue with Verizon...I would end up powering it down when I wasn't using it and I swear it would fire back up on its own

I know for a fact that mine would turn itself on during the middle of the night by looking at my data usage. We had to take the battery out to stop the computers and everything else from updating themselves every night. Unfortunately, once we turned the wifi back on, once or twice a week, at random times while one of us where online, something would update itself and burn up a ton of data.

 

[TripleR]

We recently replaced Hughes with a line of sight antennae, slower but much cheaper and more reliable.

 

[Rustyiron]

I have hughesnet also, with fiber going right past our place….. 1900' out my driveway, and can't hook up to it. The state put it in as part of a statewide attempt to bring rural Maine into the 19 century at least. I believe that it is then available only to the monopoly cable & phone companies for them to tap into it and then they run a crappy co ax cable back to my place with the distance highly comromising the speed available, and charge me a chit ton of money for? I'm working with them right now to see how much $$$ it will cost me and what speeds I could expect.
A new cell tower has been aprooved with perfect line of sight about a 1/2 mile away, hoping to see it built this summer.

 

[DuckSlayer1017]

My wife runs an internet business out of our house and needs unlimited data. There is no DSL where we are and wireless is way too expensive so we had a T1 line installed. It is about as fast as DSL but a lot more expensive. It does have unlimited data and can at least handle one computer streaming Netflix.

 

[sseelhoff]

We now have Skynet at the new house. Seems to work reasonably well

 

[Rustyiron]

My wife runs an internet business out of our house and needs unlimited data. There is no DSL where we are and wireless is way too expensive so we had a T1 line installed. It is about as fast as DSL but a lot more expensive. It does have unlimited data and can at least handle one computer streaming Netflix.

I'm don't know jack**** about this stuff, what is DSL and T1 and all of the other connections used, and in terms of speed, how do they rank?

 

[TSO]

I'm don't know jack**** about this stuff, what is DSL and T1 and all of the other connections used, and in terms of speed, how do they rank?

Bandwidth is basically volume.... The amount of data you can download.

Download speed is measured in MBs ... Megabytes per second. 1000 bytes of data = 1 Megabyte, 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte (GB).

Satellite sends data directly to your dish.
Cable is thru your cable tv line.
DSL is thru your phone line (as long as the phone line is configured appropriately).

That's a basic description...

I believe T1 is your own direct Satellite server (could be wrong on that).