Tech Question - Alternate Ways to Get Internet Service
Mates,
We live in the boonies where there is no cable service. We have a landline phone service that is the sole internet provider in our area and it is 'out' more than it is working, and even when its working it is frequently the speed of a dial-up modem. The provider has told us that we are the furthest house from service in our area, miles from their equipment, and there's nothing they can do. Our internet is so bad that when we tried to do a 'speed test' the reply was, 'Not enough internet speed to run the test'. I should add that we aren't gamers and don't need a ton of bandwith, but we can't even pull up a highlight on ESPN most days.
Picture of the XM household here:
I have heard that some folks get their internet via satellite, and I'm guessing there are some other ways as well. My question/request for help is this:
What are the alternate ways to get internet, and specifically is satellite a viable alternative? If there are alternate ways, I would appreciate your ideas and direction on how to investigate and/or acquire them.
Thanks and have a great weekend.
XM
August 12th, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
August 13th, 2017 at 10:04 AM ^
I lived in a boonie part of middle TN for a couple of years.
Here's what I didn't like (at the time, some may have changed in the 7 years after)
- they lock you into a 2 year plan. They give you the option of "direct account debit" or send a paper bill. The only catch is the paper bill is +$20 per month extra. not a typo.
- the install was what I thought very expensive, around $300, and I provided the "mount" for the antenna which was a piece of 2" galvanized pipe set in concrete with a view of the southern sky.
- I was there when the guy was tuning it, I had the narrowest of windows of reception without cutting down trees.
- I was struck by lightining, not right on the antenna but somewhere about 150 feet further out. That trashed the entire setup except for the hardwired line, and I basically paid for another setup fee ($300). If I didn't I was still locked into the 2yr contract.
- if it rains hard or snows, then the receiver won't work. It snowed 4x the last year I lived in TN and each time it knocks out the service until I went out and physically cleaned it off. It will reconnnect automatically, just can't transmit or receive thru the snow coating or the heavy rain cloud cover.
At the time I think the plans were a rated speed and not a "GB per month not to exceed X" plan. I did not pay for the highest speed rate.
I would do almost anything else I could to avoid it in the future. Hopefully your experience is different or better.
August 13th, 2017 at 10:29 AM ^
I had zero internet options in the rural area I lived in. My best option was a cellular hotspot but those get every expensive for home use. Even those had spotty signals. You can buy cellular antennas to improve reception also. Unfortunately Sprint and Nextel broke up and I lost my signal from their tower! Frustrating stuff. So glad I live in a civilized area now.
August 14th, 2017 at 8:37 AM ^
My parents live in the U.P. in the middle of nowhere. HughesNet was their only option. After a recent hardware upgrade, I can vouch that you can access the interwebs (MGoBlog, in particular), check email, and watch the occasional YouTube video. The service is not blazing fast, but you can do normal things on the internet without major headaches.
True story: against their better judgment, my parents allowed the neighbors access to the wifi network last summer. Sure as shit, the neighbors lined up lawn chairs in the trees separating their homes within wifi range to get their internet fix. It was pathetic, and they gobbled up valuable bandwidth and data. WiFi network name and password were immediately changed and my parents pleaded ignorance as to why their wifi network no longer "worked". Pathetic.
August 14th, 2017 at 9:26 AM ^
as a yooper i can so see the line of neighbors on the lawn. too funny.
we had no internet most of the weekend and still didn't when i left at 0-dark-hundred. i am going to try some of the fixes suggested in this thread, and thanks again to all the folks who posted, and if those don't work or aren't practical, hughes might be the only way to fix it.
August 14th, 2017 at 9:28 AM ^
I wouldn't even say I live in the boonies, but unfortunately cable is not ran down my road and I am in Comcast territory even the Charter lines are closer to my house. Its messed up. I got an estimate of over 100k to run cable a little over a mile from Comcast. Its ridiculous! When we first moved in we tried a Hot Spot and that was the worst...kept going in and out. We are currently on ATT DSL @ 6mb...but at 1st we were at 768kb. So thank god they upped it to 6mb. At least our internet is usable now. But still its frustrating and I feel your pain. Check out DSL reports for stuff and check the forums. Also look around for WISP in your area.
For all the money going around from these Telco companys buying everything and everyone. ATT and Directv...etc. I would bet the entire country could get fiber.
August 14th, 2017 at 11:01 AM ^
The Telco's purposely slowed down spending lobbying the FCC to relax restrictions on privacy and mergers and instead spent money on buying each other out, especially ATT. Was an interesting spending chart but they purposely reduced investment recently.
Also OMFG what happened to Sprint's network?
August 14th, 2017 at 4:39 PM ^
I'm pretty sure crap like this arises from government-backed local monopolies as well as a lack of demand in rural areas. I think only a certain cable carrier has rights to provide service to a city, township, etc.
You can try a few things. First you could ask Charter to overbuild into Comcast territory in order for you to get service. This is not uncommon, but you may not be able to get TV service due to licensing agreements.
If you have neighbors you can all request service from Comcast. Once they get enough interest in a certain area they are more likely to respond. Unfortunately a lot of the time you have to keep calling in until you get someone that is actually willing to help you (isn't that their job anyways?).
You can check for fiber as well. This is less regulated and more companies may offer it in your area than you think. The difficulty is finding which providers offer service. Be prepared to spend a lot of time looking at network maps and calling in to find service. Example: Windstream's network map. Other providers are AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, and pretty much anyone that offers DSL. Even Comcast and Charter offer it, at least through their business departments. Since DSL's last-mile reach is so short, you may run into a situation where fiber is an option where DSL is not (or in your case, slow). Obviously fiber is more expensive... starting at around $400-500 typically for like 50Mb.
Lastly, you can check with your municipality to see if there is an agreement with Charter in place to provide service for residents. If so, perhaps you could raise the issue with the person in charge of such things in government.
August 14th, 2017 at 10:58 AM ^
My dad is in a similar situation. We have unlimited family plan through Verizon, he was able to get a modem/router working on LTE.
Not as good as cable/fiber but night and day compared to DSL and now can stream and download things versus hoping web pages would load. Also cheaper, was only like $30-40 a month as it just counts as an extra device on the family plan. ATT if you have dish or something may have something similar but I'd go with whoever has the best LTE/4G service assuming you can get service.
August 14th, 2017 at 1:04 PM ^
where we live. ATT is the best for northern michigan, and does have 4G, assuming you are in range. what was significant or different about your dad's router? we have one of those and its held captive by the internet, or lack thereof.
also, phone company who does our internet is sending up a guy from GR to take a look today. i hope he finds and fixes whatrever it takes.
August 14th, 2017 at 4:56 PM ^
Verizon makes this product which is a wireless router/bridge. It's basically designed to do what you want to do; mainly, provide in-home wireless internet and phone over a cellular connection. It even has external antenna connectors.
Of course, you need to be able to get a Verizon signal for it to work. That's where the external antenna connectors come in: mount an antenna outside or somewhere where there is good reception and connect it to the router.
AT&T makes a similar product but with no antenna connectors (i.e. only has an internal antenna).
Cradlepoint makes devices for each carrier that would work too. Here is one that has antenna connectors both for the cellular network and internal WiFi network. These are a little more expensive, but they work well. They are actually designed for remote office locations or mobile offices.
The key is picking up the carrier's cellular signal. In most cases you would probably be able to do it by simply hooking up an omni-directional antenna to the router. If the signal fluctuates or is really bad, you may need a directional antenna. I've worked with Digital Highway Wireless Solutions (dhm2m.com) in the past, and they've let me buy equipment and return for a restocking fee.