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Posted By: DigitelD High speed internet - 10/16/08 12:58 PM
Unfortunately where I live I cannot get DSL. I called Time Warner and they want close to $900.00 to bring the cable to the house. Someone has suggested that I look into an air card. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Posted By: mdaniel Re: High speed internet - 10/16/08 01:18 PM
You may want to check out satellite .

I have heard mixed comments about air cards.
Posted By: DigitelD Re: High speed internet - 10/16/08 01:27 PM
Thanks, Is there anyone out there that uses HughesNet to give me feedback?
Posted By: Howie21 Re: High speed internet - 10/16/08 02:51 PM
I have Wildblue. Its ok, not the quick speed of a wired connection. The latency can be a problem for remote maintainance.
Posted By: TexasTechnician Re: High speed internet - 10/16/08 06:40 PM
Quote
Originally posted by DigitelD:
Unfortunately where I live I cannot get DSL. I called Time Warner and they want close to $900.00 to bring the cable to the house. Someone has suggested that I look into an air card. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Please explain a little more. Do you mean they want $900 just to bring the service only to your house or do you mean they can install a cable and provide service to other customers in the area?

Either way, I think DSL is the best way to go if at all possible and that depends upon their monthly fees, and bandwidth. First of all, the installation price of any wireless or satellite system will be pretty significant in most cases, of course it may be lower if you are willing to sign a contract.
Do you have any neighbors that you could split the cost with?

What about using a Sprint or similar card in your computer?
Posted By: DigitelD Re: High speed internet - 10/17/08 06:18 AM
I live in a rural area. Time Warner said that the cable plant must be extended and that would cost me almost $900.00. Most people here use satellite for their tv's. If Cinti Bell would offer DSL that would be great but they don't know when it will be available in my area. The air cards are not good for watching video which is something that we would probably do.
Posted By: bf6b5yr Re: High speed internet - 10/17/08 07:07 AM
I went with an air card for my business laptop about a year ago. I was not totally satisfied with the service. It was fine for email and accessing small files. It was worthless for larger files such as maps.

About 3 months ago Verizon upgrade the service so that it is broadband. It now does everything that I need and the speed is comparable to DSL. I’m very happy with it. There are people in my area who are now using this service on there home PCs.

Check with your wireless provider and see what they offer.
Posted By: DigitelD Re: High speed internet - 10/17/08 07:14 AM
I was told by Verizon that if I wanted to veiw video that the air card would not work for me and still be affordable. There are training videos that I would like to take advantage of and I want to make sure that I can.
Posted By: Matt1964 Re: High speed internet - 10/17/08 07:35 AM
I had satelite internet for a while. This was 4 years ago, but unless things have changed.... I wouldn't recommend it. Downloads are metered, and once you go over your limit, you're looking at about dial up speed until some amount of time (don't remember) has passed. And forget about any decent upload speeds, pretty much mouse clicks is about all you get to transmit.

Still, it's better than dial up, but if you want consistently fast internet access... this option is off the table. For surfing, it's fine.

Downloading or gaming? Ain't gonna happen. Even the highest tier service was capped at some ridiculously low level.

I don't remember who the provider was.... I think it was a subsidary of Hughes. As I said, maybe things have changed, but I'd read the fine print very closely if you choose this route.

There was also a 1 or 2 year service contract.

And don't forget... you have all the same issues you have with satellite TV.... it was very sensitive to storms, etc.

Oh yeah - one last thing - I had to buy the dish and receiver as part of the plan.
Posted By: bf6b5yr Re: High speed internet - 10/17/08 08:52 AM
Check around to see if there is a Verizon dealer in your area that will let you try a card. There is one in my area who will install it on your laptop for a day or two. He will also let you try it in the store on his equipment.
Posted By: TexasTechnician Re: High speed internet - 10/17/08 07:24 PM
Quote
Originally posted by DigitelD:
I live in a rural area. Time Warner said that the cable plant must be extended and that would cost me almost $900.00.
This is a little confusing, on one hand you say DSL is not available, but you can spend $900 to get something. DSL?

Anyway, You still have not answered my question.
What I'm wondering is if it's going to cost you $900 to extend the cable, thereby making it available to your neighbors between you and the last current point or if it's going to be $900 just to your house.
The reason I ask is exactly what Bunnie mentioned, sharing the cost.
Posted By: jwooten Re: High speed internet - 10/18/08 04:53 AM
Contact the local city or county commissioner for your area. There may be something in the franchise agreement that would "motivate" the cable company to install for the regular fee!
Posted By: hotextec Re: High speed internet - 10/18/08 03:12 PM
I live in a rual area too, and have had this problem as well. I had wireless in the rual area I lived in before moving to this even more rual area. The wireless was great and no FAP (Fair Access Policy). That's the "limit" we're talking about on your bandwidth. Now I can't get wireless, have tried Verizon Aircard, didn't work, had 30 day try it out agreement, so no big deal, I returned the equipment, no charge. So I ordered WildBlue Satellite Internet. Didn't read the fine print. BIG MISTAKE. I'm locked into a 2 year contract. It is painfully slow at times. I have to keep my dial-up as a back-up and use it frequently. If I decide to cancel early, I pay $30.00 per month for the months remaining in the contract period. Tech Support is a joke. Seems like when I need it the most it is down. If you plan on using for video download or other large downloads, you will be FAPed and its 30 days before your unFAPed. I understand all other services are adopting FAP Policies as well. The Bandwidth squeeze is on! Good Luck!
Posted By: Matt1964 Re: High speed internet - 10/18/08 05:56 PM
30 days of FAP? Wow. It did change - it got worse. ALOT worse.

Mine was more of a continuous timer system. You'd reach your limit, and if you stopped right then, the timer would slowly start going backwards and your bandwidth would increase again, for the amount of time that you stopped downloading. It wasn't like it was 1:1, you'd have to wait, say 3 minutes to get 1 minute back, but it was real time - not 30 days in solitary.

I remember downloading 3rd party utilities that would warn you as you approched your limit, I think they even autmatically throttled back your PC's bandwidth consumption so as not to exceed whatever your threshold was, wait a bit, loosen the throttle... repeat. You could download a large file (obviously depending on the file size and your FAP limit), over the course of a day or two.

In any event, it sucked.

Sorry for going somewhat off topic.
Posted By: RATHER BE FISHING Re: High speed internet - 10/18/08 08:04 PM
I moved out in the sticks ~45 miles from San Antonio proper. No cable TV and no DSL. I have had the local electric coops high speed radio based internet for 1 month. I have a 20 foot mast with a Motorola Canopy radio. Guaranteed 768K and max burst speeds of 1536K. This thing is smokin' fast. Best internet service I have ever had.

Customer service is unbelievable...when I reported a trouble 7 days after install I had 5 followup calls.. Customer service acknowledging a tower issue, manager calling to tell me of immediate dispatch, techs calling to say they were in route, head tech giving me a 45 minute fix time and a customer service satisfaction call. No FAP and no limits.

I'll be VoIPing 3 sites together this week through my site and their customer service said if I needed any assistance including a radio upgrade if necessary let them know. That's the way it should be done.
Posted By: MacGyver Re: High speed internet - 10/18/08 08:10 PM
I've fought this battle from one end to the other. I originally went with HughesNet, back then they were DirecWay. Then an 802.11 carrier came into the area and they were good until they oversold the system. I finally had a full T-1 dropped to my house and have had it ever since. We also have the air cards on all our field laptops.

The satellite are my least favorite broadband option, but it is at least broadband. The latency is a little more than I like, and upload speeds are lacking, but if I lived on the top of a mountain and had no other option, I'd use it. One last word of caution; in heavy rains at your location you'll lose signal. In heavy rains over Hughes NOC out east, you'll lose signal.

On the air cards, if you use the USB version you can use it on a desktop as well. You can also use it as a server for the rest of your home network by enabling ICS and back feeding it to a switch, but if you run as much as we do, they'll eventually call you on bandwidth. Also, unless you're in a 3G area which is doubtful you'll probably be disappointed.

Back to Hughes, you'll have to buy your equipment, plus the monthly fees are more than DSL. If it were me, I'd pay the $900. You'll be money ahead in no time and you'll be much happier.
Posted By: Matt1964 Re: High speed internet - 10/19/08 06:46 AM
Now I remember, that's who I had - DirecWay.
Posted By: MacGyver Re: High speed internet - 10/19/08 04:26 PM
Yeah Matt. Now they actually have an ethernet hand off from the modem. They're a lot more stable and have better speeds than the older ones. If yours was like mine, the modem handed off to a USB. If you wanted to run a network you had to enable ICS from the "main" computer and back feed the switch out of the LAN card. Then every day or so you'd need to reboot that main computer.
Posted By: Matt1964 Re: High speed internet - 10/19/08 05:38 PM
Yep, it was USB. At that time I only had 1 PC, so the network issue never came up.

Man I'm so glad I don't have that service anymore. Fortunately I was able to sign up with SBC to get the dish/DSL bundle... which has now morphed into U-verse.
Posted By: DigitelD Re: High speed internet - 10/20/08 05:39 AM
Thanks all. TexasTechnician, DSL is NOT available but a cable modem through Time Warner is available if I pay $900.00 for the cable to be ran to my home. My understanding is that this price is for me only. It seems to me at this point that paying the 900 bucks is the best idea.
Posted By: djweis Re: High speed internet - 10/20/08 02:37 PM
In some cases they will waive or apply the construction to your invoice. It never hurts to ask!
Posted By: Lightning horse Re: High speed internet - 10/20/08 04:44 PM
Or, tell them you want a signed contract saying they cannot run another drop that intrudes into your area. In other words, they can't run a cable for service to someone else, that could be branched off your cable. But, you will rent 'cable space' for the reasonable price of $10/month/drop. And they remain responsible both monetarily and physically, for all maintanance and upgrades. Pardon my French, but 'screwing' can go both ways! smile John C.
Posted By: hbiss Re: High speed internet - 10/20/08 06:21 PM
...for the cable to be ran to my home.

Good point. Will it have to pass other houses on its way to you? If so there is a good chance at least some of them will want service since they have to be in the same boat as you. If that happens there is no way that you should foot the bill.

-Hal
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