Rural high speed internet

[BlakeDavis]

In about 6 weeks I am going to me graduating from college and moving back home to farm, I know, many probably see that as a waste of education but I see it as a backup but thats not my point. My point is that while I have been here at school I have become hooked on high speed broadband internet. When I get moved back I won't be living close enough to civilization to have access to DSL or wireless broadband or any of that good stuff. I don't think that there is anyway that I could ever go back to dial up and so far the only thing I have found is satellite and it is not exactly cheap. I was wondering if there is any other options and what you fellas use.



Thanks,

Blake

 

[jwilliams3]

Can you get cable out that far?

 

[BILLVO]

Most of the satelite co's Direct tv ect offer high speed satelite internet connections.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

You might check with a cellular carrier and see if EvDO cellular is available in your area - it's close to broadband speeds. Outside of that if cable or dsl isn't available then you'll be stuck with satellite. It works but as you said it isn't cheap - I have a couple clients using it.

 

[TowPro]

if you can't get cable internet, can a neighbor? If you within a mile or 2 (some say 7 miles) you can actualy buy wireless stuff for under a grand that will transmit high speed signals that distance.

 

[TPCDrafting]

high speed satellite is an oxy moron.



I have an RF version of a wireless connection. I have a small antenna, a square plate about 12" square x 2" thick with a little transmitter box mounted behind it on the side of my house. It points to a radio tower about 5 miles away. It runs 1. 5 to 2 mb both up and down. Clouds, snow, rain, nothing has slowed it down. This runs me about 45 a month, about half of satellite. Check to see if you have a provider in your area.

 

[Duluth Diesel]

high speed satellite is an oxy moron.



I have an RF version of a wireless connection. I have a small antenna, a square plate about 12" square x 2" thick with a little transmitter box mounted behind it on the side of my house. It points to a radio tower about 5 miles away. It runs 1. 5 to 2 mb both up and down. Clouds, snow, rain, nothing has slowed it down. This runs me about 45 a month, about half of satellite. Check to see if you have a provider in your area.

That's what I have at home as well. Clearwire is the company I am with. Works great, and I pay $39 a month.



-Chuck

 

[JCasper]

My Dad just ordered Hughesnet. It was $500 for the install and $60 per month. It is not real fast I think 700/128, but still better then dial up. He is not exactly rural, there is cable going down the street in front of his house. The problem was the cable company will only run the cable 200 feet and his driveway is 600 feet long. They wanted $3,000 to run the other 400'.

 

[klenger]

Verizon Wireless EVDO is basically broadband speed. Simple, portable, and not too expensive at $60 if you also have a voice plan. Check to see if it's available in your area.

 

[bighammer]

My Dad just ordered Hughesnet. It was $500 for the install and $60 per month. It is not real fast I think 700/128, but still better then dial up. He is not exactly rural, there is cable going down the street in front of his house. The problem was the cable company will only run the cable 200 feet and his driveway is 600 feet long. They wanted $3,000 to run the other 400'.

I'd be tempted to build a little booth out as far as they will run their line, then just go wireless or scratch a line into the surface to the house. Let them run it as far as they will and you take it from there.

 

[BlakeDavis]

Thanks for the replies guys. I now have a few ideas. As far as I know I am about 15 miles away from the closest RF wireless provider is about 15 miles away. My parents used it for a while from about 8 miles away but they live on top of a hill and have a clear view of the water tower that the transmitter was on. When DSL became available locally though, they switched and now have faster service for about half the price of the wireless.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Congrats on finishing college and getting back into farming. I'd REALLY love to get into farming, but it seems like you have to be born into it.



I use Verizons EVDO service, but our neighbor is getting 802. 11b (long-range wireless) installed pretty soon. I plan on seeing how it works out for him and then ditching the EVDO if it is any good. The speed the ISP advertises is 256Kb/256Kb - so that sounds pretty slow, IMHO.



Vz's EVDO is $80/month (without a wireless voice plan... ) and they have a 5GB/month limit. If you go over that limit, they cancel you. If Sprint's EVDO is in your area - that is the way to go... it's cheaper and they don't have a bandwidth limit.



I use a Kyocera KPC-650 EVDO PCMCIA card and a Kyocera KR1 router. It's a really slick setup and allows me to share the EVDO connection with other computers over standard Cat5 wired network or 802. 11x wireless (I disabled the wireless on my router... ). I originally had the KPC-650 installed into a PCI-to-PCMCIA adapter card, but that thing kept causing my Windows XP system to BSOD. I haven't had any issues at all with the KR1 - it's a great little router.



With EVDO Rev0, I've seen 1100kbps/200kbps test speeds... it's good enough for what I do, but the speeds vary all over the place. I will miss my 3Mb/256kb cable modem I had at the other house within city limits.



Cheers,



Matt

 

[Duluth Diesel]

Congrats on finishing college and getting back into farming. I'd REALLY love to get into farming, but it seems like you have to be born into it.



I use Verizons EVDO service, but our neighbor is getting 802. 11b (long-range wireless) installed pretty soon. I plan on seeing how it works out for him and then ditching the EVDO if it is any good. The speed the ISP advertises is 256Kb/256Kb - so that sounds pretty slow, IMHO.



Vz's EVDO is $80/month (without a wireless voice plan... ) and they have a 5GB/month limit. If you go over that limit, they cancel you. If Sprint's EVDO is in your area - that is the way to go... it's cheaper and they don't have a bandwidth limit.



I use a Kyocera KPC-650 EVDO PCMCIA card and a Kyocera KR1 router. It's a really slick setup and allows me to share the EVDO connection with other computers over standard Cat5 wired network or 802. 11x wireless (I disabled the wireless on my router... ). I originally had the KPC-650 installed into a PCI-to-PCMCIA adapter card, but that thing kept causing my Windows XP system to BSOD. I haven't had any issues at all with the KR1 - it's a great little router.



With EVDO Rev0, I've seen 1100kbps/200kbps test speeds... it's good enough for what I do, but the speeds vary all over the place. I will miss my 3Mb/256kb cable modem I had at the other house within city limits.



Cheers,



Matt

Matt, have them look into 802. 11g at least for more speed. 802. 11b is slow by today's standards.



-Chuck

 

[nickleinonen]

The problem was the cable company will only run the cable 200 feet and his driveway is 600 feet long. They wanted $3,000 to run the other 400'.

rip off



rg11 rated for direct burial is less than $0. 50/foot. . i'd run my own to the street from the house, let them plug it in streetside, and i'd do the connections in house

 

[2broke2smoke]

keep the ideas flowing, i need all the help i can get ...

 

[jeepit]

WildBlue satellite is one I'm considering. Compared to my local RF connection it is faster for the same price. Install is free right now (at least in my area) but you have to by some equipment which brings the cost up.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

WildBlue isn't taking new subscribers in my area - they're overwhelmed.



IEEE 802. 11b is good for up to 11Mbit/sec. Unless you have mega-bandwidth FTTH/FTTP (Fiber To The Home/Fiber To The Premises), your wireless connection won't be your bottleneck.



Matt

 

[WDaniels]

Blake,

Up here in the middle of Alaska, I used Starband. With sat internet you get what you pay for. I'm sure its cheaper down there than it is up here. If you need a dish, horn and mount, I have one fairly cheap. Is a 4 foot dish tho. Here The satellite is 17 degrees off of the horizon so its a little bigger dish that what you guys use but it will give you better reception. I paid around 70 a month and it was unlimited down loads and uploads. Its speed was about 1/3 of a T1

WD

 

[barbwire]

our DSL comes into our house in our phone lines. Cost is $19. per mo. for DSL. and another$19. per mo. for a separate line, so as not to interfere with the phone. And we are about as rural as you can get without being a farm.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

DSL doesn't interfere with the phone... the two functions (voice/data) operate at different frequencies.