Satellite internet

[Mistydawn]

I enjoy my rural, primitive lifestyle except for a couple of drawbacks. Contemplating moving out of the dark ages of technology with dial-up internet. Since there is no cell-phone reception in my gulch, an internet card (or whatever it's called) is not an option. Does anyone have any experience with receiving internet service via satellite? I'd like to know how well it works, what apps will or won't work, shortcomings, etc. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. (The other drawback is the roads - not well maintained and the last to be snow-free in these "higher elevations"!)

[Judy K]

Mistydawn, as a fellow rural, primitive lifestyle devotee also on dial-up in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio, our neighbors who have satellite internet (Hughes Net & Wild Blue in this area) don't seem totally happy with the services. My nephew has used both, pays approx. $80/month, yet frequently has his connection speed bumped back to a dial-up speed because his family has exceeded the daily use allotment. A few in the neighborhood are completely happy with the services offered. It strikes me that if the household wants to visit YouTube & other large download sites often, they have problems often; if the household is more of a forum/email type with no teenagers at home they have few problems. This is all just my observations from our ridge top. I still use dial-up and will continue to do so until a few more of the bugs are worked out of the satellite offerings in our area. Hopefully DSL will eventually come just 3 miles further up the road .....

[bruce]

I want to live where this is a problem

[KenH]

You could always go back to sea, Bruce! Living on a 26ft Columbia sailboat, I'm pretty much off the net once I leave the marina...

[halfpint]

This is an article that indicates some of the services are going to get better:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/17/ ... =SF_T_Lead

This is discussed a lot on camping boards and homesteading boards, so you might want to search some of those as they have more people in your situation than on here.

We have DSL, but the cell signal is very weak to non existent.

Bruce are you missing the seclusion of your ship?

Dawn

[bruce]

It's not the seclusion I miss. I miss the country...the attraction of slower, simple, which is more of a myth than reality.

[Robin T]

Mistydawn,
We also have no other option for higher speed internet so use satellite. At just a nickel shy of $80 a month, we get service that's far better than the dial-up service we used to have. (We had poor phone service, too. One telephone company repair guy said we had some lines around here that went in in the 1950's.) Do I have complaints about satellite service? Yes. As Judy indicated, it'd be great to see some of the bugs worked-out of satellite service. Yet given how bad our dial-up service was, I wouldn't want to go back.
Robin

[Mistydawn]

Dawn, it never occurred to me to seach camping & homesteading boards. In fact, it never crossed my mind that such boards existed! As you know, research can be very time consuming & cumbersome on dial-up so I tend to avoid it at home.

Robin, I believe our phone lines are in the same shape. When it rains a lot, we can even hear other people's conversations!

Going from $10 to $80 a month for internet service would be quite a jump. But there's so much wasted time waiting for pages to load via dial-up, even though I often try to fill that time with quick chores. If I played mountain dulcimer primarily rather than HD, I could keep one on my lap & do some strumming while waiting! Well, there's always the tin whistle.

[Robin T]

Mistydawn,
We used to have the same problem (with hearing others' conversations and others hearing our conversations). The phone repair guy came and I actually got him checking our lines and he got rid of our "cross talking" (what he called it) problem. Once, I was on the phone with my niece and there was another conversation we were hearing and a lady involved in that conversation asked if I could hear her. I told her I could. That set of affairs gave one no confidence when it came to needing to transact personal business over the phone.

[Judy K]

Old phone lines here, too. As a kid I remember phone lines going in here in the late 50's and they have never been upgraded. We haven't had much of the 'cross-talking' on our house line but a good friend has a major problem with nearly every rain. Even WV has upgraded to fiber optic lines -- wish Ohio would get with the program.

[Robin T]

Old phone lines here, too. As a kid I remember phone lines going in here in the late 50's and they have never been upgraded. We haven't had much of the 'cross-talking' on our house line but a good friend has a major problem with nearly every rain. Even WV has upgraded to fiber optic lines -- wish Ohio would get with the program.

I'm wishing with you, Judy!

Robin T