Another Rural Internet Access Question

[Tony De Masi]

I am planning a move next month where I haven't been able to find any of the typical ISP that you would think of. Also, in searching for television service I see that DirecTV also provides internet service.

Does anyone have this service with them? Is it worth looking into?


Tony

[Matt Meiser]

What they offer is HughesNet. There is another provider called WildBlue as well. If you are just going to use it to surf the web, it should be fine. If you play games, use VOIP, use remote access software or other things where response is critical, you are going to be really frustrated. It slows dramatically if you use VPN software or are on an SSL (https://) page. The upload was painfully slow on the plan I had. We never used an online photo service due to the speed when we had it. Also, they have a Fair Access Policy which limits how much you can download. With most plans, you'll hit the FAP with any very large downloads. And when the weather is bad--ice/snow building up on the dish or heavy precipitation, you'll lose service. The startup cost is expensive, though less than it was 5 years ago, and there's a 2 year committment. That said, it beats dialup.

You should search the WISP Directory (http://www.wispdirectory.com/) if you haven't done so already. Don't go based just on their address as most good WISPs have several towers across a broad area. Look at all the providers web sites for coverage maps.

If that's not available and you can live with a limit of 5GB per month, take a look at the broadband service from Sprint, AT&T or Verizon. If you can get at least a margininal signal, antennas and amplifiers are likely to give you something.

If you need to transfer a lot of data with low latency, be prepared to spend. Your options may include getting a T1 line (they run $250/mo and up--I was quoted $800/mo at my house) or something like the commercial wireless service I just got.

[Tony De Masi]

Thanks Matt

Usage would mostly be surfing, emails, and of course the Creek. What they currently have on their web site is the Wild Blue. I no next to nothing about all this stuff so some of the language you used in your reply is kind of foreign to me.

I have more research to do.

Tony

[Paul Brinkmeyer]

I had wild blue for a year.
The only easy thing was to sign up and give them money
The support was about -10
The installer was -9, He tried to add on extra charges for every little thing and did not want to run the cables out of site, but down the front of the house.
Internet was much slower than stated. Even with support on the phone, using the web site they told me to use to check the upload and down speed, it failed miserably, and all they would say was that it was my side of the system. The same computer in a hotel, or on cable would just screem. Now that I moved the business out of the home and got DSL in town, I dread the day I might have to go back to wild blue, as my home is still in an area that only has that as an option, and I really miss not having internet at home.
I tried the WSIP site and still not other options.

[Matt Meiser]

Tony, if a lot of the things I mentioned are foreign language, then you'll probably be content (content, not happy) with satellite. I would check out the WISP directory though and see if you can find someone who covers your new home because the terms will probably be more favorable and the service should work better if the company knows what they are doing.

So DirecTV switched from hawking Hugesnet, which was formerly DirecWay, formerly DirecPC to WildBlue? Crazy! We get ads from Hughesnet in the mail regularly. I assumed they were related to our DirecTV subscription, but maybe not. They aren't "please come back" type ads so I didn't think they were related to our previous service either.

From what I've heard WildBlue is definitely a second to Hughesnet. Around here, probably 1/3 of the houses have a DirecWay/Hughesnet dish on them. The houses on either side of me and the one directly across the street all have them in fact. I've not noticecd any WildBlue dishes.

Back in the summer when I re-looked at satellite, I found out that Direcway launched a new satellite and use all-new equipment for people on that satellite. Things are supposed to work better on that satellite, but I've not looked for any reviews. I also contacted two WildBlue dealers who both promised to get back to me on a couple questions I had--neither ever did. With that kind of response, I wouldn't have even considered it.

[John Keeton]

I have had a hughes.net satellite for about a year. It does what they said it would do - which isn't great, but much better than dial up. I live only 2 miles from town and can't get dsl!!! You gotta wonder about that business plan!

My download speed varies between 750 and 850, and my upload about 125-150. I can receive video files that are sent to me, but cannot forward as it times out.

I lose service in a real heavy rain, or in heavy wind conditions. Otherwise, pretty good service.

[Jim Becker]

John, DSL is extremely distance sensitive...and I'm not talking about "as the crow flies". Rather, it's the length of the wire between the central office (CO) and your home's demarcation point. (where the phone cable connects to your home) Depending on where the CO physically is and what the actual wire route to your home is, you may very easily be well outside the maximum of about 18,000 wire feet for DSL. Further, if there are "load coils" on the lines (not uncommon in rural areas), DSL will not work. In some areas, the local providers will install remote terminals (RTs) that effectively "move" the CO closer to you, but they tend not to do that when the population for the area to be served is less than some threashold. For those who can get DSL, distance will also affect the speed you can get. The farther out you are, the lower the speed you can be provisioned for. This is why some folks can get 7-10mbps down service (depending on provider) and others off the same CO can only get 768kbs down. Some newer technologies (VDSL) are helping with the speed equation, but distance still plays a key role for DSL deployment.

Cable modem service and Verizon's FiOS fiber to the home services are not really affected by distance like DSL. Cable's distribution method allows for installation of "nodes" out in the community that in turn send the service to folk's homes, albeit in a shared bandwidth way. (which is why cable tends to slow down dramatically during peek access times) Fiber effectively has no distance limits, both for deployment and speed, outside of the practical, at least for this purpose. (Over very, very long distances, the light might need amplification, but that's not a factor in consumer services)

[Matt Meiser]

or in heavy wind conditions

How did they mount your dish? It should be more secure than that. Eventually its going to move out of alignment and your signal strength will degrade to the point where it just won't work.

[Don Bullock]

How did they mount your dish? It should be more secure than that. Eventually its going to move out of alignment and your signal strength will degrade to the point where it just won't work.

Matt's correct. We have our Direct TV signal several times because of how the dish was mounted. Since we have their service plan it doesn't cost anything other than the irritation of no TV for a few days. When we asked to have the dish moved to a "more secure" location where it would also be less affected by the high winds we get we were told that we'd have to pay to have the dish moved.

Back to the OP: Thanks for the question and answers. Since our new home is in a rural area where I can't have DSL like I do now, I'm very interested in the various services. From what I'm reading so far, I'm not going to be very happy.:( I guess that's one price I'll have to pay for enjoying the countryside and not being jammed up against all my neighbors.

[Scott Loven]

I live in a valley in the country and my only option other then dial-up is wild blue. It is not as good as what I have at work, but it is fine for Internet and email. I can stream videos off of utube or netflicks and down load large 20 meg files no problem.
Scott

[Jim Becker]

Don, if the wireless service is good in that area, then I'd likely choose a 3G solution like Matt's long before I'd go sat for Internet. I consider sat a "last resort" due to the limitations it has (high latency, lower speeds, etc.) for the money as compared to the 3G services that most wireless providers have available now, even with the caps.

[Don Bullock]

Jim, thanks for the information. I'll have to check into the 3G services that are available in my area. Fortunately we're not fully moving until the LOML finishes teaching in June. That gives me a lot of time to check things out thoroughly.

[John Keeton]

Matt, Don, actually the dish is on a very heavy pole in concrete. I did not want it on the side of the house, but this is as secure as it can get in those circumstances. We live on top of a ridge and get some very hard winds at times. The side to side movement of the dish will momentarily interrupt service. It usually is just a case of clicking refresh to load the page.

Unfortunately, we are in a situation where we have no other choices. 3G is not reliable here, and although we are fairly close to town (2 miles) we cannot get dsl. That amazes me as there are portions of our county that are much more remote and as much as 15 miles from town that have dsl. As I said - tremendous business plan!

[Don Bullock]

John, thanks for the pole idea. I might try that.

As for DSL, it's in the same boat as cable. If the customer base is big enough they'll put it in. If you live on a street or in an area with just a few houses it's not going to happen. Not to be political, but that's what happened when the Feds deregulated everything.

[Matt Meiser]

There is talk of reallocating the Universal Service Charge which was intended to subsidize building out phone service to be, well, universal, to make high speed internet universally available. Obviously that is something I'd support! :D

John, we get some pretty high winds here, especially in the winter and I never noticed problems due to wind. But we had the roof-mount bracket. I can see a pole having more sway though.