BleepingComputer.com: Rural hi-speed internet service

Just curious what kind of hi-speed internet svc. some people might have. My son is trying to move out of town and is having a difficult time finding hi-speed internet svc. that he has to have with his job. We have several satellite options but I've heard that they're not that reliable. We live in central Texas in the San Antonio area. If anyone has any info or recommendations I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

unfortunately in rural areas there are no options. I just moved from the city, and didnt know problem like these even existed. To be honest if I would have known, I wouldn't have moved here, but now i'm stuck in a lease. If your son is going to be doing any type of work at home, he is going to be in a pretty bad place. My satelitte is very very very slow, and 30% of the time I lose connection, and have to wait how ever long to reconnect, its also more expensive than broadband because they know we have no options. .6 miles down my street the people of broadband, but since there are only a few houses on our street, the company tells us it would be to much money for them to run the connection we need. Sorry to tell u this but i have been looking for a alternative for almost a year now, and believe me there aren't any.

You've pretty much verified what we've been finding. Looks like he might be having a long drive in to work.

Thanks for the response.

As much as satellite internet sucks, it still beats dial-up, hands down.
The second I get another high speed option, I will be signing up, but for the time being, it's the best of 2 bads.
My biggest gripe, are the FAP's.
Be sure to read them.

Has Clear made it to the Texas dustbowl yet? If not you might see how long it will be.they are just getting started here in Atlanta and if they are in Dallas, I don't think it will take them long to expand their network.

( Boo Horns, Go Sooners lol)

DeathStalker, on Apr 25 2010, 11:29 AM, said:

Don't think Clear is in the area that he's looking at, I'll have him check on it.

Hey, the only reason Ok. has good football teams is because all their players come from Tx.


Have a good one and stay clear of the tornados.

.

This post has been edited by jimnor46: 25 April 2010 - 12:12 PM

tg1911, on Apr 25 2010, 11:24 AM, said:

With his line of work, he can't afford any downtime. Company would seriously frown on it. Looks like his best option is lots of driving.

Thanks for the response.

.

jimnor46, on Apr 25 2010, 01:08 PM, said:

Can you blame them for leaving Texas?

I haven't used satellite internet but I HAVE used satellite TV and I was stationed at Ft Hood, so I know what the weather is like where he is. If the internet is like the TV he would be out every time he had one of those Texas turd floaters. Man it can RAIN there, you can't describe it to someone who hasn't seen it lol. He's probably fated to driving until something else comes along. Shame the cable company won't run lines...........

Actually, I find sat TV (DirecTV) to be a lot less flaky than sat internet (HughesNet).
It's very, very seldom, that I lose TV.
Internet is a different story.
Sometimes there will be the thinnest wisp of a cloud passing over, and internet will go down.
Other times, such as when Hurricane Rita was passing through, I had no problem connecting.
Explain that one, to me.
Yeah, flaky is definitely the proper description of sat internet service.

I'm out in the country. For years my only true option was dial-up. Satelite in the forest - not an option. Cable hi-speed too horribly expensive though available. Now I have DSL. Just came out here last spring, and I got it in the summer. Now, the company is working on putting in fiber optics including for the phone lines. They plan to have their entire area finished by the end of this year. We've already had the pre-wiring done.

Something to check into: There are rural and small community ISP providers using stimulus funds to establish high-speed internet. Look into local small companies rather than the big giants. You might have a pleasant surprise.

Orange Blossom

I live in the boondocks of Virginia, where cell service is flaky at best. So true High speed internet is a dream. There are 3 options when you live outside of Cable and DSL range. A WISP (Wireless internet service provider), Satellite, and 3G Cell internet via an Aircard. Both WISP and Satellite require dishes to be placed in your yard and pointed at the source and cost about $200 installation plus $70 a month for the base package last time I checked. The benefits of a WISP are, Most are locally owned, and weather "will not" cause issues with the service, this is what I'm told I didn't go this route as i live in a hollow and cannot receive the WISP signal. Using the 3G Cell service is the route I had to go with and works fairly well (when it finds signal), but has it's downfalls namely signal strength and the USB modems required are hard to connect service to multiple devices, say my Xbox 360.

All that being said, all get roughly the same speeds which is 700KBps to 1.5MBps (all dependent on signal strength), and go for the "unlimited" plans as you will use more than what you think when it comes to the amount of stuff you download per month (I've been online for an hour now surfing lightly and I've already downloaded 5.20 MB)

im in central texas an my only two options are wild blue or hughs net im with wild blue through dishnet and have the platinum packag and the fap is 17 gb on a rolling 30 day basis. i get pretty consistant speeds of 1.2 to 1.6 mbs which translates to about 160 kilobytes per sec. but nothing else is available except dialup or finance your own t1 line sorry for the bad report

Thanks for the responses. I'll tell my son to look into some of the suggestions.

I apprecite everyone taking the time to respond.

Thanks

.

I am in the sticks in Virginia too. My only options are Verizon broadband wireless or hughesnet or wildblue and I have Verizon. It is slow. Check www.evdo-maps.com to see what your coverage is before you sign anything. BlackSpyder is right about the unlimited plan. Verizon told me that my connection transfers 13 gb a month but most of it is waiting for websites to load.

This post has been edited by thrillhouse: 27 April 2010 - 07:17 PM

I live in a big city, however I was forced to use a 3G Aircard as the building I live in, which is only about 2 years old, was not wired correctly so no ADSL.

However, the 3G Aircard has advantages as now I have an internet connection wherever I go with my laptop.