Hi Speed Internet in Boonies

GwadwercGwadwerc
edited December 2006 in Hardware
First, if this issue has been addressed a hundred times already, my apologies.

My wife and I are looking at houses in the boonies. Most have no cable service. Most have no DSL available (something about being too far from the switching station).

Having grown accustomed to 4Mbps +/-, and since we plan on home schooling next year, the thought of going back to 28-56kbps is just unacceptable. WE could afford to do satellite internet, but I've heard that people who are logged on all day get penalized (slowed down) for using more than their "fair share."

A guy I was working with recently was trying to explain to me something about building a tower and tapping into some sort of wireless hi speed? Anyone know anymore about this?

Thanks to any and all for your help!
-Gwadwerc

Comments

  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    Gwadwerc wrote:
    First, if this issue has been addressed a hundred times already, my apologies.

    My wife and I are looking at houses in the boonies. Most have no cable service. Most have no DSL available (something about being too far from the switching station).

    Having grown accustomed to 4Mbps +/-, and since we plan on home schooling next year, the thought of going back to 28-56kbps is just unacceptable. WE could afford to do satellite internet, but I've heard that people who are logged on all day get penalized (slowed down) for using more than their "fair share."

    A guy I was working with recently was trying to explain to me something about building a tower and tapping into some sort of wireless hi speed? Anyone know anymore about this?

    Thanks to any and all for your help!
    -Gwadwerc

    from the sounds of it cable internet is gonna be your only decently priced broadband, because iirc, satelite internet is hugely expensive and your upstream has to go through dial up still. I'm not sure though. I would try to find a house with cable service.
  • JBJB Carlsbad, CA
    edited December 2006
    Gwadwerc wrote:
    WE could afford to do satellite internet, but I've heard that people who are logged on all day get penalized (slowed down) for using more than their "fair share."

    Did you check out Wild Blue?
  • NosferatuNosferatu Arizona
    edited December 2006
    Gwadwerc wrote:
    A guy I was working with recently was trying to explain to me something about building a tower and tapping into some sort of wireless hi speed? Anyone know anymore about this?

    Could he have been talking about doing this: http://short-media.com/review.php?r=301 ?
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited December 2006
    Just because he may have access to cable, doesn't mean he can get cable internet. Most people in my state have access to cable t.v., but very few (10%) of those have access to cable internet. The cable companies around here (Bresnan) doesn't want to invest in the updated infastructure to support broadband internet.

    Wireless may be possible if you have a supplier within a mile of you. Not likely if you live in the boonies.

    Wild Blue may be your only option.

    Until BBOP is figured out. :)
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    I don't know about cable, but you need a loop length of no more than 18,000ft for DSL to work, loop length is the distance a signal has to travel from a Central Office to your home and back. Wireless of course sucks if you ask me, for reasons already given, and for the price, I would honestly say I'd stick with dial up until something better comes around, and have a dedicated line. The exception being a decent priced wireless service that doesn't limit the connection too much, I mean I don't have to always run bittorrent :P 3GB/month for example is more than enough to play WoW and other online games and get some downloads done as well. I noticed while playing WoW I only send like 10MB of information over a several hour period. Though I would be worried about ping times with wireless, might be willing to build a high power transmitter if possible.
  • GwadwercGwadwerc
    edited December 2006
    Buying a house with cable internet service may in fact be the best option. Checked with Wild Blue, and they haven't moved into my area yet, if memory serves me. I'll have to pull out my notes on that one. I think the guy I was talking to was, in fact, referring to wireless service and he also was contmeplating a tower, as described in the linked article. Which leaves me with the question, who are some of the ISPs who are placing towers in the boonies from which folks (within a mile?) can obtain "high speed" wireless internet?
    Thanks again!
    -Gwadwerc
  • JengoJengo Pasco, WA | USA
    edited December 2006
    you might want to check this out, its called clearwire!

    http://www.clearwire.com/
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    Sprint and Verizon also have a type of mobile internet service which is generally as fast as generic DSL at about 768kbps-1Mbps down. I've used the sprint version before on my friends laptop(using one of them PCMCIA cards) and it was indeed fast. Forgot about it till now.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited December 2006
    you beat me to it RWB, wireless high speed from Verizon has worked fine for me when traveling. The catch is the quality of the cell phone connections.
  • howardhoward Banda Aceh, Indonesia
    edited December 2006
    Our here in rural Michigan, the best (and only) option for many users is fixed-point wireless broadband service that several local firms are offering. If I understand this correctly, they buy bandwidth from the majors (QWEST, etc.) and then build a transmitter and many relay stations. If your house is in some sort of line-of-sight from one of their repeaters, you're in luck. Examples of such rural providers out my way are: http://www.emaylone.com/ and http://www.torchlake.com/ . They typically offer Dial-up as well.

    You might try searching for such providers in your neighborhood. These local entrepreneurs often go where cable and Ma Bell companies fear to tread!
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited December 2006
    You should check out Dslreports they can tell you if you can get internet in your area and what providers have coverage.
  • GwadwercGwadwerc
    edited December 2006
    Verizon's avail, but their rep says can only connect with a laptop?! I'll check out dslreports and the local phone book tomorrow.
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