High speed internet in the boonies

[ufo_chris]

hello,touched on this briefly on another board while talking fences.....
I really need high speed internet but of course for a decent price.
I'm not willing to pay for satelite equipment so my only other option (nothing else available) is the high speed over the cell phone lines or whatever you call it.
It's the thing you stick in your usb ,looked at radio shack once ,it was $60 a month with 2 year contract and I think 5 gig limit.
Now I hear there are some with no limit. That would be nice for videos and stuff.
Does anyone have any of this service?
How do you like it,and how much is it?
Thanks,Chris

 

[ga. prime]

You lost me at hello.

 

[jedstivers]

I've got Alltel, now Version and it was unlimited and will stay that way because we bought it that way but they said after Version took over it would be limited. Works great if you have a signal.

 

[ufo_chris]

Thanks! Do you not get a signal often?
Can I still get the unlimited or did they already take over?
Is it $60?
Thanks

To Ga.prime...
? don't know why I lost you at hello?????

 

[FarmGirl10]

I have the Verizon, and its limited. But I was watching a commercial for a so called unlimited service :roll: and the fine print at the bottom said your still limited to 5 gigs. If you get it, skip the usb and pay the extra $20 and get the MiFi; its worth it. Unlike jedstivers, i have no problems getting service.

 

[farmwriter]

Tried satellite for a while. In two words: RIP OFF! Speeds just weren't as good as advertised and the slightest inclement weather knocked it out.
Now I have Verizon wireless, and I LOVE it. I have great reception on the farm (ask to see coverage map for your area, and if you can borrow a friend's to try at your house that would be better). Customer service rep has been very friendly as well. Speed is better than I expected, and in 3 weeks, I've used just over a gig, so I think I'll be fine with the 5 G limit. I watch youtube, but not netflix instant movies. Let me know if I can answer any more questions for you. So far, my experience has been liberating!

 

[TheBullLady]

Alltel / Verizon card here as well. The cell service SUCKED for a couple of months while they were doing the conversion, but when I called to complain (about 50 times.. my business depends on having phone service at the ranch, and I was getting messages days after people left them) they insisted it would be better in August. So far so good.

I paid nothing for the card (buy it and then get a rebate.. paperwork, yuck) and the service is $60 a month. Worth it for the speed. Prior to that I only had dial up, which was a nightmare.

 

[MO_cows]

Really glad to hear the good things about Verizon, that's who we have cell phones with and probably will get the wireless card from them before dialup drives us insane. I had talked to AT & T about theirs, and it seems to be the exact same deal as Verizon, so why have an extra bill to pay? Cricket is cheaper and no contract but doesn't have coverage for us.

I'm no techie, but have been told unless you watch streaming video constantly or download movies all the time, you won't go over the 5 gigs.

 

[jcummins]

The signal is the problem. I use it, it works some of the times....but struggles a lot to. My cell service is marginal. North side of place just ok...south side...I cannot receive or make calls. I'm considering putting in a land line and use dsl since it is available.

 

[Lammie]

You might want to check out Air Canopy. It's sattalite but we use it at the school where I work and I don't have problems with it. We have ATT DSL and although it costs more than it's worth, it's the only thing we can get around here due to the geography of the area. Either that or dial up and although that would not bother me a lot, it makes the husband crazy.

 

[1982vett]

You might want to check out Air Canopy. It's satellite but we use it at the school where I work and I don't have problems with it. We have ATT DSL and although it costs more than it's worth, it's the only thing we can get around here due to the geography of the area. Either that or dial up and although that would not bother me a lot, it makes the husband crazy.

Are you sure about that? http://www.aircanopy.com/

Might look like it since it does/can use a dish to send and receive radio signal. Definitely better than satellite. It's only problem is you need a line of sight from your antenna to the tower. Trees, hills, buildings and such knock out the signal. Many times better than satellite. Cost less too.

 

[grannysoo]

We've got an AT&T tower within a mile of the farm and cell service is great. We tried the AT&T wireless internet and it sucked. Looks like we're still stuck with satellite for a while. We're upgrading with an new modem and going to a new satellite, so perhaps it will get better.

 

[Lammie]

You might want to check out Air Canopy. It's satellite but we use it at the school where I work and I don't have problems with it. We have ATT DSL and although it costs more than it's worth, it's the only thing we can get around here due to the geography of the area. Either that or dial up and although that would not bother me a lot, it makes the husband crazy.

Are you sure about that? http://www.aircanopy.com/

Might look like it since it does/can use a dish to send and receive radio signal. Definitely better than satellite. It's only problem is you need a line of sight from your antenna to the tower. Trees, hills, buildings and such knock out the signal. Many times better than satellite. Cost less too.

All I know is that I can't get it. No clear line of sight.

 

[rockridgecattle]

We have air canopy. Line of site you need. There are two recievers that go on your roof. One looks like the size of a toaster with a DSL cord going in the house, the other sort of looks like a old TV antena with the one long rod pointing to the the tower. Much better reception with this one and line of site can be skewed abit. Sometimes it's slow, others, gangbuster speed, no limit.

 

[TexasBred]

We've got an AT&T tower within a mile of the farm and cell service is great. We tried the AT&T wireless internet and it sucked. Looks like we're still stuck with satellite for a while. We're upgrading with an new modem and going to a new satellite, so perhaps it will get better.

Try another carrier. AT&T doesn't work at my place but Alltel is great. Same for wireless.

 

[CKC1586]

Alltel / Verizon card here as well. The cell service SUCKED for a couple of months while they were doing the conversion, but when I called to complain (about 50 times.. my business depends on having phone service at the ranch, and I was getting messages days after people left them) they insisted it would be better in August. So far so good.

I paid nothing for the card (buy it and then get a rebate.. paperwork, yuck) and the service is $60 a month. Worth it for the speed. Prior to that I only had dial up, which was a nightmare.

I have Alltel phone and have had it for a few years, for the last 2 years I have had the internet data card, I only pay an extra $25. a month for it though and it works great. Occasionally there will be "service issues" but not often and not for a long period of time. I have had Centennial and Nextell cellphone service and they were, well.....not good.

 

[tom4018]

We use a Sprint card and average around a 100kbps speed. Dail up and Satellite are the only other things available here. DSL is right up the road and right down the road, we are in the middle were we can't get it. I use Sprint thru my company too and some areas are really fast but not so great here but still 4-5 times faster than dial up.

 

[ufo_chris]

CKC...the card for the extra 25 bucks, is that the one you can stick in any computer or only for your cell phone?
I'm asking because the radio shack guy told us it's not any cheaper if you have cell phone service also (I cant's remember if it was alltell though,gotta check on that).

Everybody....Thanks so much for all your replies,this really helps,appreciate more views on the subject too!
I will check into the the others mentioned too,thanks so much,
Chris

 

[LimousinGirl]

It's the thing you stick in your usb ,looked at radio shack once ,it was $60 a month with 2 year contract and I think 5 gig limit.
Now I hear there are some with no limit. That would be nice for videos and stuff.
Does anyone have any of this service?
How do you like it,and how much is it?
Thanks,Chris

We have it...and yeah, it is $60/month, but I can't say I like it that much. Seems its more often that we don't have a signal then when we do, and when you don't have a good signal it goes deathly slow, like right now. But that might depend more on you're location, I guess we're so far out we don't get a good signal very often. When we first got it though, it worked great almost all the time but then something happened and now it seems to me just a little faster then our old dial-up most of the time, except for a few certain times of the day.
Oh well, I guess anythings better as long as its a little faster then dial up. Oh, and ours doesn't have a limit.

 

[1982vett]

It's the thing you stick in your usb ,looked at radio shack once ,it was $60 a month with 2 year contract and I think 5 gig limit.
Now I hear there are some with no limit. That would be nice for videos and stuff.
Does anyone have any of this service?
How do you like it,and how much is it?
Thanks,Chris

We have it...and yeah, it is $60/month, but I can't say I like it that much. Seems its more often that we don't have a signal then when we do, and when you don't have a good signal it goes deathly slow, like right now. But that might depend more on you're location, I guess we're so far out we don't get a good signal very often. When we first got it though, it worked great almost all the time but then something happened and now it seems to me just a little faster then our old dial-up most of the time, except for a few certain times of the day.
Oh well, I guess anythings better as long as its a little faster then dial up. Oh, and ours doesn't have a limit.

Something just occurred to me that many of you may not realize, if you have your computer set to let Microsoft or your anti-virus or other programs to automatically download updates but don't stay logged on to the Internet, when you do log on those programs hog usage and can make it seem unbearably slow. When I was on dial-up I had them all turned off and manually ran them at night while I was sleeping. Some of those "updates" can take hours and hours on dial-up. Even when I was on satellite, I made sure they ran in the wee hours to keep them from inflicting pain while I wanted to use the Internet.