Rural internet service

[Acre of Blessings]

Hey spatcher, Embarq always told me we aere to far out and we finially got DSL last month and it only cost 19.95 a month and its in with your regular phone bill. We have a fellow at our church that works for Embarq and I will see what he can tell me about your area. Sometimes they say your to far out because they don't have enough people in the area wanting the service.

 

[Crunchie]

If you've got good cell service, is wireless a possibility? We have Verizon wireless for our cell phones and our internet service. It's $60 a month, totally unlimited, and we didn't have to pay for any crazy installation costs. We bought the wireless card (I think that was around $50?? Can't remember) and just added the service. We only get about half of a full signal at home, and it's still plenty fast!! I couldn't live without it, really, I need high-speed for work so one way or another it was a must....

Connecting to my VPN for work is ok until I try to work with a file. Then it gets tricky. I just can't open a file and work off of the network--I have to move the file to my computer, close my connection, do the work I need to do, re-connect, and move the file back. A bit cumbersome, but very do-able.

Most web pages do load pretty instantly. Opening .pdf files is not a problem. Overall, it's more than adequate. It's the best solution we've found.

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
We had looked into satellite and decided on the wireless highspeed if we can get it. There is supposed to be a tower within range of us but we will have to wait until DH gets back to work, hopefully next month. We are living on unemployment right now.... it’s enough to pay the bills and eat but not enough for any frills.

NurseNettie…can you get that computer telephone service with wireless highspeed? We are paying out the rear end for our landline phone and we don’t have a tower close enough to us to get good cell phone reception. If we could get rid our landline that would pay for our Internet.

 

[blessedchickenmama7]

We have Hughes Net. They are great at first. However, what has happened is that our service has started getting slower and slower. They know there is a problem with the transponder we are on. Turns out, the warranty on modem is only 6 months, and guess what, they want us to "have it checked out" before they will consider doing anything else for us. So they will gladly send someone out to fix it for a 125.00 service call fee plus parts (new modem). But they won't guarantee that that's even the problem. If not, we paid 125.00 for nothing except for someone to drive here. It's likely also related to the transponder. But they won't switch us to another one unless I get the highest priced plan they have. I already pay 91.00 per month for this service on the Professional Plan. And it worked fine until recently. The first tech guy I spoke with came right out and said that as more people are added to a transponder frequency it will get overloaded sometimes. When he transferred me to a "higher" tech she said there was no way I could prove that was the problem and the only way they would switch me to a new frequency which the other tech had tried and knew we got a great signal from was if I paid for the higher priced plan because the spots that were available on that one were reserved for "those" customers. I refused and will drop them as soon as my contract is up. I will try another satellite service maybe if we don't have DSL then.

Also if you game or download music, and transfer too much in a 24 hour period, you are put in "internet jail". That's what we call it. For the next 24 hour period your service is slower than dial up. They say that's to make sure everyone on a transponder gets a fair chance to use the internet. So it's kind of like a party line phone... Once you are out of "internet jail", your speed will pick up until you go over it again.

Of course, no one told us about the short 6 months warranty, about the file transfer limit, or anything else when we signed up. I am very disappointed. We have 15 months left on our contract, and they are not holding up their end of the deal in my opinion. I am going to contact the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint, and possibly a lawyer about their refusal to fix this or move us to a transponder that works for us. The problem is Hughes Net has gotten lots of new business in our area (partially because we recommended them so much, probably) that they are overloading the system. But that's not my fault.

Sorry for the long rant, but everyone needs to go into this with their eyes wide open. We didn't. What I would have given if someone had told me all this 8 months ago. I will never, ever do business with them again.

 

[Smoky73]

I have a local service, as my town doesn't get the wireless through the phone system.
Ours is a satellite, but it goes to a tower, not the sky. Sometimes the trees interfere, and the weather, but it is still tons faster than the dial up and we usually never get anything over a "fair" signal. We paid $200 for the equipment, and pay $25 a month for service.
Our neighbor just got WildBlue, and they told her it was guaranteed to work. My boss has WildBlue as well, he got it quite some time ago though, and he has nothing but problems with his but he is an idiot anyway so he probably doesn't have something hooked right.

 

[barred rock'er]

Crunchie wrote:
If you've got good cell service, is wireless a possibility?

lol......lol.....We live in a valley,absolutely no cell phone reception lol...I think Ive finally cracked...lol
It's the little things that get ya,like the person who drives 5 mi under the speed limit,or that neighbors dog that keeps getting into your garbage.

You get to a point,and everyone duz, where you just shoot the driver and pass the dog.

wait...well you know what I mean.

 

[spatcher]

We have excellent cell service cause the tower is about 200 yds from the front door on a mtn. Embarq is always at the cell tower so I dont know why we cant get Embarq DSL - pls check for me Angela!

 

[hoosier]

Barred Rock'er - From reading your posts, I think we must be neighbours!
We live too far out for DSL and in about the only place in the county that can't get wireless.

 

[Beekissed]

I live there too....I just paid a good chunk of money and invested a lot of time taking courses for Medical Transcription and then found out I can't get DSL! Guess what all the online companies require before they will hire? DSL, or cable...can't get that either. Verizon has a monopoly on this area and will only provide this service to areas that will generate enough revenue to make it cost effective to provide the service. Nice.

I really needed that job, as employment around here is scarce and I have been out of work for a long time. I was trying to be able to work from home for various reasons, but one of the main reasons was the rising gas prices.

 

[d.k]

* My mom gets around those stupid restricted county carrier rules somehow by giving them my bro's address 2oo+ miles away and has the bills sent to her-- for cell svc., net and directtv!! IDK HOW that works!?!?!