Rural Internet Suggestions?

[Indy_Guy_77]

can you guys define your *fast* speeds? being on cable, 50mbps is pretty nice, so i'm wondering about actual data of these sat and repeater systems.

link to test here Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

 

[MarineOne]

We ran into the same thing a few months ago when we moved to the country....we went with TDS. We don't do anything fancy on it....no Netflix, no gaming, etc. For normal everyday web surfing I have no complaints.

 

[DialTone301]

If you have a choice other than satellite use it.

If you have to go with satellite take a look at Excede (WildBlue). I had their old system since it came out and while ours worked fine the speeds and download limits were terrible. The new Excede system is fast...advertised at up to 12 meg but it does burst much higher.

We are part of an FCC study and our Excede service is monitored for speed, latency etc. Last month the average speed on our connection was almost 20 meg. Latency is fairly constant at 650ms average....not good for games but will work with some VoIP options. Upload average for last month was a little over 6meg.

Excede isn't perfect but if you have no other choice than satellite it is pretty awesome.

 

[CountryBoy19]

All the guys complaining about how horrible satellite net is wouldn't make it a day in a truly remote location.

We had Hughes net at my site in the middle-east and it was the best thing around. Everybody was jealous of our awesome internet and always came to borrow it when they needed to do some "high-speed surfing"...

It does have usage limits but when you're all the way around the world the "open access" time just happens to fall right in the middle of the day... lol...

My wife and I were able to skype regularly. Sometimes we would get screen freezes and there was always a great deal of latency, but it was better than the alternative...

 

[Hammer]

This test was done on my friends Excede service today.

 

[HavokCycle]

ouch.. yeah.. that ping is worse than dialup.. i remember thinking my dad's repeater was bad also. but nice speeds otherwise.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Well crap!

Looks like I'll be going the satellite route. NetSurf, the only wireless Internet provider down here doesn't get out to my place.

Anybody know which is the lesser of satellite evils?

 

[mrjarrell]

Avoid Hughes Net like the plaque. I've never heard good things about them. My brother had Wild Blue for a couple of years and wasn't horribly unhappy, (never very happy, either). It worked for him till something better came along.

 

[Jarhead1775]

I've had Hughes net for several years now. Their old system was ok... nothing like cable... but it was good. I know have their Gen 4... same price and much faster. They put up a new satellite to run this system with.

Not sure how to post up the results... but here they were
5.14 Mb/s 0.26 Mb/s 720 ms Yeah.. not the best and not the worst.. but right now is also peak usage time of most services.

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

Well crap!

Looks like I'll be going the satellite route. NetSurf, the only wireless Internet provider down here doesn't get out to my place.

Anybody know which is the lesser of satellite evils?

Hey GFGT - Are you in range of Blue River Networking out of Salem? I don't know how far up your way they have towers. They have Line of sight high speed. Works like a champ.

Craig (the main guy there) is good people.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Hey GFGT - Are you in range of Blue River Networking out of Salem? I don't know how far up your way they have towers. They have Line of sight high speed. Works like a champ.

Craig (the main guy there) is good people.

I'll call them tomorrow.
I'm in the southern eastern part of Lawrence county...about 1 mile from Orange County line. It's worth a shot!

Thanks for the lead!

 

[DialTone301]

If you are going satellite then check out Excede by WildBlue.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Originally Posted by ArmedProgrammer
Hey GFGT - Are you in range of Blue River Networking out of Salem? I don't know how far up your way they have towers. They have Line of sight high speed. Works like a champ.

Craig (the main guy there) is good people.

I'll call them tomorrow.
I'm in the southern eastern part of Lawrence county...about 1 mile from Orange County line. It's worth a shot!

Thanks for the lead!

Another Strike!

 

[ArmedProgrammer]

Bummer - sorry for that.... Figured it was worth a shot.

Do you ever shoot at Campbellsburg? Decent little private range that's not too far from you.. PM me if you don't know where it is, and want to find out.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Bummer - sorry for that.... Figured it was worth a shot.

Do you ever shoot at Campbellsburg? Decent little private range that's not too far from you.. PM me if you don't know where it is, and want to find out.

PM Sent...

 

[aaron580]

Try hughesnet. Thats what we use because like your issues, we cant get any internet service out in our area either. It isnt the worst satellite and price isnt as bad as most. Still sucks because im a huge bandwidth user but works great for web browsing and a few videos and such.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Try hughesnet. Thats what we use because like your issues, we cant get any internet service out in our area either. It isnt the worst satellite and price isnt as bad as most. Still sucks because im a huge bandwidth user but works great for web browsing and a few videos and such.

I'd like to be a huge bandwidth user!

I guess one of the negative aspects of being out and away from city-life, I guess...It's still worth it.

Next step is to study the satellite providers and see which offers the best value. As I see it, Huges, Excede/Wildblue, and Frontier are the ones that are out there...At least, they're the ones I've gotten mailers from. I wouldn't be too surprised to learn they all purchase bandwith from the same satellite owner (Huges, I'm assuming).

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Just to close the loop on this one...

After exhausting all the terrestrial internet options (no cable, DSL, wi-fi options are not available at my house), all that was left were the satellite options. After evaluating those options, we chose Dish. Dish is reselling Hughesnet, but if you've already got Dish TV, you get a $10/month discount on Internet service. The services and the listed prices, before the discount, is the same as the Hughes'.

The guy was out Friday evening to install. All went well. He was in and out in less than a couple hours (I helped a bunch). (I would not was to be a Satellite installer, by the way.)

I'll have to admit, it's not bad. The data limit is a big hindrance to enjoying things like NetFlix or other data intensive recreation. I tested the download and upload speeds and they were 2.56mbps and 1.5 mbps respectively. Nothing to wrote home about, but better than what we had before.

So far, I'm a satisfied customer.

 

[CathyInBlue]

So, what's your personal per-month damage like?

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

So, what's your personal per-month damage like?

Compare
Satellite Internet | Rural Broadband | dishNET

Vs

HughesNet Plans and Pricing, High Speed Rural Satellite Internet

As I said above, the Dish is Hughes. The modem or router or whatever you call it came in a Hughes box. Dish doesn't advertise a 40gb package. I don't know if they'll sell you more data than those packages or not.

It's definitely no bargain.