Home internet

[georgelesley]

We just bought a new to us home near Erwin,TN. The previous owner had dsl. I called the provider prior to offering a contract on the house and were told to just call back when we needed service.

When I called yesterday to establish service I was told in our area the dsl capacity is used up. Cable is not available.

It appears satellite or cell is our only option. We has Dish hi speed previously and it works fairly well, but we would prefer more gigs at less cost. We also have a Verizon hotspot we use when RV'ing which would work.

A local Verizon store recommends their "Fusion" system. Any comments on it?

We use about 5-8 gigs a month which any of the cell or satellite based systems will easily handle, but had hoped to start streaming movies but unless we can find something cheaper per gig we won't be doing that.

We have a cell tower nearby and the Verizon signal is strong. Since we are quite close to an interstate I assume all carriers will be the same. Ideas?

[wa8yxm]

For Cellular.. AT&T and Verizon (per their maps) now have nearly identical coverage, Verizon has been best for a long time, But other companies have better data packages, So you need to visit all the web sites (Sprint and T-Mobile are the remaining two you need to visit) and see who has a good signal where you are, Then you can do the shop around.

I Microwave systems like the I-2000 system are good if they are in your area

Keep on the Tel-co about DSL,, Do not be afraid to write letters to the public service comission, your town council and such.

And if a company called COMCAST comes your way and offers XFINITY.. Based on what I keep reading about them lately,, Polietly decline.

[MrWizard]

Nice to hear a happy ending

[georgelesley]

Latest update on our hispeed internet quest. I called twice to order only to be told it was not available even though it had been in the house less than a month prior.

The wife called a few days ago now that we are actually in the house and asked why we could not get it. She was told we could in fact get it not at 10meg but 25 meg! We ordered it and the tech came to install it and after several hours checking connections up and down the road and doing multiple tests finally told us he could not do 25 meg and had no idea why nor did his tech support, but could give us 10 meg. We said go ahead, and we now have unlimited hi speed 10 meg dsl.

I even streamed a netflix last nite, the first time I have ever done such a thing. I just pushed buttons and eventually a movie started. Wow! According to the local utility, we should have fiber optic in a year or so, not that we really care at the moment.

[docj]

I feel the the OP's pain. The last S&B we owned before we went full-timing had no DSL, cable or even cellular service (we were on the wrong side of a mountain from all the towers). We had Hughesnet satellite internet but the usage limits are so severe that no streaming is feasible (it's far worse than cellular limits). When we sold the house I breathed a sigh of relief when the buyers never asked about internet availability.

[JimBollman]

I have never tried any of them but I have seen programs for recording what is showing on your computer screen. Assuming they don't have a time limit on recording you could record a movie while you sleep, or in the case of a series, Netflix can be set to auto start the next episode after a few seconds. Quality will probably be lower but it might work.

[georgelesley]

JimBollman wrote:
We are thinking of relocating to the same part of TN and several of the houses we looked at have had a similar problem to what you are having so I have been looking into other options. Most of the Satellite network solutions looked a bit limiting for the cost but I found one that I will look into if we end up with a place with no broadband options. Exede has ok rates compared to others but does have unlimited use in the middle of the night. I figured I could use the free times for some of the bigger scheduled downloads.

Other thing I discovered in some areas to my surprise was Century Link, very fast fiber optic phone and internet.

Thanks for the link. We already have Dish for TV and used their sat internet in MN. They give a $10 price cut for the bundle and unlimited overnite download. If I could figure out how to do Netflix at nite that might work. At the moment though looks like Verizon. Century Link is the provider we have been trying to get service with to no avail.

[JimBollman]

We are thinking of relocating to the same part of TN and several of the houses we looked at have had a similar problem to what you are having so I have been looking into other options. Most of the Satellite network solutions looked a bit limiting for the cost but I found one that I will look into if we end up with a place with no broadband options. Exede has ok rates compared to others but does have unlimited use in the middle of the night. I figured I could use the free times for some of the bigger scheduled downloads.

Other thing I discovered in some areas to my surprise was Century Link, very fast fiber optic phone and internet.

[SCVJeff]

Well.... Good try
So look around for wireless internet providers, not the Verizon's, etc. looking to provide cellular broadband. There are companies that set up wide area point to point private service specifically meant for rural subscribers

[georgelesley]

Ed_Gee wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:

georgelesley wrote:

joebedford wrote:
Is there no terrestrial microwave in your area? Lots of rural areas have that where dsl or cable doesn't exist.

What is that?

BTW, what puzzled us was that a month before when we called the provider this problem was not mentioned and the house had dsl from the same provider at the time we first looked at it.

did you tell them that? That service may be still apportioned and constructed at the switch, which MAY be why they say none is avaliable.

I agree. I think the original poster took no for an answer far too easily.....and this is apparent with the above additional info.

A second call to the local provider has unfortunately produced the same result. No waiting list exists either. And yes, I did explain the previous owner had such service only a month before. Same result

[Ed_Gee]

SCVJeff wrote:

georgelesley wrote:

joebedford wrote:
Is there no terrestrial microwave in your area? Lots of rural areas have that where dsl or cable doesn't exist.

What is that?

BTW, what puzzled us was that a month before when we called the provider this problem was not mentioned and the house had dsl from the same provider at the time we first looked at it.

did you tell them that? That service may be still apportioned and constructed at the switch, which MAY be why they say none is avaliable.

I agree. I think the original poster took no for an answer far too easily.....and this is apparent with the above additional info.

[2oldman]

georgelesley wrote:

joebedford wrote:
Is there no terrestrial microwave in your area? Lots of rural areas have that where dsl or cable doesn't exist.

What is that?

Terrestrial = ground-based. Some internet companies use microwave backbones for internet.

[SCVJeff]

georgelesley wrote:

joebedford wrote:
Is there no terrestrial microwave in your area? Lots of rural areas have that where dsl or cable doesn't exist.

What is that?

BTW, what puzzled us was that a month before when we called the provider this problem was not mentioned and the house had dsl from the same provider at the time we first looked at it.

did you tell them that? That service may be still apportioned and constructed at the switch, which MAY be why they say none is avaliable.

[SCVJeff]

joebedford wrote:
Is there no terrestrial microwave in your area? Lots of rural areas have that where dsl or cable doesn't exist.

x2
These guys are all over the country but not well known.

[georgelesley]

sdianel wrote:
When we had a stick house we dropped cable and DSL and went with DirecTV for satellite and Verizon Mi-Fi for internet. We got extra satellite boxes for the RV. Changed from desk top to laptop computer.
For movies we use DirecTV pay per view.
You have to watch your Verizon usage and not stream movies but it's much simpler for us that way.

I think that is the way we will go and use our jetpack for awhile and likely change to the Fusion antenna sometime. I think we can make the jet pack for our rv travel part of the package and not have to turn it on and off.