Satellite Internet (is it as bad as I think?)

Nerissa

We're about to move to a farmhouse in rural Virginia (about 10-15 min outside of Suffolk for those who know the area), where there is no cable or DSL available. Clearly, after 10 years of broadband, going back to dialup isn't going to fly. Particularly because I'm still technically working occasionally (very occasionally), and will need to connect to the office network periodically, and we do engage in some online gaming.

Anyone have any experience with satellite? What's the connection like? What company are you with? (As near as I can tell, the options are Hughes.Net and WildBlue -- WildBlue being the backbone of what both DirecTV and Dish offer. Are there any other options? Is one or the other better?

More importantly, what's the bandwidth like? I remember hearing several years ago that it was ok down, but slow as hell up, is it still that bad? Is it good enough for VoIP? The WildBlue web site says they don't support it, so I'm guessing no... has anyone tried it? Our home phone right now is via Vonage, and we really like not having to pay out the nose for phone service, but we may have to if the satellite doesn't have the bandwidth to support it.

Shorn Scrotum Man

WildBlue Pro package is 1.5Mbps down/ 256 Kbps up.

May god have mercy on your soul.

matt has a problem

It's extremely expensive, latency is awful, and it's usually contract-based. Satellite internet is a cruel joke.

Unknown

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tech_hunter

I had Hughes satellite "broadband" a long while ago and it was pretty awful. No internet when there was heavy cloud cover or wind. While downloads for most websites were not too bad, but at the time if you went to some kind of off the wall website it would take forever to load since they use a kind of proxy caching system for sites, so it wasn't even the real internet really. Online gaming forget it and video streaming could be pretty iffy too. About all its good for is email and some web browsing. Also the contract length was ridiculous and it was expensive. If possible you might look into Wifi networks in the area or go with a cellular connection like clearwire.

Nerissa

Well, my husband has been staying at the new place, and he says he has no problems with cell phone reception or with the cellular modem in his laptop... maybe worth checking Verizon, I guess, and see what they have.

Clearwire says "Thank you for your interest in Clearwire. We currently do not offer service in the location you entered"

Zeon

Nerissa wrote: »

Well, my husband has been staying at the new place, and he says he has no problems with cell phone reception or with the cellular modem in his laptop... maybe worth checking Verizon, I guess, and see what they have.

Clearwire says "Thank you for your interest in Clearwire. We currently do not offer service in the location you entered"

Yeah i was going to say, if youre only 15 minutes out of suffolk theres gotta be a cell tower near by. Look into the wireless internet offerings, should be available from anyone whos got a cell tower up around there, or alternatively, look into mobile phone tethering if whatever company(s) service the area dont offer mobile internet sticks.

Nerissa

we're currently with Verizon for cell service, and probably going to end up with them for our land line as well... looks like their wireless broadband service is geared exclusively for laptops, though.

Required Equipment
National Access or Mobile Broadband–capable device

Do they even make those for a desktop computer? We can set up a dedicated computer to be a server / router for the rest of the house if we absolutely need to, but I don't know if we can get a card for it.

Rear Admiral Choco

Mobile internet sticks I'd be wary of. I actually sell them as my job, and they are generally pretty good especially for wireless, even if you're not getting it on a GSM network. I have no clue what networks they have down in the States, but up here it's just Rogers and Fido you'd be looking at for GSM, and you can be looking at anywhere up to 7.2 mbps down, and about 2.9 mbps or so up.

It's actually faster than the cable Internet I use but the data plans up here are shiiiiiit, with it going for about 32 bucks after the dumbass system access fee in addition to the service cost per month, and that doesn't include taxes. By the way, that price is for a 500MB limit. After that it costs even more, going as high as 5MB for $80.

The strange part is that though at those speeds it should be fine for gaming, for some reason, it isn't. I only know that as we're told not to sell for the purpose of using them in consoles, as for some reason it doesn't work well with them. Apparently customers have some luck playing MMOs and RTS type games with the thing on their computers, but I'd still be wary of trying much gaming. It could just be a purely console issue, but I don't really know for sure.

Still, much better than satellite, at least.

Also if you're worried about wireless internet, for the Rocket Stick at least (the one I sell) it's just a USB device. It's heavily marketed towards laptop users as you can take it anywhere you've got cell phone reception, but it does work on just about anything with a USB port as long as you're not using Linux, so there's one positive.

Nerissa

well, as best as I can find, Sprint doesn't have coverage in my area, AT&T only does wireless internet on a business plan, and Verizon has 2 choices: $40 a month for 250MB, and $60 a month for 5GB. (plus taxes)

We don't even have a console that would try to connect, other than a DS which I suppose sorta counts. Most of our on-line gaming is MMOs and browser-based stuff, although with the MMOs, we'd probably want more than one computer to be able to play at the same time. I believe my husband has the $40 plan on his laptop, and it uses an internal card for a modem.

We're looking at 3 computers minimum, though, and possibly more, and I don't know how that's going to affect things. I presume we could set up a router and share the one connection but I don't know how bad that's going to affect the connection either.

cooljammer00

Try a cantenna?

Rear Admiral Choco

I was going to mention, if you plug in the USB modem into a router, it will transmit the signal throughout the house. You probably need to activate the thing on the computer first, though. Still, 250 MB to share isn't much, and the price is pretty pitiful. Their 5GB plan is much better than ours though. Weren't you somewhere in BC, before? I was thinking of Canadian rates but I didn't have a clue until now what the companies down there had.

The router sharing shouldn't really hit it any harder than a regular internet connection, but the data charge, unless you're pretty strict about keeping it low just to make sure it doesn't hit the allowance, is going to hit you really hard in the wallet. Your speeds shouldn't suffer, but it's not fun to find a charge on your bill that's at least double what you thought you'd be paying.

Fats

You could get a MiFi, it's basically a cell data card with a built in wireless router. A normal data card + wireless router would accomplish the same thing, of course, but this is one less piece of hardware, plus I don't think it costs any more. Should be an AT&T version sometime soon if you don't like Verizon.

Vortigern

You could also look into microwave. Friends of mine (this is in Ontario too, so ymmv) moved from an urban area with broadband out into a rural area. They used dialup for a while until it drove them nuts, then looked for options. Satellite is too expensive and unreliable, they ended up getting a microwave connection and it works passably, which is to say way better than dialup, not quite as good as broadband in the city.

The companies offering it will generally have to come to your home and check for line of sight as well, so it may be a service you can't get if you're in the trough of a valley unless they have a tower nearby. It might be a valid option for you though.

Axen

I actually live out in the middle of nowhere as well. I use my Blackberry as a modem. It costs me $30 bucks a month. My average download speed is about 50 Kb/s to 80 Kb/s. Not as fast as DSL or Cable, but it is more than adequate for me. I can even play MMOs with no fuss. LOTRO's ping is around 200-350. I really don't notice any lag. I've even played TF2 online without any problems.

For a few hundred dollars I guess I can get some kind of antenna that doubles or triples my connection speed, but I really do not need that at the moment.


Satellites I just would not recommend at all. Simple way to expensive, plus WildBlue and Hughs Net both have "fair use policies". I forget which was which, but one did not let you download more than 250mb a day and the other was 5gigs a month. If you went over that they would throttle you down to dial up speeds until you slow down your downloading.

edit- Also I can buy a device for my Blackberry that turns it into a WiFi hotspot so I can connect my Xbox 360 and any other wireless device to the internet.

Nerissa

Fats wrote: »

You could get a MiFi, it's basically a cell data card with a built in wireless router. A normal data card + wireless router would accomplish the same thing, of course, but this is one less piece of hardware, plus I don't think it costs any more. Should be an AT&T version sometime soon if you don't like Verizon.

ok, that solves the equipment problem at least...

I'm not finding any info on microwave, but my Google-Fu is weak -- could be it's not available in the area, though.

For the Blackberry... who's your service provider? Because I know that Sprint classes where I'll be as "Extended" coverage, which would be prohibitively expensive, I'm sure, which is why I classed it as "no coverage". If we try to go WiFi, I think we're stuck with Verizon, unless there's something I'm just not finding.

I swear, half the money we're saving on rent is going to go to phone & internet. :P

Axen

I use Alltel, which I guess is in the process of being merged with Verizon. Also the "EVDO" network area is the one you want to be in for good internet with wireless. I am sure Alltel, and probably others, have a coverage map you can check to see if your area is covered by EVDO.

edit- I should also mention that the $30 a month is on top of my normal cell phone bill. If I used one of those Wireless USB modems (which I think cost like $60-$80) it would just be the $30 a month. If you already have a blackberry, or any other 3g phone IIRC, then you probably don't need that USB Modem.