Can't get Internet service @ my house. Can anyone help??

[bcla]

Sounds kind of strange. Traditional DSL has gotten faster over the years, but it still isn't the greatest. It's basically trying to squeeze data through an inherently noisy connection. I had it for a while, and I dealt with slow speeds along with an ancient modem (it was paid for) that topped out at 2 Mbit/sec. The big advantage to traditional DSL was that it worked over traditional copper phone lines and basically you just needed a phone line. I had a setup for my folks, but they ended up getting VoIP thinking they would still have the line for Internet. Once their traditional phone line was disconnected, the DSL (EarthLink) was cancelled. They couldn't get AT&T to connect a "dry line", so they went with U-Verse internet.

That kind of DSL connection just plugged in the phone line to an Internet circuit. Sounds like they don't intend on adding any more locally (the waiting list). The speed depends on how long the line is. A longer line means more noise and slower speeds. Cable internet over coax doesn't have that issue.

U-Verse uses a DSL connection to a neighborhood box on a fiber network. They try to keep the length of the line really short. But they have to determine if it makes sense to have that box in a neighborhood. If it's not a very populated neighborhood, they won't do it.

 

[nancygirl1]

I don't know what your cell service is like. My kids had terrible internet service in college (go figure) so they ended up using their cell phone as a mobile hotspot. I've done it too and it does vary by cell phone signal, but I had no problem using it. Or you could buy a box that works as a hotspot. You still have to have cell service.

 

[sam_gordon]

Sounds kind of strange.

Not totally. IIRC, DSL speeds decrease the more people that are using it. So in a way it makes sense to cap how many people are using the line.

There's really no answers we can give the OP without knowing her exact locations. The ways to get internet are:
1) DSL https://www.allconnect.com/ssc-internet-dslInternet/dsl-services.html
2) Cable https://www.allconnect.com/ssc-tv-cableTV/cable-tv.html
3) Satellite https://www.allconnect.com/ssc-internet-satelliteInternet/satellite-internet.html
4) Cell phone (check with individual carriers that have good service in your area).

I did think of another... old fashioned dial up https://www.allconnect.com/ssc-internet-dialupInternet/dial-up-internet.html

 

[tvguy]

I agree with a previous poster. I would probably move. I would never buy a house in an area where I couldn't get high speed internet.

I'm kind of surprised at how many of my co-workers have no internet at home by choice. They do all their online business at work on the company equipment. It also seems this group of folks have only a pay as you go cell phone. Several have said because they move so often, it isn't worth the trouble to get it hooked up. But they are renting, not buying.

 

[chartle]

I wonder if we're reaching enough of a tipping point with backlash and disillusionment with the internet, and people wanting to "unplug", that you could somehow spin "no internet service" into a selling point for the house.

Usually unplugging means getting rid of Cable TV, not internet. For people that unplug they need faster internet speeds to stream their movie and TV shows.

My son's apartment only has internet. I think he has only watched sports on a regular TV when he was still here for a few years finishing up school and looking for a job. Now he finds them somewhere.

Saying no internet will probably lose you 99 percent of perspective buyers.

 

[bcla]

Not totally. IIRC, DSL speeds decrease the more people that are using it. So in a way it makes sense to cap how many people are using the line.

It would depend on how it's set up. We used to have some commercials for Pacific Bell DSL service. I think SBC also had these ads. They were mocking that cable internet was over a shared connection to the internet provider and that it could slow down when others were using it. In reality, shared use was rarely an issue. Back then I visited a relative with cable internet and ran a speed test while I was there, and the speeds just blew away my DSL. Even during peak periods, I was finding faster speeds than DSL. I have cable internet now, and maybe it doesn't hit peak speeds if other people are using it, but they've done stuff to increase speeds like install more lines.

They got sued over the commercials.

https://www.cnet.com/news/pac-bell-reworks-dsl-ads-after-cable-flare-up/

DSL, one of the leading broadband Net connection technologies, offers guaranteed speeds over a short link between a consumer's home and a local phone company's central office. But the overall connection to the Internet, like most networks, is shared and can provide highly inconsistent connection speeds.

In the commercial, Excite@Home took issue with Pac Bell's tagline: "Always fast. Never shared."

The Pac Bell TV spots poke fun at cable modem networks such as Excite@Home's, which provide a certain amount of bandwidth that is shared among local residents. Theoretically, the more customers online at the same time, the slower the service.​

Each traditional DSL connection is actually a single connection over a phone line to the phone switching office. The longer this connection, the slower it gets as it deals with noise. The trunk line it's connected to may have to deal with multiple users though. The speed of that main line is what might be a limiting factor when more users are trying to access at the same time.

 

[JustCor]

If you're two miles from a major town, you should have decent cellular coverage. Check out the prepaid hotspots. They may be faster and cheaper than you think.

Be very careful with a cell hotspot. They get very expensive very quickly once you exceed your data limits. They're excellent for quick use or travel, but for a family using them, the data disappears very quickly.

Broadband Now is pretty good about showing all of the options in your area. I'm looking to move soon and wanted to see what options I had in my area. I was hoping for fiber optic (no luck), but there were two companies that I had no idea existed that I may check into.

 

[CaitlinMarie13]

We have the same problem. Before we bought the house I checked for Verizon and it is in our zip code... but we can't get it at our actual house.

We have HughesNet, and apparently it has gotten way better since 2012 because it is almost faster than my moms comcast internet. It's still annoying to have to think about buying internet data, and it can get expensive if I go too heavy on the Netflix, but I easily watch 1 or 2 hours a night with no problem. And I also made it through my last semester of college with no problems that were internet related.

Cell phone hotspots don't use compressed data so it ends up being WAY more expensive and a lot slower than HughesNet.

 

[sonnyjane]

We have the same problem. Before we bought the house I checked for Verizon and it is in our zip code... but we can't get it at our actual house.

Yup! That's how I fell for it too! I even went through the entire 20 minute account setup with the person from Direct TV over the phone... we set up an appointment to have the installer come out and everything! Then, right after I gave her my payment information, she clicked to the next screen and I got an "uh oh..." haha. That's when she told me that in my area, Direct TV could set up my TV, but that I'd have to call Comcast for my internet! That seemed silly, so I just bundled everything with Comcast. Luckily I actually had an option unlike the OP!

 

[bcla]

Yup! That's how I fell for it too! I even went through the entire 20 minute account setup with the person from Direct TV over the phone... we set up an appointment to have the installer come out and everything! Then, right after I gave her my payment information, she clicked to the next screen and I got an "uh oh..." haha. That's when she told me that in my area, Direct TV could set up my TV, but that I'd have to call Comcast for my internet! That seemed silly, so I just bundled everything with Comcast. Luckily I actually had an option unlike the OP!

As long as you have the possibility of getting cable TV, internet just goes over the same line.

All the stuff that has fiber to the node or fiber to the premises makes sense for the provider if they can serve enough people with each large neighborhood box.

My brother in law lives in a suburb of Seattle. The residential parts are surrounded by farms and forests, but the developments are densely populated. I'm pretty sure they have all the internet options one would have in Seattle. Now further away living in a more rural area might not give the same options.

 

[perditax]

Be very careful with a cell hotspot. They get very expensive very quickly once you exceed your data limits. They're excellent for quick use or travel, but for a family using them, the data disappears very quickly.

Yes, that's why I originally told OP to get pay-as-you-go service and not stream video.

 

[sonnyjane]

As long as you have the possibility of getting cable TV, internet just goes over the same line.

All the stuff that has fiber to the node or fiber to the premises makes sense for the provider if they can serve enough people with each large neighborhood box.

My brother in law lives in a suburb of Seattle. The residential parts are surrounded by farms and forests, but the developments are densely populated. I'm pretty sure they have all the internet options one would have in Seattle. Now further away living in a more rural area might not give the same options.

I'm in Anacortes. What I meant was, for some reason, I could get satellite TV from DirectTV, but wasn't able to get satellite internet from them. They said I would have to find a different internet provider, so I just went with Comcast where I could get cable internet and TV.

 

[bcla]

Yes, that's why I originally told OP to get pay-as-you-go service and not stream video.

Depends on the cell service. Mine is theoretically unlimited, but then throttled when I reach a limit. The speed is inadequate to stream most video, but I can still check email or just wait for websites to pull up.

Many websites use mobile versions by default. It's still not as efficient as using dedicated apps where it doesn't need to pull up the background each time. The key is downloading apps and updates when connected to WiFi, since a month of updates could easily eat up a 3 GB limit.

 

[bcla]

I'm in Anacortes. What I meant was, for some reason, I could get satellite TV from DirectTV, but wasn't able to get satellite internet from them. They said I would have to find a different internet provider, so I just went with Comcast where I could get cable internet and TV.

OK. You're not exactly out in the middle of nowhere. You should have options, although I've got no experience with satellite internet.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Did the previous homeowners have to disclose of the internet issue-that by disconnecting the service meant it left the house with no service? Was there a possibility of them just switching the name into yours going through the utility company due to the waitlist issue?

IDK I don't have the experience because our house was built for us and so the only disclosure we were required to have was through the real estate company who helps sell the neighborhood had to notify us of the website to check for sex offenders (by law) and to notify us that there is radon in our area (our builder already put a passive system in our house).

In our house we actually did away with hard-wired phone lines to help boost our internet capabilities which basically means no hard-wired phone lines period unless you want to do tons and tons of work as the house was built with no hard-wired phone lines in mind. If we were to sell our house at some point we would want to disclose of that even years and years down the line.

FWIW Unplugging doesn't just mean cable..there is actually an entire movement. In the largest sense it means unplugging from digital technology in general so for example no tv no cell phone no internet just getting back to no digital presence so instead of texting you would meet face to face with someone or instead of sending an e-mail you would write a letter . But then you have people who just unplug the cable aspect and instead go to streaming services. You have people who just limit their social media usages, etc.

 

[bcla]

In our house we actually did away with hard-wired phone lines to help boost our internet capabilities which basically means no hard-wired phone lines period unless you want to do tons and tons of work as the house was built with no hard-wired phone lines in mind. If we were to sell our house at some point we would want to disclose of that even years and years down the line.

We went with VoIP over internet and stopped our traditional phone service. We still have the phone lines and even a traditional rotary wall phone. I can pick up the phone and hear noise, but no dial tone. So there's still electricity running to the phone even without service. I don't think they did anything other than disconnect the line at the switching office, but there's still power provided by the line at the utility pole.

Some of the services like U-Verse can be done with a simple RJ11 phone jack to one spot in the home. My folks have U-Verse internet and can access it from any phone jack in their house connected to the line. Even when their traditional phone service was disconnected, they could reuse the line and jacks for U-Verse. Back when they had DSL and traditional phone service, I helped them with filters at each phone they used. They were supposed to keep the voice use from interfering with the DSL and vice versa. Without the filter, there would be this strange buzz from the DSL equipment.

 

[sam_gordon]

In our house we actually did away with hard-wired phone lines to help boost our internet capabilities which basically means no hard-wired phone lines period unless you want to do tons and tons of work as the house was built with no hard-wired phone lines in mind. If we were to sell our house at some point we would want to disclose of that even years and years down the line.

I don't understand this. How does doing away with hard-wired phone lines boost internet capabilities?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't understand this. How does doing away with hard-wired phone lines boost internet capabilities?

Because the hard-wired phone line was not going to be a separate phone line. It was going to use a few of the wired pairs in the ethernet cable (which is a common enough thing around me to do).

It's a common enough practice near me at least in the last few years to do away with hard-wired phone lines in a home especially in favor of booting internet capabilities when many people don't actively start with a brand new home with a hard-wired phone (they use cell phones or a VoIP).

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We went with VoIP over internet and stopped our traditional phone service. We still have the phone lines and even a traditional rotary wall phone. I can pick up the phone and hear noise, but no dial tone. So there's still electricity running to the phone even without service. I don't think they did anything other than disconnect the line at the switching office, but there's still power provided by the line at the utility pole.

Some of the services like U-Verse can be done with a simple RJ11 phone jack to one spot in the home. My folks have U-Verse internet and can access it from any phone jack in their house connected to the line. Even when their traditional phone service was disconnected, they could reuse the line and jacks for U-Verse. Back when they had DSL and traditional phone service, I helped them with filters at each phone they used. They were supposed to keep the voice use from interfering with the DSL and vice versa. Without the filter, there would be this strange buzz from the DSL equipment.

We have U-verse as our TV provider and our Internet provider but our thing is we do not have a phone jack period (a common enough thing in new homes around me).

If we really wanted an actual phone rather than cell phone we would just use a VoIP like Magic Jack or something of the sort.

My mom finally did away with her actual home phone like 5 or so years ago. She was also one of those people who used Dial Up from AOL for way too many years lol.

 

[bcla]

We have U-verse as our TV provider and our Internet provider but our thing is we do not have a phone jack period (a common enough thing in new homes around me).

If we really wanted an actual phone rather than cell phone we would just use a VoIP like Magic Jack or something of the sort.

My mom finally did away with her actual home phone like 5 or so years ago. She was also one of those people who used Dial Up from AOL for way too many years lol.

The U-Verse equipment should have an RJ11 jack. My folks are pretty bad with setting up technology. My dad has called me up just because he couldn't figure out how to select a printer from a drop-down menu. I've gone over a couple of times to set up their U-Verse box; they've gotten new equipment three times So what did they do? I suppose it's possible to have just a four-wire connection to an RJ11 cable.