High speed Internet options for rural areas?

[Deb in IA]

What DH (and the rest of us) could really use for Christmas is high speed Internet at home.

Home, for us, is a house in the middle of a cornfield, about 10 miles from the nearest small town. (Don't blame me; DH's idea of living in the country.)

Right now, we have a very slow dial-up connection. Yup, don't laugh, we are still on dial-up. But it is way too slow to handle large file downloads that we have to access if we try to work at home, like we did last week with the blizzard that hit Iowa.

So, my dear DIS friends, who know more about this stuff than I do, what options do we have to improve our Internet access?

We don't have cable.

We don't have a satellite dish. Well, we did for a few months years ago, but DH got mad when they kept changing our programming, so he discontinued it.

Our TV comes in from aerial antennae, and we only get the network stations.

With all that in mind, anyone with any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Deb in IA]

Oh, and we tried the Verizon EZ Access broadband device, but our cell coverage is so spotty that didn't work very well either.

 

[happygirl]

I would look at either Wild Blue or Hughes Net

 

[mishasmom]

Directv has high speed internet (I think they call it Hughes Net). It is a little pricey. You will need a satellite dish, but you don't have to have satellite TV. Do you have cable TV available? All the cable companies have high speed internet, too. And once again you don't have to have cable TV to get it. I have Directv for TV and Cox Cable high speed internet.

 

[DrCavin]

Why not look into DSL from your phone company?

 

[Deb in IA]

Why not look into DSL from your phone company?

Thanks! I will check there first. If this is not available, I'll try Direct TV.

 

[scrapquitler]

Here is an option, I don't know if they operate in your area, but it might be worth calling them to talk options:
http://greataukwireless.com/
we talked to them a while ago about getting high speed internet service at our vacation home (in a rural area on a mountain, where the phone company has been saying "DSL maybe next year" for 6 years). If I remember correctly, they can put a wireless antenna on your house IF you can find a few neighbors or other interested people in a line of sight range willing to share the cost with you (it was going to be several hundred $$ to set up then about $50 a month if I remember right, but it was several years ago).

Beyond that, keep calling the phone company and asking about DSL for your location, and do it every month. Maybe you'll eventually get lucky...they are more likely to push the service into your area if they know there is demand for it.

 

[golfgal]

I would check on DSL too. You can also check to see if they need to put a node somewhere near you and offer to host it somewhere on your property in return for free service. My FIL is mayor of a VERY small town and they only had dial-up for an option. He got DSL service for everyone in town for free for letting them put up a node on the town watertower.

Having a node close by is what gives you faster service. We have have DSL and the node is at the end of the block and it is faster then our old cable internet.

 

[Fifinella]

Definitely look into the wireless radio option if DSL isn't available. I've had this for years and, though it's pricier and less speedy than DSL, it's much faster than dial-up and it's pretty reliable. Satellite wouldn't be enough for me (I am a gamer), and AT&T isn't interested in offering DSL down my street, so radio it is.

Hopefully you will find that there is a high-speed option available for you. Good luck.

 

[savannahcat]

I was in your situation until earlier this year. We can't get cable or DSL where we live. We looked into satellite internet, but were really unimpressed by the poor reviews. Even our local sales office wouldn't recommend it. What we do have is good cell phone coverage, so we ended up with a wireless aircard.

Would I still like DSL or cable? Probably. It would be much easier and cheaper to have a wireless router and use more than one PC at a time, but overall, I'm very happy with the service. I can finally watch TV online! The aircard has it's advantages, too. It goes anywhere, so I can get "free wi-fi" wherever I am, provided there is cell phone coverage.

 

[savannahcat]

Here is an option, I don't know if they operate in your area, but it might be worth calling them to talk options:
http://greataukwireless.com/
we talked to them a while ago about getting high speed internet service at our vacation home (in a rural area on a mountain, where the phone company has been saying "DSL maybe next year" for 6 years). If I remember correctly, they can put a wireless antenna on your house IF you can find a few neighbors or other interested people in a line of sight range willing to share the cost with you (it was going to be several hundred $$ to set up then about $50 a month if I remember right, but it was several years ago).

Beyond that, keep calling the phone company and asking about DSL for your location, and do it every month. Maybe you'll eventually get lucky...they are more likely to push the service into your area if they know there is demand for it.

Good luck with this. We have been calling Comcast and Verizon consistently for the last 7 years. If it's not profitable for them to come to your neighborhood - they will never come. There are only 13 homes in my neighborhood and neither will come to us, even though Comcast service is present at the entrance to our plan and DSL is only 1/2 mile away. We've even gotten our state representatives involved - still nothing.

 

[Deb in IA]

Thanks, everyone! These are great suggestions, that even a novice like me can understand.

Since we can't get cable and our cell coverage is so spotty at home, it sounds like the DSL is the best option, with the wireless radio as a back up. I will check into hosting a node if one is not avaiable where we live.

You are all great!!

 

[crz4mm2]

We had Hughes net (it was direcway before that) as our only high speed option out here in BFE (we NOW have DSL thru the phone company- FINALLY).
It was horrible. Went out with the wind, rain, snow, sunshine. HORRIBLE.
I had it for several years. Would call to complain and get someone who was hard to understand and who would tell me how to "reset" the equip- which did NO good what so ever.
I would eventually get sent to "tier 3" tech support. I was talked into getting "upgraded" equipment that was guaranteed to solve my problems. NOT.

I was sooooo happy the day DSL came to our area in the country.

I WOULD NOT have Hughes net if it were the only option. Horrible!

 

[crz4mm2]

Good luck with this. We have been calling Comcast and Verizon consistently for the last 7 years. If it's not profitable for them to come to your neighborhood - they will never come. There are only 13 homes in my neighborhood and neither will come to us, even though Comcast service is present at the entrance to our plan and DSL is only 1/2 mile away. We've even gotten our state representatives involved - still nothing.

We've lived here for 12 years. 6 of us on the line.
FINALLY got it this year! Don't give up hope.

 

[maelstrom]

DSL is our only option here... and it sucks. The internet goes out all the freaking time and it's a constant battle with the phone company, who blames it on either our computer (really? all four of them? and my neighbours computers too?), our router (we've had two, so again, both of them? and our neighbours routers too?), or the phone lines in our house (really? and the phone lines in my neighbours houses? nevermind that when I plug-in directly from the outside lines, there's still problems). If you're too far away from the station or there's too many people "plugged in" to it, you're going to have issues. Good luck getting them resolved, if you do.

 

[savannahcat]

We've lived here for 12 years. 6 of us on the line.
FINALLY got it this year! Don't give up hope.

Can I ask where you live and what company finally came through for you?