The internet boonies

[seez52]

I'm really not in the boonies, but the internet thinks I am. You'd think I could get some hi speed internet but the max I can get is an AT&T DSL line at 3MB, and usually less than that. 

Anybody have a good creative way to get some high speed access? Charter is about a mile on either side of me but it doesn't look like they are coming this way anytime soon. Most of the wireless companies (Verizon etc.) want a pay per gigabit which makes home use prohibitively expensive. Everyone I've ever heard of that has Hughesnet satellite hates it.

Used to be 3megabits was ok. But now the web just crawls along since the providers are packing in so much multimedia on every web page these days. I have minimized what's downloaded on my browser, but still it's slow.

I'm on a hill and I can see internet nirvana, but alias it's just not here. 

[peejman]

I've got ATT DSL with a wireless modem/router at home and it's fine. 2 phones, iPad, kids surfing YouTube... no significant issues.  Sure, the T1 broadband business connection at work is faster, but it only seems to impact up/download of big files. General surfing isn't that different. 

Are you running an ad blocker on your browser?  What browser do you use?

My only broadband option at home is Charter. Based on past experiences, they'll not get another dime from me. 

[56FordGuy]

I went through this very thing. Where we live there are no utilities other than electricity within 15 miles. Everything has to be wireless/ satellite.

Verizon has a product called 4GLTE, they mount an antenna on the side of your house and it connects to a super cell signal. It worked very well and was as reliable as cable, but expensive. They had a 30 gig data limit and I believe it was $120 a month. Speed was good, but not great. It was fine, but we couldn't stream anything, watch YouTube, or download much. We were with them for a year, then got hooked up with a local company called Millhouse. Same type of system with an antenna on the house and a wireless signal, but there is no data cap and it's $50/ month.

I'd suggest trying to find a local provider, but that may be tough to do because a lot of TN is close enough to other services that the market may not be very big. If you decide to go with the Verizon setup let me know. We had to buy all the equipment, the antenna, router, etc and now it's all sitting in the closet...well, the antenna is still on the house but I need to take it down. It's about the size of a coffee can.

[seez52]

I'm thinking about knocking on a couple of my neighbors doors. I can see their houses from mine line of sight, half mile to 1.5 miles. They have charter cable. If they would agree I could install a wireless bridge at their house and use it to tap their internet. There are some wireless devices that will go a few miles and aren't all that expensive so it should work without a problem.

Question is would they be willing for me to do this? I don't know them.

[E4 No More]

12 minutes ago, seez52 said:

I'm thinking about knocking on a couple of my neighbors doors. I can see their houses from mine line of sight, half mile to 1.5 miles. They have charter cable. If they would agree I could install a wireless bridge at their house and use it to tap their internet. There are some wireless devices that will go a few miles and aren't all that expensive so it should work without a problem.

Question is would they be willing for me to do this? I don't know them.

You can look into WISP. I also saw an add for AT&T offering no data limits if you have both cellular and DirecTV.

 

I'm entertaining the idea of moving out in the sticks, so it's something I'll be looking at in the next year.

[seez52]

12 minutes ago, SWJewellTN said:

You can look into WISP. I also saw an add for AT&T offering no data limits if you have both cellular and DirecTV.

 

I'm entertaining the idea of moving out in the sticks, so it's something I'll be looking at in the next year.

Att does offer the unlimited data, unfortunately from what I can find out they don't allow it on a hotspot device or tethering or using your phone as a hotspot. The unlimited is for device use only.  I was hoping. In checking with the other carriers they are all pretty much the same on wireless.

[E4 No More]

Just now, seez52 said:

Att does offer the unlimited data, unfortunately from what I can find out they don't allow it on a hotspot device or tethering or using your phone as a hotspot. The unlimited is for device use only.  I was hoping. In checking with the other carriers they are all pretty much the same on wireless.

Figures! That's why ya always read the fine print!  

[peejman]

3 hours ago, seez52 said:

I'm thinking about knocking on a couple of my neighbors doors. I can see their houses from mine line of sight, half mile to 1.5 miles. They have charter cable. If they would agree I could install a wireless bridge at their house and use it to tap their internet. There are some wireless devices that will go a few miles and aren't all that expensive so it should work without a problem.

Question is would they be willing for me to do this? I don't know them.

I'd wager their contract with charter would prohibit subletting the service. I doubt they know that. 

I'd think it would come to a security issue, particularly if they have a home network. In theory, you'd have access to everything on their computers and vice versa.  But people borrow other's wifi all the time, sometimes with permission, sometimes not. 

[10-Ring]

How much data do you need?  Straight Talk Wireless just released a 10 gig for $55 per month plan.  If cell phones work good where you are this would be the ticket if you can live with 10 gigs per month.  Just pick up one of their hot spots and you are good to go.  Another plus to this is there are no contacts.

Edited December 12, 2016 by 10-Ring

[seez52]

according to ATT, I have their 3 megabit dsl service now, I use as average of 120-150 gigs a month. We don't have cable or dish so we do stream netflix a lot. The service I have now barely will do the streaming and of course if anyone else in the house is trying to use the internet it's ssssssslow if not unusable.

If I get higher speed I would expect even a higher usage. Streaming at 1080 would be nice as I can't now, and it would really rack up the data.

[Jeb48]

We moved from a 20Mb cable house to a 3Mb DSL house. I was concerned and did some testing before we moved and found that you can tune Netflix back to a lower data rate that works very well on 3Mb. If you have a monster TV or are very fussy on video quality you might notice but on a 42" screen we could not see the difference. We occasionally notice a little delaying on downloads from certain websites but the only time it has been much of a problem is when I have a lot of photos to upload, I manage a couple of websites. It helps that it is half the cost when I notice the slow down.

I use good ad blockers and an add on to the browser called Ghostery that blocks all the trackers and such that many websites have. The combination of the two speeds up web page loading. I do have to turn them off for some sites but most don't notice. You can white list sites you go to all the time that need them turned off.

You also might want to test your actual speed, I noticed some slowing down twice in the last 18 months and when I  ran the speed test I could see problems. First time it was a corroded connection at the pole the second time I needed a different DSL modem, they had updated something and didn't bother notifying me that I needed to upgrade the modem.

[seez52]

ATT is definitely not interested in offering much help on a DSL line. I've got my Netflix on the low res setting, it simply wouldn't work on HD at all.

[JAB]

To quote Monty Python, "You lucky b..." well, you probably know the rest .  I say that because I am in a similar situation as you - I only live about fifteen minutes or so outside of the town of Loudon (although I am actually in Roane County, right at the line) and about half that from the Loudon Interstate exit but you would think I lived in the most remote mountains of Montana or something.  I say you are 'lucky', though, because I can't even get DSL!

We had Hughesnet where I used to work.  Sucked - and their rates are very expensive based on the fliers that occasionally get left in my mailbox.  As you say, satellite is too expensive, as well and the 'pay per gig' rates are ridiculous.  That means the only Internet I have at home is on my phone and tablet (through Verizon) and I only have 15 gigs to play with, there.  I went with a fairly high data package because I don't have Internet at home and it was cheaper to add data to that package than to try to get a 'home' connection with only 5 gigs or so.  I don't really have any desire for cable/satellite television but if I could get high speed Internet with plenty of data I'd join Netflix or a similar service so I could stream shows and movies.  I would also be able to significantly cut my cellphone bill as I would greatly reduce my data package if I had reliable home Internet.  As it is, just using my tablet to catch up on a couple of episodes I might miss of regular, network television shows (typically free from the network sites) will burn through a major portion of my monthly data allotment.   

Edited December 14, 2016 by JAB

[seez52]

24 minutes ago, JAB said:

To quote Monty Python, "You lucky b..." well, you probably know the rest .  I say that because I am in a similar situation as you - I only live about fifteen minutes or so outside of the town of Loudon (although I am actually in Roane County, right at the line) and about half that from the Loudon Interstate exit but you would think I lived in the most remote mountains of Montana or something.  I say you are 'lucky', though, because I can't even get DSL!

We had Hughesnet where I used to work.  Sucked - and their rates are very expensive based on the fliers that occasionally get left in my mailbox.  As you say, satellite is too expensive, as well and the 'pay per gig' rates are ridiculous.  That means the only Internet I have at home is on my phone and tablet (through Verizon) and I only have 15 gigs to play with, there.  I went with a fairly high data package because I don't have Internet at home and it was cheaper to add data to that package than to try to get a 'home' connection with only 5 gigs or so.  I don't really have any desire for cable/satellite television but if I could get high speed Internet with plenty of data I'd join Netflix or a similar service so I could stream shows and movies.  I would also be able to significantly cut my cellphone bill as I would greatly reduce my data package if I had reliable home Internet.  As it is, just using my tablet to catch up on a couple of episodes I might miss of regular, network television shows (typically free from the network sites) will burn through a major portion of my monthly data allotment.   

yep, I don't care a thing in the world about having access to cable TV. But if someone would require it in order to get real broadband internet I'd buy it! I'm paying $100 a month for my 3Mbt and a land line. You'd think for a 100/month I could find something. Dang cell phone bill is $250 a month. If you'd told me 15 years ago I'd be paying $350 a month for phone service I would have laughed and said never.

[Sam1]

Check with your neighbors and look into a LoS system.  It will have to piggyback on theirs; there is no way to set one up directly from the service connection (that I know of).

If it was me and they were cool about it, I would just offer to pay their entire internet bill monthly and hook up the equipment.  Have you called Charter about running cable out there?  Not sure how much they charge to pull cable, but if there are some other houses in the area, you may be able to split the initial cost.

AT&T will not upgrade anything until a competitor is in the area, because they have you by the balls.

[ReeferMac]

19 hours ago, JAB said:

I only live about fifteen minutes or so outside of the town of Loudon (although I am actually in Roane County, right at the line) .   

 

Howdy neighbor!
I'm in the village in a rental house now, but we purchased some land in the nether regions of Paintrock Ferry Road... looking for a builder and a loan, and I'll be having those same problems soon!

 

- Kevin

[macville]

Found this: http://www.unlimitedville.com $100 a month for unlimited. If you have strong wireless signals you might get good speeds. But I totally understand where you are coming from as I live in a super dense area in Knoxville but comcast won't run lines down our lane so ATT is it and we are lucky to even get 18 mbps u-verse from them.

[seez52]

5 hours ago, ReeferMac said:

 

Howdy neighbor!
I'm in the village in a rental house now, but we purchased some land in the nether regions of Paintrock Ferry Road... looking for a builder and a loan, and I'll be having those same problems soon!

 

- Kevin

I've got a good loan guy if you want his info.

[seez52]

4 hours ago, macville said:

Found this: http://www.unlimitedville.com $100 a month for unlimited. If you have strong wireless signals you might get good speeds. But I totally understand where you are coming from as I live in a super dense area in Knoxville but comcast won't run lines down our lane so ATT is it and we are lucky to even get 18 mbps u-verse from them.

heck I'd feel like I was in the tall cotton if I could get 18!!

[seez52]

4 hours ago, macville said:

Found this: http://www.unlimitedville.com $100 a month for unlimited. If you have strong wireless signals you might get good speeds. But I totally understand where you are coming from as I live in a super dense area in Knoxville but comcast won't run lines down our lane so ATT is it and we are lucky to even get 18 mbps u-verse from them.

I ran across them a week or so ago. Have you used them? The website is pretty sparse with any details.

[seez52]

18 minutes ago, seez52 said:

heck I'd feel like I was in the tall cotton if I could get 18!!

says this place is based out of Nashville? 

[ReeferMac]

58 minutes ago, seez52 said:

I've got a good loan guy if you want his info.

Yes, please!

You can PM me or eMail at kmcdona1  _at_   twc_dot_com

[seez52]

8 hours ago, macville said:

Found this: http://www.unlimitedville.com $100 a month for unlimited. If you have strong wireless signals you might get good speeds. But I totally understand where you are coming from as I live in a super dense area in Knoxville but comcast won't run lines down our lane so ATT is it and we are lucky to even get 18 mbps u-verse from them.

I went back and re-looked at this place. It's apparently legit. I sent them a question and they responded very quickly. It looks like they lease lines from the major wireless carriers then sublease on these monthly programs. We have good wireless reception here with an antenna close by. In googling around I ran across a forum discussion that seemed to indicate satisfaction with the service. It also mentioned two other providers with a similar offer. Both of those were geared more toward nonprofit/student type use but anyone can participate. The initial fee is a "membership" plus it also includes the shipping charge for the equipment  how convenient. They were a good bit cheaper at $70 for three months service.

I decided to jump in, head first I guess, and signed up with 4gcommunity.org they were the only ones offering a hotspot/router where all the others just have hotspots. I really need to easily connect my home network. I guess in about 7 days I'll know whether I've been taken or not. Supposedly they also have a 14 day trial period. Unlimitedville does not offer a trial. 

Wish me luck.

[JAB]

On 12/15/2016 at 6:22 AM, ReeferMac said:

 

Howdy neighbor!
I'm in the village in a rental house now, but we purchased some land in the nether regions of Paintrock Ferry Road... looking for a builder and a loan, and I'll be having those same problems soon!

 

- Kevin

Well, howdy!  I'm not sure I know exactly where Paint Rock Ferry Road is but I believe I have seen it.  Maybe somewhere around Tennessee Chapel?  I certainly know where Paint Rock is.

 

ETA:  Just looked up directions from where I live to Paint Rock Ferry Road, using a random address, on Rand-McNally's driving directions.  It looks like Paint Rock Ferry Road isn't actually in Paint Rock or anywhere near Tennessee Chapel Road where I thought it would be.  In fact, according to the directions Paint Rock Ferry road is about 22 miles from me.  I am not sure but wouldn't be surprised if you have some decent options for high speed internet over there.  I live so close to the Loudon/Roane county line that I actually have a Loudon address and zip code.  Land lines there, however, use the 376 prefix which is Kingston.  Loudon Utilities stops a mile or so from me but when folks originally moved out there they had to get the Volunteer Energy Cooperative - the closest 'base' of which is in Decatur - to run power lines because Loudon Utilities wouln't come that one more mile, give or take, to the top of the bluff.  Because the lines have to run from so away far the power used to go off and stay off every time a squirrel farted on the lines but things have gotten better over the years - now the squirrel actually has to take a whizz on the line before it goes out.  Squirrel farts just cause power surges these days.

Edited December 16, 2016 by JAB

[Oh Shoot]

On 12/15/2016 at 3:23 PM, seez52 said:

I went back and re-looked at this place. It's apparently legit. I sent them a question and they responded very quickly. It looks like they lease lines from the major wireless carriers then sublease on these monthly programs. We have good wireless reception here with an antenna close by. In googling around I ran across a forum discussion that seemed to indicate satisfaction with the service. It also mentioned two other providers with a similar offer. Both of those were geared more toward nonprofit/student type use but anyone can participate. The initial fee is a "membership" plus it also includes the shipping charge for the equipment  how convenient. They were a good bit cheaper at $70 for three months service.

I decided to jump in, head first I guess, and signed up with 4gcommunity.org they were the only ones offering a hotspot/router where all the others just have hotspots. I really need to easily connect my home network. I guess in about 7 days I'll know whether I've been taken or not. Supposedly they also have a 14 day trial period. Unlimitedville does not offer a trial. 

Wish me luck.

I don't understand the diff between the 4 plans. They all say  "No Contract/No Credit Check Hotspot with HIGH SPEED 4G LTE UNLIMITED DATA & No Throttling", yet they go from 100-250 clams, only diff seems to be the hardware device?

- OS