satellite internet

[smanoli]

My parents live out in the sticks and can only get satellite. They have wildblue and have been decently happy with it. When I'm home I find it much more enjoyable than the 28.8 dialup they had before that (max the phone lines seemed to support, same modem and carrier at other locals got around 54k). The latency is noticeable, but I just set a bunch of tabs to load and by the time I've clicked on the last link the first is done. Wildblue's cap is per month, but not calendar month, it's per 30day period (rotating) so in any 30day period you can't exceed the limit. But you can log on each day and see your usage for the the last month or whatever. My parent's don't have a problem w/ the limits. But they don't do streaming media (probably wouldn't work w/ the latency anyway) or download movies or music. Just e-mail, sending some photos, web browsing. They biggest downloads are easily the OS X updates.

The only problem with the weather has been if they disconnect the modem and the weather is too bad they can't re-establish a signal, but if they don't have to re-establish a signal they've never lost a signal they already had. Something about being harder to lock the signal than keep it.

[bazookaman]

yeah. i would WAY rather have a monthly (or 30 day) limit vs. daily. thats just stupid. I doubt my mom would reach that limit, but who knows.

[Bill in NC]

Mom could go with cellular-based internet via Verizon.

Even if EVDO is not yet available, 1xRTT is about 2x dialup.

Downside is you pay the same price ($60/month) for unlimited 1xRTT as for unlimited EVDO (unlimited = 5GB/month)

Upside is less equipment cost upfront.

[AllGold]

For cell-based data service, Sprint is regarded as better than Verizon. But I just looked at the Sprint coverage map for 28705 and it's pretty grim. Sprint has very good data roaming on other carriers so it still might work but they don't appear to have any of their own service in that area other than bigger towns, I-40 and some of the other major highways.

I have generally heard that between Wild Blue and Hughes, Wild Blue is the lesser or two evils.

Fixed wireless (where they install a small microwave antenna on your house) would be the best if it's available. It seems to be pretty common in the midwest, often with the access point installed on the top of a grain elevator or water tower. It's generally cheaper and faster than any other rural option but I don't know if it's common in your area.