dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
139
perkqlater
join:2009-07-25
Mechanicsville, VA

perkqlater

Member

Walk a mile in my shoes...

Ok I am writing this at 50.6 baud so you highspeed users might have to wait till it gets posted. I am one of those rural boonie homeowners. I live 6 miles from the main road and the same distance from a cell tower...so no bars. The trees are 100 ft tall so there aren't many options for an antenna to help. I have tried it but it isn't very reliable for what I was paying. The cable TV drops off the last pole about 2 miles down the road and I am about 2 miles from DSL, if Verizon upgraded the switch, which they say they won't. When I moved out here, dial-up was the only option for anyone anywhere. Now that things have changed, it hasn't out reached us out here. There are kids out here that I am sure could use something faster to get online for school. Also others would like to work from home or just do regular business on the internet. This isn't the wide open range where you see acres and acres of farmland. Lots of people live out here and most aren't farmers. 200k to 900k houses with a little land. There is no reason why I don't have better broadband, other than the carriers are too busy upgrading the urban areas and could care less about the rural areas. I have been waiting to see if the "new" satellite broadband was going to be worth it. It is a little more expensive than I would like but it beats dial-up. I don't need to watch a bunch of movies or play games online. I would just like to pay my bills online or read the news and not have to wait 5 or 10 minutes for it to load. I don't like the caps but it's a start till something better comes along. Sorry for the rant but it seems most people don't understand what it is like "way" out here 12 miles from the city.
Flannigan Mill Rd-Mechanicsville,Va
whozzit
join:2003-03-26
Westwood, CA

whozzit

Member

Perkqlater... I've got to consider myself lucky, I guess. I live in a tiny town, miles from anywhere, but I do have a wireless fixed ISP (not satellite) and at their lowest teir I get 3 MB/s down and 1 MB/s up with no caps whatsoever. There is telco DSL in this town but it couldn't compete with the speed or reliability. The telco-provided DSL kept all other DSL out of this town but my Wireless ISP got around that by not using any cable or phone lines; it uses the air. My telephone service is through a NetTalk decice (VoIP) with a local number. All calls outgoing come to a total of $28 per year. All calls incoming sound just fine. So my VoIP telephone service uses no cable or telephone lines either. My house is online 24/7. Power outages can be the only problem with my complete system but I run my "computer room" on a charger, to batteries, to an inverter which allows me more than 40 hours of online time and lighting in said "computer room". My power setup was inspired by the telephone exchanges that I maintained all over the US, Canada and the middle east from 1967 through 2001. I could increase my "buffer" by adding an emergency generator (as per the telephone exchanges) but I have found my 40 hour power buffer to sufice for now. My 40 hour buffer can be increased through normal downtime where the computers are concerned and if the power outage is for more than 40 hours (it sometimes is), I'm usually ready to throw the towel in by then anyway.
463-995 Fern Way-Westwood, CA