Internet in Rural Areas

[zannej]

If you don't have one of these next to your house...

And there is one of these nearby instead...
View attachment 156233
You are golden!
Fast internet is great, but power that never goes out, is priceless!!!

That's good until someone crashed into it with vehicle or it floods or it gets picked up by a tornado or hurricane. But, nothing is perfect. Still better than powerlines getting knocked down, dipping into water, sparking while lines jump all over the roads. I remember when Guam got hit with supertyphoon Paka and the lines were all over the streets-- except for out in Inarajan area where the entire road and everything in the area got sandblasted off the island and the entire cemetery got carried away.

So, it's looking like SwyftConnect will be available in my area next month. This site had the pricing: https://broadbandnow.com/swyftconnect
But I don't know if that is accurate. They may charge less or they may charge more. They don't show their TV package pricing yet. I'm interested in their Core Tier package. There is only one station in Core Plus that I would want-- Cooking channel, but I can probably find episodes of stuff I want online or elsewhere. I can live without that channel. I really wish they would let me choose which ones I want and exclude ones I don't want and be able to build my own package of channels. It would be a small one because there are tons of channels I never watch. I'm also looking in to VOIP options. Is there a thread on that?

 

[Snowman]

Can You do anything with OTA...?!?

https://cordcuttingreport.com/2024/01/31/what-tv-stations-can-i-get-with-my-antenna/

Enter Your Zip Code :

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

 

[Supervisor42]

Can You do anything with OTA...?!?

https://cordcuttingreport.com/2024/01/31/what-tv-stations-can-i-get-with-my-antenna/

Enter Your Zip Code :

https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps

I used to be able to.
It was my backup for when the 'cable' went out.
Then I 'upgraded' the TV's and discovered the new ones no longer have a 'tuner' .
Today, everything is moving to the internet, and the reason for this thread.

 

[Supervisor42]

That's good until someone crashed into it with vehicle or it floods or it gets picked up by a tornado or hurricane.

Vehicles: The boxes are always more than 15 feet away from the street (notice I didn't say road). I have never seen one get hit.
Floods: Every one around here has been flooded. They just shut the power off when the water comes up, and turn it back on when they dry out.
Good to go!
Wind: The houses they are connected to will be completely gone long before the first one moves.
And don't forget they are also tied to the ground with a lot of big heavy cables.

You keep loving your overhead power lines... because the trees slamming them to ground sure do.

 

[Ekatarina]

As I said somewhere

I have no cellphone 0
Cuz I dont need a *leash* when I leave my house

I decided no more TV
I want to see something I go on internet

I have landline phone only
I have 3 plugged phoned Vtech (all is perfect)


Package deal included:

Phone
Long distance FREE anywhere 0.00$
USA- Canada - Europe

Internet
Unlimited Internet high speed

$105. MONTHLY

 

[zannej]

Vehicles: The boxes are always more than 15 feet away from the street (notice I didn't say road). I have never seen one get hit.
Floods: Every one around here has been flooded. They just shut the power off when the water comes up, and turn it back on when they dry out.
Good to go!
Wind: The houses they are connected to will be completely gone long before the first one moves.
And don't forget they are also tied to the ground with a lot of big heavy cables.

You keep loving your overhead power lines... because the trees slamming them to ground sure do.

I'm so used to Murphy's Law applying. I absolutely despise my overhead powerlines and would prefer the underground ones and those boxes if we could have them. Even with the things that could go wrong for the ground ones, it's much less likely for those things to happen than for the overhead lines to get borked. I'd take those boxes in a heartbeat.

Same situation with the TV antenna. No longer have tuners. The 50ft tower that our starlink dish is tethered to used to be for a TV antenna but hurricanes brought the antenna down.

If our landline wasn't so unreliable and expensive I'd stick with it, but it sucks. Found out the Core TV package from SwyftConnect is $106 and some change plus taxes. Not sure if that is standalone price or bundled price as I had to subtract the internet service prices from the bundle price they told me. All of the internet options are below what we're paying now and the $106 is considerably less than what we're paying for Dishnetwork. Won't even need a DVR thingy with the core package because it lets you stream whenever you want. No more worrying about missing a program, power going out, or losing satellite signal and not getting it recorded. We'll lose everything we loaded via DVR on Dishnetwork when we send the equipment back to them, but that is no big deal. We may be able to back it all up to a portable hard drive.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Mine is being squirrely right now.
On average for the month of July it has been down 2 days a week.
Some weeks it's been down 4 days a week.

 

[SoJer]

Fwiw, Starlink is having a 'Sale' till Oct 5th... https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-1195276-75811-68 And, 'select areas' (like Ours..) offers an Additional $100. off (ie: Full 'Starter Kit' is $199.

Considering it for 'Remote Connectivity'... We've Got 'Zoleo's (https://www.zoleo.com/) for Us / my Sons (for when the Comms-grid gets downed / attacked, whatever - In Theory, the Sat-network should-be 'Up longer', but.. TBD on all of it, I guess..) but those are pretty Limited comms (which is Fine for the 'eComms' purpose we got them for, but... they're not really designed for "internet access", so..)

...Starlink 'Roaming' Options seem intriguing / promising... TBD.

Fwiw..
jd

 

[Mountain trapper]

Fwiw, Starlink is having a 'Sale' till Oct 5th... https://www.starlink.com/?referral=RC-1195276-75811-68 And, 'select areas' (like Ours..) offers an Additional $100. off (ie: Full 'Starter Kit' is $199.

Considering it for 'Remote Connectivity'... We've Got 'Zoleo's (https://www.zoleo.com/) for Us / my Sons (for when the Comms-grid gets downed / attacked, whatever - In Theory, the Sat-network should-be 'Up longer', but.. TBD on all of it, I guess..) but those are pretty Limited comms (which is Fine for the 'eComms' purpose we got them for, but... they're not really designed for "internet access", so..)

...Starlink 'Roaming' Options seem intriguing / promising... TBD.

Fwiw..
jd

I'm trying to order Starlink right now. The connection on my phone is really slow so it may take some time.

 

[zannej]

Their website can be a bit slow even on their own service. Good luck, Mountaintrapper! Hopefully it will work well for you. If their website doesn't work, BestBuy sells Starlink kits.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Their website can be a bit slow even on their own service. Good luck, Mountaintrapper! Hopefully it will work well for you. If their website doesn't work, BestBuy sells Starlink kits.

I managed to get it ordered last night. I downloaded their app on my phone this morning. When I tried to log in to their site to check our location it's telling me that I need internet to connect. If I had internet I wouldn't need their equipment. I'll try again later. It's too dang cold out here this morning.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

I managed to get it ordered last night. I downloaded their app on my phone this morning. When I tried to log in to their site to check our location it's telling me that I need internet to connect. If I had internet I wouldn't need their equipment. I'll try again later. It's too dang cold out here this morning.

You will need the app to set up the equipment.
Part of the process is checking for obstructions
Your whole state is listed for coverage.

I have the Starlink home system and the mini for the camper/other property. You be very happy no having to climb the hill for internet.

 

[zannej]

Mountaintrapper, one of my pet peeves is when internet is not working and I am on the phone on hold calling an ISP and the automated messages tell me that I can go to their website to do x y z and I'm like "No, I *can't* because if I could I would not be on the phone to customer service!" although, I have to admit that I actually liked the on-hold music for Viasat.

When you have the equipment you will need to take your phone with the app on and pan your phone over the sky until it says you have mapped it out 100% and then it will let you know if the spot where you're standing is good enough. At least that's what I recall. Once you have it, if you ever have problems where it is not working after an outage (say power outage or bad storm) then you use the app to temporarily stow the dish wait a few minutes and then unstow it. That will reboot the dish. The modem (at least the one I have) does not have any lights to indicate status. You can't even tell if its on unless you try to connect to it via wifi. It does not come with any wired ports, an adapter is needed if you want to use ethernet cables. I also recommend getting a cooling fan for the modem because it tends to get fairly warm. I use https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R659J8Z/ under mine.

Meanwhile, Swyftlink CS responded to me on FB and said that service is available in most of my town and asked me if I checked the coverage map. I explained to them that I did check and that my area is not marked on their map as having service but that they ran conduit to my nearest neighbors 1/4 mile away. I said that I was on an e-mail list to be alerted if they make it available to me. I may have to call them up to pester them on Tuesday.

 

[SoulSeeker]

I hooked up with T-Mobile because it is cheap so far. $50 a month and $50 for the modem ($100 with a $50 rebate on a card) you buy up front and $20 for my phone basic no internet. It works off of line of sight towers and has been pretty good except in the late afternoon when a lot of people start using. I'm hoping if I can get to West Texas out in the desert it will keep working. All in all has been good enough for my use. $70 a month works on my budget

 

[Mountain trapper]

Mountaintrapper, one of my pet peeves is when internet is not working and I am on the phone on hold calling an ISP and the automated messages tell me that I can go to their website to do x y z and I'm like "No, I *can't* because if I could I would not be on the phone to customer service!" although, I have to admit that I actually liked the on-hold music for Viasat.

When you have the equipment you will need to take your phone with the app on and pan your phone over the sky until it says you have mapped it out 100% and then it will let you know if the spot where you're standing is good enough. At least that's what I recall. Once you have it, if you ever have problems where it is not working after an outage (say power outage or bad storm) then you use the app to temporarily stow the dish wait a few minutes and then unstow it. That will reboot the dish. The modem (at least the one I have) does not have any lights to indicate status. You can't even tell if its on unless you try to connect to it via wifi. It does not come with any wired ports, an adapter is needed if you want to use ethernet cables. I also recommend getting a cooling fan for the modem because it tends to get fairly warm. I use https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R659J8Z/ under mine.

Meanwhile, Swyftlink CS responded to me on FB and said that service is available in most of my town and asked me if I checked the coverage map. I explained to them that I did check and that my area is not marked on their map as having service but that they ran conduit to my nearest neighbors 1/4 mile away. I said that I was on an e-mail list to be alerted if they make it available to me. I may have to call them up to pester them on Tuesday.

I downloaded the app on my phone so I could check the best location for the dish. I got a message on my phone saying I can't do that because I don't have GPS or compass on my phone. Then I went to the Starlink to set up my account. I created a password, then tried logging in. Got a message that said I can't do that because I don't have internet. If I had internet I wouldn't need their GD equipment. It's frustrating, but I'm sure I'll get it figured out.