OK, I'm drowning here....

steveinaz

Need internet ideas fellas. One downfall to moving out on land, no cable internet. I've been quite spoiled for the last 10yrs living in town w/excellent cable internet service---now we're DSL; and I mean the slowest variety of DSL. It's barely a notch up from dial up. Forget watching videos, and even internet email takes forever to load.

How is HughsNet Gen 4? And I'm certainly open to any other options---keep in mind we're in Hereford, Arizona--I can literally spit into Mexico. HELP....

polkfarmboy

Hughes net is good if you don't mind paying for it, my wifes mom has it as she is way out in the country in SD and its fine for watching netflix etc but again its very expensive in comparison to city high speed connections

thsmith

What a 4G hot spot. If Verizon has coverage where you are that might be a better and cheaper solution.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=6411

steveinaz

Thsmith, can you tell me more---we have Verizon phones--that looks very interesting. I'd rather not poke more holes in my roof for another dish. Laptops and everything can access that puppy?

treitz3

I have friends that use them as hotspots all of the time for their laptops, Steve. If you have an android phone, you may want to check out foxfi.com

I hope this helps.

Tom

zane77

I have a MiFi Verizon hotspot 4G pretty fast connection and you can run 5 connections at the same time, you would probably want to get some kind of unlimited data plan with this. Before the phone company ran fiber to my home I had Wildblue satellite connection, this was pretty good and the speeds are even faster now than when I had them. I believe Dishnetwork sells this option if that is what you have for a TV provider. I didn't think I would ever see fier in my lifetime, my nearest neighbor is 3 1/2 miles away. They put the fiber in as part of the Rural Development Act, you may try looking into what that is all about

steveinaz

Thanks fellas, appreciate the ideas. I think the 4G thing may be the ticket---I don't need "super user" speed or anything, but this bottom tier DSL is awful. If both of our cells are Verizon, then bundling everything should be pretty easy right? I'm a cellphone dumbass so bear with me.

Tom, I think Bev's phone is a droid thingy. I have a very basic Motorola cell.

treitz3

It is my understanding that you won't need to bundle anything. Just switch to an unlimited plan and turn your phone into a hotspot. I'm not the go to guy with all of this stuff, just offering what I have picked up on from time to time. Best of luck for a "speedy" solution.

Tom

zingo

4G should be what you need if you have the coverage!

steveinaz

Jake, I ran our zip code/address and it showed coverage for 4G LTE.

thsmith

steveinaz wrote: »

Thsmith, can you tell me more---we have Verizon phones--that looks very interesting. I'd rather not poke more holes in my roof for another dish. Laptops and everything can access that puppy?

I like the home device better than using your phone as a hot spot so you can have access to the net even if the phone is not available, works ok for temporary situations but the home device is fixed and always on. Mobile hotspot will eat up the batteries.

Good luck and hope it works for you.

zane77

The one thing about Verizon is that you can not use the phone for data and calls at the same time, that is why the MiFi hotspot works so well it doesn't take over your phone and this thing is smaller than a deck of cards.

GospelTruth

Going with Verizon wireless broadband sounds like the way to go. A couple of things to consider:

Based on your post(s), it sounds like your wife is the only one who has a phone capable of becoming a wireless hotspot. I would make sure it's feasible with that phone. I don't think your simple Motorola phone is going to be able to do that.
If your wife's phone is capable, you will need to have the phone around and turned on as a wireless hotspot for you to access the internet. If your wife is gone with her phone, no internet. Just something to keep in mind. Additionally, all devices that you want to have access to the internet will need to connect via wireless. Proximity to where the phone is located will also affect your wireless performance.

If you want to have a continued wireless/boardband presence at the house, you can go a route like a traditional cable modem/router. You would need to purchase a modem that is Verizon capable. I looked online and Verizon has one for $99 (Verizon 4G LTE Router). This isn't a USB modem you plug into your laptop either, it is a stand alone modem you can connect to a wired/wireless router. If you have a family and there are multiple needs for broadband around the house this might be the best solution. You can go with the MiFi Hotspot as also mentioned, but that will be for wireless devices only. If your home is Ethernet wired, IMHO, this would be the better way to go. It also doesn't tie you down to having to have your wife's phone around all the time to access the internet.

Just thought I would try to give you some additional criteria to help you make an informed decision. I'd go either the MiFi Hotspot or the Verizon 4G LTE Router if it were me.

Hopefully one of the solutions here works for you. I have a friend who has DSL out in the sticks of Nevada and I've never been on anything so slow. I think dial up back in the day is actually faster than what he has with DSL.

obieone

Forget about Hughsnet. A guy I worked with last year had to sue to get out of his contract, and the service was slower than dial up.

WLDock

steveinaz wrote: »

Jake, I ran our zip code/address and it showed coverage for 4G LTE.

Sounds like your answer! I agree with the group, I know of several others that use Verizon for internet for home and business.

jon1redleg

obieone wrote: »

Forget about Hughsnet. A guy I worked with last year had to sue to get out of his contract, and the service was slower than dial up.

READ the hughsnet contract real close!! My inlaws have it and HATE it but it was there only thing they could get,no smart phones.
There are peak times and or dead times and it slows down to worst than dial up. And also something about a
over use charge. I no one time they lost service due to going over and had to wait to be reset.


4G sounds like the ticket.

disneyjoe7

Seems odd to me a wireless connection is faster then a wired connection.

smglbrth

We had HughesNet for a while at our other house. Same thing, but we could only get dial-up, not even DSL. I seriously considered going back to dial-up only to find that the only computer that had that capability was my "cheapo" laptop. I didn't want to buy more stuff to predate our other computers.

HughesNet was terrible in my experience. Slow, at times, wasn't even the word for it. My wife and I both agreed that at least dial-up would work all the time. Since we've moved and now have fast DSL I can see your situation. It is so nice to have "unlimited" DSL again. I have heard that the new HughesNet Gen 4 is much better than the old that we had but guess the question is, for how long? When we first got our HughesNet it wasn't half bad but towards the end it was horrible. Don't know if they just didn't have enough capacity for everyone or if it just sucks people in at first, with faster speed, then slows down since "they have you". Also be aware with HughesNet, as with cellular stuff (at least here where we live), that you are screwed with only being able to download a certain amount of data per day. Over that limit and they start charging you big time...

(Oh ya, since you live so close to the border, hope you have protection...)

billbillw

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Seems odd to me a wireless connection is faster then a wired connection.

Not these days. The new 4G LTE technology is screaming fast. I did a speedtest earlier today on my smart phone, it was like 31MB/s down and 19MB/s up. That is faster than any DSL I've ever had, and faster than most of the comcast cable internet tiers.

Steve,

It may be a stupid question, but have you asked your DSL provider about getting any higher tier service? Usually DSL can get up to 3-6 MB/s which is fast enough for most folks and certainly fast enough for video streaming.

steveinaz

Bill, because we are so far out, we can only get 2MB (and THAT is optimistic) speed. I think we'll buy the Verizon modem and go that route with 4G.

Thanks again everyone for the input and help, appreciate it.

bruss

Look for a wireless broadband ISP? We have this in KC http://www.pixius.com/

billbillw

steveinaz wrote: »

Bill, because we are so far out, we can only get 2MB (and THAT is optimistic) speed. I think we'll buy the Verizon modem and go that route with 4G.

Thanks again everyone for the input and help, appreciate it.

2MB isn't all that bad. Certainly good enough for web-browsing and non-HD streaming. I think I only had 1.5MB/s DSL when I first started 'high speed' internet. It was certainly a world faster than 56k modem. If the speeds aren't averaging close to the 2MB speed, I'd get them to test the line and troubleshoot because DSL is supposed to be a consistent (almost guaranteed, but they won't say that) speed. That has always been their claim over Cable internet (which does slow down with heavy use on the 'loop'). Also, make sure your router is setup correctly and you aren't dealing with issues like multiple firewalls, etc.

steveinaz

Trust me it's not 2MB...Century Link just claims it is...LOL

disneyjoe7

Is Century Link you local telephone company? I think where you're you have idsl. Have you heard that?

steveinaz

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Is Century Link you local telephone company? I think where you're you have idsl. Have you heard that?

Not sure, I just know they told us we would (unfortunately) only have the slowest bandwidth because of how far out we were. When it takes me 3 minutes to forward an email, it's bad. Now, when I hook up directly via ethernet, it's a little better---but not much.

jbooker82

Go to www.speedtest.net and run a test with your computer using a wireless conection. Then run the exact same test with it hooked up via Ethernet cable. Your slow internet could be caused by a bad wireless router. If your paying for 2M internet you should be delivered 2M internet.

disneyjoe7

Steve, who was the company before you moved? Was it Century Link?

steveinaz

We were with Cox Cable/cable internet...it was very good speed-wise. Now we're on a CenturyLink phone/DSL bundle because cox doesn't run out this way.

disneyjoe7

So you have small dsl filters before the phone jack right?

Rivrrat

Depending on where Steve's at in Herferd, we (Centurylink) don't have high speed dsl there yet. We just started placing it there this year, and I don't know how much more is going to be done there this year (I'm just the worker bee equipment installer).

disneyjoe7

Could his circuit be a idsl circuit like an isdn circuit where they add circuit together. 64k 2B+d 64k+64k+16kd= 144k If so I think is house 2 pairs one for the idsl circuit and one for pots.