Do I have any Broadband options?

Factual Questions
1

I’n my house, in the heart of Queens, NYC, I am able to telecommute because I have a DSL line. Usually, during the summer, my family goes to the Catskill Mountains, and I’m hoping I can get a broadband connection there so I don’t have to do the city-to-country commute every week. However, the following options are not available to me:

DSL - Our bungalow is too far from the switching station
Cable - Ordinary, non-satellite cable is not available in this area
Satellite dish using Dish network - Requires DSL for upload operations, not available to me
Satellite dish using DirecWay - Web site says it should not be used on a VPN, and that’s exactly what I need in order to telecommute.

I don’t know where else to look. Do any of you teeming millions know of any other Broadband alternatives I can explore?

2

It doesn’t fit the definition of broadband, but I used ISDN for several years. It has two 64k B channels that can be bonded to act like a single 128k connection. It’s not as good as DSL or cable, but it’s a heck of a lot better than dialup. It’s also available virtually anywhere.

Let me know if you have any questions about it.

3

There’s another option: Fixed Wireless. It may not be available in your area, but it wouldn’t hurt to investigate.

4

Huh? I know several people who use satellite for broadband. None of them need DSL. Heck, you don’t even need a dial-up phone line anymore for uploads. That sounds like bunk to me.

5

??? How are uploads done then? My folks are in need of broadband but have piss poor phone lines though they do have a dish network TV setup.

6

Be careful out there of wireless - just saw a report about how people “steal” your internet by sort of hitching a ride to your service, and possibly giving them access to your passwords, codes, etc…

7

2-way dish.

This would be perfect, but the launch keeps getting pushed back a year every year… http://www.wildblue.net/se/index.htm

There are companies currently offering similar, but slower, 2-way service. The equipments costs over $500 and the monthly bill is over $70. I can’t find a link for it right now.

8

Have you done a search using www.dslreports.com, or a similiar Web page? A few years ago I was dying for Broadband, and the local phone companies gave me the same crap you got about being too far away from a switching station. I did a search on dslreports and found a company that serviced my house. I had never heard of them before, but I got their service and used it with no problems until I moved from the area.

It was expensive ($100/month, plus $350 for the modem), and IIRC not “true” DSL - IDSL or some such thing that wasn’t as fast as normal DSL. But it was still plenty fast, and you could definitely do VPN on it - my husband used it to do just that.

I also second the vote for looking into ISDN. It’s often available where nothing else is.

9

Don’t know what it’s called in english, but you can get internet through your electrical sockets here. Might be something similar available where you are?

10

Check out this list of wireless providers:
http://www.onelasvegas.com/wireless/NY.html

Wireless is about as expensive as satellite, but there’s a lot less latency, so you should be able to use it for a VPN if one of those providers has service where you need it.

11

Another vote for ISDN out in the boonies. IIRC, the phone company is required to offer it to everyone, though they won’t want to. I know this because at my former job, one of the ladies there telecommuted and she lives in Lula, GA (read: up in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere). BellSouth gave her all kinds of grief, but ended up putting the ISDN in her place 'cos DSL and cable (that’s cable TV as well as Internet) were not available.

12

Power line communications. It’s actually a revamping of the ancient “carrier current” idea that used to be popular for campus radio stations. It’s taking hold in some parts of Europe, but I don’t think it’s getting much traction in the US at this point, except for home networks.