I’m struggling, here, trying to get broadband internet service. Here’s my known options:
Cable: Not available
DSL: Not available
ISDN: $215 per month, which seems too high.
Satellite: This has been a total nightmare. I bought DirecWay 20 months ago and spent $1500 plus $70 per month to get it (difficult partly because I don’t have a view of the southern sky from my house). Now, 8 months after the warranty expires, they tell me I need a whole new system. So I put a splitting maul through the “modem” and threw everything away and gave up on this one. Though, actually, it does make the ISDN look more practical…
Wireless: Not available.
Land-lease lines to an area with broadband: Not available.
Wireless bridge to some area with broadband: seems doubtful, I’m surrounded by heavy trees and hilly countryside. But I do have a daughter with broadband only about 5 miles away, if I could figure out how to make a link. There are, however, hills between us - no line-of-sight.
The two items I’m wondering about are:
Shotgun modem and multiple phone lines to another location with broadband, where I might rent an equipment closet or something. Does anybody do this? How weird is it? How many “normal” internet activities won’t work this way, such as online banking or VPN or internet radio?
Packet radio. I’m not a HAM. Could someone who is a HAM set up equipment in my house as a remote location? Does packet radio provide anything like normal broadband service?
How big of an antenna can you fit on the outhouse?
All kidding aside – I live in Rural Canada and have similar problems – however there are two companies currently looking at deploying broadband wireless in my community using wireless modem and/or WiFi mesh technologies that will make my Internet scream within about 6 months. Have you looked into companies interested in rolling out that kind of technology in your area? Your local … ah… don’t know what they’re called in the states, here it would be Councillor or Reeve… any way, contact his/her office and he or she may know.
The first thing that came to mind is a point-to-point microwave communications system. It’s a set of line-of-sight microwave links between your location and a facility that has a broadband Internet connection. The number of links depends on the terrain. This sort of thing requires FCC licensing, engineering and some expensive hardware, plus you need to rent or purchase land for the towers if they are located on other people’s land. It’s probably way more money than you would be willing to spend if you think ISDN is expensive.
Here are a couple of articles from someone who built a line-of-sight system to connect to a distant wireless point (and even bounced one over a mountain!).
Packet Radio is usually only 1200 baud. There are some 9600 baud repeaters out there but they are fairly rare. Packet Radio is not designed for networking and is not connected to the internet in any fashion.*
*The APRS (a subset of packet radio) network is connected to the internet for the purpose of making position and weather data available on the internet, but this connection would not be suitable of your application.
Is anyopne in your area doing 802.16 WiMax? It’s a metropolitan-area wireless networking protocol with greater range than 802.11 WiFi. I understand it’s quite the thing for small towns and populated rural areas.
If you are not too far from a site with 802.11 WiFi wireless internet and a broadband connection, you may be able to make an agreement with them for bandwidth and use a directional antenna to connect.
I am also wondering about solar-powered relays in this context.
Otherwise, a private microwave link to an ISP may be your only (expensive) choice.
::previews ::
I see Dewey Finn already mentioned WiMax. Also, that first Cringely link in tanstaafl post is exactly what I was thinking of.
No WiMax within 20 miles of my home according to some maps I just found on the Web. No line of sight to any other buildings, either, except that I can see 1 neighbor through the trees reliably in the winter, and with difficulty 3 others.
Can your neighbours get a suitable connection? If so, and if you can strike a deal with one of them, you may be able to make a connection with one relay, either an unpowered one as described in tanstaafl’s third link, or a little solar-powered one. Of course, this gets into increased complexity.
I think, though , that 802.16 will cover 20-mile distances, especially with directional antennas.
>I think, though , that 802.16 will cover 20-mile distances
It does. What I meant to say was that I found a map of regions that have this service, and I am more than 20 miles from the edges of the closest regions, not just from their centers.
>You could always lay yourself
If I could lay myself, I wouldn’t need broadband.
No, no, that isn’t true. I’m using it mostly for technical reasons. I just couldn’t resist the setup. Honest.
I may go to the neighbor’s house and ask if they have broadband. They live on another road and I am in the dead zone between two cable companies, but maybe they aren’t. I already have an 892.11b wireless bridge I could use. I did look into this before and the cable company told me their service is limited to the house it’s installed in, but maybe there’s a way to negotiate around that.
Besides fixed wireless, you might be able to use ‘high speed’ cellular, Verizon has unlimited 144kb/s (ISDN speeds) for IIRC $59/m if you also have a Verizon wireless account.
Verizon tells me they don’t offer the internet service in my area. And I get very poor cell phone coverage at home - it only works in the winter.
But WildBlue is interesting. They look like Direcway except the equipment and installation is 1/2 the price and the monthly charge is $50 instead of Direcway’s $70. I wonder if they are more reliable than Direcway, and if the equipment lasts longer than mine did (20 months)? Anybody know?
At this rate, satellite has cost you slightly more than ISDN would have, worst case considered. But I have a feeling that in the future, if you are going to continue living where you live for a number of years, then you should stick with the satellite.
Assuming you had to pay out another $1500 for equipment (and so this incorporates your last 20 month loss of $1500 to tilt the scales against satellite), and that satellite costs $70/m and ISDN costs $215/m, then:
X = 20.69 months down the road the satellite will begin to cost $145 a month less than ISDN.
If it were the case that you had to buy $1500 in equipment every 20 months, then in terms of days, satellite would cost you 21 days more per 20 months than ISDN does.
There’s also the possibility of EVDO, see EVDO Info and 3G Today, but I doubt you are covered.
Like Lady Dragon said, we just got it and are quite happy so far. I went and looked at a couple of Direct Way setups that were running in the area. Was not impressed.
Went and looked at a Wildblue set up that was working within 5 miles of us and really liked it. ( slower package than I got but still very quick ) Liked what I heard about the installer also. So used the same place.
I was at the library today where they have a government T-1 line. I have a big picture in my web space and I know how long it takes to down load at dialup 50 K and DSL at 700 K and a cable connection a friend has that runs 26 K download and my 1500 K download ( pro package $80 ) and now the T-1 line. Even with the small latency, ( compared to Direct Way satellite ) I’m as fast or faster than the library.
I am pleased.
My speed reports go from 1300 to 1600 down depending on which site and I’m running a 600 Hz , Win 98 machine which is kinda slow.
The uploads are real good considering how little I’m paying.
I do have a cousin in a Dallas suburb that is the starting place for a major to run fiber into the houses. He gets 3000 K up and down for less than $50 / month… Can you tell I hate him?