Remote Area Internet Reception

[mail2us]

Any input on Wild Blue satellite internet or Hughesnet for a residence? There is only dial-up available and air cards are somewhat limited with 5GB?? Tks Dennis

[HamRad]

Mail2us,

What would you like to know about the Hughes system? If you are in a truly remote area where there is little or no cell service the satellite systems are about your only choice. They are relatively fast. After a few times setting up they are fairly easy and quick to get going. Or you can opt for the automatic system.... a bit spendy at around 4 to 5 K.

The Wild Blue is truly a fixed residence system only. Technically Hughes is too but if you go through a resale dealer you can use them on the road. Hughes does not support mobile operations but condones their usage. All your mobile tech support must be provided by your dealer.

A tripod system new from a dealer is around 1500. But there are plenty of used systems out there and they typically go from around 200 to 500.

Log onto Datastorm.com to get all kinds of info.

A couple of dealers that have good reps are Maxwell and Dustyfoot.

HamRad

[OntMont]

We use the Canadian equivalent of Wild Blue at home in Ontario, It works reliably enough (except in heavy rain/snow). It is not really fast compared with cable, but is better than dial-up. If you have decent cell coverage, I would not discount an aircard, but much depends on your location and coverage. I expect you will hear more on that from EVDOAlex.

[stiles watson]

Dennis, I think Hughes net would be fine in an area where cable or DSL was not available. It is certainly better than dial-up. I did not find it very practical for travel. It took up too much awkward space.

I tired of trying to find the signal on the road. Often we didn't have a "clear view of the southern sky". So I gave the system to my sister-in-law who had been on dial-up. She is quite pleased with it in comparison. She has a stable installation at her residence.

This is our first trip on the road with the Verizon modem. It works better for us. No time spent getting set up. The Cradlepoint wireless router lets us both run our laptops and a wireless printer. When we are in an extended service area, the Verizon slows to near dial-up speed, but in a Verizon area, it is quick. I use the CG wireless, if the signal is good to avoid nearing the 5GB limit.

Others have HughesNet and seem to be quite happy with it.

[mail2us]

Basically, I need internet for our residence only at Sylva NC which is about 45-50 miles southwest of Asheville close to the BlueRidge Pkwy in the Balsam area.

Verizon is the local landline company and they have no immediate plans to bring DSL to our area and there is no cable company that wants to either. (We have DirecTV)

I have a Verizon aircard UM150VW for the laptop when traveling, however the 5GB limit is another issue as well. The -db is about 95-100 here at our home with the aircard. I have written to EVDOAlex and we are currently looking at the alternative of an external antenna, however, again the 5GB is a issue whether signal is good or not.

I think Hughesnet has a 200MB limit or threshold, as they call it. Not sure if they charge beyond the 200MB or the signal degrades after that threshold.

For HamRad (Dennis): who/where are Dustyfoot and Maxwell?

[HamRad]

Dennis,

DustyFoot and Maxwell are companies that sell the satellite systems.

Dennis

[rogue]

With Verizon aircard UM150VW, did you purchase it before the cut over or after the cut over (5GB limit)? I looked yesterday and all I can find on line about the 5GB is IF you go over the 5GB limit in a month Verizon CAN reduce you speed to 200KB. I did not see any where where if you go over 5GB that they would stop your service.

I have the UM150, and the Cradlepoint CTR350 router at home here and just dropped DSL. I am getting 3 or 4 dots on the UM150 dependent upon where it is located in the house. I have tested the speed and am not quite as fas as DSL, but closer to DSL about 800KB average.

I am in Oregon about 6 miles from a tower, its not a Verizon tower but the signal is going through it. Verizon does not provide service anywhere up here but the card still works at broadband speed. When I first tried the UM150 at home I could not get broadband, but only National coverage. Called Verizon help number and they had walked me through a setup change that fixed the problem. Hope that helps.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

And, just remember, Verizon is NOT the only game in town.

Much, I believe depends on if you plan on spending a TON of time in areas that don't have cell phone coverage. If you are in that situation, then you need to consider something other than the air card.

IF you plan on spending most of your online time in places where you also can get a cell call, then, maybe you should consider the air cards.

Our air card is $10.00 less a month than our Hughesnet was. We can take the card with us anywhere, and I mean ANYWHERE, and we could not with the hughes stuff. First, our big dish was on the roof (very steep second story roof) of the stick built. When we traveled for extended time we chose to suspend the service, as we chose NOT to haul around another dish for Tana, personal choice, and frankly, we did not like the room that it would have required. So, we would suspend, and then had to rely on wifi at the parks, OR the ole technology and service that we had with a cell phone (just happened that it was Verizon). On after 9 PM, and on weekends, etc. as it used the minute from our phone. It was doable, but, hey, this card is better. FOR US.

With the card, on 24/7 if we want, we have not had any issues with exceeding the Gigabytes thing, don't think we have it with Sprint. I have been able to get online everywhere, cept for about 5 minutes two different times in the deep rural area of Texas.

So, the question for us, was, what cell company covered the stick built so we could get the air card. After that, it was sorta a no brainer for us, $10.00 cheaper a month, extremely portable, little thing not much larger than a credit card vs that big momma of a hughes dish, useable 24/7/365, never need to suspend the service.

Oh, and speeds. Most of the time, quite nice. Down in the RGV, I was a little slower, here in SC, NC, so far, BLAZING fast! Al is worried I will be boo hooing when we get back to the stick built as it is not this fast there. I promised him I would not whine, I love this little spit of a card so much, I will NOT cry, whine or boo hooooooo! That said the speeds at home are about 4 times faster than the hughes thingy was, at least the ping times are about 4 times faster. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO

[sailer]

Have you tried a antenna yet , i put 1 on the monta and take it off when on the rd as if a branch hits it its gone ,,, go www.wirelessonesorce.com or call 888-571-7867 they have a lot of wilson stuff as i am ordering a unit to cover the cottage in northen wis for the summer and its going to be on top the tv tower so about 50 to 75' coaxl to get down in the building but he says it will work on all cell phones and the air card as we run on 1900 freq up there he says and that verizon and sprint john

[Icehouse]

Just a note about Hughesnet, it only works in the contiguous US, not in Alaska. Tried it.
Tammy

[HamRad]

Tammy,

Did you try it using the one meter dish? The larger dish is supposed to work even in Alaska. No first hand experience so you have a hand up on me there.

Does anyone up there have satellite connections?

HamRad

[Icehouse]

HamRad, nope didn't get so far as to actually set it up. The information they provided was clear it would only work in the contiguous US. You can get satellite here if you can get a clear view of the southern sky. The satellites look like they are pointing straight toward the ground. Here in Seward, all you see when you look south is another mountain (oh, the hardship!). Unless, of course, you are standing on the pier. Then you can see the bay, then the mountain (oh, how I struggle) Tee Hee Hee!!!!

Oh well. Doesn't matter anymore. I'm cruising again with DSL. And I am happy about that!
Tammy

[mail2us]

Has anyone that has had a Verizon aircard, that's gone over the 5gb had any extra charges or slowdown in service.
I got the air card last Thursday. If there is latitude here on the 5GB, as Mrs. CountryGuy indicates the aircard is cheaper that
n Hughesnet, but not sure on quality of reception here between the two?

I use the internet alot and 5gb ain't enough. I used it all in 5 days!

May need an antenna as sailer offered. Dennis thanks for the reply back on the links.

With Hughesnet, it's $299.00 then $59 + Tax per month. Ouch! Advise.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

I cannot imagine using that much in 5 days, I have had this thing on ALL day and been surfing hard, images, some; music, none; video, none; but, pages and pages and pages and pages, my air card shows that I have used 72.1 MB today. Now, I have trouble with this byte type math, but, isn't there 1000 of these MB in a GB???? Again, I am not so good at this, BUT, if I am doing this right, and if I used 72 MB every day, for 30 days, that is about 2150 MB, just around 2 GB???

I don't doubt ya mail2us, but, ha ha ha, I thought I was a heavy user, and now you say you used 5 GB in 5 days! WOW, I guess I am not such a heavy user after all.

As far as quality, our ping times at the stick built with the Hughes and this Sprint air card, Sprint wins. It was 4 times faster. I am currently in NC and for the last several days we have had such great speeds and zoom zoom zoom, the Hughes never, ever, came this close.

Again, if you are somewhere where you know you will have cell phone service, the air card is an alternative. If you are gonna be west of the Mississippi, and specifically in some of the grand western states of the USA, we hear that you won't have cell service. In that case, you are gonna not like the aircard.

We are enjoying the Sprint no limits air card while it lasts, nothing good ever lasts, or at least that was what my daddy used to tell me. We would not be one bit surprised to find limits on Sprint some sad sad day.

All this said, I cannot answer your Verizon/limits question, it is a good one, and I will be watching for responses.

[mail2us]

Thanks Carol, I obviously got your "wake-up" call on mb and gb's that will require me to look at this again. I do use it alot for financial stuff but your right that it should not have been depleted in 5 days, now that I think about it. Duh! Dennis

[rogue]

Dennis, Judy, Another way to look at it is if you were going to download a 5MB picture from your children, you would need to download 1,000 of them in a month to reach the 5GB number. Now if you are downloading programs, music, and video those can be big files. Like yesterday I needed to download a set of programs that fit on a CD which was 550MB, that used up 1/10 of the 5GB capacity for the month.
Bob

[mail2us]

Yea Bob, that helps put it in good perspective. Carol The Mrs CountryGuy also was of help on my ignorance. I have used about 60 mb's since getting the card, so feel much better.

Does the Cradlepoint router diminish the signal for 2 laptops going?

Bob, do you know who you specifically called @ Verizon for the broadband assist? Not the person but number or is it on their VerizonWireless site?

I'm getting 2 dots on the 150 which is about 94-97 db's.

Tks
Dennis

[rogue]

Dennis, the support number for Verizon is 1-800-922-0204. They were very helpful. There is a map on their web site (verizon wireless) that shows where you should be able to get Broadband reception. The support rep will probably check that while on the phone with you.

I have not noticed any slowness with the CTR350 when using 2 systems. You may if one is downloading a large file, but for normal web browsing and e-mail should not be a problem.

[trukdoc]

I have the ATT air card and for $59.99 a month get unlimited access. As others have stated easy to connect no sat to set up. And it goes where I go. So far I am very pleased. Where I live I can connect at about 340 KBS. While in Houston and on the 3G Network it is about broadband fast. Most major cities are 3G.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

My point proven??

We are in Charlottesville VA area, back in a hollar I'll bet! In the KOA (yea yea, we know, Keep On Adding, and too much $$, but, here we are anyway. SIGH)

It is actually a very pretty area, and campground. Gotta say, tho, there are not a lot of BIG rig sites, they have many smaller ones fit for vans and tents that are going unused. They gave us a pull through. Gotta say it is the first pull through we have ever had that was NOT a pull through. Al had to back in, ohh, well, here we are and that data is really off topic.

SOOO, back to the air card. Well, the phones are on roaming, we have not tried to make a call. Actually killed the battery on my phone in 8 hours.

The air card also shows roaming, and just for giggles I decided to try to get online. It did connect, but, it was slow, haha, real slow. I tried to go to a web page, and it basically just kinda wilted on the vine.

I went to the free wifi here, which is about the best free wifi I have used in several years. Decent speeds, although the ping time is reallllllllllllllllll slow.

So, I still have net, and email. But, if ya got questionable cell service, you are gonna have questionable air card.

This is the first place we have been that I have had this trouble in months!! Only other time was last June at the lake, and it is the same story out there, cell service is questionable in most of the park, ya gotta walk down to the beach areas to get a call. Lucky for me, I was parked near the beach area.

So, it ain't just the mountains in the Rockies that get ya, they can get cha out here in the Shenandoah Valley area too!

No complaints, back in 2001 if I wanted to surf/email, I had to carry my computer to the office or laundry room, dial in to AOL and pray there was a local connection number. Or, worse yet, stand in a phone booth to do same! This air card beats the devil out of that! HA HA