Live in rural area, need internet provider

[Transition]

I live in a rural area near Chicago and I need an internet provider. Has anyone used Hughes Net as a provide.
I'm currently using Cricket, but it is "S L O W" any suggestions?? Thanks

[mgcfo]

Although I live in rural Missouri, my situation is similar. I use a Verizon wireless air card for my business, and here at home, download/upload speeds are average to good. Presumably, that's because Verizon has contracts with nearby cell tower owners. Previously, my wife and I were on AT&T, and the service was awful.

So, trying the wireless air cards from Sprint, Verizon, or another major carrier may be an option. The downside is that you are not allowed to test the air cards. But if you go to your nearest store selling cell services, they may have customers where you live giving feedback on the speeds.

Are your utilities serviced by a rural cooperative? My local cooperative sells Exede which boasts download speeds of 12 Mbps and their service is powered by ViaSat-1. One of my nearby clients (also rural), has it, but they claim it's not great. Download speeds vary throughout the day. We've thought about buying the service, but continue to use the air card for now.

Unfortunately, for those of us in rural areas, few options exist - very frustrating.

Mark

[bertilak]

Whoever provides phone-line service to your area might have wired DSL.

Also look for wireless DSL. There are many small, local, companies that rent space on various towers to put up their own antennas.

Google "wireless DSL <your town>"

[atfish]

Have used Hughesnet for 4 years with so-so results. They have recently upgraded our speeds and allocations. Not many options for rural folks.

[SammyG]

You might try Verizon's Home Fusion. If you have VZ 4G in your area it provides very fast wireless internet. It's a little pricey, $80 mo, for 10 Gig, $110 for 20. YMMV

Dave

[texasdiver]

Before moving to the suburbs I spent a number of years in rural Texas. Basically you have the following options.

1. Phone service. For DSL to function you must be within a minimum distance to the nearest phone switch. Many rural areas are beyond the reach of DSL and often also have old copper lines that don't support high speed. You may be able to have a T1 line installed but that would cost a LOT of money....hundreds per month. Not worth it unless you lived in a rural community where there were a dozen or more households nearby that could all share a T1 line over wifi or something.

2. Satellite. If you go to the satellite internet forums you will find E N D L E S S strings of complaints about service, customer service, and such. Seems like the satellite providers really don't care much about providing internet and really use their satellites more for cable TV. Seems like a last resort. Download speeds can be OK but upload speeds can be really slow.

3. Microwave. In many rural areas in Texas there are small internet providers that work via microwave antennas. They rent space on cell phone towers, water towers, or whatever they can find and broadcast microwave internet signals. You have a microwave antenna installed on your roof within the line of sight of the tower and get pretty decent internet for a pretty reasonable price (at least here in Texas). This is probably your best bet by FAR if you have a local microwave internet provider in your area. I guess this is what others are calling wireless DSL.

4. Cellular. If you get good cell signal you can get a cellular USB card or just use your cell phone as a wifi hot spot. Or just get an iPad and use it as your primary internet device. This can be expensive and problematic if you don't have a good signal. But you can buy cellular antennas to go on the roof that can greatly improve your coverage compared to the tiny antennas that come with the USB devices or regular cell phones.

[bertilak]

I guess this is what others are calling wireless DSL.

Right. They use the same frequencies as cordless handsets on conventional phones:

900Mhz
2.4Ghz
5.8Ghz

The 5.8 gives the best speeds but it is the fussiest about being direct line-of-sight.

[mike143]

For business purposes in rural areas we have used HughesNet (formerly DIRECWAY) and WildBlue. You need to do a lot of research before going with satellite Internet. It will not work effectively for VoIP or real time gaming. It is considered "high speed" but that is more if you are downloading a large file. General web browsing will be painful due to the time (latency) it takes for the request to go from your dish to space and back and to the wired Internet. Here is the best place I know to investigate satellite Internet. http://www.dslreports.com/forums/56 . One of our recent construction locations is on a military base where bringing in wired services is cost prohibitive. We are using an AT&T cellular USB modem connect to a CradlePoint router. This is for 6 desktops/workstations and a server that synchronizes job specific files once and hour. This cost us $10 per gigabyte plus associated taxes and fees.

Another option, if available, is a local wireless Internet provider. We did go this route on the beaches of Matagorda, Texas.

If you can provide a city I can see if I can find a option for you.

[LadyGeek]

This thread is now in the Personal Consumer Issues forum (internet).

[Firewood42]

We live in a very rural area surrounded by high hills. Tried for years to find decent internet service. Tried Verizon wireless, inside antennas, nothing worked. Then like the answer to our prayers, our local phone company put in DSL in the little bitty town less then a mile from us. We signed up immediately, it works great. We still don't have TV because of the high hills but can live without that. I think there is some kind of state program to ensure that rural areas get good internet service as farmers need this to run their farm business.

[volleyballfwtx]

I would not recommend Hughes Net, if you reach the cap usage, it slows down to dial-up speed. If you read customer reviews about the company, there's probably not a lot of happy customers.

You could always go to a public library, they usually have free wifi.

[BL]

We live in the boonies with fiber optics so no problem with video or DSL.

[Aptenodytes]

My mother in law lives in a remote area and tried Hughes. The experience was absolutely awful. They don't tell the truth, their service is horrible, and what they deliver is marginally better than dialup.