High speed internet in the country

[maplegrovefisherman]

I live in the country in River Falls, WI with DSL not being an option in my location. What are some of my options. Has anyone had experience with Satellite internet, etc? Thanks.

[bobbymalone]

my parents have hughes net. they stayed away for years because a neighbor said it was junk, although his dish was pointed right a bunch of trees...

my parents got it about 6 months ago and I used it over thanksgiving. It's not super duper fast, maybe a bit slower than the average dsl line. surfs the internet perfectly, but if you plan on downloading massive files it will take some time.

also, i think there are bandwith limits during peak hours, but that might just be for my parents who probably went with the cheapest option.

its not the best internet service, but compared to my parents other option (dial-up) its about a million times better. When dialup takes 15 minutes just to load up gmail, it's hardly even worth having internet access.

[delcecchi]

How is your cell phone coverage? The internet available through the cell phone networks is quite usable and some carriers have unlimited plans. You just plug a receiver thing into your computer.

[minndonn]

I have had Starband (like Hughes) and then Wild Blue. I found Wild blue to be better. The maintenance policy on Starband was a bad deal so I did not do it on Wild blue, which is much better and I should have cause when something breaks after warranty it is very expensive or you have to start a new contract for 2 yrs and 200 dollars. I should have. I have also used data thru the cell phone and it was cheaper than both the others and was pretty good. Wild blue has a good download speed but has the satellite delay. Also with both you will find the upload much slower than the download. Wild blue had the better download speed. Check you the cell phone before jumping on the satellites.

[tonkapat]

Verizon has a good product and you can take it with you when you leave home. Nothing like surfing the web at high speeds in the car. I believe the verizon unit is quite a bit faster than dish and dsl. Also able to plug into wireless connection at home for multiple computers.

[Skeeter21i]

Only go to satellite as a last resort. I'm beyond DSL and get no cell signal where I live so am stuck with satellite. I depend on it for work and it is a hassle, especially on a day like today with snow in the air. During high traffic times like evenings the speed bogs down practically to dial up speeds. In my opinion both Hughesnet and Wildblue are similar in performance, I have used both. If you do go with satellite pay very close attention to the usage limits for the plan you choose. Hughesnet basic package at 59/month allows you 200mb usage per day. If you go over they shut you down to less than dial up speed for 24 hours or you pay another $8 or $9 to get back to speed if you use or one free token each month for your overage. If you stream music, youtube or anything like that you will be maxing out rather often. I believe Wildblue has their allowance on a 30 day period rather than daily. They don't restrict you from 1am-5am so any software updates need to be done then. To see what others have to say about satellite go to dslreports dot com. As soon as another option comes available for me I will be gone.

[CJH]

In-laws have limited options as well and have gone the Cell Phone/3G route. Its a little slow, but not bad. Average internet usage its fine, big files it bogs down on some. Check who has the best cell/data coverage at your house and go from there. It just uses a USB drive, so very easy to use.

[bloc004]

My parents live in Troy Township, almost RF. They have tried everything for internet, and have found that Wild Blue is the best option there. Luckily for them Baldwin telecom is coming through next year. When is rains or snows, the signal cuts out, but it is the best they have had there.

[dougger222]

Have tried it all on both my rural homes.

23K dial up, 46K dial up, antenna on my roof/unit on water tower 4 miles away, dsl, and Wild Blue.

Had Wild Blue for less than a year and finaly said please come take your equipment. It was very unreliable at best and very very slow. Faster than dial up but way more expensive. Ended up finding out Quest had a 1.5 line and went that route. Being a bundler with Quest didn't have to pay a cancelation fee with DTV/Wild Blue. Being a 12 year DTV customer helps!