WWA Info Exchange

Ran across this article in Progressive Farmer about internet access for rural areas, and since the topic comes up here from time to time I figured I'd pass it along. Good info.

http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtn ... ntId=70104

_________________
I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

Interesting, even for a non-farmer!

_________________
Sean

Countin' flowers on the wall,
that don't bother me at all,
smokin' cigarettes and watchin' Captain Kangaroo,
Now don't tell me I've nothin' to do.

Second recipient of the D'oh Award. 4-13-08

We've been on Satellite for 2.5 years now I think.
Its okay, better then dial up. But there are lots of negatives as well.

Still it works, and there is no other alternative but dialup, so there you go!

Ours is a Hughes net Modem and dish through a local operator.

Eric

We also have been on satellite for 2 years and it really
is not much better than dial up, if I was not in a contract I would
get rid of it for the Hub now available through cellular..
With the Sat if you want anything close to high speed be prepared to
spend 80.00 per month or more, also it is affected by rain and goes down
whenever it rains significantly
just my 02. worth
Ron

Kids say that their 3G is a fast as the neighbor's Hughesnet, at half the price. I'm an "experimental" DSL who's really too from from the CO, but do get a steady 1.5.

The telco got a grant from the feds and a loan from REA to go fiber, which should expand their DSL, though a few people in "town" are talking up WiMax. With a directional gain antenna it's pretty long legged.


Options vary by community, but there's more than dialup.

Which reminds me. Anyone remember if the cell companies were supposed to maintain alternate power for their sites as part of a bandwidth deal with the feds? Power failure up in town knocks down both providers, which seems silly. Backup generators aren't too expensive, and they take up a lot less room than the banks of batteries we used to have.

Satellite is great in farming country I would imagine since 'farming country' implies a flat even terrain. Seems like none of the satellite or wireless providers in my area understand that the world isn't flat everywhere. We can just barely see the Direct TV 'bird' for television reception, satellite Internet reception is comprimised by the surrounding forests and the nearest cell phone tower is less than an 1/8th of a mile away ... behind a hill. Anything that operates on line of sight isn't very effective at our house.

I'll admit to being the biggest dialup whiner in the group but it's at least reliable. Frontier, the company that's bought Verizon in our area is being very aggressive about extending DSL into area areas like ours so ... maybe some day.

_________________
Nullum Gratuitum Prandium

Cheers - Dennis

I am still holding out that they will expand the fiber optic cables out here but that could take several more years.

I have gone through all of the options I have that range from dial up, satellite, cellular and directional attenna and am still no closer to deciding which way to go, of course dial up is not an option.
As of now the cellular is the odds on favorite.

Which ever way it goes we will have to decide within a year, that's when I am planning on retiring and I will lose my main source of access to the net.


Allen