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Rural internet options

C

CompCy

Active Member
Apr 7, 2006
180
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Ames
I've been looking for a new house and have found one that I like, but not quite sure I can afford yet. One of the few things that bothers me about the house is the inability to get decent internet. It is located in a rural subdivision just outside of Ames.

Here are the options that I know about:
1.) DSL - not available, Qwest doesn't want to "invest" in the equipment for a rural subdivision
2.) Cable - not available, no Mediacom
3.) Wireless (Prairie iNet) - not available, no line of sight to station
4.) Cellular - probably not available, my At&t phone gets 1 bar at the house, Sprint/Nextel internet probably wouldn't have good reception there either
5.) Satelite - available, not suitable for online games and there is a data transfer limit (5-17gb depending on plan)

Are there any other internet options that I am not aware of that might be available?
 
4429 mcc said:
My in-laws live on a farm in southern Iowa outside of Oskaloosa and have Iowa Telecom dsl works pretty good
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I have Iowa Telecom DSL, but I have a word of advice if you do indeed get it: don't use their modems, they're terrible.
 
cloneu said:
My parents use dialup at their house:err:
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So do mine, they have no other option. Hopefully Iowa Telecom eventually upgrades their area so they can at least get DSL.

Verizon also has air cards like Sprint does and usually at least for cell phone coverage they are better than Sprint in rural areas. Other than that you may be SOL. The satelite carriers I hear have terrible upload speeds and some of our remote people at work use it because that is all they can get and I can tell you just trying to do remote assistance over it, its just as bad as dialup from that standpoint.
 
My dad travels alot in rural areas visiting farmers and uses Verizon's wireless plugin for his laptop. It works very well. I'm not sure how well it would work if you are using a desktop but it is realatively inexpensive as well and works almost anyhwere.
 
CyGuy33 said:
My dad travels alot in rural areas visiting farmers and uses Verizon's wireless plugin for his laptop. It works very well. I'm not sure how well it would work if you are using a desktop but it is realatively inexpensive as well and works almost anyhwere.
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You can probably buy a PCMCIA adapter to use it on a PC. There are routers out there, especially for Sprint, that you can plug the card into and use it although I have heard that Verizon will not allow that.
 
There are some companies that will install dishes on your house for it. DirecTV now has internet through their dish I guess. Iowa Telecom is through I have mine through, it is not as fast as Cable right now, and I have it through my local independent phone company. It all depends on where you move.
 
What, are you buying Alaskaguys house? Oh no wait, he HAS internet... Lord, where is this place your looking at?
 
I'd stay away from satellite. Hughesnet (used to be Directway) is expensive and unreliable and support is insane. I had a similar situation where I lived just outside of Ames and satellite was the only high speed option. I had to buy it because my wife took classes online but got so bad that we cancelled it last summer and she drove to Jewell to have classes until we moved.
 
I would be careful with those plug-in internet cards. You might get connectile disfunction.
 
I wouldn't judge everyone else's coverage by AT&Ts. They have garbage coverage. Sprint or Verizon both have solid broadband cellular packages. It's probably not as good as "real" broadband, but it's not too bad.
 
Yes, I too have had horrible experiences with satellite internet. Not worth half of what they charge for it. I would recommend checking out the Verizon option or just use dialup:sad:
 
My parents have recently been able to use wireless internet that isn't too bad - when it works. They have had a lot of problems with the company (local company) dealing with connectivity issues.

Otherwise I would look into using a cell phone company like Alltel or Verizon. Use an amplifier if your signal isn't the greatest.
 
ia8manfan said:
Yes, I too have had horrible experiences with satellite internet. Not worth half of what they charge for it. I would recommend checking out the Verizon option or just use dialup:sad:
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While I was being shown the house I had the opportunity to get my iPhone on the open 802.11 network and try the satellite internet that they had. It was slower than I had imagined. It took about 10 to 15 seconds to load the front page of CycloneFanatic. The EDGE data connection with At&t is faster than that.

As some people have suggested, a cellular connection with an amplifier seems like a good option. The best prices I have seen for "unlimited" data connections is about $80 a month, which is way more than DSL would be.
 
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