No, that isn't my blood pressure (although that would be pretty good on the systolic side, but slightly off on the diastolic side). Actually that is my download and upload speeds using the Verizon internet thingy that I'm trying out. Sitting in the church (about the same as at the farm) with the double USB port thing and an external antenna I manged 115 kbps download and 100 kbps upload. For comparison I did a test using the adsl internet we have here at the church and received 1,547 upload and 380 download.So, what do you think of that (does anyone know how that compares to dial-up)? Unfortunately I'm not in the Verizon "Broadband" access area, just their "National" access area. When I was in the "Broadband" area I liked it a lot, but then I drove twenty-five minutes to my house and I wasn't as pleased...
I have continued researching the satellite options, but must admit that I am completely scared of those because of the MANY poor reviews all of the companies receive from users. I do run across some reviews from satisfied customers, but I just wonder how many satisfied people there are (I know the satisfied ones don't talk as loudly though).
That is the internet quandary that I am in right now. I am really beginning to see how important the internet could be to our farm through our blogging, communicating, networking, and sales. With all of that in mind I'm just not sure what to try. I may go and check out the Alltel store here in town, but from their coverage maps it appears that I can expect about the same as my Verizon I have now.
In other farm related news it seems that we will have a little over two more weeks to finish the house and move in. That should give us time to finish the entire floor and all of the electrical installations. Then the only things left to do while we are living there is some trim and stovepipe installation! Soon....
Adapt! I'd keep dial-up for communications and neccesary information fact finding. If I was in your shoe for anything more beyond communication/facts.... (I know I'm not you nor you me) I'd set up computer backpack and have several flash drives and at least one eternal hard drive. Plan a little office time when you are in town shopping or whatever. Do all you can at home (prepping stuffs and upload to flash drive) and then finish when you hit a hot spot. Broadband in any forms may be little more affordable in few years, especially after becoming a little more established in farming business. What's that little inconviences of few short years to you when viewed as part of whole picture in terms of LIFETIME? It is your choice, really. What's priority? Money. Time. Convience. Yeah, I know, I dislike sometimes trying to decide which hard rock to choose!
ReplyDeletejust a couple thoughts of mine... perhaps someone else could throw out a better idea?
Jean - I believe that is some good advice and in reality it is what we are beginning to lean towards. I have written multiple times about having to make sacrifices in order to obtain your goals and this will probably be one of them.
ReplyDeleteI just have to take my "techie" hat off for a little while and just be glad that I'll have a wireless bases station in my house with a modem in it. At least I can get on the dial-up connection from my couch without and cords :)
Is the antenna outside your house on the roof? I have friends who went this route and seem happy and I believe their up/down speeds are greater than you are reporting.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone can tell me. Is a 115 kbps download speed twice as fast as a 56k modem for dial-up? As much as I love my computer I don't know all these ins and outs.
ReplyDeleteThe antenna is just in the house. I have a six foot cable and I put it up on the edge of the roof today while I was outside and I had the same number of bars in my little connection meter. Maybe if I had a big antenna on the roof... but, I'm not sure how that would work.
I know that you had said previously that you were too thrilled with the reviews of WildBlue, but as new customer and a former customer of Hughes.net, I have to say you should give WildBlue a try. I love this service, and with a 1/2 mile driveway and my local cable company offering to install a Broadband cable (if I forked out $8K first),it's really my only option. I live very near the California coastline, so we get lots of fog and heavy rains. Wildblue is the only service who can still work great during these weather changes.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI have AT&T dial-up because where we live that's the only choice besides satellite. Like you, I'm not pleased with the reviews I read on that, plus it's really more than we want to spend for a connection at the moment! When I first set up AT&T on my computer it was very slow. I called the internet support number and explained the problem. They walked me through some changes in the set up information and now I'm connecting at 115.2 Kbps. It's not 'lighting' fast but it's tolerable for sure. BTW, this is not one of those accelerator programs that downgrade photos.
It's been a joy reading of your family's dream home coming together!
God Bless,
Mary Jo