Question for those of you who live out in the country

So I'm shopping for a home, and I'm torn between staying in the city or moving out into the country. The country homes are by far much cheaper and come with huge lots (I like space). But I'm worried about having stable internet access. I've heard that the two options would be DSL or satellite broadband. Anyone use either of these and want to relate their experiences?

I know DSL is slower than broadband, and satellite broadband is also slower but not as much and is affected by cloud cover. But that's about as much as I know.

satellite internet connection imo is the same as having satellite tv (must have a view of the southern sky). I have has satellite tv connection for years and it takes a mighty big storm to knock mine out. I have had days here where the cloud cover is thick without a patch of clear sky and still had a connection. Down side is cost of setting it up. If I had the money for a satellite connection I would have it.

DSL is what I have and I like it. Not the total fastest around but faster then dial up. I mean it meets my needs 99% of the time.

Originally Posted by Lemur 6

I know DSL is slower than broadband, and satellite broadband is also slower but not as much and is affected by cloud cover. But that's about as much as I know.

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Not all DSL speeds are the same. I'm in the country and have faster rates than most people in a city. I happen to be close to where they run fiber optic, which brings fast speeds further out. And btw, DSL is just a type of broadband. Satelite broadband doesn't have all the kinks worked out because of the effect of weather.

Call the phone company in the area you are interested in and ask to see their high speed maps. Usually the closer you are to their office, the greater chance you'll have high speed. It might narrow down your search.

I work for a phone company. I know these things.

We have our cable, computer and phone all hooked into one line - but we can still use all of them at the same time

Check around in the neighborhood and ask what services are being used and who is having problems.

You could not pay me to live in the city

I'm out in the country and we have DSL.. it was a little slow on my desktop at times, but I always use my MacBook now, and it's not slow at all.

Originally Posted by Lemur 6

I know DSL is slower than broadband, and satellite broadband is also slower but not as much and is affected by cloud cover. But that's about as much as I know.

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DSL speed is based on which DSL package you get. Cable speed is based on how many people are on the same line as you.( my cable company very poor, the downlaod speeds i get is just sad). i would sooner switch to DSL and buy there top package, which here is 60 a month(and much faster)

I HAd Satellite interent in Indonesia, it was slow. But much better then dial up.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

Not all DSL speeds are the same. I'm in the country and have faster rates than most people in a city. I happen to be close to where they run fiber optic, which brings fast speeds further out. And btw, DSL is just a type of broadband. Satelite broadband doesn't have all the kinks worked out because of the effect of weather.

Call the phone company in the area you are interested in and ask to see their high speed maps. Usually the closer you are to their office, the greater chance you'll have high speed. It might narrow down your search.

I work for a phone company. I know these things.

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Regrettably, it doesn't seem like ANYONE has any sort of high speed internet access to the address I was looking at short of satellite (apparently the lines are either too old, or too far away, or both). I guess I can pay the cable company a several grand to run a cable for 5 miles after much pleading and begging. Or pay a grand a month for a T1 line.

I don't know what what we have is called, but it's not satellite and it's not cable. It's from the phone company, and it's a wireless router so we can use the laptops throughout the house. The router plugs into a regular phone line. It seems as fast to me as whatever they provide at the office, and we've never had any problems with it.

We live in VERY rural NJ on the PA border. The only time we don't have service is when the electricity is out - because the router requires electricity to work. We were without electricity for five days a couple months ago (and WHAT a pain in the butt because or water is well water - means we need electricity - and the heater requires electricity to run the fan part of it......)

I would ask about the reliability of electricity in the area. I'd look into how much a back-up generator to run things are. The well requires no maintenance - but a septic system does (though not much). These days, I'd also MUCH rather have oil heat than propane heat. Look into the regs in whatever state. In NJ if you have propane heat for the house, it must be serviced by the same company that put in the tank. It TOTALLY sucks. But if you have oil heat, you can not only use any provider - if you forget about it and run out, you can put in regular old diesel fuel and it'll work until they can deliver it.

But make sure you get the well tested. It can cost a lot to remediate if it's not good water to begin with.

And we're in the "you couldn't pay us to live in a city" camp!

Laurie

Do you play any online games or require at least decent upload speeds? ...if so, you do not want satalite.

I currently live in a little community just outside of town - there's a small cul de sac down/across the road and three homes on this dead end road. We have cable and it's fine. DH's able to run xbox live or any FPS while I use the bandwidth too (and no, I don't mean surf lol). Any issue we have with it are the same as those in town deal with. DSL isn't offered this far out.

If the house you're buying is one you plan to retire in, you might want to take into consideration how far it would be to a good hospital. My mom and I talk about getting out of the city -- but then we think back on all the times we've had to call an ambulance, and we reconsider. If we had lived more than ten minutes away from a first-class emergency room, we would probably have lost my father several years earlier than we did.

Just a thought... in case it's relevant to your situation.

I guess I'll be limited to a house within city limits then. I use a lot of Skype, video chat, online games, streaming vid/music, p2p, etc so a solid and fast connection is a must. Funny thing is it's not that far away from the city! People across the creek just a hair over a mile away have cable. I guess if push comes to shove I can split the cost of running the cable with the 9 other houses along the way that are probably dying to get it as well.

As for the hospital, it's something like 15 minutes away. I don't have too many health problems so not very worried, but it is nice to be somewhat near a hospital. There was a house RIGHT across the street from the hospital for sale, but it gave me the spooks. It looked... unsafe.

lol i have been waiting a year for them to put the DSL lines, 500 more feet.
i hate my cable company, service sucks. speeds are slow. there are times a download will be 11kb.

there service will go out on a friday or saturday. then comes back at 9am monday.
what do they tell you, oh no we had no issues all weekend.

yea right, whatever

I'm right in a "dead zone". We can get landline phone, internet, etc. from one company. Talk about a rip. Cell phone I can only get through one company.

We pay something like $60-70/month for fax line/high speed internet, landline/call ID. Internet is wireless, too.

BTW - I'm in the country, like 3 miles outta town. Small town, like 1,000 people.

I have Dsl for Internet and Direct Tv for the Tv. You do need a view of teh Southern Sky for the Dish but it works great. My Dsl is very fast too.

I'm on dial up as the fiber optic box from AT &T is about 1000 ft from my house but after chatting with the local phone techs they said for me not to hold my breath!!
Cable is available on my road but we chose not to have it. One can have a dish but the monthly fee is $60-$70/month and to me not worth it.

LDG - that's what we have - the router thing that all is hooked up to each other. Its not expensive either

I live out in the country and we only have choice between dial-up and satellite. We have dial-up. It sux but I would not trade living in the country just to have faster internet connection.

I live in Rural Nebraska in a town of 3,000 people. With lots of space between little towns. I have cable service and I play online games which need decent internet connection. I am happy with my service 90% of the time

I will be living in the country some day again!!!

When I was growing up we had internet through the phone company. That was the only option back then for internet in the country. It was SOOOOOO slow! However, now that things have been updated, internet throught the phone company is just as fast as cable internet.

Right now I use a wireless interent modem, I believe it would be what you are calling satellite. I have the medium seed and it works pretty well. Not my favorite..... Like you said, when it's cloudy you do have problems, it's A LOT slower than what you pay for. The other problem with satellite is that they seem to have a lot of down time because of broken (who knows). Any time we have bad weather you can almost bet you won't have internet. Ice storms are the worst....

Originally Posted by EnzoLeya

Ice storms are the worst....

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Hahaha, I can just imagine myself trying to de-ice the satellite dish, or dig it out from a snow drift. Just get a taller pole right? Or just hi-jack the 50 foot pole that has the powerlines right in front of the property .