For a while I stopped at coffee houses or restaurants on my way home from work to use their WI-Fi. There are a few of these around Calhoun. Some are free. Some charge a fee. Places to try are Huddle House, McDonalds, Starbucks and most any coffee house. Many of these spots will require a purchase before they give you there access code. It wasn't long before I decided I really needed internet at the house.
Cable wasn't available at my rural address. After doing some research I found three options. Dial up, wireless data plan, or satellite. I tried the wireless plan first.
When I first moved out here from the big city (Marietta) I had to change my cell phone company. The old one's service, TMobile, disappeared about ten miles from the house. Pretty much, there were only two choices. Verizon or ATT. I went with ATT because I have family who use them. We could talk without using up minutes. So, I talked to the folks at the ATT store in Calhoun. They were cautious. The problem was the 3G network didn't extend east of Hwy 411. While my cell phone had service ninety-five percent of the time, wireless internet might not be as good. I decided to try anyway. I bought the plugin for the computer and signed up for a data plan. No joy. It took twenty minutes for my email to load at the house. I used it around town and it worked well, but the reason I bought it was to have internet service at the house. I returned the plugin adapter and got a credit on my bill. I had to call a number to drop the data plan. They insisted that because I had used it around town I didn't qualify for a full refund. So my net cost for the experiment was about $100. Back to the coffee houses for a while.
Dial Up and DSL Internet Service
Next I tried land line Dial Up. Frontier, the local phone service, came out, traced the line from the road to the house. They found that there was a phone pole and a lot of phone cable missing. They ran a temporary line across my neighbor's corn field and promised to put a permanent line in soon.
When I added the land line I asked about high speed DSL. It wasn't available. I lived too far from the nearest hub. I went with Dial Up. It was the slowest of the remaining options but was much less expensive than satelite.
The dial up worked fine so long as the ground was dry. Once it rained there would be too much static on the line for the modem to connect. The line stayed down not only while it rained, but until the ground dried. Sometimes for a day. Sometimes for a couple of weeks. This problem persisted even after they put a permanent line in. I was spending a lot of time at the coffee houses again. A little over a year later I gave up on it.
I will say that Frontier has an excellent customer service department and they tried really hard. They were dealing with some very old infrastructure problems out here. In the end I just wanted a speedier service with more up time. If you live were their DSL is available you should look in to it. I have heard it is a reliable service but I would check with neighbors to see what their experience is.
Satellite Internet Service
I had known for a while that satellite internet might be my best option. Even so, there were a few draw backs. Limited bandwidth, up front equipment and installation charges, higher monthly cost and weather black outs. The speed is faster than Dial Up but slower than DSL or Cable.
Bandwidth, the amount of data you can download, usually isn't a problem with Cable or DSL. With Satellite Internet Service there is a physical limitation on what the flying saucer up there can handle. So the company contracts to make a certain amount of data transfer available. If you go over that you will see speed drop to dial up or less. The service I use, WildBlue, makes it easy to keep track of with a Bandwidth Usage display. They also send out a heads up email to let you know if you are getting near the edge. Even so, they won't penalize you if it happens once a year or so. I started with their least expensive plan and moved up to the Silver plan. I like to down load music or watch a video once in a while. My cost is a little less than $70 a month.
Equipment and installation will vary depending on the deal you can find. Check out WildBlue (my preference), Hughes (I've heard a lot of good things about them) or your satellite TV provider for specials.
Weather, Not Really A Problem
Weather, as it turns out hasn't been much of a problem. Sure, once in a while I lose reception during a storm. Most of the time rain doesn't matter. About a month after the inital installation they had to come out and realign the dish. I belive that may have been due to the post and concrete settling. It was during the warantee period so there was no charge. Since then, inspite of storms and winds I have had no problems.
For Internet service in the Ranger, Fairmount, Gordon County and other Rural areas the options are:
- Frontier DSL
- Wireless Data Plans through ATT or Verizon
- Satellite Internet Service with WildBlue or Hughes
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