Have you looked into wireless broadband cards from Sprint or AT&T?

I'm considering those for out at my land. That way I could use my computer down by the river.

You also might want to look into satellite Internet, which would also give you television channels. We were pretty happy with DirecTV for several years, until we moved to the land of the extremely tall trees (which block satellite reception).

---Ellen

Don't want more TV channels. Don't really want satellite (weather is said to degrade the signal a lot, besides the kind of winds we have.)

We actually had pretty good luck with satellite reception in Austin, with the exception in really major downpours. You might want to ask your neighbors, if you see any who have satellite.

---Ellen

I don't know whose cell phone service is in your area, but we use the AT*T card from the camper. We also have their cell service (GSM) and if we can get a voice call through, we can usually get a connection. T'B got a router that will accept the card, and so we now can use more than one computer at a time (wireless to the router from the laptop).

While traveling we had good reports from those that were using Verizon's version.

The main issue we've had is that during the summer there are so many folks using the voice portion from the lakes (Texoma and Murray) that there's precious little for data. It is faster than dialup.

I'll fourth the cell modem idea.

Do note that with some of the vendors, you can spend a bit more and get a *router* that includes a cell modem, so you can share the connection on your home network (and use an external antenna)

We already have a wireless local network in the house. External antenna, like a satellite dish, could be a problem, however.

The routers I looked at when helping a friend who's in a similar situation do have versions that include wifi. The cell modem versions have the cell modem, a WAN port, several LAN ports and the wifi antenna. And the connector for the antenna for the cell modem

The antennas aren't satellite dish type units either. More like CB antennas but much smaller. Heck, one way of mounting some of them is on a 10 foot pole:-)

If your phone lines are that bad then you would almost certainly be wasting your time trying for DSL, unless/until your lines are upgraded. If you get line noise frequently, then any DSL you had would be down even more often than the phone lines, if it worked at all. Then there's the issue of how far you may be from the exchange, which is also critical.

Some months back, they told me No, but now there's a salesperson who says Yes.

Ignore them. Salespeople will say anything to get a sale and they generally don't know their hind end from a hole in the ground. I know the ones at work do, time and again, and we're one of the best ISPs in Aus.

*takes off work hat*

Wow, I didn't realise you were still stuck on dial up. My sympathies.

We were stuck on dial-up out here until this past May when we got a wireless relay on the top of a nearby hill. Wireless is nice. It's high speed, a nice connection, and not really affected by weather. Well, except when the wind storm knocked the relay out, and when our personal receiver got fried by lightning, but otherwise it's been great.

We kinda had to beg for it to be put up, but we had neighbours that jumped on-board pretty quickly. It's a nice system for a country setting. Our providers are all local though.

Whom did you beg to have it put up? I think I'm not understanding if you're talking about wireless like cellphone is wireless, or something else...

Oh, sorry I didn't make that more clear. It was our local internet provider, NRTCo, that we got our dial-up from way back and that does other high-speed connections in the bigger towns around here. We have a 'big' company that does internet here too, Bell (Canadian, though I think there's an American connection now, someone got bought out), but we have enough trouble getting a working phone connection from them sometimes.

It's definitely not related to cellphones.

It's like Wi-Fi only they broadcast it over the countryside using towers and the like. So if they put up a tower, or relay near you, you just need one of their receivers, hung outside, and then you plug into it as if you have a DSL or any other conventional high-speed connection.

Ah. The local internet provider sold out to Earthlink several years back. The phone company is several iterations away from the company we first got phone service from (Centel, and I've forgotten some of the intermediates; now it's Embarq.)

There are other small ISPs, but since I was with the one that sold, and haven't had problems with Earthlink, I've stayed with them. They run a cable deal with Time-Warner/Roadrunner, but since that's not an option (and it's the only cable company around here) I can't get high speed from Earthlink. Embarq's the one promising DSL service.

Don't deal with Sales; call DSL Technical Support. They can run tests on the phone lines and tell you for certain whether you can get DSL capabilities.

Ahhh...that's useful. Thanks.

I ran into a a problem a bit like that here in my old hometown - I was "forbidden" the use of the existing cable and telephone lines because the individual with whom I'm residing didn't want additional or new bills.

THe solution was going wireless - in my case, Verizon Wireless. If you can get a decent cellular signal, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon all have up to 3G capability wirelessly - it was about 60.00/month for me here - and I have a connection that works relatively quickly - up speed is 2-5M at max, down is up to 200M (I usually get about 128M) - it's not as fast as my old cable service (about 1/3 speed) - but it's a LOT faster than dialup, which was my other option.

I hope this helps - it is broadband, and Verizon's 3G throughout Texas; as close as you are to Austin, you may have 3G with all the providers.

T

I have cellphone service with Sprint...usually get a pretty good signal.

I believe the rep I got my wireless from said that Sprint had 3G towers around Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin - to get decent cell service, I think you're closer to a 3G tower there in Williamson Co. It's worth looking into, and Sprint might give you a discount since you already have service with them.

I've been looking at the Cricket ads with considerably more interest this holiday season, yes...

OTOH, my cellphone is with Sprint. I think I need to contact a Sprint tech person today. Before the guy from Embarq calls back.

E.

Cricket's "good coverage" area is right along I-35 and does not extent to us--we'd be in "national roaming" at a much higher rate.

So--no go Cricket.

Have you looked into satellite?

On the advice of friends in the area, no. I may reconsider.

We just went through this kind of disappointment. Earlier this year, our local telco got the town we live near (5 mi) set up for DSL. Then as the year went by we found that all the houses between there and us got DSL. Unfortunately every time I put our number in it said no. I put the neighbor who is a 1000 feet away in, it said yes.

We called, they said no. We stopped a tech the other day and asked him if we got it. He said no and when I asked why he said we are served by the switch box across from the neighbor who gets it. It seems that everyone down the road up to the box are served by the building in town. Our property and everyone further south and west are served by that box across from the neighbor.

He said he didn't think they would upgrade that box anytime soon since it costs $75,000 to upgrade a box to DSL (I find that hard to believe). I suspect the real issue is the old cable that has not been replaced in twenty years. I know the cable is crap because the best speed we can get with dialup is 26K. Since there is no cable out here, and no cell service, we will have to go satellite. From what I have seen 1MB d/l is available but it is about double the monthly price and the u/l speeds are topped at about 200K.

Better than dialup but not DSL. There is talk of a couple of cell phone towers going up so maybe we can get wireless but no idea when that will happen or even if that will work considering the topography here.

I sometimes envy you living in your Texas wilderness, but when I hear about your internet problems, maybe my little nest in town, but overlooking a park, doesn't seem so bad. We were particularly happy being in an apartment with all the snow we have had lately. No shovelling and being in an underground parking lot, no car cleaning either. Great.

Here's the best resource I've found for locating reliable information on broadband connections:

www.dslreports.com

They have been running for ~10 years, and it's not a sales trap for one company or another. Users can write reviews on their providers, do speed tests and compile the results so that you can see realistic expectations of service from those around you.

Here are two of their tools that may help your particular search:
http://www.dslreports.com/psearch
http://www.dslreports.com/gmaps/localisp

The first is their basic ISP search page (with a few different ways to find stuff)
The second is strictly a mom-and-pop, independant provider setup that could fit the bill for you, especially considering wireless providers.

Good luck!

Our current options are dial-up (in use) and satellite (costs too much to justify the speed difference). Hoping for more options in our little neck of the woods sooner rather than later, but still happier living in the boonies on dial-up than in the big city with faster connections...

My name is Joey with Embarq Reach Out. I read your post and saw that you were inquiring about potentially getting DSL service with Embarq. I can check to see if the service is available at your residence. Just send me an email with your phone number and I'll see what I can find out. You can follow me on Twitter to verify my identity: http://twitter.com/Embarq_Joey. I'm also an official tech on the Embarq Forum on DSL Reports. Thanks!

Joey H.
Embarq Reach Out
reachout@embarq.com