Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Need help from oldgassers living in rual areas

I live in a rual area.
I am getting tired of dial up internet service. It took me almost 2 hours to post the pictures for this... http://www.oldgas.com/shoptalk/ubb/Forum4/HTML/002072.html
This probably should be in a different forum, but I figured that I would get more replies under this one.
High speed service is not available where I live.
I tried to bid online for the Peotone auction but by time you place your bid and refresh the page the bidding is over!!! I went thru 2 individuals to place my bids. One was Ivan that was there at the auction and he was using my bidders paddle, but it was hard with the noise and cell phone reception was terrible in that building.
Maurice (souperhigh) was online in Tulsa and with a cell phone to his ear he placed bids for me online....thanks to both of them. I did win 5 items in that auction.
There are some options out there. I have just tried People PC and it's not much better. I need some advice...What are some of you guys using?
It's time for me to get into the 21st century. Using 2 tin cans and a piece of string really sucks!
Paddy

Call your phone company to ensure that DSL is not available. If no DSL, then I believe one of the satellite providers would be your only other option.

I feel your pain.

Good luck

Ed

Paddy if you are close to a bigger city there should be some sort of online cafe or place that will let you rent their computers by the hour to watch the auction and bid. I know I have bid on line while out of town. Just went to a UPS packing place that had computer rentals by the hour and high speed internet. mm

Move to the city

i just recently switched to sattelite internet by dish network i think its also called wildblue i swicthed due to living in a rural area aswell. i used it for seths auction and i could hear and keep up with what was going on it does ok for me its not dsl but it sure beats dial up

I am lucky enough to have dsl where I am in the sticks. The only other option was satellite with me if dsl was not available.

Scott...I was born country and I will die country....you can keep your drive by shootings, sirens, etc....
I have called my telephone provider and no DSL... no internet cafe here...Just watching the cows go by..
Is anyone using hughes.net?

I have heard of people around here having problems with Hughes. Inconsistant service, or no service. Might be different in your area. My father had satellite for a couple of years and it seemed to be pretty reliable. It was costly for him to get set up with, dish, modem, ect. I think his service cost around 75 dollars per month.

Dial up can be fast(well faster anyway), it has to do with weather the phone lines are clean or not. Dsl just became availabe here and we are currently switching. We are out in the country as well and moving to town is just not a option.

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My wife has satalite for her job and we use it when we're on the road. It's a bit slower than our cable, but probably much better than dial-up.
Seems like the perfect option for you as you can also use a laptop in your car on your travels.

i love my DSL its dam FAST

I feel your pain,I have been on dial-up for years.I pay 9.95 a month and it's sufficient for me.I checked with my provider and I can get wireless (satelite) for as much as I wish to pay for as fast as I want to go.I don't pay more because what I get for what I do on the computer works for me.The auctions online have alot to do with how many phone lines are run into the building having the auction.If you notice Vic's auction always works good,because Seth runs extra lines to handle the incoming bids.I had a friend tell me he now uses his cell phone and plugs it into his laptop for high speed that way.I don't think it really matters the faster you want it to go,the more you will pay.So my advice would be to make it where you are happy paying and satisfied with it
jim

Hello Paddy,

I guess I would go satelite, I live in a small town way out in bfe of ND and I am lucky to have dsl. I was thinking about satelite just before dsl came in. I suppose the other option is using your cell phone to access the net but I am not to impressed with that yet, simply cause the security differs from each model of phone. I got the top of the line model (not a black berry by the way) and the cheaper model my wife demoed was better than than the one I got.

Hope this helps,

Easy G. Butler

If you have a lap-top computer how about finding a nice hotel that has WI-FI!
Been there and done that!!!
Spend the night!!!

Randy

[This message has been edited by hy-flash 72 (edited 03-07-2008).]

I had this issue when we bought our retirement house in the country. No DSL or cable available . I looked at WildBlue and Hughes satellite Internet services. Both had bandwidth limits that I thought could be trouble for me.

I was ready to give one of them a try when I learned more about Broadband Wireless. That is Internet data over cell phone networks. Some folks think that this comes over a satellite, but it is actually beamed from cell phone towers.

If you can get a solid cell phone signal, you can probably get broadband wireless at that location. The more bars in signal strength means faster speeds for the Internet.

I have the unlimited plan with Sprint. It is not as fast as cable, but is faster than satellite. And no limits for time or data amounts. Sprint has a 30 day trial where you can get out of the 2 year contract if it doesn't work out for you that first month. Probably other providers do that too.

After I saw it would work for me, I got the special wireless router that allows me to take the card out of my laptop and put it into the router when I'm home. I can then place the router where it gets the best signal strength in the house. The laptop then is hooked into the local wireless 802.11G network in my house. The router is pricey, but it is cheaper than the equipment required for satellite Internet. The monthly cost is in the same range.

Wireless Broadband does have some of the cell phone issues like an occasional dropped signal and variable reception in fringe areas. But I'm pretty happy with it. The bonus is it allows me to get on the Internet in all kinds of places, even at a swap meet. LOL

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Jim "Oldgas" Potts
Your host and moderator

You might want to ask what the local library uses. Even if it has a service deal you can't get, they can get you information as to what's available. If it's big enough to have an IT staff in addition to librarians, they can also help.