The biggest downside of living out in the boonies...

[ImpulsiveFarmer]

Do you have dial up?

I live in the boonies, and we have cable internet. It was unacceptable at first, and we harassed the internet provider. It shouldn't be that bad. There may be something wrong with your internet box. However, if you are going by dial up - yeah, it's going to be awful.

Nope I have satellite internet, which is horrible (I think the hills block some of the signal during part of the day) Sometime it works great (like at 2am) and other times I can barley even check my email. I could get dial up, but that would probably be even worse. There is no cable available here. I don't even think there is a line anywhere near us, maybe on the main road (maybe), but that's a couple miles away. There isn't much of a demand for cable among the Amish

.

 

[aoxa]

Do you have dial up?


I live in the boonies, and we have cable internet. It was unacceptable at first, and we harassed the internet provider. It shouldn't be that bad. There may be something wrong with your internet box. However, if you are going by dial up - yeah, it's going to be awful.

Nope I have satellite internet, which is horrible (I think the hills block some of the signal during part of the day) Sometime it works great (like at 2am) and other times I can barley even check my email. I could get dial up, but that would probably be even worse. There is no cable available here. I don't even think there is a line anywhere near us, maybe on the main road (maybe), but that's a couple miles away. There isn't much of a demand for cable among the Amish .

 

I hate satellite anything. If I didn't have Internet, I'd be a very, very grumpy person. I don't watch the actual TV. Only shows on the computer (said PC at first, but I use a Mac - also, internet was much worse when I used a PC instead of the Mac.. Not sure if it's just random). If I couldn't, it would be a grumpy winter. All that dark.. I need SOMETHING to do

 

[ImpulsiveFarmer]

That's another problem here. Cellphone reception is patchy. I found it's best when I'm outside, which is a bit of a pain as it rains often! I kinda hope we'll prove everyone wrong and get this line fixed LOL The guy who came to put our TV dish up laughed when I told him about it. He reckons it won't happen..
You know this is something else I've noticed. I can sometimes not for the life of me get into gmail, but I can always load BYC, even if it goes slow. Go BYC

Thank god, I would be going stir crazy if I couldn't get onto BYC

 

[sumi]

Tell me about it. We had very limited internet access during the past month. Just an evening now and then if we booked into a B&B with wifi. One evening I said to my DH I want to go on NOW. I miss BYC... He took me to a pub and I had to put the laptop on the bar counter to get an internet signal

Another time he took me to McDonalds, 'cause they have wifi... It's great to have internet access at home again.

 

[Kaitie09]

We had to trench our own cable line from the main road. Comcast refused to come and trench but they would lay a line. So us and the neighbor rented a trencher and spent one weekend digging our line. We had to get permission from 2 farmers to dig the line through their fields but we eventually did it and now have wonderful cable!.

 

[Capvin]

I vote with the internet and cell phone. Inside my house cell phone reception is "none at all." To solve that issue we got a cell phone repeater that is inside our house and that has resolved that problem. However, the repeater is actually connected to our internet and uses up some bandwidth and even though it is not a lot we do not have much so it negatively affects the internet speed. Our telephone company supplies us with our "high speed" connection, but our only choice is their slowest speed. We get no other choice because we are out in the woods and they will not run the required lines out here so we can get a faster speed. I like to watch TV with ROKU and it is a challenge.

 

[ImpulsiveFarmer]

Tell me about it. We had very limited internet access during the past month. Just an evening now and then if we booked into a B&B with wifi. One evening I said to my DH I want to go on NOW. I miss BYC... He took me to a pub and I had to put the laptop on the bar counter to get an internet signal

Another time he took me to McDonald's, 'cause they have wifi... It's great to have internet access at home again.

I have definitely thought about driving to the closest McDonald's to watch my tv shows, if it wasn't over 20 minutes away and I didn't have a 2 month old baby I probably would.

We had to trench our own cable line from the main road. Comcast refused to come and trench but they would lay a line. So us and the neighbor rented a trencher and spent one weekend digging our line. We had to get permission from 2 farmers to dig the line through their fields but we eventually did it and now have wonderful cable!.

That's dedication! If we had that option we would probably do the same thing at this point. There aren't any lines anywhere near us though.

 

[Tagefo]

Satellite Internet is the worst. I had it in central Pennsylvania for a project I was doing and it was very unreliable. So instead, we canceled that and got a wireless hotspot from our cell phone provider and it was faster on 3G, cheaper, and more reliable than the satellite.

The device that Capvin mentioned is actually called a Femtocell or microcell and it generates a cell phone signal using your Internet connection. Not helpful to people without a broadband connection and the reviews of them are generally mixed.

If you get a cell phone signal outside, for example on your roof, you have enough signal for a cell phone signal booster. I installed a zBoost YX545 on my camp two weeks ago and even though I had only one small bar of signal on the roof (-104 dB if you understand decibels), the booster was able to give me 1000 sqft of coverage inside and now I can use my phone and hotspot in there as well. There are various antennas and more powerful amplifiers you can use in situations where you get even a worse signal.

So if you don't have cell phone reception, try a cell phone signal booster. I got mine from UberSignal.com. If you have Satellite Internet, maybe try a mobile hotspot from your cell phone company!

Edit: The default avatar picture is awesome. I'm not sure I want to change it!

Edit 2: ImpulsiveFarmer, I just noticed you're in Chautauqua County. I have a cottage on Chautauqua lake! Small world.

 

[denmage]

Well, I can't help with the satellite issues, but several of you mentioned cellular problems. I saw a way to improve signal strength on the internet and wondered if it might work for you. I actually tried this in a bar one night when I was having trouble getting enough signal to load Facebook on my phone and IT REALLY WORKED!

Get an empty drinking glass, large enough to fit your phone in. If you have one of the new smartphones (which are wider) you might need a glass pitcher. Make sure the glass is dry inside, start your connection, then place the phone inside the glass. I don't know why this works, but I was actually able to get a one bar connection to jump to 3 bars using this method. If the glass is not quite big enough for the phone, try turning the phone over to get it's internal antennae into the glass.

Like I said, I did this at a bar one night when my wife and I were out with friends. Everyone thought I was crazy, but when they saw Facebook instantly spring to life it became the talk of the place.

I hope this helps some of you get better connections.

Denis

 

[33yardbirds]

The biggest downside to living in the boonies seems to be internet connection? Tragedy!