Wireless Internet/TV

[jbcalhoun]

I'm so tired of the local cable supplier and the high cost that goes with it. We have long outages constantly and the repair service is terrible.

I live in an area where the only other option is to go wireless or some sort. I do know that satellite internet works, but is slow at best from what we use at work.

What are your recommendations and why to wireless internet and TV (Direct TV - Dish TV etc).

I am so ready for a change.

Thanks
Brad

 

[chubbyzook]

we had dish for years every rain storm and you lose signal
its an option because of the cheap price aslong as yall dont have huge rainstorms.
with the internet i havent seen any satelite internet that had decent speeds. if you had a smart phone on any of the major cell companies then tethering would be a better option for you.

 

[West Texas]

I'm so tired of the local cable supplier and the high cost that goes with it. We have long outages constantly and the repair service is terrible.

I live in an area where the only other option is to go wireless or some sort. I do know that satellite internet works, but is slow at best from what we use at work.

What are your recommendations and why to wireless internet and TV (Direct TV - Dish TV etc).

I am so ready for a change.

Thanks
Brad

First of all, there is "Wireless" providers, then there are SATELITE providers. BIG difference. The WIRELESS use a microwave or radio signal from a ground antenna at it's office or transmission farm to an antenna on your property. A satelite beams a microwave signal from....well, you get the picture.

Most wireless systems have speed equal to that of other DSL lines speeds. On the TV side, most of the wireless cable systems have not spent the monry needed to give you HD services for al available channels due to the equipment involved.

Satelite internet is slow on it's GOOD days...and with anything satelite, you can plan on losing coverage when you need it most...during a weather emergency.

 

[rsayloriii]

Honestly, I think Satellite has gotten a bad rap in general. I think it depends on the service provider and/or installer.

I've got DirecTV. No complaints whatsoever. Works fine even in the big storms. In a years time, I've only had it go out once, and even then it was only for a couple of minutes during a really heavy storm. Couple of minutes out in a year? I'd say that's a pretty good run. Can't say that I had that good when I had cable.

Now my outlaws have Dish. That thing is pure crap. I don't like the interface for one, but I swear that if it sprinkles outside, it goes out. Now it is at least a few years older than mine, so technology could have progressed that much, but I'm betting it's Dish itself.

As far as wireless internet or especially satellite internet, I don't think it's worth it.

Just my 2 cents ...

 

[zembonez]

I recommend cable.

My neighbors on both sides of me have satellite TV and internet service. Over the last two years, both have signed up for Roadrunner internet (like mine) because their experiences with their satellite service was terrible. The like their TV service fine, but absolutely hated the internet service. Now they have Sat TV and cable internet... and two bills instead of one.

Anything phone line or wireless is going to be problematic and slow.

This is all based on our service here which doesn't experience outages. If it did, I'd be pissed right along with the OP.

 

[Eli]

Stick with the cable. As bad as it may be, everything else is likely worse.

Eli

 

[jbcalhoun]

Our outage yesterday lasted 11 hours. I guess it wasn't the cable providers initial fault as a dump truck took out a few telephone poles the cable line was attached to. LOL

We have become much too dependent on internet and email along with the TV. My wife and I use internet/email mostly for business and my 82 year old Mom uses the TV to keep her company during the day.

I only threaten to change a few times a year anyway! Damn!

Thanks for all the reply's and I have some ideas anyway.

Thanks
Brad

 

[TheDan]

If you have cell phone coverage you may be able to get an EVDO service. Check with Sprint and Verizon. Satellite is only for when there's absolutely no other broadband option. Still, it's better than dial-up.

 

[jbcalhoun]

Satellite is only for when there's absolutely no other broadband option. Still, it's better than dial-up.

At work we have been on Satellite for 8 months now and still waiting on AT&T to bring in out $30k digital phone/internet line. Satellite really is slow and expensive as hell. Well the phone lines cost is high but needed so we can go "unmanned" in our operations, which will save us money.

It still gripes me that cable keeps going up in price and they keep cutting out channels. They have us by the sack and won't let go. I was much happier as a kid with a tin can and string line.

Brad

 

[GTRich94]

So full disclosure first. I've been with Direc-TV since around 98. I switched back to cable for about two weeks and ended up dropping them and went back to Direc-TV. So as you can see, I'm kind of biased on the TV front.

Rain Fade Myth from the cable companies - The best way to avoid rain fade is to make sure your dish is installed correctly and you have good satellite signals. If your installer does a crap job and leaves you with low signals, expect your picture to go out every time it rains or you have heavy clouds (meaning clouds with lots of water in them but no rain yet). My signal strengths are good where I'm at and like others have said, I maybe have 5 or 10 minute outages if we have really big storms. Over the course of a year, I may have an hour of satellite loss if you add all the small rain fade outages. Since I have 6 DVR's in the house, if I can’t get a signal because it's raining too hard, I flip over to something I've recorded for a few minutes.

After Ike plowed through Houston, I was back up and running as soon as we started the generator. Not so for the cable folks. They were out for weeks in our subdivision.

Satellite Internet - Don't bother. If you need to VPN into your company, give it up. At one point, the Direct-TV satellite setup had that blocked because the lag time to go through the satellite was too great. Like other have said, use it as a last resort and even then, think twice.

If you have it in your area, look into the cell phone internet services. They are pretty good as far as speed is concerned.

If you want a good place to learn about Dish or Direc-TV, try this site:
www.dbstalk.com

 

[TheDan]

I've done VPN over satellite before... You just have to increase idle timeout by a lot to prevent the tunnel from dropping. Satellite offers decent bandwidth, but the latency is huge.