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Rural/Dial-Up Internet Speeds?

E

ebook

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 10, 2004
297
1
Sprint Car Capital of the World
This is a pretty basic question, but I just would like some help confirming it. We are moving out to the sticks where no DSL lives so our options are either satellite, dial-up, or some sort of cell service. I have been scared away by so many bad reviews for Hughesnet and WildBlue that I'm just not sure I can justify the price even if it is faster at times ... that leaves me with dial-up or cell service.

Right now we are testing out the Verizon deal and it works. I'm getting 110/100 kbps (download/upload). So, is that going to be faster than a regular dial-up line with the modem in my old Airport? That is the basic question I have...
 
Yeah that is faster than dial-up is going to be. The fastest dial-up can go is 56kbps. So with your Verizon service you're getting roughly 2 times the speed.
 
I have a few coworkers that use wireless services in their rural area. It seems to be the way to go for 384/768 down and 128 up.
 
You must not have very good EVDO coverage in your area if you are connected on EVDO. Might want to check to see if Alltel or Sprint offer it. AT&T's EDGE would even be better speeds than that. You may just need an antenna and possibly an amp if your signal is real weak though. What kind of signal strength do you get with your air card?

I live out in a rural area as well with no DSL/Cable coverage so I had AT&T EDGE for almost two years since I didn't have EVDO coverage at the time I signed up. I got around 218kbps down usually. A few weeks ago I just switched over to Alltel since I can get EVDO and I'm now getting a max of around 1260 kbps down and 100 kbps up on average.
 
Thanks for the help everyone. I kind of had the feeling that it is twice as fast as dial-up would be (56k modem and all). In my area the only Verizon and AT&T stores are in Des Moines (I'm about 45 miles southeast and about 20 miles out of the EVDO range. So, would AT&T Edge be faster if it is in my area?

Also, I am using an external antenna and a double usb thing. I usually have 2 or 3 bars, but that is just with my antenna sitting on a window ledge. I took it outside one time though and really didn't get a signal difference.
 
ebook said:
Thanks for the help everyone. I kind of had the feeling that it is twice as fast as dial-up would be (56k modem and all). In my area the only Verizon and AT&T stores are in Des Moines (I'm about 45 miles southeast and about 20 miles out of the EVDO range. So, would AT&T Edge be faster if it is in my area?

Also, I am using an external antenna and a double usb thing. I usually have 2 or 3 bars, but that is just with my antenna sitting on a window ledge. I took it outside one time though and really didn't get a signal difference.
Click to expand...

http://www.antennasearch.com/

Put in your address and location there and see what towers show up in your area and how far away you are from them. If you don't have EVDO coverage in your area then yes AT&T's Edge would be faster, or at least it should be, but I don't know that it would be worth it to you to pay $59.99/month for Edge.

Have you called Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel all three to have them check their coverage areas for EVDO in your area? If you're in an EVDO fringe area you can setup a pretty powerful antenna outside and pull in the signal.

If you know the location of the tower you can use one of these parabolic grids and point it right at the tower. I was already getting -75dBm signal with 5 bars at my house but with one of 900Mhz models of these I got it down to -55dBm.

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/item.aspx?id=1718
 
BigHungry04 said:
Yeah that is faster than dial-up is going to be. The fastest dial-up can go is 56kbps. So with your Verizon service you're getting roughly 2 times the speed.
Click to expand...

The modem is rated at 56kbps but the maximum connection speed would be 53.3kbps and that is with a perfect connection the the ISP. The reason for this is the FCC places a restriction on the power output of devices connected to the phone network.
 
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