Rural...err Real Internet Access!!!

[Ralph Butts]

Congrats Matt,
I am totally jealous. We moved to the sticks about a year ago so I could have a stand alone shop and to get away from some of the things that we did not like in our small city. I have that same 1.5mb (sometimes) DSL from Frontier. The last time I called Comcast they told me there were no plans to expand service to my area even though it is about a mile down the road. I think that 1 mile difference starts the zoning change which calls for 5 acre minimum lot sizes. So the lack of population density may be a deal breaker for Comcast. Anywho the point I wanted to make was that I too have a satellite service for TV but when I was on cable I had a much better dvr service using a home theater PC and cable card tuners from Ceton. I had 8 independent tuners which I could share between 4 media center extenders. The whole thing was based upon a windows 7 media center HTPC and windows media center extenders like xboxes, etc.. I just read now there is a 6 tuner offering in both PCI and USB flavors and with some tweaking (tuner salad) you can bypass the tuner limits. My point you may want to take a look at the Comcast offerings with cable cards. no service fees, no equipment fees, you can share you entire media library to boot.

[Phil Thien]

Cable Co is still chipping away at the install. The big holdup seems to be one of the 2 power companies in play here needing to replace poles which they do at a rate of about one every 2 weeks. 2 weeks ago we got postcards in the mail announcing an early spring completion date. And yesterday they came through hanging stuff off the poles. Since there's a pole well into my yard they stopped to talk to me and see if I thought they could drive up to it or if I thought my yard would be too soft (it would.) Turns out they aren't hanging coax, but rather a steel cable which will be supporting fiber!

That (fiber) is an interesting twist. They haven't done that around here. I wonder what kind of hardware they will be using, and what kinds of speed they will offer.

I just switched from Time Warner to AT&T at the office. Time Warner gouges businesses (at least in SE Wisconsin), a 12x1.5 connection was $170 a month, almost $200 with five IP addresses. So when AT&T started offering bonded pairs that can do 45x6 for $100/month including five IP's, I jumped. I guess it is fiber to the DSLAM, and then copper from the DSLAM to my shop.

Then I decided to switch at home, too. I really needed to do something at home as I had problems w/ Time Warner every time it got real cold outside, my signal level would drop and my cable modem would constantly drop the connection.

I will be interested to hear what they actually bring to your house, cable or fiber and how it terminates.

[Matt Meiser]

Hard to say what will come to our house from the pole. I know Buckeye has been doing fiber in other areas.

Their top tier is 110/5 which is $186/mo and you can change that to 110/10 for another $5. We'll probably go 33/3 and pay the $5 extra for 33/6. We're undecided on switching TV overall, but won't be switching until they settle their dispute with the local NBC affiliate.

[John Lock]

Matt,
I've been with Buckeye for internet for 10+ years and the only complaint I have is with the "whole house DVR" system that they use (the built in Wi-Fi hardware is horrible). We have the 22/2 package and I consistently get download speeds of 16+ meg with 4 people and lots of connections (4 smartphones, 3 Xbox, multiple computers....). If you have any specific questions about them, IM me and I'll try to answer.

[John Shuk]

Unless it is VZ or Google you will get coax to the house. Cable companies run fiber to a node which will then feed the neighborhood on coax. All new equipment I think you will see pretty decent speeds. Good luck.

[Wayne Lovell]

We are conveniently located in the middle of nowhere, you have to drive 10 miles to spend a cent. It is about 30 mile to a half way decent grocery store, cell phones don't work in the house and only in select locations outside. We are stuck with satellite internet and TV both of which leave a lot to be desired. I would never trade living where my closest neighbor is a mile away and big brother is not always looking over your shoulder and telling you what to do to move back to town and all the modern conveniences you city folks have

[Matt Meiser]

Wayne, we aren't that remote though people coming to my house from the north think so. We are 1 mile from a family-owned auto shop, about 3 from a party store and a diner, about 6 from a place that passes as a grocery store, and 8 from what's currently the largest Kroger in the country, and 9 from a shopping area at the north edge of Toledo with Target, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. We can be anywhere in Metro Toledo in about 30 minutes and in Ann Arbor in 40. But on our road the smallest lots are 3 acres. 4 of us a slice of what used to be a 46 acre farm, all with 1/4 mile deep lots. Across the road the lots aren't as deep but similar in width. From what I was told when they were first looking to build this a few years back, the cost of this project is well over 7 figures and the cost per home is quite a bit higher than their usual upper limit--not sure if they are getting federal rural internet grants or if they are doing it because its the right thing to do for the community long term.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Where I am I get 70 to 90 Mbit fibre download speeds 22 - 25Mbit upload, where I'm moving to I get 1.5Mbit download ADSL at best

USA prices seem expensive, my Fibre is costing £18 (about $28) a Mo for unlimited use.

cheers

Dave

[Curt Harms]

Where I am I get 70 to 90 Mbit fibre download speeds 22 - 25Mbit upload, where I'm moving to I get 1.5Mbit download ADSL at best

USA prices seem expensive, my Fibre is costing £18 (about $28) a Mo for unlimited use.

cheers

Dave

Dave, I think USA prices seem expensive because they ARE expensive compared to other parts of the world. Wireless voice and data seem like the same story.

[Matt Meiser]

Been waiting 3,736 days but as of an hour ago I have an install appointment for 33/6 Internet and whole home DVR service first thing Thursday morning. I REALLY wanted to do the 110x10 service even for a month just so I could say our Internet is 100x faster than 2 years ago but the $180 price tag makes that an expensive gloat so I'll settle for 30x. The whole home DVR service is similar to our DirecTV Genie system and the whole package will save us over $60/mo. Pays back the ETF for DirecTV in 4 months.

That said I think the appointment will get rescheduled 2-3 weeks or so further out based on the conversation I had with the construction crew working out front this morning. They are really, really close to being ready but I think they'll need more than 60 hours.

[Ole Anderson]

Matt, I can't wait to see the gloat after you finally get to surf Creeker's posts at 30 mbps!

[Matt Meiser]

Unless it is VZ or Google you will get coax to the house. Cable companies run fiber to a node which will then feed the neighborhood on coax. All new equipment I think you will see pretty decent speeds. Good luck.

Not sure what a "node" is but they definitely ran fiber on the poles throughout the neighborhood. They have been installing round black can-looking things at each termination, I assume they'll feed us out of that. There's a green cabinet around the corner, maybe 1/2 mile away that has a bunch of fiber run to it, plus power. Not sure if the fiber cable they ran also carries power to convert to an electrical signal up on the pole to feed us or if we'll power that or what?

[Matt Meiser]

Today we got a letter in the mail from the cable company announcing service is now available, but also one of the splicing crews was working across the street about half the day. One of the neighbors has an appointment tomorrow so we'll see if they get her service or not.

[Matt Meiser]

And the answer I've been waiting for ....Fiber right up the the house! Contractor just stopped by to discuss the routing for a temporary drop because they can't bury it yet due to the ground still being pretty froze. He's going to have to install almost 1000' of fiber to get from the nearest tap on a pole in my neighbor's yard, to another pole in her yard, to the pole in my yard, down, around my shop temporarily and up to the house. When they come back in a few weeks to bury, they'll bury it across the gravel drive.

Unfortunately it won't be lit today as they still have a few things to finish up with the distribution. No one has a date but he thinks we are talking more like next week than next month.

[Matt Meiser]

So the cable dude started hanging the cable and had it lying across my gravel drive when a visitor drove in and drove across it which ruins it. Had to cut almost 300' off and start over--including rehanging on 2 poles. Guy who did it thought the guy was ticked at him but he later told me he was really mad at himself for not blocking it off. They are going to finish the fiber run tomorrow above ground temporarily (200' of it in conduit I'm supplying to keep my dog from chewing through it before they can get it buried when the ground is thawed.) But late this afternoon they got word that the the system isn't going live until late next week and installs can't start until the 8th so we'll have to wait a couple more weeks. After 10 years I can wait.

I also learned that for what I'm paying today for Internet I can up my speed a bit. So on the 8th we'll be getting 66/10 internet! This should be awesome after years of using a 3G device and then spotty DSL.