Internet Service

[ard]

Good stuff. At my work we use a Rocket with a multi-sector antenna and host four remote buildings using Nano endpoints. All has been in operation for many years. We just replaced a non-receptive Nano M5 that's been up at least 7 years on a pole at 0.4 miles from the Rocket - come to find out it was a cable issue, not the Nano. That Nano had been outside in the weather so long the little plastic parts that glow the LEDs out the back have evaporated. So not only was it out in the weather, the weather was inside the unit. I reset it to factory, updated the firmware and it's ready to go again. I plan to take it home and cut a piece of Lexan to glue over the LED ports.

I have also used Nanos to connect internet to a remote building, with the end Nano inside the building attic, going through the siding and normal clutter.

Oh, and we're running high res video of soccer and softball games over one of those 5 ghz air links along with phone and regular PC type business traffic.

I replace a nano last year that had failed. When inspection it on the roof, lots of 'bird evidence', none of the lights were working. As I looked closer, the LED Windows HAD BEEN PECKED OUT.

Upgraded to power beams.

 

[dw1]

She actually had someone from att come out, their equipment out there is outdated but no plans to update anything. She is looking at setting up a Verizon Wisp. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Falcon67]

She actually had someone from att come out, their equipment out there is outdated but no plans to update anything. She is looking at setting up a Verizon Wisp. Thanks for all the replies.

AT&T - still "the phone company". Their way or nothing.

 

[ard]

She actually had someone from att come out, their equipment out there is outdated but no plans to update anything. She is looking at setting up a Verizon Wisp. Thanks for all the replies.

sad.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Having seen the area by overhead map, I can see why ATT wont be upgrading the equipment.

Its a rural area and doing directional boring for underground fiber would be pricey. The cost outweighs what they would make on new services so theres no point...

 

[BertoBuckeye]

OK.... I'll try to keep this as concise as possible, but probably won't.

We've battled with the internet topic for YEARS and earlier this year I was just forced to figure something out and its worked out well.

Hughes net reviews are horrible, don't even go there.
We had Viasat/exede twice (we cancelled twice). The speeds were good at first (the first time). Then I think they just signed on too many customers, it was impossible to do anything from 4pm to 1am. It was so slow the speed test wouldn't even run.

Back story I do occasionally work from home but my wife works from home every day. To make things more complicated her work is talking to customers on the phone, through VOIP, through a secure VPN. The response time of the signal to satellite was the biggest issue I suspect.

We do get 'OK' 4G Verizon data at the house.

On ebay there are several guys with 'mini telecommunication' companies. back when 4G was first launched, they did have a truly unlimited plan (unlike the capped stuff they have today). Essentially these guys bought several lines or have purchased peoples/lines contracts. So how it works is they pay the monthly fee to the cell phone provider and you are essentially renting the sim card from them. I was a bit apprehensive at first but its relatively low risk. If the service cuts out you don't pay. If you don't pay he just deactivates your SIM card.

I did mount a directional 4g antenna/booster on our roof because we are in a bit of a valley. But we consistently get 5-10 mbps down and 4-5mbps up. Which is pretty darn good. Its good enough that we've also cancelled direct TV and are streaming only.

For a while we just used a hotspot, but you're limited to number of connected devices, the range is terrible, and i lacked creature comfort like connecting a printer to the network.

So the key was to get the Netgear modem linked below. It accepts the sim card directly, and has a LAN output, so then you can connect a legitimate router and do anything you'd normally do!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5ASNTE/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Now, I know you'll read about this device and it says ATT ONLY. But after reading a few things online...i found that if your sim card is already active you can just insert it in and it works. However, if you were to start a new service with Verizon and try to activate the card with that IMEI # it wouldn't work.

Alternately, if later it becomes an issue where you need to activate a sim card, just activate it against another verizon device and put it in the modem.

If you look on ebay search for 'grandfathered unlimited sim cards' you can opt to buy a line off someone. Which depends on how much per month you end up paying, and how much you can just buy the contract off someone. I elected against buying a line off someone because I suspect 5G will be rolling out to rural areas soon and provide home internet to rural customers.

If you have any questions let me know.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

here's my Verizon 4g home setup, worked great, the only draw back was there unlimited data and that they slow you down after 20gb.

actually I turned it off last march because frontier ran a new fiber line a mile down the road, and I'm hooked into that via phone line speeds are comparable 15-20mbs down but its truly unlimited, they don't even keep track of your data

 

[HenryAZ]

Latency is satellite's biggest problem for VPNs or any interactive (two way) communication. I had Hughes when I first moved to this rural area in 2002. If I pinged something out on the Internet, I would get the "timed out" response. Then I dug a bit and found out the default timeout for ping on Windows is 2 seconds (2000 milliseconds, which is how the number is reported). I redefined my ping (aliased it with an option that made the timeout 4000 milliseconds). Then I started getting positive responses. They were in the 2500-3500 millisecond range, which is horrible latency.

Not to mention overloaded transponders, a very low data cap, and the FAP (fair access policy), all of which added up to an unusable service. I was fortunate there was a WISP that served my area. I gladly paid Hughes their ransom to get their service cancelled.

 

[ransil]

I have the same problem at my house, comcast wanted 8K to run 1000 feet up my driveway.
Currently I use an unlimited phone plan on Verizon tethered to my computer via PDANET,
cant tether using the plan so bypass it with pdanet app.

I'm switching my phone plan in the next week or so to Visible wireless, it will be $25 per phone with party pay unlimited everything and runs on Verizon network, they allow tethering so I use a GL.iNet GL-AR750S travel router to brodcast wifi for streaming stuff to the TV and other devices.

another option is GOTW3 wireless

 

[ishiboo]

This exactly how most WISPs are born. I work for one of the largest and fastest growing in the country. This is the solution you want to explore. On another forum, a guy just connected internet from his business location in town to his rural home, including renting rad line and mounting antennas at 275' on a tower, mounting a pole and running fiber 200 yards across his property.

Can I ask where you work?

 

[ishiboo]

Having seen the area by overhead map, I can see why ATT wont be upgrading the equipment.

Its a rural area and doing directional boring for underground fiber would be pricey. The cost outweighs what they would make on new services so theres no point...

Our FTTH customers serve a lot of rural areas... installs are much cheaper per foot because they trench all of the run except where it goes under a road or paved driveway.

 

[dcg9381]

I like BertoBuckeye's idea / information. That's useful.
Basically, the bottom line is that if you can get line-of-site to anyone with wired internet, you can piggy back off that with modern wireless directional stuff - you just need to strike a deal to pay for their internet (or a fraction of it).

 

[ard]

FWIW...

Bluezoom is a growing WISP. I told OP that they are in the area, I think they acquired ShelbyBroadband (local to his buddy) and are building by acquisitions of a bunch of small vendors...

 

[dw1]

FWIW...

Bluezoom is a growing WISP. I told OP that they are in the area, I think they acquired ShelbyBroadband (local to his buddy) and are building by acquisitions of a bunch of small vendors...

Thanks

 

[DaveMcLain]

Good stuff. At my work we use a Rocket with a multi-sector antenna and host four remote buildings using Nano endpoints. All has been in operation for many years. We just replaced a non-receptive Nano M5 that's been up at least 7 years on a pole at 0.4 miles from the Rocket - come to find out it was a cable issue, not the Nano. That Nano had been outside in the weather so long the little plastic parts that glow the LEDs out the back have evaporated. So not only was it out in the weather, the weather was inside the unit. I reset it to factory, updated the firmware and it's ready to go again. I plan to take it home and cut a piece of Lexan to glue over the LED ports.

I have also used Nanos to connect internet to a remote building, with the end Nano inside the building attic, going through the siding and normal clutter.

Oh, and we're running high res video of soccer and softball games over one of those 5 ghz air links along with phone and regular PC type business traffic.

I use a Ubiquiti Rocket to extend the network at our shop and it works great. Mine it mounted out of the weather under a carport but its been outside for several years without any problems. At home I extend my network from my house to my barn which is across the street with a WDS link using two Engenius Enstation2 boxes which are about the same as a Ubiquiti Nano. They have been working great for over 3 years now. The link at the shop carries about 25Mbs and the one at home will go 100Mbs.

There is a lot of inexpensive equipment out there to do these wireless links with good reliability and performance.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Youre only getting 25Mbps out of a rocket? You should be able to get more bandwidth than that.

 

[DaveMcLain]

Youre only getting 25Mbps out of a rocket? You should be able to get more bandwidth than that.

That's what it'll carry typically hitting a stock TP link router in a house that's about 120 yards away. They are only 150Mbs 802.11n so I wouldn't expect to see more than about 70Mbs under ideal conditions.

 

[jeepxj]

Theres another option and that is to setup service on someone’s property half mile away then use microwave radios to send the signal to your property

this is the solution. you can beam good internet speeds 10-15 miles for under 200 bucks.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

That's what it'll carry typically hitting a stock TP link router in a house that's about 120 yards away. They are only 150Mbs 802.11n so I wouldn't expect to see more than about 70Mbs under ideal conditions.

Well theres your problem.

Youre using mismatched radios, one with directional antenna the other with a unidirectional antenna.

Put up another rocket with a dish and watch your speed go up.

 

[DaveMcLain]

Well theres your problem.

Youre using mismatched radios, one with directional antenna the other with a unidirectional antenna.

Put up another rocket with a dish and watch your speed go up.

I know that but I don't want to put an antenna on the house only to gain another 50Mbs it isn't worth it.

 

[JamesW84]

I used an MVNO (cellular reseller) that had big corporate Verizon accounts and resold the data in smaller packages. That one got shut down, but there are others out there.

Visible looked like a decent one (unlimited data, albeit only 5mbps)

https://bestmvno.com/compare/verizon-mvnos

I would, as mentioned, contact a WISP if there is one in the area and see if they will expand.

 

[Falcon67]

That's what it'll carry typically hitting a stock TP link router in a house that's about 120 yards away. They are only 150Mbs 802.11n so I wouldn't expect to see more than about 70Mbs under ideal conditions.

25m is plenty for 99% of things. We streamed Netflix, Amazon, etc plus all the wifi connected laptops, PCs, phones, Xbox, etc over 25m DSL and never had an issue. We went to bonded DSL at 50m and didn;t really pick up anything, now we're at 1G and using maybe 20% of it. $100/mth for 50m DSL vs $100/mth for 1G fiber - Duh.

 

[Bunchgrass]

We are on a microwave signal transmitted from a dish on a local cell tower. The provider has specifically targeted the rural/under served internet market but we still have to have LOS (line of sight) to the tower. They negotiate w/ cell tower 'owners' to get space on the tower. Since we are seeing a lot of people moving here, building homes and wanting service, the traffic through the microwave dish has increased to near capacity and you can see that with speed degradation as people come home from work or on the weekends and stream TV shows or movies.

Our signal doesn't seem to be hampered by snow/rain events as much as it is by general traffic. We're close to 4 miles away from the microwave transmitter on the tower.

 

[wanderer]

We are on a microwave signal transmitted from a dish on a local cell tower. The provider has specifically targeted the rural/under served internet market but we still have to have LOS (line of sight) to the tower. They negotiate w/ cell tower 'owners' to get space on the tower. Since we are seeing a lot of people moving here, building homes and wanting service, the traffic through the microwave dish has increased to near capacity and you can see that with speed degradation as people come home from work or on the weekends and stream TV shows or movies.

Our signal doesn't seem to be hampered by snow/rain events as much as it is by general traffic. We're close to 4 miles away from the microwave transmitter on the tower.

I have the same type of service and I’m happy with it. 15/5 Mbps speeds, no data caps, pretty reliable. I run VOIP on it. Cost is about $100/month. I can’t complain.


Sent from my iPad using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[ard]

We are on a microwave signal transmitted from a dish on a local cell tower. The provider has specifically targeted the rural/under served internet market but we still have to have LOS (line of sight) to the tower. They negotiate w/ cell tower 'owners' to get space on the tower. Since we are seeing a lot of people moving here, building homes and wanting service, the traffic through the microwave dish has increased to near capacity and you can see that with speed degradation as people come home from work or on the weekends and stream TV shows or movies.

Our signal doesn't seem to be hampered by snow/rain events as much as it is by general traffic. We're close to 4 miles away from the microwave transmitter on the tower.

Sounds like a standard WIPOP service, tens of thousands around the country.

IMO it isnt the dish 'near capacity'...its the WISP shaping bandwidth and throttling so as to not overload their backbone connection. Or they are getting limited by the bandwidth of their connection to the backbone.

Good design practice is to create air links that run many times the purchased peak bandwidth of a circuit- this allows for good solid performance in winds rain, sleet, etc. So you wont be seeing the link being the limiting factor in a connection, or shouldnt.

Almost all radios for this purpose have a 'bandwidth shaping' page, so the admin can control what happens when people are bumping up to the limits. They must do this, since letting everyone 'just run max' will result in data lost, errors, packet repetition and congestion. So they set burst limits and long term limits. makes for a nice, stable user experience.

Just fyi