Running High Speed Internet to a Rural Home

2,471 Views | 19 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by DayAg!
CodeAg
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So I'm looking at buying a home that is technically rural but a lot of new neighborhoods are cropping up really close.

I'm a computer field engineer and need HSI for my work for remote connections into customer environments, delivering training via stream and such.

We're trying to figure our what the options are now but I believe it would only be DSL, Satelite or Wireless. I'm not sure those would be reliable so I may want to track down what it would cost to run a line for TWC, ATT Uverse or FIOS. I know the neighborhood up the road have all three options and it's only 0.8 miles from the home we're looking at. Another option is there is a small art school (Fairly new) that is at the end of our road which is 0.38 miles.

Has anyone paid to have their own line for those services and if so how much are we talking? Is something like this even possible?
CodeAg
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BTW during our showing today I noticed that the current owner is an A&M Grad with a Civil Engineering degree.

This would be the only hang up right now for me since I work from home a lot. It would help me as well an Aggie.
spieg12
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AG
We live in a rural area and the Internet options are crap. If you need Internet for anything more than web browsing, which it seems you do, go with trying to get those other services.

As a side note, that doesn't seem like a rural area. Our nearest neighbors are cows so we are stuck with crap Internet.
TX scallywAG
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AG
Where are you? There's a guy on this forum that does WISP in Brazos.

Ive also heard on ppl opening a business account with AT&T to have them run T1s but ready for construction costs & high monthly bills.
---
Class of '10 - A&M Undergrad & Master's Alum
CodeAg
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Thanks for the replies. The home is in Schertz, TX and I've already started calling about connectivity for Time Warner.
Aggietaco
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AG
It really depends on the location and who you speak with. As a business customer, TWC offered to run a line to one of my trailers for around $2,000 for less than .25 miles. I've also been on jobs where they just say "no". You might look into some of the 4G wireless options if there is a provider that covers your area, I've had really good luck with a Verizon offering lately.
CodeAg
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Does the wireless option have a cap on it?
akaggie05
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AG
WISP is probably your best option if available, assuming you can't get DSL or cable. The latency on satellite will make you want to throw things.
UmustBKidding
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FIOS is not available anywhere near Schertz. Do the current residents have a POTs line. You should be able to verify DSL based on their number. No good connections in that area to get the bridge taps pulled off the loop so you are likely at the mercy of AT&T automated loop testing. Typically extension are prohibitively expensive. Looks like Internet America advertises coverage in Schertz but not a great solution. Also watch on WISP links lots of time they have NAT (potentially multiple) so if you have VPN or SIP/RTP that don't like NAT this can be a problem. Behind NAT you of course don't have a public IP so no running servers that you need access from the internet. In these cases I typically run a small EC2 instance with SSH tunnels for remote access.
I would make a friend in the neighborhood with TWC and put me in a MicroTic, Ubiquity or other rf bypass solution.
AggieFrog
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AG
I'm stuck with AT&T DSL - it bites. Slow and unreliable. The newer neighborhood just now going in a quarter mile away from us has Uverse but we won't get it until 2020 at the earliest.
Aggietaco
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AG
quote:
Does the wireless option have a cap on it?
I pay similar to a phone plan. I have a set amount of GB per month and then pay overages.
Picard
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AG
quote:
So I'm looking at buying a home that is technically rural.....

I'm a computer field engineer and need HSI for my work....

In my humble opinion, you're looking at the wrong house. You HAVE to have a high speed internet connection for your work. It will be an expensive mistake if you but this house and then can't get a high speed connection for years.

CodeAg
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quote:
In my humble opinion, you're looking at the wrong house. You HAVE to have a high speed internet connection for your work. It will be an expensive mistake if you but this house and then can't get a high speed connection for years.
This is why I'm always torn. I grew up in the country and love the outdoors. My career ended up in IT and since lived in neighborhood for the past 18 years. This house is everything I envisioned if I built one on my own and it sits on 5 acres with a creek. It's just hard to merge the two together...
Picard
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AG
I understand completely. I'm in the same boat as you and in the same general area. Boerne to be specific. Give me peace and quiet on acreage somewhere where I can actually see the stars at night.

Fortunately, we're about to move to an area that has GVTC's fiber service available all the way up to 1 gigabit. I don't believe they quite make it to Schertz but get fairly close.



Ganondorf
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AG
This could be you. Be careful.

http://gawker.com/man-forced-to-sell-his-new-house-because-comcast-lied-t-1694018196
aggiez03
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AG
Find an Aggie in a nearby Line Of Site neighborhood,
make sure he has the capability of 20+ Mbit Internet,
then get you a couple of Wireless End Points from Ubiquiti or Mikrotik,
and shoot from his house to your house and
Finally, split the bill.

Mikrotik has CPEs that can shoot a few miles easily for around $100 each.
nwspmp
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A good WISP would be a good option if cable/fiber/DSL aren't available. I doubt you'll get Verizon to extend any FiOS anywhere. Fiber access or commercial cable modem may be more apt to install a line, but be prepared for sticker shock. If they can provide to the edge of your property, it's inexpensive to run the needed interconnect hardware for your own property typically. Any WISP option and pretty much any line-sharing option (friend/neighbor who has access already) will require line of sight, which depending on terrain and tree cover may require a tower (not that expensive to buy, can be a bit in labor for installation if you hire it out)

Ubiquiti has a neat WISP locator; https://www.goubiquiti.com


eric76
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AG
quote:
We live in a rural area and the Internet options are crap. If you need Internet for anything more than web browsing, which it seems you do, go with trying to get those other services.

As a side note, that doesn't seem like a rural area. Our nearest neighbors are cows so we are stuck with crap Internet.

In my community, 20 miles from the nearest town, you can often get 10 or more megabits per second.
AggieFrog
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AG
quote:
In my community, 20 miles from the nearest town, you can often get 10 or more megabits per second.

I'm 16 miles from downtown Fort Worth and stuck with 6 (on a good day).
Cromagnum
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AG
Im 10 minutes south of Pearland and struggle to get 2 Mbps. If I wanted to pat $150 a month I could bump it up yo 4-5 Mbps.
DayAg!
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S
As the poster above stated, you might want to rethink your location. It cost me $1700 dollars for TWC to run a cable 400 ft. I had to pay for the amplifier, cable and labor to install it. Luckily they didnt have to install any poles. You will be kicking yourself in the butt when all is said and done and you dont have a reliable connection. WiFi as you know it wont work for what you are doing. I tried. They throttled me after so much and not only did they throttle me, they disconnected my connection in hopes that I would get frustrated and just give up complaining about it. You really need to consider your location carefully.
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