First time posting on this board, but I have found myself scratching my head, attempting to determine what my options are and who I should use. Unfortunately, I am not a technology savvy guy, so please go easy on me.

By a little background,my wife and I are in the process of moving from Keller to semi-rural Parker County (5 miles south of Aledo 76008 zip code). Currently we use AT&T UVerse cable and internet and have had no major problems.

From my research the area that we are moving to does not have cable/broadband infrastructure. It appears that my options are limited to DSL through AT&T or satellite internet through Dish TV or Excede. My wife is a photographer and uses the internet quite a bit in her business ie uploading photos, videos, email, downloading adobe updates, etc Other than surfing TexAgs, I use the internet to log onto work from home (using Dell Sonicwall NetExtender) and usually just work on Word or Excel documents and check/respond to work email. My kids use the internet to watch Netflix, utube and play on their iPads.

Internet access, dependability, upload/download speed, bandwidth and data capacity (I do not know if I am
saying that correctly) are very important to my wife's business and my ability to do some work at home at nights and on the weekends and, thus, very important to our family's income. The kid's use ofthe internet should (will) go down and, frankly, is not as important at this time.

My questions are: (1)what companies provide the best service (ie dependable, fast, most GB); (2) what should I look out for with the known companies (ie ATT DSL, Dish TV, etc); and (3) am I missing something that would make my internet quest much easier?

Thanks all for your help and advice,

Brandon '03

Any wired or terrestrial solution is going to be light years ahead of any satellite solutions. So basically the order would be like this:

Fiber (google/FIOS)
ADSL2+/VDSL DSL(Uverse) or Cable (DOCSIS 3)
ADSL (Plain DSL)
WISP (Wireless)
Cellular (expensive)
Satellite
Or the other option is build your own.
If you need internet (VPN, large uploads, low latency) Dish,Direct, WildBlue, Exceed are all not going to be pleasant.

We are closing on a house 5 miles south of Weatherford in a few weeks. They people living there now use Cirra. They say they can stream Netflix in HD no problem.

http://cirranet.net/residential.php

UmustBKidding and Leather:

Thank you very much for the advice and information. It looks like we will be staying away from satellite. We will most defiantly check out Cirra.

Also, I would check Rise Broadband (formerly Skybeam).

I dont want to sound pessimistic, but moving in the country and expecting good internet is hit and miss. Friend was told by AT&T that he could get internet where he lived and signed up for the bundle. But come to find out they didnt service where he lived. If I was you I would check with a close neighbor and see what they use. Chances are they will know who and what to deal with.

One of my criteria for living in the country where I live was internet. It cost me a lot of money to get Time Warner where I live. But at least it was accessible. Not all rural areas can get internet. Even DSL or ADSL is hit and miss. I cant even get ADSL where I live but there are phone lines. Just too far away from and access point. If your wife needs that much internet, you're gonna find its not cheap in the country for reliable service. But I hope you fare well.

I live in what used to be the country and I have both DSL & WISP. Usually at least one is working. The reality is unless you live in a hole you can buy a licensed microwave system to civilization for a few thousand dollars. Then all you have to deal with is getting it above the tree line, in view of the destination and keeping the HOA out of the whole mess.
Many WISP's will consider servicing a location that is nearby if you are willing to spend the money for the link or allow them to put up a tower to service others in your area.

Thanks again, all. I don't mind spending a few thousand to make certain we have Internet access. I will take a look at wisp and hit up the neighbors.

We live in Aledo off of FM5 (about 4-5 miles from downtown) and have AT&T Uverse (phone, internet & TV). We haven't had any issues with our service.

Depending on where you're at you might fall into the AT&T coverage area.
You mentioned south of Aledo, are you on FM5 or FM1187 ?

At the time we moved in there was a 2nd provider (can't remember which one) that had service in the area, but the end of the line was about 1/2 mile from our neighborhood.



Welcome to Aledo.

Chappy

we are moving into the deer run neighborhood at Kelly Road and Shaes Turn. Unfortunately, uverse has not made it that far down Kelly Road.

when we get settled in, let me buy you a beer or two at Railhead.