Recently moved to rural area. Side link actually comes down road bug am 500 ft back so they want chunk to run a cable. Have used Hughes net with less desirable results.
Wonder if anyone has used viasat? We need to do once a week 2 hour zoom meeting and be able to watch Ags play on Saturday maybe, outside of that just cruising on phones. We don't want dish for tv- tired of paying for crap. Thanks I appreciate advice, most neighbors are olds that either have cable or nothing at all

Viasat is pretty much HughesNet.

Starlink available in your area?

Starlink

Can also look into TMobile home interest. With the right luck on service and setup you can get some great internet for cheap.

But if not that, starlink is the way to go.

I had Viasat to supplement my terrible 6Mbs DSL. Beyond internet surfing it sucks pretty bad. Yeah the speeds were better than my DSL but the ping speed is so awful all you can do is surf the internet with a one to two second delay on every click before it loads at the higher speed. Zoom doesn't work - it technically does but it's unusable. There's a big delay in what you hear and then your response so you are always speaking on top of people.

You can stream on it ok but the signal is inconsistent and reconnecting takes the one to two seconds. Also you burn through your data limits even at the max they offer. They claim there is no max but they throttle your speed dramatically after you cross the thresholds.

Lastly they are expensive and have the worlds worst customer service. They outsource installing and you can have a good install or a horrific one. Coin flip.

I didn't have a choice at the time and that basically what they are is a last option provider.

Starlink is the answer if you can't get the traditional internet services. If you are forced to get them just know what you are getting into.

Thank you! Y'all pretty much confirmed my suspicions. I had been looking at Starlink and when I do address, it says it is available here in 23. Maybe I can wait it out.

We have Starlink as does a couple friends of ours. Great solution assuming you aren't in a deep forest however support is basically non existent. Zero phone call support nor sales. Internet support only - which is sort of conflicting if your internet is broke, and even at that, response time is WEEKS for an answer that you pray is a quick fix.

Oh, and a little trick to use if your area is not available - look at their map and find an address nearby that is, and use that as your Service Address instead of your Billing Address.

OP, if you have decent AT&T cellular service and the terrain allows a receiver to point to a tower, look into Fixed Wireless Internet. It's pretty solid at about 50-60$/month.

I despise ViaSat and will never give them another dollar and I'll be mad at you if you do too.

Owlagdad said:

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Thank you! Y'all pretty much confirmed my suspicions. I had been looking at Starlink and when I do address, it says it is available here in 23. Maybe I can wait it out.

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You can get the RV service today. It's $25 a month and is deprioritized from the normal residential service.

Speeds aren't what's advertised, but if your only other option is Viasat, it's a better solution. I'd first look at LTE based internet. If you have good ATT service/speeds, you can get a full unlimited plan for $45 a month that will blow Starlink out of the water (speaking as a Starlink customer)

You sound like my situation when we moved to our current place. Suddenlink was available but we are several hundred feet away and they wanted a nice price to get it to the house.

We used an unlimited cell service with bad results and inconsistency.

Went with a fixed wireless company in the area and I have to admit they have been pretty good. Starlink not in our area until 23 but honestly, I may not consider it with the way the fixed wireless option has been working.

ViaSat and hughes net and the like are garbage, before I got my starlink I had a resold ATT cell card with unlimited internet. It wasn't the fastest thing in the world but it got the job done until my Starlink came in. I used this company - but there are plenty of competitors and you can even find them on ebay if you search unlimited LTE. If you have good cell service from one of the big carriers it's a good, though expensive. option

https://nomadinternet.com/

cryption said:

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ViaSat and hughes net and the like are garbage, before I got my starlink I had a resold ATT cell card with unlimited internet. It wasn't the fastest thing in the world but it got the job done until my Starlink came in. I used this company - but there are plenty of competitors and you can even find them on ebay if you search unlimited LTE. If you have good cell service from one of the big carriers it's a good, though expensive. option

https://nomadinternet.com/

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You don't even need to go through all of that.

circledin.com has ATT Unlimited Elite plans for $45 a month. Change the IMEI on your modem and you're good to go, or if preferred, you can go direct to ATT and avoid all the shady/expensive resellers.

Thanks for this information! If starlink quality slides downhill I'll be taking advantage of this.

I can second what txyaloo said. If any cell phone service works well, go with that. It can be cheap and get great service. The changing of the IMEI can be complicated for a non-tech person depending on the modem, but you can buy them pre-setup on eBay.

Owlagdad said:

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Recently moved to rural area. Side link actually comes down road bug am 500 ft back so they want chunk to run a cable. Have used Hughes net with less desirable results.
Wonder if anyone has used viasat? We need to do once a week 2 hour zoom meeting and be able to watch Ags play on Saturday maybe, outside of that just cruising on phones. We don't want dish for tv- tired of paying for crap. Thanks I appreciate advice, most neighbors are olds that either have cable or nothing at all

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Seriously, go to the "Nerdery" forum on Texags.

Starlink https://texags.com/forums/30/topics/3156009

I signed up for Starlink, it feels like years ago, but still haven't gotten my email. Still waiting.

I have no internet option. I have a cradlepoint router and an unlimited data card from https://otrmobile.com/. My cell signal was very spotty, so I got a cellular signal booster. Pricey, but it went from 1 bar inside the house to 5 bars in my technology closet in my basement. Booster

TdoubleH said:

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I despise ViaSat and will never give them another dollar and I'll be mad at you if you do too.

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This is how to txag!! Excellent

Thank you!! Unfortunately our AT&T cell service is crap. One bar. Neighbors say go Verizon, hope they have boosters etc y'all have talked about. Talked to neighbor who uses MiFi and booster wit varying results.
Thanks again for heads up. I have eliminated Hughes and bias at.

Owlagdad said:

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Thank you!! Unfortunately our AT&T cell service is crap. One bar. Neighbors say go Verizon, hope they have boosters etc y'all have talked about. Talked to neighbor who uses MiFi and booster wit varying results.
Thanks again for heads up. I have eliminated Hughes and bias at.

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Hows tmobile at your location? $50 contract free home internet from them directly if you have any reception. My brother did this until his starlink finally came in.

https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet

Check here with your address.
https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/coverage-map

Starlink is fantastic

rather be fishing said:

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Starlink is fantastic

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...depending on how oversold your cell is. I don't consider this fantastic, but I know others on here have had a lot better luck than I.

I'd take TMO 5G home internet, a solid ATT hotspot, or a good WISP over Starlink if it were available in my area.

txyaloo said:

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rather be fishing said:

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Starlink is fantastic

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...depending on how oversold your cell is. I don't consider this fantastic, but I know others on here have had a lot better luck than I.

I'd take TMO 5G home internet, a solid ATT hotspot, or a good WISP over Starlink if it were available in my area.

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Wow. Interesting. I may need to reconsider.

GeorgiAg said:

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txyaloo said:

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rather be fishing said:

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Starlink is fantastic

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...depending on how oversold your cell is. I don't consider this fantastic, but I know others on here have had a lot better luck than I.

I'd take TMO 5G home internet, a solid ATT hotspot, or a good WISP over Starlink if it were available in my area.

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Wow. Interesting. I may need to reconsider.

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It really depends on how oversold the area is. The south and south east have been hammered. People up north seem to still be getting great speeds.

I may be an outlier. Lots of others on Texags are getting good speeds too. Peak hours is typically single digits for me. Off peak during the day, I average 35mbps. Early morning, I'll see 100+mbps.

Just ran a test and pulled 123/8 with a Youtube stream running in the background. That's very abnormal but speeds have been slightly higher the last 2 days. It was so bad, I emailed SpaceX's president last week and actually had a conversation with her about the poor service. I was shocked she replied directly. Those executive escalations usually get filtered over to a team to handle.

txyaloo said:

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GeorgiAg said:

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txyaloo said:

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rather be fishing said:

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Starlink is fantastic

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...depending on how oversold your cell is. I don't consider this fantastic, but I know others on here have had a lot better luck than I.

I'd take TMO 5G home internet, a solid ATT hotspot, or a good WISP over Starlink if it were available in my area.

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Wow. Interesting. I may need to reconsider.

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It really depends on how oversold the area is. The south and south east have been hammered. People up north seem to still be getting great speeds.

I may be an outlier. Lots of others on Texags are getting good speeds too. Peak hours is typically single digits for me. Off peak during the day, I average 35mbps. Early morning, I'll see 100+mbps.

Just ran a test and pulled 123/8 with a Youtube stream running in the background. That's very abnormal but speeds have been slightly higher the last 2 days. It was so bad, I emailed SpaceX's president last week and actually had a conversation with her about the poor service. I was shocked she replied directly. Those executive escalations usually get filtered over to a team to handle.

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They are constantly launching more sats to increase the bandwidth, especially in the south as we are the newest markets. I believe its early next year when the plan is to launch the high altitude connection satellites to distribute loads and enable easy sat to sat connections to get down to a base station if another is overloaded or blocked by weather.

Just a hunch, but I think they prioritized backing the Ukraine army over some of the planned roll out. My guess is they'll get more satellites up to correct that and had probably planned to due that before now.

I have very little to add other than a warning.

I would say I'm very laid back in most things in my life. Dealing with Nomad brought out the worst in me and gave me brief thoughts of trying to find their home office. (Feds, I did not follow through). Nomad was the worst customer service I've ever experienced and I've been around a long time.

Nomad should be shut down or worse. Carry on.

I'm a little confused how this works. We have a rural farm house about 30 miles south of Abilene. ATT is the "best" service but it is only one or two bars. Do you just use a hot spot for this? Not even sure ATT has a decent one.

Apparently T-mobile has 4G & 5Gish coverage at the house. Borderline according to the coverage map.

So do you just purchase a phone plan and a hot spot for internet? The 5G home internet is not available in that area

There is also a fixed wireless company there, but I've had mixed reviews from friends and family.

Asking because we are currently fixing the place up so the family can use it to get out of the city and family gatherings. Looking for a decent internet solution if I want my wife and kids to actually come with me. Want to stream a football game on a tv and not watch on my phone. Kids internet browsing on their devices

ShinerDunk93 said:

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I'm a little confused how this works. We have a rural farm house about 30 miles south of Abilene. ATT is the "best" service but it is only one or two bars. Do you just use a hot spot for this? Not even sure ATT has a decent one.

Apparently T-mobile has 4G & 5Gish coverage at the house. Borderline according to the coverage map.

So do you just purchase a phone plan and a hot spot for internet? The 5G home internet is not available in that area

There is also a fixed wireless company there, but I've had mixed reviews from friends and family.

Asking because we are currently fixing the place up so the family can use it to get out of the city and family gatherings. Looking for a decent internet solution if I want my wife and kids to actually come with me. Want to stream a football game on a tv and not watch on my phone. Kids internet browsing on their devices

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It's a little convoluted. All cell phones have a unique serial number called an IMEI. This is how cell companies identify the device. If you use a phone plan in a hotspot, you run the risk of getting your service terminated. Some hotspots can be modified to change the IMEI number. On the popular ones, it's a fairly simple process. You get an ATT or TMO cell phone you won't use and apply that IMEI number to the hotspot.

The Netgear LBR20 is a pretty good home cellular modem that allows IMEI changes with the Voxel firmware. I'm sure several of us could walk you through it.

After getting a router and changing the IMEI, you buy a cell plan either thru ATT or someone else like CircledIn which basically is an intermediary that allows you to share a family plan with others. For example, the ATT Unlimited Elite plan that isn't throttled or deprioritized costs $45 a month through CircledIn.

I ran an ATT plan like this for nearly a year using at least 1TB of data monthly with no issues other than congestion during peak hours the last few months. My speeds generally were faster than Starlink during off-peak hours and slightly faster with much worse latency during peak hours. I could manage one 4k stream during peak hours when congestion was bad. Less congested towers will have better results

I like going a different route on modems. I built my own with a 5G modem card in it and a quad antenna on my roof. For my neighbors, I have found that this modem works well for them. I normally have them get 2 yagi antennas to point at the closest tower.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255557953252?hash=item3b8070e6e4

Not sure if this seller will do it, but some will set it up for you with the IEMI you want and have it ready for you to put a SIM card in. If they will not do that, I have no problem walking you through it. You just have to input a few lines of code in the operating system that comes with it.

Speeds depend on where you are. At our lake house on Lake Livingston pointing at Onalaska (AT&T) we get about 100 Mbps down 20 up on average. I have seen it as high as 144 down and as low as 2 or 3 on a terrible and rare day. This is on a 5G modem, but getting high end 4G signals.

Where I live I average about 50 down and 40 up, but get a great 20ms ping most of the time. I can point at a faster tower, but ping speeds double or more.

Jack Squat 83 said:

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I have very little to add other than a warning.

I would say I'm very laid back in most things in my life. Dealing with Nomad brought out the worst in me and gave me brief thoughts of trying to find their home office. (Feds, I did not follow through). Nomad was the worst customer service I've ever experienced and I've been around a long time.

Nomad should be shut down or worse. Carry on.

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Username checks out!

Viasat is a really good company but any satellite based service is going to suck for streaming and gaming due to the inherent lag time.

I've used a WE826 with an EM12g, but I think the Orbi is probably easier to setup/configure for someone that isn't very technical.

If I were buying today for someone that's more technical, I'd get this

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134069283268?hash=item1f3726e9c4:g:jt8AAOSwKZ9iwzSq

No reason to waste money on a 4G only modem. 5G will give room for growth

I run a WG1608 with a RM502Q-AE and this antenna on my roof.

https://www.streakwave.com/quwireless-ap5g4-hp-5g-lte-mimo-4x4-5m

Going 500 to 502 will bump the 4G LTE from Cat 16 to Cat 20. I cared more about that than 5G. That was just a future proofing perk.

Download ok. Upload sucks.

OTR mobile. I have 1 bar service but got a WeBoost booster. Route that into my basement into a technology closet where I get 4 to 5 bars. I have a Cradlepoint modem hooked into a Ubiquiti router setup. I am set up for Starlink but I'm not sure it will be as good.

Thoughts?

My GF also somehow talked ATT to run a cable down our 1/4 mile driveway and got her own Wi-Fi. She has to telework so we needed redundancy. Anywho here is the speed.