TECH Personal wifi versus satellite internet report- for those in the boonies

bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Report, satellite internet versus mifi:

We have had Starband satellite internet for a decade because of our extreme isolation and for most of that time it has been excellent except for the price and data caps. Well, and speed to, but it sure does beat dial-up.

What made me unhappy enough to try something new is that in all that time Starband never upped their data plans to reflect the huge increase in streaming video ads on websites - the bandwidth for browsing had increased tremendously, so we could not use the internet nearly as much as we used to.

So out of curiosity I answered a Craigslist ad about a personal wifi hotspot device (called a mifi) for UNLIMITED DATA at 3g speeds. I was suspicious because it sounded to good to be true and we all know how THAT usually works out.

Met the guy, seems like it's on the up-and-up, and bought the device with a two month free trial and 30 day refund if I don't like it.

It runs on Verizon towers so if you have good cell reception from Verizon it works.

1. $45 per month for the mifi versus $70 for Starband

2. True unlimited data, no caps, no throttle speed versus 8 gigs a month for Starband. I used over 20 gig just this week backing up my computer to "the cloud"

3. Speeds vary, but most of the time is 3 to 5 times faster than Starband

4. Last night for the first time ever we were able to stream a movie! Watched the Hunger Games - with almost no buffering, just once for about 10 seconds.

So, all in all, it's an OUTSTANDING DEAL for those who aren't in a city with DSL or faster connections but who can get good cell reception on Verizon.

This is NOT a Verizon plan, this company buys usage of Verizon towers and flashes wifi drives for their own use.

Oh, and the mifi device is the size of 8 credit cards stacked on top of each other, and can connect up to 5 devices at once, all wirelessly, can run on own battery about 4 hours, or off computer battery.

We just have it plugged in to a wall outlet for all day internet access, and so it is fully charged if we wanted to take it with us...

Two thumbs up on this!
 
Kathy in WV

Kathy in WV

Down on the Farm...
Oh how I wish wish we could do that! Unfortunately, we must be even farther out than you are. No cell service here...
 
Tundra Gypsy

Tundra Gypsy

Veteran Member
Had dial-up because of location; was going to try a high speed thing with the local phone company, but when the lineman came out; he told us the phone lines were old and I wouldn't like having the service. Then tried the Verizon G4 Mifi; but the tower is four miles away; so service was bad to really bad at times...Hughes net came to the area, so have tried their satellite service...its about $60 bucks a month; can't do a lot of movies, but enough to make me a happy camper.... :)
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
bbbuddy said:
Report, satellite internet versus mifi:

We have had Starband satellite internet for a decade because of our extreme isolation and for most of that time it has been excellent except for the price and data caps. Well, and speed to, but it sure does beat dial-up.

What made me unhappy enough to try something new is that in all that time Starband never upped their data plans to reflect the huge increase in streaming video ads on websites - the bandwidth for browsing had increased tremendously, so we could not use the internet nearly as much as we used to.

So out of curiosity I answered a Craigslist ad about a personal wifi hotspot device (called a mifi) for UNLIMITED DATA at 3g speeds. I was suspicious because it sounded to good to be true and we all know how THAT usually works out.

Met the guy, seems like it's on the up-and-up, and bought the device with a two month free trial and 30 day refund if I don't like it.

It runs on Verizon towers so if you have good cell reception from Verizon it works.

1. $45 per month for the mifi versus $70 for Starband

2. True unlimited data, no caps, no throttle speed versus 8 gigs a month for Starband. I used over 20 gig just this week backing up my computer to "the cloud"

3. Speeds vary, but most of the time is 3 to 5 times faster than Starband

4. Last night for the first time ever we were able to stream a movie! Watched the Hunger Games - with almost no buffering, just once for about 10 seconds.

So, all in all, it's an OUTSTANDING DEAL for those who aren't in a city with DSL or faster connections but who can get good cell reception on Verizon.

This is NOT a Verizon plan, this company buys usage of Verizon towers and flashes wifi drives for their own use.

Oh, and the mifi device is the size of 8 credit cards stacked on top of each other, and can connect up to 5 devices at once, all wirelessly, can run on own battery about 4 hours, or off computer battery.

We just have it plugged in to a wall outlet for all day internet access, and so it is fully charged if we wanted to take it with us...

Two thumbs up on this!
Click to expand...

Got a link?
 
RCSAR

RCSAR

Veteran Member
I don't condone theft of course, but.......
I do know a few people they do not have inet accounts and are on the net often. Some have put wifi band specific antennas in the roof on a rotor so they can turn it and pick up someones open wireless unit and use that. Some even use a wifi password cracker to get better speeds if the others are busy.

This is kind of a warning also. If you are using wireless in your home do not use the default password! Get creative and make it very tough to get in. Now with useage caps before they start charging by the gig used you can really get hit hard if 3 people start using your inet.

ATT looks like they are going to drop DSL and land line service to my town! I read about it on the ATT southwest forum on www.dslreports.com and sure enough yesterday I got a call from ATT but I was too busy to talk to them and they called later and I just let the machine get it. I like my copper land line because it works when the power is out and so does DSL if I plug the modem into the UPS.

If they pull DSL or landline then I will move to another mobile provider and go to cable DSL and VOIP. ATT will never see another nickle from me.
 
D

Double_A

TB Fanatic
I used over 20 gig just this week backing up my computer to "the cloud"


The NSA thanks you for making their (and your) life easier they wish everyone would put all their information in the cloud. lol
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
I hear ya RCSAR. We depend on DSL here, and it's actually decent service. (Easy to stream movies--good enough for me.) The company is CenturyTel, but they just took over the ATT lines a year or so back, so not so sure we won't get ditched either.

Agree about the advantage of having a hard-wired phone. It works during power outages (often in the boonies). I do the same as you and have the DSL modem/router plugged into the USB so have wifi in the house when the power is off. Handy.

OTOH, the cell signal here is real spotty. ATT isn't too bad, but not so sure about Verizon. That's why I was looking for a link from bbuddy in the OP.
 
P

Publius

On TB every waking moment
Kathy in WV said:
Oh how I wish wish we could do that! Unfortunately, we must be even farther out than you are. No cell service here...
Click to expand...



Depends on location in West Virginia as some areas of the state will not have cell phone towers because of the green-banks radio telescope dish.
 
M

Mysty

Veteran Member
I actually have Verizon, and when I first tried to set it up, it dropped carrier constantly because the service here is so spotty. I bought a trucker antenna, and put it on top of my roof, rigged it to work and I love the service! If I could get it for cheaper, that would be fantastic! Thanks for the info!!
 
bbkaren

bbkaren

Veteran Member
If you have unlimited data on your smartphone and it's compatible with the app, we've been using FoxFi for almost a year now and have been VERY happy with it. It turns the cell phone into a hotspot and we've been using it for netflix, etc. just fine. Free trial, $7 for the full version.

We have decent (3G) cell signal but no DSL/Cable/fiber options for high-speed internet except for satellite (and yeah the GB caps are ridiculous!).
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Double_A said:
I used over 20 gig just this week backing up my computer to "the cloud"


The NSA thanks you for making their (and your) life easier they wish everyone would put all their information in the cloud. lol
Click to expand...

There's nothing on my computer I need to "hide", there's nothing I couldn't show my 3 year old grandson...so why not?

It's mostly my library of how to prepper info from the web, and photos, and old email...
 
MtnGal

MtnGal

Has No Life - Lives on TB
How can you tell if someone is stealing wifi?

I've been having spotty problems for over a year. long story. So they say it won't happen with uverse. Uverse installed last Thursday. Problem worse. Was out from 2:00-5:30 today.

Ok now they say it might be in a loop wire?

It's on now and will probably be on all night. About 11:00 tomorrow it will start again and be spotty through the day. Usually by about 5pm it will be fine until about 7pm and by 9:00pm it will be up and running fine through the night.

It's like someone is using it periodically through the day and a couple hrs in the evening cutting my signal.

I'm really tired of it, it's been going on for so long and they couldn't find a problem on their end. The guy who installed uverse knows there is a problem because it was happening while he was testing everything. First person to admit a problem. So now they say it has to be in a loop wire?

About a yr+ ago the main cable was cut and they had to splice lines back together. Could they have spliced something wrong then?

I'm grabbing at straws now as uverse is worse. As it stands now that a tech actually encountered the problem I will not be billed until it's fixed.
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Each of these come with a long numeric passcode. It makes it's own private "hotspot". Nobody but you can use it, unless they crack the 11 digit passcode...
 
F

frazbo

Veteran Member
Being also out in the boonies, we have service for high speed, phone/long distance on a satellite and all for less than 70 bucks month thru a company called Exede. So far, so good for three of us on a computer and two separate phone numbers in one house. We HAD land lines here but Century tel ran the price up wayy too high, people dropped their land lines and Cen-Tel now says they don't service our area anymore....we have towers close enough for all with cell phones, cept we don't have cell phones! So we chose the other white meat...lol.
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
frazbo said:
Being also out in the boonies, we have service for high speed, phone/long distance on a satellite and all for less than 70 bucks month thru a company called Exede. So far, so good for three of us on a computer and two separate phone numbers in one house. We HAD land lines here but Century tel ran the price up wayy too high, people dropped their land lines and Cen-Tel now says they don't service our area anymore....we have towers close enough for all with cell phones, cept we don't have cell phones! So we chose the other white meat...lol.
Click to expand...

Yes, I looked into Exede. We are in the part of the country where the service is slower, plus once again -DATA CAPS, and more money. the speed on the mifi is close to what people report as real world experience with Exede here, but NO DATA CAPs.

Exede lowest data plan -$50 a month for 10 gig. That means very few youtube videos, no movie streaming, etc. We had 8 gig before and I was getting throttled just for web-surfing the forums and almost never watched a youtube vid anymore. 10 gig is way too little. Now I have unlimited data for $45 per month.....
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Wise Owl said:
WiFi is dangerous with the microwaves. Be careful.
Click to expand...

Wise Owl, you can't even BUY a computer these days that has no wifi, and the country is awash in cell towers, etc. I know someone who got a huge overdose of electronic radiation in a lab accident - a former electrical engineer- and is now disabled by ANY form of electricity. He built way out here a few miles away from us in an area where he couldn't "feel" any electrical energy (it disables him like MS) and then they put in a cell tower in another town where the waves hit his property. His powerhouse where he makes 12 volt for his house is way away from his house (which is down in a "hole") and he went up to his powerhouse and immediately felt the difference, investigated, and found out about the new tower. He said fortunately the signals don't get down to his house, which he runs off of 12 volt because the frequency is the least bothersome, and he rarely has it on anyway. He pretty much lives without electricity when he can.

So just living here where we have cell service means we get the "waves". However I choose to believe we are getting about 1/100th of what people living in towns and cities are getting, so I'm not gonna wring my hands over one little mifi. :)
 
WFK

WFK

Senior Something
bbbuddy said:
Report, satellite internet versus mifi:

We have had Starband satellite internet for a decade because of our extreme isolation and for most of that time it has been excellent except for the price and data caps. Well, and speed to, but it sure does beat dial-up.

What made me unhappy enough to try something new is that in all that time Starband never upped their data plans to reflect the huge increase in streaming video ads on websites - the bandwidth for browsing had increased tremendously, so we could not use the internet nearly as much as we used to.

So out of curiosity I answered a Craigslist ad about a personal wifi hotspot device (called a mifi) for UNLIMITED DATA at 3g speeds. I was suspicious because it sounded to good to be true and we all know how THAT usually works out.

Met the guy, seems like it's on the up-and-up, and bought the device with a two month free trial and 30 day refund if I don't like it.

It runs on Verizon towers so if you have good cell reception from Verizon it works.

1. $45 per month for the mifi versus $70 for Starband

2. True unlimited data, no caps, no throttle speed versus 8 gigs a month for Starband. I used over 20 gig just this week backing up my computer to "the cloud"

3. Speeds vary, but most of the time is 3 to 5 times faster than Starband

4. Last night for the first time ever we were able to stream a movie! Watched the Hunger Games - with almost no buffering, just once for about 10 seconds.

So, all in all, it's an OUTSTANDING DEAL for those who aren't in a city with DSL or faster connections but who can get good cell reception on Verizon.

This is NOT a Verizon plan, this company buys usage of Verizon towers and flashes wifi drives for their own use.

Oh, and the mifi device is the size of 8 credit cards stacked on top of each other, and can connect up to 5 devices at once, all wirelessly, can run on own battery about 4 hours, or off computer battery.

We just have it plugged in to a wall outlet for all day internet access, and so it is fully charged if we wanted to take it with us...

Two thumbs up on this!
Click to expand...

I still don't understand the deal.
Who is providing the unlimited data plan? (link?)
The guy sold you a DEVICE. (It runs on "Verizon towers", but it isn't Verizon's data plan.)

Verizon gives you the same device for free if you use their data plan for two years,
which is of course NOT unlimited.

So what is the real story here? As far as I can see it's the unlimited data plan.
Again, can you explain that part? WHO provides it?
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Space on cell phone towers is sold. Tracfone and many other cell companies do not own any towers, they buy space/usage from Verizon, ATT, etc...

Same thing here, the company buys space and resells it the way they want. Which would you rather do, get a free device and pay through the nose for data, or pay for a device and get unlimited data???
 
WFK

WFK

Senior Something
Of course I saw and googled website in post #13.
I recently used such a hotspot and saw the limitations of data plans.
The data plan is the issue.
wilsonswireless.com is a 5-months old website who's owner is in Karlsruhe/ Germany.
The server seems to be in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
There is no hint that they are selling anything.
I wonder what their coverage is and why that fantastic offer is not published anywhere,
but can to be found through Craig's list.

Your link is not a link to any offer or it's details.
 
Straycat

Straycat

Veteran Member
Fortunately, we have DSL available through the land line. We would not be able to use anything based on cell towers at home because the house is closely surrounded by mountains (hills? about 5000 ft.) that block cell coverage. We can sort of get a signal when standing in one spot about 12 inches square in front of the garage.
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
WFK said:
Of course I saw and googled website in post #13.
I recently used such a hotspot and saw the limitations of data plans.
The data plan is the issue.
wilsonswireless.com is a 5-months old website who's owner is in Karlsruhe/ Germany.
The server seems to be in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
There is no hint that they are selling anything.
I wonder what their coverage is and why that fantastic offer is not published anywhere,
but can to be found through Craig's list.

Your link is not a link to any offer or it's details.
Click to expand...

As I said in post 13, the website is DOWN due to the storms. What you see is a "placeholder" for the website. What you looked up is the webhosting company.
The owner of the plan and website lives in Rolla MO. If I can find the info so can you. Would you like any more handholding???:whistle:

update. the guy I bought from has posted a new ad:
http://showlow.craigslist.org/syd/3882035979.html
 
Last edited:
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Kathy in WV said:
Oh how I wish wish we could do that! Unfortunately, we must be even farther out than you are. No cell service here...
Click to expand...

You will have it with the wifi hotspot from Verizon. Local verizon dealer told me they were selling a lot of them to researchers, here at the univ, working in the Rockies, Canadian Rockies and BWCA/Quetico nat'l forests, places where you basically need a land line or a satellite phone if you want to call someone. The range is pretty good as well IIRC it was a pretty good distance.
 
Straycat

Straycat

Veteran Member
packyderms_wife said:
You will have it with the wifi hotspot from Verizon. Local verizon dealer told me they were selling a lot of them to researchers, here at the univ, working in the Rockies, Canadian Rockies and BWCA/Quetico nat'l forests, places where you basically need a land line or a satellite phone if you want to call someone. The range is pretty good as well IIRC it was a pretty good distance.
Click to expand...

I'm still not sure how it would work if the cell towers are blocked by geography. Does it link to satellite or what? Where does it get the signal? There are a lot of places in the Rockies where there simply is no reception because there's no way for a cell signal to get there. If it uses cell towers, it still won't work.
 
bbbuddy

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Straycat said:
I'm still not sure how it would work if the cell towers are blocked by geography. Does it link to satellite or what? Where does it get the signal? There are a lot of places in the Rockies where there simply is no reception because there's no way for a cell signal to get there. If it uses cell towers, it still won't work.
Click to expand...

Straycat, you're right, you HAVE to have cell reception. Sometimes a weak signal can be boosted by a special antenna...
 
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