No DSL or cable modem. What can I do?

[Touchdown]

I recently moved to an area that has no cable modem access or DSL available and doesn't look like it will in the forseable future. What are some of my other options for broadband access? I'm getting very frusrtated with dial up @ 56k!

Thanks

 

[Daniel]

Try crying.. heh, no seriously though unless you are a big gamer maybe check out the satelite options in you area.

 

[pdo]

move again?

 

[oldfart]

ISDN is one. It will get you 128K. The cost varies greatly from one telco to the next. Satellite can be pretty fast, but latency is high which makes it unsuitable for online gameing.

 

[Touchdown]

Honestly, I've thought about the moving again thing and I've done my share of crying! =) I'm not a big gamer, just would love to have it for Napster and general surfing. Who do I check with for ISDN? Also, am I able to run the satellite off of my current DirecTV dish?

 

[TSDible]

I know that Satellite is not the best set up for FPSs, but has anyone tried it with something like DII? Right now I'm using a hybrid cable modem (33.6 upstream on phoneline, cable down) which really sucks for FPS, but I can DII on it just fine.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

 

[Oyeve]

Well, you can try those dual 56k analog modem thingies. I forget who make em but what it basically is is two analog modems, two phone lines, two calls into the same ISP and it merges both calls into one connection speed. You could get, on average, a 100k connection depending on the quality of you POTS lines.

 

[pm]

Other options:

ISDN: 128Kb/s symmetric, low latency (typically the same or slightly lower than DSL), costs vary widely but locally it's $70 per month for the line and $35 for the ISP. Availablility is pretty good in most cities.

Modem Bonding: buy 2+ phone lines and modems and hook up a deal with a local ISP and you can get 100Kb/s+ speeds by tying multiple phone lines together. Latency is medium (250ms - 400ms). Availability is excellent.

T-1: 1.54Mb/s, low latency, costs vary widely but it can be as cheap as $300-400/month. You may say, "pm, you are out of your mind, I can't afford $400/month" but I know a friend who basically set up a wireless lan for his neighborhood and runs a T1 to his house. We are pretty certain this is legal, (it's contractually allowed, we aren't so sure about running a medium range wireless LAN without FCC registration), fast, ends up sharing a T1 between 6 houses, and he gets to write off losses and setup fees as business expenses. I've heard of similar stories. If a bunch of your neighbors want high-speed access, then it's a possibility worth mentioning.

Sprint Broadband: 1.5Mb/s down, 256k up, medium latency, $50 per month. Wireless so it requires a small kite-shaped antenna. Available in select cities. See here.

Satellite: speeds vary, high latency, $20+ per month. Check Teledesic, DirectPC, SkyWeb Inc.

Other: some areas have other alternatives. Ask around. Locally (Fort Collins, CO), we have a couple of microwave ISP's that offer fractional T-1 speeds. Check the regional reports at DSLReports.Com.

 

[Daniel]

I know they have that direct duo dish, maybe you would need that to run both of them off what you get now.

 

[wyvrn]

You have to have one of the duo dishes to get internet and tv, the plain tv dishes will not work. ISDN is very expensive for what you get. My advice: use that as your last option.