Dawna,

When we first moved here, we had the satellite service offered by the DirectTV company. (That was the ONLY way to have the internet in those days.) I think that company has now been acquired by someone else. It was wonderful, although expensive. Our then-teenaged son would not have survived our move from the big city of Fort Worth, Texas, to rural Love County without that satellite internet service.

Eventually, after DS went off to college, we went with a local internet provider, Arbuckle Communications. The dial-up access was slow and sometimes unreliable, but it was adequate for DH and for myself, and it was a lot less expensive.

Then, DS moved back home after college. When he started his new career as a firefighter, he celebrated by buying himself a new laptop computer and a wireless internet system. Although the wireless system is through Arbuckle Communications, it is much faster than our dial-up service with the same company. We love it.

I guess when DS moves out on his own, we will have to buy our own wireless device and pay for the service ourselves, because now we are addicted to it.

The drawback to satellite service is the same thing that happens with satellite TV---when there are severe thunderstorms, icestorms or heavy downpours, you will often lose your satellite connection for a few hours. It is always back up as soon as the weather stabilizes.

Dawn

Dawna

Dawns point about reliability is the main reason we didn't go with satellite Internet. Downpours and our dish is searching and searching and searching and searching.

We have wireless dsl through the phone line and we love it. We rarely loose phone service, so it's pretty reliable.

randy

Dawna,
HughesNet was a division of DirecTV, not sure how or why they separated, just a bit of info that my Dad gave me.
When we first move here I was considering HughesNet. The guy installing our security alarm said that he has HughesNet and service is okay. He said that at peak times, when there are LOTS of users online, he'll notice that downloads move at dial-up speed.
He had suggested a wireless link through sprint. He said that they mount an antena to the roof of your house, similar to the antenas that people use to have mounted on their car back in the beginning of celluar technology. Then you buy a wireless card for your computer and you basically have cellular sevice for your computer. I THINK that Sprint was partnered with EMBARQ for those services. I researched it at the time and they were not providing service in Oklahoma, that was only a few months ago, but you it might be worth a phone call to see if it's available. The start up costs were significatly less than HughesNet. Just like all cell companies though, they did have a long contract period.
Eventually AT&T ran fiber optic cable to our house, so we didn't have to go with the Satelite. You might want to try to catch one of the AT&T service techs next time you see one of them and ask if they are planing to run the FO out to your area. The tech that installed ours said that AT&T is planning to wire-up the entire state, becuase service and diagnostics is so much easier and cheaper than what they are on now. It could be a while before they make it out to you, but if they are 6 months away then it could be worth the wait. Everytime I tried calling AT&T I got hold of someone that didn't have a clue what I was talking about. The guys driving around fixing and installing the stuff are the ones "in the know".

What part of the state do you live in again? We have a handy-man coming to the house fixing some of the odds and end stuff that the builder never got around to doing. He retired from the SBC service dept a couple of years ago. I'll ask him to call one of his buddies and see if he can get any info. I just don't know where in OK you might be. :)))

Courtney

Thanks everyone for all the info. Courtney, I have just heard about the wireless cards recently but haven't reseached them yet. We're now living in Garvin County. I asked the AT&T service man for internet recommendations when he worked on my phone last month. He recommended Blue Dish, which I had never heard of until then. We have DirecTV satellite, and consider HughesNet when we first moved here, but they wanted $500 up front and $60 a month for service and I refused to pay that much for internet then. Now, I am so disgusted with this slow dial up (usually 9.6 Kbps) that I am ready to pay whatever it costs to get faster internet. I have talked with the phone company and they have me on a list to notify when wireless dsl is available in this rural area. It's been six months though and I don't know how much longer I can take this slow internet. I had heard dsl would be available state wide this year, but the AT&T repair man didn't know anything about it.

Ya, AT&T was supposed to call and infom us when the DSL would be available. they never did. During the construction of the houses around us, workers cut the phone lines like 5 or 6 times, so I got to know my AT&T repair guy pretty well. He's the one that had all the juicy info. Even when I called AT&T to place the order for DSL, they never got it done. The trusty repair guy stopped by a couple of days before he was coming out to run the fiber optic cable and set up the order for me. Just personal experience, but calling into their call ceneter has proven worthless, every time!

I was tempted to do teh HughesNet, but it seemed so expensive just to start up. We had just moved into our house, and I wanted to spend $500 on plants, not another satelite dish!

I think the handyman will be here sometime this week. I'll ask him to call one of his bussies, and then I'll let you know what he finds out.

Courtney

Thanks Courtney! I appreciate the info. Last month HughesNet had a special running for $400 start up plus they had a $100 mail in rebate, so that helped a lot on their dish. I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted it or Blue Dish for their $200 special and $50 a month bill. But I haven't found anyone who has the Blue Dish and I really hate to sign a one year contract until I've spoken to someone who has it. I'll probably go with HughesNet if I can't find a better deal soon. I am so tired of this slow dial up.

I just got WildBlue satellite (maybe a different name for blue dish?)I have never used anything beside dial up so I love WildBlue so far. I signed up thru my local electric co-op and while I have a long contract period, 2 years, the inital charge was only $199. I have waited 2 years for dsl thru the phone company and they keep saying check back which I have for the whole time. I could not take dial up one day longer. The last time I tried to log on to do online banking thru dial up it took 26 minutes, this morning it took 4 minutes total-to get on, do my banking and get off-love it!

bzbnok,
Thanks for the reply. I just received a notice from AT&T yesterday that they are offering internet through WildBlue (same as I was calling Blue Dish) for $299 equipment fee and $49.95 a month. I may go ahead and order it. I am glad to hear that you are liking it. I'm sure after this S-L-O-W internet I would love it too.

Dawna,

The handy man hasn't come by yet... I'm betting though if AT&T is offering an alternative in your area, then they aren't planning on getting out there anytime soon with the FO cable. You'll LOVE the faster speeds.... When we were on dial up I tried to download a CD on iTunes... it took 16 hours!!! With the DSL it took 20 minutes. Hope you're cruisin'soon!!

Courtney

Dawna,
I feel your pain. Our area is serviced exclusively by a small local outfit we like to call the Green Acres Telephone Company. When we first moved here, that phone company was the *only* ISP with a local phone number to my area, so I was stuck with them, and they knew it. I am talking about taking twenty minutes to get logged on, getting bumped off about every 45 minutes, and automatically getting knocked off everytime you tried to dowload or send any large files. As for the telephone itself, well, the repair guys are nice, but the service absolutely sucks, with the phone going out at least once a month lasting anywhere from 40 minutes to the entire weekend. the worst was last summer, when it went off every Friday and stayed off at least until Sunday for seven weeks in a row! When they finally tracked it down, it seems that "someone in the office" was accidently throwing a swith before they went home and shutting off my service...I tell you, mere words cannot convey the frustration. On top of that, I have replaced 4 modems in less than three years, and everytime I've been told it's a "power surge" that they blame on another utility. (It's never *our* lines, it's the Evil Electric Compnay) I will say that part of that is my fault for not having a top of the line surge protector, but still, nothing *except* the modem - connected to *their* phone line - was ever damaged.

Now, the DSL they laid last spring is supposed to be active here, that is, actually available at my home, but I'm so fed up with them that I refuse to buy it. call me stubborn, but I'll be hanged before I give those people more of my money to frustrate me with.

Because our home is in a valley, we aren't within sight of any towers, meaning absolutely NO cell phone service, though my neighbors 1/2 mile away on the hill have it. I've been told a previous owner ordered satelitte television that ended up being so unreliable he finally ripped the dish off the house and took it back to town. (As an aside, we don't get television reception either, but eh, who cares about that?)

At any rate, as soon as I found another ISP who could provide dialup access to my area, I dropped them. The amazing thing is that even without upgrading, I am logging on in a matter of seconds, not minutes, staying on as long as I care to, and at a speed that makes it possible to dowload music and video and be ableto enjoy them the same day! Ha!

The point of the story (bet you were wondering if it had one, huh?) is that if you are stuck with dialup, it might help to switch your ISP.