Alternative internet access?!?!

[JNP]

Evening all.

On age old problem for most people living in the countryside, slow internet. Now it's getting beyond a joke at 0.41mb. We are with BT and have been with orange, problem is we are miles from the exchange and they say 2.5mb is the line max.

Are there any alternatives? What is '3' mobile broadband like? What speeds can you get with them? We are close to the m5 so on the 3 signal checker we are in the dark area.

Is satellite broadband viable? What are the costs involved? Is it reliable?

Thanks for any help.
Phil

 

[linga]

I share your interest.
I am considering ditching the landline as the only reason I have it is for broadband but I often get lower speeds than you and BT have no interest in improving the situation.
I can actually see the Orange( and others) mast from here so was considering using mobile broadband but I am not sure if multiple users can use it in same way as people connect to the router currently.

 

[Rob Holmes]

Any idea when you'll get 4G?

 

[Nearly]

Google 'community broadband' in your area.
We've gone through the same options and now with www.clannet.co.uk and have a microwave transmitter on the chimney pointed at a neighbour 6 miles away and are running at 10MB and have a better connection than the village 200 yards away (our BT line came 6 miles from the other direction).

They're a higher power (?) version of the ones sleepy sells as links between sheds. We have the same joining our house to dads (no monthly charge for him) and calving shed/yard.
£150 to install and we're on £30 a month for a business connection, but we've made a saving of £15 a month by sacking BT!

We used orange 3G for 2 years but this just p1sses all over it! You can configure your 3G dongle to go through a wifi router but forget opening 2 pages at once when the kids are home.
We're now running 6 computers and 4 cameras at certain times of day.

p.s. I like it lots!

 

[JNP]

No need for gloating like that Nearly

I will take a look and see if I can get some info in this area. Also, interested in any quick fix solutions as it's doing my head in...

 

[Nearly]

Spend £30 (?) on a dongle with 3G of 'Pay as you go' download on and try it out, just choose a network.

http://store.three.co.uk/view/product/ql_catalog/threecatdevice/2433?ID=1398

 

[JNP]

Just ordered one off your link thanks. Will see what the results are when it comes, if it's good then I will look at the contracts as 1GB won't last very long.

Anyone with satellite info?

 

[Clive]

and glad of it after the amount of time spent sorting this last week !!

liveing near lots of people has some upsides I guess

We can even get 4g in one corner of our yard now - that makes our BB seem slow - saw 70mb on speed test there to my phone !!

 

[JNP]

 

[Nearly]

 

[JNP]

No one with info or experience of satellite?

 

[cattow]

had satellite broadband from tooway for over a year now its been very reliable. Bt told us they didn't want us any more after 5yrs (5miles from exchange) and theres little or no mobile signal. Tooway is based in Bristol so you should understand the language !

 

[Andy26]

One of my relatives could only get about 0.5mb on broadband, being right at the end of the exchange. So they use a 3G dongle and get not far off 8mb. They live out in the sticks too.
New 4G licences have just been given out today, so hopefully as masts get upgraded, more can use it.

I think if you use GiffGaff, they have an unlimited data plan that's quite reasonable?

 

[Great In Grass]

PDR, my commiserations, better not mention I'm 40 megs down and 4 up.

http://www.eclipse.net.uk/

 

[Mickstup]

We use WWW.satelliteinternet.co.UK and find it very reliable, rain and snow have not been a problem, you soon get used to the slight lag. Living in the hills and five miles from the exchange its our only realistic option, had it three years and very pleased with it.

 

[Davey]

had satellite broadband from tooway for over a year now its been very reliable. Bt told us they didn't want us any more after 5yrs (5miles from exchange) and theres little or no mobile signal. Tooway is based in Bristol so you should understand the language !

I've got tooway via these people: http://www.bentley-walker.com/tooway/tooway_home.php

Mrs wasn't overly impressed with the dish that looks like something from the end of a runway but the only problems we've had have been weather related or using up our monthly download quota thanks to sky on demand.

 

[fermerboy]

We get about 0.45meg here with Talk Talk, 3miles from exchange. I have a "3" dongle that regularly runs at 3.5-4meg. Seems faster than that on a big download though, 500mb takes no time to arrive.

Think I'm going to buy a proper 3g router and take a contract out with "3".

My in laws are 7miles from exchange and can only get old style dial up at 38.6kbps, when the mrs moans about ours I make her use that for a bit, that usually makes her realise 0.45 isn't so bad.

 

[B&B Pig Man]

I haven't heard favourable things about sat bb.
Is 20 meg, really 20 meg? I've heard reports it actually a lot slower!

 

[AWJ26]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=3+data+sim
Another option if you buy the right router

 

[Jim75]

Fed up of BT trying to "find" our property to reconnect us and considering just using a dongle for Internet as have great reception but is it possible to receive sky without the phone line as cant go without the F1. Cheers

Jim