I live in remote area of Mexico and need fast internet...
October 30, 2016 7:27 PM Subscribe
Hi folks. I run a hotel in a lazy, somewhat remote area of Mexico and at the moment our internet service is slow and frequently cuts out (our provider keeps telling me that their electricity keeps cutting out for no apparent reason). I was wondering if any of you had any genius ideas about DIY installations.
As a side note, our cellphones get OK 3G service on some parts of the property.
Also, I'm not sure how our current provider is supplying us with internet, but our setup for that involves an antennae on our roof that is pointing (I think) at the nearest cell tower that then connects to our router.
I am willing to turn this into a project since most aspects of our business (hotel) requires reliable, high speed internet for both our customers and our administrators. Please help and thanks!
Yup, you want to look into satellite-delivered internet. EchoStar, Dish and ViaSat are three that I can think of off the top of my head. Even if they don't have coverage in Mexico, that will get you going in the right direction.
You might also warn your current provider that you are looking seriously at other solutions now. They'll fix that power problem.
posted by intermod at 10:44 PM on October 30, 2016
You might also warn your current provider that you are looking seriously at other solutions now. They'll fix that power problem.
posted by intermod at 10:44 PM on October 30, 2016
You probably want to explore redundancy, because satellite based Internet has some serious bandwidth limitations. Last I checked, HughesNet was offering 10-20GBytes/month tiers ("data caps") for residential and somewhat higher for business, which really isn't all that much. With speeds up to about 15 megabits, you can burn through your monthly data allowance in a little more than 15 minutes of full-out usage. I suspect other satellite providers are similar. However, the overall satellite service is probably going to be a lot more reliable.
Your current service, probably cellular or possibly a WISP ("wireless ISP"), is probably more desirable from a bandwidth point of view, especially if you do not have a data cap, or a substantially higher data cap.
So my suggestion would be to look at acquiring an additional service, not replacing the current one, and then evaluating each service's strength and weaknesses, and exploiting that.
You use a tool known as a "dual WAN router" in order to accomplish this. It is a NAT gateway that has the ability to utilize more than one upstream ISP connection, and some like the ZyWALL can favor one over the other based on various factors.
A good primer on this is at
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-howto/32577-how-to-set-up-your-dual-wan-router
However, as others noted, there are a number of satellite providers, and you'll want to carefully research each one to identify if maybe one of them has a hotel-friendly plan that doesn't have such onerous data caps.
You'll also want to identify what your current provider is using for technology. Are they a WISP? Are they a cellular-based provider? If they're a cellular-based provider, check to see if any WISP's are in your area.
Unfortunately your question is all tied up in specifics that aren't all available in this thread, so there's still going to be some research you need to do to get a better answer. Whatever you do, though, give strong preference to a dual-technology solution. That way you're not placing all your eggs in one basket, and if something happens to one for a day or two, you're still fine.
posted by jgreco at 3:25 AM on October 31, 2016 [2 favorites]
Your current service, probably cellular or possibly a WISP ("wireless ISP"), is probably more desirable from a bandwidth point of view, especially if you do not have a data cap, or a substantially higher data cap.
So my suggestion would be to look at acquiring an additional service, not replacing the current one, and then evaluating each service's strength and weaknesses, and exploiting that.
You use a tool known as a "dual WAN router" in order to accomplish this. It is a NAT gateway that has the ability to utilize more than one upstream ISP connection, and some like the ZyWALL can favor one over the other based on various factors.
A good primer on this is at
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-howto/32577-how-to-set-up-your-dual-wan-router
However, as others noted, there are a number of satellite providers, and you'll want to carefully research each one to identify if maybe one of them has a hotel-friendly plan that doesn't have such onerous data caps.
You'll also want to identify what your current provider is using for technology. Are they a WISP? Are they a cellular-based provider? If they're a cellular-based provider, check to see if any WISP's are in your area.
Unfortunately your question is all tied up in specifics that aren't all available in this thread, so there's still going to be some research you need to do to get a better answer. Whatever you do, though, give strong preference to a dual-technology solution. That way you're not placing all your eggs in one basket, and if something happens to one for a day or two, you're still fine.
posted by jgreco at 3:25 AM on October 31, 2016 [2 favorites]
With speeds up to about 15 megabits, you can burn through your monthly data allowance in a little more than 15 minutes of full-out usage.
Decimal error here. 15 mbps is 112 MB/min maximum, so it would take you about an hour and a half at full bore to burn through 10GB. Still, it's not too difficult to burn through that. Great advice in the rest of the comment!
posted by cnc at 10:23 AM on October 31, 2016
Decimal error here. 15 mbps is 112 MB/min maximum, so it would take you about an hour and a half at full bore to burn through 10GB. Still, it's not too difficult to burn through that. Great advice in the rest of the comment!
posted by cnc at 10:23 AM on October 31, 2016
I've had terrible experiences with Hughes satellite internet. It provides bandwidth not much better than dialup, minuscule data caps, and comcast level customer service.
It would be fine as an emergency backup for processing credit cards etc., but if you expose it to hotel guests the monthly data cap will be used up in no time.
posted by monotreme at 1:27 PM on October 31, 2016
It would be fine as an emergency backup for processing credit cards etc., but if you expose it to hotel guests the monthly data cap will be used up in no time.
posted by monotreme at 1:27 PM on October 31, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by chasles at 7:47 PM on October 30, 2016