Fast internet away from home
October 31, 2019 10:30 AM Subscribe
Need fast internet away from home office. Options?
My home office has quite slow internet (5Mbps) that we can't change to fast internet, for now.
I have an opportunity to do image retouching for a client on an ongoing basis, requiring large uploads & dls.
What are my options to get fast internet (ideally above 60Mbps)?
Rent office space for an hour?
My home office has quite slow internet (5Mbps) that we can't change to fast internet, for now.
I have an opportunity to do image retouching for a client on an ongoing basis, requiring large uploads & dls.
What are my options to get fast internet (ideally above 60Mbps)?
Rent office space for an hour?
Response by poster: Sonoma County, San Francisco Bay Area
posted by artdrectr at 10:48 AM on October 31, 2019
posted by artdrectr at 10:48 AM on October 31, 2019
If you can work on a laptop, or perhaps they offer computers with your preferred image editing software, perhaps the public library has WiFi fast enough for this purpose?
posted by zachlipton at 11:02 AM on October 31, 2019
posted by zachlipton at 11:02 AM on October 31, 2019
you're local to sonic.net who offer 1Gb/s fiber for $60-ish a month inclusive of taxes. Maybe give them a call and ask if there are any libraries or cafes that use their fiber service?
posted by zippy at 11:12 AM on October 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by zippy at 11:12 AM on October 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Since it's just for uploads and downloads and you don't need to be working with the internet for hours on end, I'd ask a friend.
posted by metasarah at 12:12 PM on October 31, 2019
posted by metasarah at 12:12 PM on October 31, 2019
Best answer: Find a coworking place that offers day passes?
posted by COD at 2:26 PM on October 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by COD at 2:26 PM on October 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Yeah, it's a bit hard to determine if you just want an hour here and there to do the download/upload part and then take it home to work on it. Or if your intending to do the whole job in the hour.
Tethering my LTE phone was faster than my ~3Mbps DSL, If you can, you might be able to just use a phone or LTE modem just for the up/down bit and make it fast enough. Then again I'm wondering why you can't just download overnight, work on it for a day and upload the next night. It all depends on the interactivity of your workflow I guess, but if you're considering going somewhere with fast internet for an hour at a time to do up/down and want 60Mbps vs your 5Mbps then that's only 12x difference.
Otherwise, second the libraries (if you're lucky they're connected via the California Broadband Initiative) or maybe even a Kinko's or shared work space where you can rent time by the hour. Or find the local coffee shop that has good fast free wireless.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:31 PM on October 31, 2019
Tethering my LTE phone was faster than my ~3Mbps DSL, If you can, you might be able to just use a phone or LTE modem just for the up/down bit and make it fast enough. Then again I'm wondering why you can't just download overnight, work on it for a day and upload the next night. It all depends on the interactivity of your workflow I guess, but if you're considering going somewhere with fast internet for an hour at a time to do up/down and want 60Mbps vs your 5Mbps then that's only 12x difference.
Otherwise, second the libraries (if you're lucky they're connected via the California Broadband Initiative) or maybe even a Kinko's or shared work space where you can rent time by the hour. Or find the local coffee shop that has good fast free wireless.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:31 PM on October 31, 2019
Response by poster: Just need to do uploads & downloads.
Working at home on a fast computer. but stuck by this bottleneck.
The client is suggesting we fedex a couple of hard disks back & forth. oh no.
Zippy: I'm waiting for an answer from Sonic. Thanks
COD: I've found a nearby coworking place for $110 for 20 hrs, w the ability to use hours as you go.
($5.50 per hr/session)
posted by artdrectr at 3:04 PM on October 31, 2019
Working at home on a fast computer. but stuck by this bottleneck.
The client is suggesting we fedex a couple of hard disks back & forth. oh no.
Zippy: I'm waiting for an answer from Sonic. Thanks
COD: I've found a nearby coworking place for $110 for 20 hrs, w the ability to use hours as you go.
($5.50 per hr/session)
posted by artdrectr at 3:04 PM on October 31, 2019
LOL, Fedex of disks or SD cards was my next suggestion. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of hard drives. Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. : mildlyinteresting. It's such an old solution that is entirely appropriate if your workflow allows it. Fedex a 500G SD card back and forth. Totally cromulent solution.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:57 PM on October 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by zengargoyle at 4:57 PM on October 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Is the nature of the work such that you can't just set it to upload/download overnight? Is it so slow as to be impossible, or will it get there eventually?
posted by brook horse at 6:19 PM on October 31, 2019
posted by brook horse at 6:19 PM on October 31, 2019
If overnight shipping really is an option, you might find your 5 megabit connection is sufficient if you have a good overnight syncing solution. 5 Mbps is about 2 gigabytes an hour, or 20+ GB overnight when you're not working. There are many syncing solutions that'll do this without you thinking about it, like Dropbox (commercial) or SyncThing (free). Note I'm assuming you have 5 Mbps upstream, from your house to the Internet. If you have 5 Mbps downstream but something slower upstream, that's not gonna work.
To answer your question head-on I think your options are coworking facilities, libraries, or mobile tethering. The last option is quite expensive as you pay by the gigabyte.
posted by Nelson at 6:22 PM on October 31, 2019
To answer your question head-on I think your options are coworking facilities, libraries, or mobile tethering. The last option is quite expensive as you pay by the gigabyte.
posted by Nelson at 6:22 PM on October 31, 2019
The Sonoma County Library has 500 wifi hotspots that they loan out for 14 days at a time. You might try one and see how it works out.
Also the fact that the library does this suggests to me that they have decent connectivity at the library as well.
posted by zippy at 10:22 PM on November 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also the fact that the library does this suggests to me that they have decent connectivity at the library as well.
posted by zippy at 10:22 PM on November 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Here's the solution I found:
A cowork space downtown offers a 20-pack of hours, which I can use in 1/2 hour increments. $110 turns out to be fairly economical for 40 increments of access.
The tested speed is 100mbps download & 40mbps upload, which is good.
I think there would be similar co-work places with internet access in most medium-size towns.
Thanks everyone for your input!
posted by artdrectr at 10:49 PM on November 15, 2019
A cowork space downtown offers a 20-pack of hours, which I can use in 1/2 hour increments. $110 turns out to be fairly economical for 40 increments of access.
The tested speed is 100mbps download & 40mbps upload, which is good.
I think there would be similar co-work places with internet access in most medium-size towns.
Thanks everyone for your input!
posted by artdrectr at 10:49 PM on November 15, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:39 AM on October 31, 2019