How to get the Internet in the boondocks?
August 11, 2011 10:47 AM Subscribe
A friend has a cottage on an island in McGregor Bay near Jumbo Island. (Google Map Link). She would like to get some kind of Internet connection. What are her options?
Her island has power, water purification, etc. She is a teacher in the US and spends as much time as possible every summer at the cottage.
She does not need an 'always-on, broadband' connection, but would like to connect to email periodically and surf the web on rainy days without having to take the boat into town.
The cellular reception is not wonderful, she also uses a ship-to-shore phone for local calls. (I have no idea how that works.)
She is open to whatever options possible: wireless? cellular? satellite?
Cost is a factor, but not the biggest or only factor.
Her island has power, water purification, etc. She is a teacher in the US and spends as much time as possible every summer at the cottage.
She does not need an 'always-on, broadband' connection, but would like to connect to email periodically and surf the web on rainy days without having to take the boat into town.
The cellular reception is not wonderful, she also uses a ship-to-shore phone for local calls. (I have no idea how that works.)
She is open to whatever options possible: wireless? cellular? satellite?
Cost is a factor, but not the biggest or only factor.
Best answer: Rogers claims to have 4G coverage in the area, believe it or not. Their coverage map. Any of Rogers' mobile internet options should work although none of them are cheap. Here's their data plans.
Bell's coverage is much more spotty so it's hard to say whether they're simply worse or whether Rogers is more optimistic about their level of coverage in the area. She may be able to get Bell 4G service, although counter-intuitively according to Bell's coverage map, she definitely cannot get 3G service.
Thunder Bay Telecom has 4G wireless internet options too. This seems to be the same equipment as Rogers, perhaps their plans are cheaper.
Satellite internet is available too but I have not heard good things about it from people in rural Ontario who have it. It's provided I believe by HughesNet resellers in Canada.
posted by GuyZero at 11:01 AM on August 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Bell's coverage is much more spotty so it's hard to say whether they're simply worse or whether Rogers is more optimistic about their level of coverage in the area. She may be able to get Bell 4G service, although counter-intuitively according to Bell's coverage map, she definitely cannot get 3G service.
Thunder Bay Telecom has 4G wireless internet options too. This seems to be the same equipment as Rogers, perhaps their plans are cheaper.
Satellite internet is available too but I have not heard good things about it from people in rural Ontario who have it. It's provided I believe by HughesNet resellers in Canada.
posted by GuyZero at 11:01 AM on August 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
From my experience of using satellite internet it is affected by bad weather (clouds definitely, presumably also rain).
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 12:06 PM on August 11, 2011
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 12:06 PM on August 11, 2011
If Hughes is the satellite option, I'd really look for alternatives. Ugh. I have several friends in rural locations that have (or ditched) Hughes, and they all hate it, but it's their only option. Speeds for the highest-priced tier capped out at 2.0Mb/s, but those were theoretical speeds. Speeds typically averaged around 500k. 2gb/month download limit, too. And uploads? Forget it.
Just want to emphasize the stink that is Hughes, before you find yourself in a bad contract. Really, I'd go with an option from a wireless (cellular) carrier if at all possible.
posted by xedrik at 12:41 PM on August 11, 2011
Just want to emphasize the stink that is Hughes, before you find yourself in a bad contract. Really, I'd go with an option from a wireless (cellular) carrier if at all possible.
posted by xedrik at 12:41 PM on August 11, 2011
Best answer: I'm on satellite internet, via HughesNet (in the US).
It's definitely not as good as real broadband, but for email and most web browsing it's acceptable. Weather is only a problem during severe storms -- regular old rain or snow is fine, it's only when the clouds turn black that the net signal cuts out... maybe two or three times a year this is a problem for me, no more than that.
The download cap (375MB per day with their most expensive non-business plan) is the most significant source of pain; routine things like downloading software updates easily burn through your day's quota -- you have to be very careful to turn off automatic updates in all your software, and download large files in the middle of the night when the cap isn't enforced.
(Uploads are not capped, and are often faster than downloads. I have no problem with uploads.)
Where satellite really falls down is latency -- this isn't a problem with any particular satellite provider, it's just that pesky speed of light and the fact that the signal has to go into orbit and back to get to you. A single download stream runs relatively smoothly once it gets going, but anything that involves a lot of back-and-forth communication between your machine and the server becomes impossibly slow. This means no streaming audio or video (beyond the occasional short youtube clip), rules out most online games, and vpn, ssh, telnet, etc do work, but run about as fast as whistling into a modem at 300 baud.
But if all your friend wants is web browsing and email, satellite would probably be fine if there are no other options (and there won't be, unless the cell network reaches there.)
posted by ook at 3:00 PM on August 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
It's definitely not as good as real broadband, but for email and most web browsing it's acceptable. Weather is only a problem during severe storms -- regular old rain or snow is fine, it's only when the clouds turn black that the net signal cuts out... maybe two or three times a year this is a problem for me, no more than that.
The download cap (375MB per day with their most expensive non-business plan) is the most significant source of pain; routine things like downloading software updates easily burn through your day's quota -- you have to be very careful to turn off automatic updates in all your software, and download large files in the middle of the night when the cap isn't enforced.
(Uploads are not capped, and are often faster than downloads. I have no problem with uploads.)
Where satellite really falls down is latency -- this isn't a problem with any particular satellite provider, it's just that pesky speed of light and the fact that the signal has to go into orbit and back to get to you. A single download stream runs relatively smoothly once it gets going, but anything that involves a lot of back-and-forth communication between your machine and the server becomes impossibly slow. This means no streaming audio or video (beyond the occasional short youtube clip), rules out most online games, and vpn, ssh, telnet, etc do work, but run about as fast as whistling into a modem at 300 baud.
But if all your friend wants is web browsing and email, satellite would probably be fine if there are no other options (and there won't be, unless the cell network reaches there.)
posted by ook at 3:00 PM on August 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Oh, and their tech support is execrable -- outsourced and uninformed and reading from scripts they don't understand.
posted by ook at 3:10 PM on August 11, 2011
posted by ook at 3:10 PM on August 11, 2011
Response by poster: As our friend is presently at the cottage, communication with her is intermittent.
She did tell my wife that she had tried some company (Rogers?) but the equipment either did not arrive or was incomplete. We will get more news soon.
I will be sure to tell her next time though, that satellite is probably her last option.
posted by Drasher at 8:37 AM on August 12, 2011
She did tell my wife that she had tried some company (Rogers?) but the equipment either did not arrive or was incomplete. We will get more news soon.
I will be sure to tell her next time though, that satellite is probably her last option.
posted by Drasher at 8:37 AM on August 12, 2011
Can she get a phone line? does she get cell phone reception?
Here are a few viable options
posted by BobbyDee at 10:23 AM on August 12, 2011
Here are a few viable options
- Tether your smart phone
- Sattelite (she won't be able to check her email on "rainy days"
- Broadband through her wireless moblie phone carrier
- If she has a phone line she can get interent; not going to be fast but she can check and send email
posted by BobbyDee at 10:23 AM on August 12, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bondcliff at 10:55 AM on August 11, 2011