# Rural/Cottage Area Internet Access Options



## redison (Mar 1, 2008)

I thought I would move this to a new thread, I was wondering what kind of services people use outside many of the urban areas, where there is no DSL or cable, and what your experience with those services has been like?

-Robert


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## 20DDan (May 2, 2005)

I know the option exists for Satellite internet, I'm currently looking into that for my parents land up north near Gravenhurst, Ontario. It is pricey though... & we'll only be getting it when they live there permanently, now it's a weekend getaway spot. Reason I like that idea is the weather is nearly always clear up there! ... If you get Rogers Wireless phone reception you could get Rogers unplugged or whatever it's called.

Only thing you need for that is a power outlet, Rogers phone reception & you get internet for $29/month (1st year...) and then $49/month after that. Speeds aren't half bad I hear.


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## keebler27 (Jan 5, 2007)

satellite is what i've heard of people using.

but, please understand i'm not flaming you, but maybe adding a different perspective - cottages aren't meant for computers..... the entire ideology behind 'getting away from it all' has to exist.

my mho.


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## johnnyspade (Aug 24, 2007)

keebler27 said:


> but, please understand i'm not flaming you, but maybe adding a different perspective - cottages aren't meant for computers..... the entire ideology behind 'getting away from it all' has to exist.


It's a good point though there are many times when I'm actually needing to do some work up the lake. The cabin is more like an alternate environment than a vacation spot. My work makes it difficult to be out of touch for too long but the trick is to police yourself to not use the computer too much.

Regarding satellite ... it works pretty well. I believe they promise 6x the speed of dial-up and I've never seen quite that speed but it's decent. Upload speeds are awful, as you might expect.


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## retired (Nov 16, 2007)

We live in rural Sask and have limited choices from dial up, Satellite and wireless We chose the wireless and get it through YOUR LINK INC.
YourLink Inc. - Your Link To The World!: Internet Services
They serve areas in BC, Alberta, Sask and Ontario
A good reliable service.


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## Suite Edit (Dec 17, 2003)

My parents are in rural Caledon and have tried satellite service from a local "high speed" provider. After investing $1100 in the hardware up-front, they experienced speeds about 2x dial-up and the reliability was terrible. It was so spotty that they were going to switch back to dial-up with a dedicated phone line. Yes, the techs said they had good line-of-sight, and they spent several (I'm sure frustrating) hours on the phone with my parents to no avail.

Then they came across Bell's WiMAX and have been using it for several months now... While it's better than the satellite garbage, it can't sustain ANY sort of reasonable speed. They can't stream music or video, and the speed drops so low that even Apple's software update times out 80% of the time. It's certainly faster than dial-up for loading basic websites, but they have to download any updates through Safari to resume if the connection times out.

Sure, it's newer technology and yes, it's wireless, but for a service advertised as 2Mbps?!? I'd stay away from it, unless you live right next to one of their transmission towers.

So long-story-short, haha, I'd try the Rogers option just to stay away from satellite/Bell.


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## redison (Mar 1, 2008)

Suite Edit said:


> My parents are in rural Caledon and have tried satellite service from a local "high speed" provider. After investing $1100 in the hardware up-front, they experienced speeds about 2x dial-up and the reliability was terrible. It was so spotty that they were going to switch back to dial-up with a dedicated phone line. Yes, the techs said they had good line-of-sight, and they spent several (I'm sure frustrating) hours on the phone with my parents to no avail.
> 
> Then they came across Bell's WiMAX and have been using it for several months now... While it's better than the satellite garbage, it can't sustain ANY sort of reasonable speed. They can't stream music or video, and the speed drops so low that even Apple's software update times out 80% of the time. It's certainly faster than dial-up for loading basic websites, but they have to download any updates through Safari to resume if the connection times out.
> 
> ...


Sorry to hear about your parents satellite fiasco, but I've heard similar horror stories involving Bell expressvu.

I am currently using Rogers portable Internet up at my cottage in Muskoka and was pleasantly surprised that the service even though it was 1.5 Mb per second, it works quite well. Most webpages and graphics and video loads without any problems. end the download speed is close to the rated speed. I'm not much of a fan of Rogers but maybe your parents should look into Rogers portable Internet service, I know on their website you can check to see if coverage is in their area. See:

Rogers - Portable Internet


Furthermore you can test out your reception once you buy or rent their modem by counting the number of lit bars on the top from 1-5, which indicate the signal strength and if you buy the indoor modem you can move it around to a place where it gets the best signal, if that doesn't work they have an outdoor modem that can be affixed to one of the buildings walls.
If you have problems or can't get a good enough signal then you just simply return the modem.

-Robert


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## Gene Rayburn (Jun 30, 2007)

At our place in Muskoka we got high-speed internet through a local ISP known as Muskoka.com, now sold through Vianet. While the speed is somewhat less than that of Rogers or Bell (1Mb both ways) the good part is that Vianet provides unlimited bandwidth, while Rogers and Bell provide you with pretty small caps vs. their land options (somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10GB). For us, that happens to be a big plus. So, if you're willing to swallow a small speed decrease (though honestly, even though I'm at 15Mb at home there's hardly a difference between it and 1Mb for most purposes) you'll gain a big advantage with Vianet with their unlimited bandwidth (though of course not everyone needs that).


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