WiMAX

[ZonoBurk]

I live in the RURAL part of the southern United States and of course we cannot get DSL, much less cable, our only options are Satellite or dial up. I did have HughesNet satellite Internet service from 2005- summer 2008. However, I had to cancel it because it is WAY too expensive. I'm talking $80 (not to mention the HUNDREDS of dollars just to get it installed!) a month for 1.5mbps DOWN. I'm currently on dial up. Sigh.

Now there appears to be a "new" technology out for rural areas. It's called WiMAX. It uses the towers very similar to cellular towers (that our mobile phones use) to transmit broadband internet speeds (1.5-2.0mbps, but can be up to 70 megabits per second.) MUCH cheaper to just about anyone. It can pick up within a 4-to-6 mile radius to a max of 30 MILES from the main tower. Much better than Wi-Fi, obviously.

Unfortunately, it's currently only available in select number of states (from what I've read, it's really popular in Europe). Yup, my luck it's not available here, yet. They promise within the next year or two, it will increase "DRASTICALLY" across rural America.

One company you can get it from is called Clearwire. Other popular companies, like Sprint will or already have it.

My question is ? does ANYBODY here use this service? If so, can you please share what you know, and how you like the service?

I just can't take dial up any longer then I 'have' too. Files are getting larger now, and dial up just can't handle it anymore.

I mean jesus a nvidia driver is around 70-100MB.

More info:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/wimax1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX

Edited January 3, 2009 by Myke

[fix-this!]

Dial up ?...yikes I feel for you bro !

[Malik05]

I am curious, where the heck do you live?!

As for your internet troubles, i would find out if you get 3G coverage in your are from AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon and get yourself a data card. It is kinda like WiMax, but its not. It will use the same data network as a 3G cell phone, but you have a special card that is made just for data. So for example, if you get 3G cell phone reception from AT&T in your area, then the data card would be great for you.

Great thing about data cards is that it will work almost everywhere.

[Xahid]

I'm using WiMAX 5 to 10 Mbps & it works great,

there's two kind of WiMAX service point 2 point & Radius based,

Radius based is failed service I guess, too much distortion & problems,

but I am not from USA, so have no idea, how they deal with it !

[+John Teacake MVC]

We use WiMax at work (Someone unplugged the transmitter the other week to plug a christmas tree in, Doh!) and I believe WiMax works from Switch to Switch. I didn't know if there were desktop/laptop adapters for it?

[-KJ]

Hey Myke, I feel your pain as I have Hughesnet. I live east of Marshall, Texas and it's either satellilte or dial-up out here in the sticks, and the wireless 5GB cap won't cut it for me. And I don't want dial-up so I don't really have a choice. Anyway, I am still with Hughesnet and I'm not sure if you've heard but they have increased the FAP (Fair Access Policy) free time from 1AM - 6AM Central (two more hours). I get about 2GB's worth during that time, but it's really inconvenient how they give us a certain amount (300MB here) a day to use, and punish us by giving us slower-than-dialup speeds for the next 24 hours if we use more than 300MB (easy when shared with the family). I'm sure you've got hit by the FAP before. They used to "punish" us for a few hours but now a whole day. Hughesnet will surely die soon as other alternatives become available out there in the middle of nowhere's.

I am definitely looking for alternatives but as for now there's nothing but satellite or dial-up available. And I'd rather have satellite.

[ZonoBurk]

I am curious, where the heck do you live?!

As for your internet troubles, i would find out if you get 3G coverage in your are from AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon and get yourself a data card. It is kinda like WiMax, but its not. It will use the same data network as a 3G cell phone, but you have a special card that is made just for data. So for example, if you get 3G cell phone reception from AT&T in your area, then the data card would be great for you.

Great thing about data cards is that it will work almost everywhere.

In southern Mississippi.

I called BellSouth, our local land line phone service (which is now AT&T) asking WHYYYY DSL is not available here yet. I was like I've only been waiting 4 years. See, people can get DSL about 10 miles down the road, but they are also close to the main hwy (and school). I asked how much could it POSSIBLY cost to build a CO close here. I would just HATE for them to have to spend money. He was really nice, and said he understand and it wasn't 'economically' possible.

So that tells me never. lol. He then starting saying something wireless internet is avail here.. but didn't go into much detail. I really didn't understand it (after I already hung up). I called him back, and he was gone. So I am definitely going to check back with him. We don't use AT&T cell phones (we did when it was Cingular Wireless, then AT&T, then Cingular, and now AT&T) and it does NOT get good service here. So I don't know.. I'm hoping that I can get whatever he said it was.. it is 6mbps up and like $58 which includes long-distant phone - and I HOPE he didn't mean cell phone.

I'm using WiMAX 5 to 10 Mbps & it works great,

there's two kind of WiMAX service point 2 point & Radius based,

Radius based is failed service I guess, too much distortion & problems,

but I am not from USA, so have no idea, how they deal with it !

Yeah, I see it's way more popular in Europe and Korea. lol

Hey Myke, I feel your pain as I have Hughesnet. I live east of Marshall, Texas and it's either satellilte or dial-up out here in the sticks, and the wireless 5GB cap won't cut it for me. And I don't want dial-up so I don't really have a choice. Anyway, I am still with Hughesnet and I'm not sure if you've heard but they have increased the FAP (Fair Access Policy) free time from 1AM - 6AM Central (two more hours). I get about 2GB's worth during that time, but it's really inconvenient how they give us a certain amount (300MB here) a day to use, and punish us by giving us slower-than-dialup speeds for the next 24 hours if we use more than 300MB (easy when shared with the family). I'm sure you've got hit by the FAP before. They used to "punish" us for a few hours but now a whole day. Hughesnet will surely die soon as other alternatives become available out there in the middle of nowhere's.

I am definitely looking for alternatives but as for now there's nothing but satellite or dial-up available. And I'd rather have satellite.

That's how it went with me. They just plain suck. Their tech support and all. Every time a new modem would come out, I would get it. I would also spend hours on the phone with tech support, because it would NEVER install right. Tech support sucks and they are RUDE.

I started out with the home plan, then went to the pro, and pro plus. That was $80 a MONTH. I think it was like 1.5mbps? Each plan was a higher threshold, but not by much. Wildbule's FAP goes by a month.. but they are also higher. I ALWAYS got fapped - A L W A Y S

They just launched new sats in the air, and they now have "Elite" plans. The highest is $349 for 5.0 Mbps/300 Kbps. Yeah, ok. I just couldn't see my self paying them any longer. It's like they are stealing money. Do they not know that most people that live in a rural area are poor? LOL $400 to get a sat dish installed?? I wished I had that $400 now!

What do you mean by "a wireless 5GB cap won't cut it for me"?

Read above, alternatives should be avail soon. :)

You can check your address here: http://www.clearwire.com/store/service_areas.php

I see Texas is on the list.

Edited January 3, 2009 by Myke

[iZoom]

Not 100% related, but worth a look considering the topic:

WiMax

[-KJ]

That's how it went with me. They just plain suck. Their tech support and all. Every time a new modem would come out, I would get it. I would also spend hours on the phone with tech support, because it would NEVER install right. Tech support sucks and they are RUDE.

I started out with the home plan, then went to the pro, and pro plus. That was $80 a MONTH. I think it was like 1.5mbps? Each plan was a higher threshold, but not by much. Wildbule's FAP goes by a month.. but they are also higher. I ALWAYS got fapped - A L W A Y S

They just launched new sats in the air, and they now have "Elite" plans. The highest is $349 for 5.0 Mbps/300 Kbps. Yeah, ok. I just couldn't see my self paying them any longer. It's like they are stealing money. Do they not know that most people that live in a rural area are poor? LOL $400 to get a sat dish installed?? I wished I had that $400 now!

What do you mean by "a wireless 5GB cap won't cut it for me"?

Read above, alternatives should be avail soon. :)

You can check your address here: http://www.clearwire.com/store/service_areas.php

I see Texas is on the list.

Yeah, tell me about it. Customer service is a joke. They tried to send a technician over just to register my new HN7000s modem, because -- get this -- they had no idea what registration step I was talking about. I referred them to the page number and they were scratching their heads over it. The 'advanced' tech support guy said that the installation CD was unnecessary and the instructions in the book was not the correct way to register -- uh, right. We eventually got through using another method and it took over 2 hours just to register the dang thing.

Anyway, I was talking about the 3G wireless Internet services and the 5GB cap on each one (except Alltel, but they merged with Verizon or something, so who knows what'll happen). Clearwire looks interesting, but still out of my range by about 45 miles. Don't know if the hillbillies here would be of any attraction to them. :p Besides, a larger neighborhood like 10 miles away have wireless Internet service provided by a local ISP here.

[MrChainsaw]

So in the conclusion, is WiFi still better?

[ZonoBurk]

Yes, I had HELL with the registration, each time I upgraded. I started with the DW6000. My last one was the HN7000S. That was like 3 upgrades.

I'm hoping that AT&T offers that 3G wireless Internet here, and that was what he was talking about. I also hope we don't have to be on their mobile plans (for cell phones). :s

My uncle just moved to Houston and he has Verizon. He came here for Christmas and brought his laptop and with a USB wireless stick hooked up to it (I think it was because the laptop is old and didn't have a WiFi card built in or something).

Anyway, the wireless internet was working here! I looked on Verizon's website and it said I couldn't get their service here. Only in Jackson, MS. That's like 80 miles north of me. Bunch of bs.

By 5GB cap, is that a month? I think with HughesNet you get like 9GB a month if you added all together.

Like I siad, I'm rather confused with all of this and waiting to talk back with AT&T.

PS. Sat internet really sucks in the south.. I mean we get thunderstorms/showers like every day during the summer. There goes the internet. lol

So in the conclusion, is WiFi still better?

WiFi and WiMAX are very different.

WiFi can only transmit/receive signals within a few hundred feet and you must already have a high-speed connection for it to 'use'. WiMAX can transmit/receive within miles. It also IS brodband internet and uses it's own technology.

[-KJ]

Yes, I had HELL with the registration, each time I upgraded. I started with the DW6000. My last one was the HN7000S. That was like 3 upgrades.

I'm hoping that AT&T offers that 3G wireless Internet here, and that was what he was talking about. I also hope we don't have to be on their mobile plans (for cell phones). :s

My uncle just moved to Houston and he has Verizon. He came here for Christmas and brought his laptop and with a USB wireless stick hooked up to it (I think it was because the laptop is old and didn't have a WiFi card built in or something).

Anyway, the wireless internet was working here! I looked on Verizon's website and it said I couldn't get their service here. Only in Jackson, MS. That's like 80 miles north of me. Bunch of bs.

By 5GB cap, is that a month? I think with HughesNet you get like 9GB a month if you added all together.

Like I siad, I'm rather confused with all of this and waiting to talk back with AT&T.

PS. Sat internet really sucks in the south.. I mean we get thunderstorms/showers like every day during the summer. There goes the internet. lol

Hmm, do they have separate plans for cell phone and actual laptop? I think both had a 5GB per month cap, but last time I read all about this was half a year ago. Perhaps they changed and realize that 5GB is pretty tiny, but then again, I'd assume most mobile consumers would probably use this mobile plan to check their email and browse the web, and nothing too bandwidth intensive.

Oh, and I can theoretically download about 65GB per month because of their wider FAP-free window that came into affect a month or two ago [1AM - 6AM Central Time] (where you can download anything you want and not be subject to FAP). I take advantage of this time with my download manager. I set my notebook to wake up at 1AM if I am not awake and have it automatically launch my download manager. Either that or have my router unlock its signal to the XBOX 360 so it starts downloading a demo.

What sucks even more is gaming on satellite. GTA IV actually works well, but that's about the only game that does so far. Test Drive Unlimited also works decently. And MMORPG's typically work well. Everything else -- forget about it!

[ZonoBurk]

Hmm, do they have separate plans for cell phone and actual laptop? I think both had a 5GB per month cap, but last time I read all about this was half a year ago. Perhaps they changed and realize that 5GB is pretty tiny, but then again, I'd assume most mobile consumers would probably use this mobile plan to check their email and browse the web, and nothing too bandwidth intensive.

Oh, and I can theoretically download about 65GB per month because of their wider FAP-free window that came into affect a month or two ago [1AM - 6AM Central Time] (where you can download anything you want and not be subject to FAP). I take advantage of this time with my download manager. I set my notebook to wake up at 1AM if I am not awake and have it automatically launch my download manager. Either that or have my router unlock its signal to the XBOX 360 so it starts downloading a demo.

What sucks even more is gaming on satellite. GTA IV actually works well, but that's about the only game that does so far. Test Drive Unlimited also works decently. And MMORPG's typically work well. Everything else -- forget about it!

I'm hoping that dude calls like uh TODAY and explain (because their website sure doesn't). Every time I call he's not 'available' and I give them my name/number. Bah.

Good thing they changed that. It was 2am-5am (central). I like to watch youtube videos, etc and I just could not stay up that late just to watch videos.

Torrents are easy to schedule. But doing it like that, can take weeks for a big program to download. lol

[DanManIt]

Ive heard of this. Give it a try, don't have much to lose

[ZonoBurk]

UPDATE.

Well AT&T's wireless service is not available where I live (not WiMAX btw). The 'coverage' that is. But the coverage area is only a few hundred feet down the road. Lol yup my luck. They said I could order the equipment ($100) and if it didn't work send it back. I already know it isn't going to work, so no need to waste time.

WildBlue is having a good offer online ($99 instead of $400 for the equipment) and free installation ($179 value) and the basic plans are reasonable (compared to HughesNet anyway). So, I suppose I may get that next month.

http://www.mybluedish.com/speed-and-pricing.htm

[-KJ]

UPDATE.

Well AT&T's wireless service is not available where I live (not WiMAX btw). The 'coverage' that is. But the coverage area is only a few hundred feet down the road. Lol yup my luck. They said I could order the equipment ($100) and if it didn't work send it back. I already know it isn't going to work, so no need to waste time.

WildBlue is having a good offer online ($99 instead of $400 for the equipment) and free installation ($179 value) and the basic plans are reasonable (compared to HughesNet anyway). So, I suppose I may get that next month.

http://www.mybluedish.com/speed-and-pricing.htm

Glad to see you've found some alternatives. I can't see myself running dial up anymore.

Doesn't WildBlue have a monthly cap? Or maybe I'm thinking of the wrong ISP. Give it 10 years (more like ~5) and satellite will be obsolete for most of us home users. :)

[ZonoBurk]

Glad to see you've found some alternatives. I can't see myself running dial up anymore.

Doesn't WildBlue have a monthly cap? Or maybe I'm thinking of the wrong ISP. Give it 10 years (more like ~5) and satellite will be obsolete for most of us home users. :)

7,500MB every 30 days, the the 'home' plan. It explains it better here: http://www.wildblue.com/legal/fair.jsp

You get knocked to 128kbps.

[fix-this!]

Dial up needs to die. I have comcast cable internet and although comcast sucks, it is fast as can be !

[ZonoBurk]

Dial up needs to die. I have comcast cable internet and although comcast sucks, it is fast as can be !

Not when dial up is the only (cheap) option to get on the internet. Why would we want it to die?

ISPs need to offer Broadband EVERY WHERE, and not just satellite.

Maybe, one of these days Broadband will be a human RIGHT. We could only hope.

[-Hush-]

i get the services today home and mobile internet is very good im impressed

[nullie]

I have Clear in Portland, OR for home and mobile service. I get min 2-3Mbps download and 1Mbps upload, but usually download is between 6-10Mbps and as high as 16Mbps. Service is very high quality but as the network is new there's not much coverage yet.

[buckboii]

Theres still dial up? woah. I did not know.

I feel for you..

[+John Teacake MVC]

We use it at work for site to site communication. I havent had much experience with it personally but from what I from other teams hear its not bad.

[rawr_boy81]

UPDATE.

Well AT&T's wireless service is not available where I live (not WiMAX btw). The 'coverage' that is. But the coverage area is only a few hundred feet down the road. Lol yup my luck. They said I could order the equipment ($100) and if it didn't work send it back. I already know it isn't going to work, so no need to waste time.

WildBlue is having a good offer online ($99 instead of $400 for the equipment) and free installation ($179 value) and the basic plans are reasonable (compared to HughesNet anyway). So, I suppose I may get that next month.

http://www.mybluedish.com/speed-and-pricing.htm

How far down the road? if it is so close why not setup a ethernet cable, repeater, and a power table, lay it underground via a PVC pipe and have the antenna where you can get reception? I am assuming you're in a rural area? it would require a bit of work but it might end up working out :)

[macf13nd]

How far down the road? if it is so close why not setup a ethernet cable, repeater, and a power table, lay it underground via a PVC pipe and have the antenna where you can get reception? I am assuming you're in a rural area? it would require a bit of work but it might end up working out :)

Not sure he's following this thread one year on.....! :)