OT: High-Speed Internet Options in Rural Area?

You can run DSL if the total line length from the station isn't too long and if there aren't too many load coils in the way. They've made progress working through increasing numbers of coils, but I don't know the current limits (last I paid attention it was ~5 miles and 3 coils).

You can get satellite, but symmetric high speed satellite service is very expensive. But if you only need fast downloads, then you probably can get something relatively inexpensively.

George

Have you looked into cell coverage? I looked into Virgin Mobile monthly "pay when you need it" plan as a backup. When I'm on the road I use my cell phone as a wifi hotspot for my laptop. If I need to download a really huge file I just download to my phone directly and dont get hit with usage as the phone is unlimited, then USB to my laptop.

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Joe Chisolm

Here at the other side of the planet my only option (apr. 17 km from the centre of Sofia, BG) is the cable TV, they are also an ISP. Works reasonably well - when it does, that is. But the "when" is mostly staff ineptitude related. Since recently they run DOCSIS-3 and after they got it right I have 35 MbpS down which is OK for me. Up is

2.5MbpS only (limited at 5 but I have rarely seen it above 2.5 and I think never above 3), but even at this rate VNC with the netMCA works in a usable way from outside.

Dimiter

------------------------------------------------------ Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments

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Time to move to a city. We have a 1 Gbps fiber going into the house and a 100 Mbps Ethernet inside the house with 1-2 cables per appartment (I have one to the TV and another to my desk). And yes, Internet is included in the $500/month rent.

A friend of mine (with some good local contacts in the Swedish Internet community) got fed up with his mother not having anything, so he installed a 40 Gbps Cisco router. Beeing 70 years old+, she did not find the normal functionality of much interest, but since the router got hot, she used the heat to dry the clothes.

Best Regards Ulf Samuelsson No longer with Atmel.

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Best Regards
Ulf Samuelsson
These are my own personal opinions, which may
or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

Well a reasonable application for a 40GbpS router no doubt :D.

I hope I won't have to move back to a "city", though. Then in Sofia they are just beginning to deploy optical internet, it is not widely available. Since it is new chances are it will be pretty nerve wracking until they learn how to operate it. But then in the meantime I'll hope an optical cable will reach our village, too :). And I might reconsider about the city if the $500 flat is in a house where Carlson lives on the roof, that would be quite irresistible for me, come to think of it :D :D :D .

Dimiter

Karlsson på Taket, as he is called in Sweden, "lives" in central Stockholm, but on the north side (Vasastaden), I live in the south central (Södermalm), but the house has a nice garden overlooking lake Mälaren and the Old Town (an island) so I think you'd enjoy the location anyway.

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Best Regards
Ulf Samuelsson
No longer with Atmel Nordic AB

o t

I probably would, of course. But that won't stop me from looking for the ghost(ling?.... have read it in Bulgarian only) from Vasastaden :D :D :D. A huge reading, after all these years still makes me burst into laughter when I recall some or another scene.

Dimiter