Nontraditional internet

[Kevin B.]

Comcast costs too much for how much we use it. Centurylink (or anybody else's DSL) won't work either, because of crappy wires on our block. I went to look up Clear internet because I remembered they had a good price, but it looks like they folded and got swallowed up by Sprint and rates went up so I'm not terribly excited about that option either.

What else is out there? We don't need huge speeds - we watch a little Netflix and surf the web and that's it.

 

[I Lean]

I have Utah Broadband (wireless) right now, and am not super happy with it. Tried for their 3Mb plan, but I only get around 1.5Mb out of it most of the time. They tell me it's because the radio tower is overloaded and they can't do anything about it.

I'll try Digis next. It's a little more expensive, but their lowest plan is 5Mb, and they guarantee a minimum of 80% of their stated speeds...so I should be able to get 4Mb out of them reliably, if they follow through.

 

[Spork]

I had digis for a while, they were decent. Had another company (senawave) come through and undercut them by $10 and a little faster speed so I switched.

 

[Gravy]

How much are you guys paying?
(dare I ask?)

 

[Spork]

$40 for 5MB

 

[Gravy]

are you paying for equipment rentals? or is that an initial extra cost?

 

[Spork]

are you paying for equipment rentals? or is that an initial extra cost?

That's it, price set for 2 years, I have my own wireless router, there is no rental fees or setup, just the monthly bill for $40. I think I was $50 with Digis. Digis took over the company I was with before so I'm not sure if that was involved in my price.

 

[skiboarder]

We switch to digis and have been happy so far.

 

[mbryson]

We have Digis. Not nearly as annoying as comcast and you get a referral for adding a friend. Please use my name. They are fairly reliable but we've hit our bandwidth limit a few times

 

[Kevin B.]

Digis.com doesn't say, what's the bandwidth cap? And do they throttle or just shut you off when you hit it?

 

[Rot Box]

We had Hugesnet for a day or so. I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. It was worse than dial up. Think dial up and those weird modem noises from 1998

 

[Spork]

Digis.com doesn't say, what's the bandwidth cap? And do they throttle or just shut you off when you hit it?

I believe they just throttle, my kids used to watch Netflix all the time and I don't believe it counts against your cap.

 

[mbryson]

Digis.com doesn't say, what's the bandwidth cap? And do they throttle or just shut you off when you hit it?

They just charged us $2 per extra 10 Gb. Didn't seem to throttle us back at all. For our plan the bandwidth cap is 250 Gb. How we did that in a month, I'm looking into.

 

[Kevin B.]

For our plan the bandwidth cap is 250 Gb. How we did that in a month, I'm looking into.

 

[sLcREX]

I use the wireless hotspot from my phone with vzw. I pay extra each month to have the service but it has good speeds and bandwidth. The downside is that it goes with my phone so if someone needs the internet while I am away they can't use it. But there are mobile hotspot devices available too that work the same way. Just depends if your signal at home is good enough.

 

[I Lean]

I talked to Senawave today...very nice on the phone, no service available in my area.

 

[Caleb]

I use the wireless hotspot from my phone with vzw. I pay extra each month to have the service but it has good speeds and bandwidth. The downside is that it goes with my phone so if someone needs the internet while I am away they can't use it. But there are mobile hotspot devices available too that work the same way. Just depends if your signal at home is good enough.

I use a Verizon mifi for work (that's the mobile hotspot you're talking about). I'd personally never consider it for my home internet solution, but as a supplement, it works great. Speeds suck, the number of clients you can connect is limited, and you ALWAYS have to be wifi (you may be able to plug in via USB and connect one device that way...not sure, never tried).

Years ago I was on Rapidwave (wireless using Motorola Canopy), however they got purchased by Digis and their service has gone down hill dramatically (my father-in-law still has their service). My only complaint about them is however they were recording bandwidth usage was overly zealous. At the time I monitored and graphed every single port on my switch so I knew exactly how much bandwidth my entire network was using. Our numbers never jived and I was always getting throttled on their service. They were always nice about it, but it became super frustrating so I moved off them.

 

[Spork]

I use a Verizon mifi for work (that's the mobile hotspot you're talking about). I'd personally never consider it for my home internet solution, but as a supplement, it works great. Speeds suck, the number of clients you can connect is limited, and you ALWAYS have to be wifi (you may be able to plug in via USB and connect one device that way...not sure, never tried)...

With windows you attach it via USB then there is a driver that is installed to use it that way. With linux it just realizes it's there and uses it when it's attached via USB. I've got a mifi from Sprint and it is handy but I wouldn't replace my home internet with it, I haven't found decent coverage anywhere in Utah. I took it on a trip to San Fransisco and was able to get 4G and stream Netflix so it's possible if you can get that fast. Normally they limit your data and charge you severely if you go over the amount so I wasn't brave enough to watch more than a couple movies.

 

[sLcREX]

I agree that it's probably best used as a supplement to a hard line. For me I am grandfathered with the unlimited data still so my hotspot is also unlimited. This way I've been able to enjoy countless hours of Netflix without issue. Having good signal on 4G has provided me good bandwidth so I don't experience slow speeds fortunately. But for someone that is planning to rely on it solely I would probably advise against Netflix or any time of streaming that isn't the occasional YouTube video because it can certainly get expensive fast.

 

[TurboMinivan]

This thread is relevant to my interests.

I have had Comcast internet for like, well, ever. On the upside, I have absolutely no complaints about the service itself. I'm not sure what speed I have (pathetic, I know), but I think it is at least 10 mbit. I'm just getting tired of paying $75 each month for something that ought to cost me significantly less IMO.

What sort of service is SenaWave? Satellite? Their web site doesn't say.