Satellite internet

Read what one of the experts says about satellite internet access
Bob Rankin

I think the "expert" missed something. I live a rural area and up to recently my only Internet access was dial-up . . . or . . . satellite. I had Hugesnet for years. Now? I've got wireless and I use it in three very remote areas. Here in Otsego County, NY, the middle of the Adirondacks in Hamilton County, NY and the nothern tip of the lower peninsula of Michigan.
This little wireless USB device is amazing and it's working in areas where I have no cell phone service. All it took was a $130 signal amp and a $45 antenna. The great thing about this wireless USB system is it's so portable. And . . . the speed usually far exceeds what I ever got from Hugesnet. That's with 3G. I doubt I'll ever see 4G in my lifetimes in the remote areas I go to.

It's amazing what a good signal amp can do - with cell phones, wireless Internet, and over-the-air television.

LJD
Can you reveal what wireless service you're using because I also have Hughesnet and it's gotten SLOOOW?

(quoted from post at 18:12:22 10/03/12) I think the "expert" missed something. I live a rural area and up to recently my only Internet access was dial-up . . . or . . . satellite. I had Hugesnet for years. Now? I've got wireless and I use it in three very remote areas. Here in Otsego County, NY, the middle of the Adirondacks in Hamilton County, NY and the nothern tip of the lower peninsula of Michigan.
This little wireless USB device is amazing and it's working in areas where I have no cell phone service. All it took was a $130 signal amp and a $45 antenna. The great thing about this wireless USB system is it's so portable. And . . . the speed usually far exceeds what I ever got from Hugesnet. That's with 3G. I doubt I'll ever see 4G in my lifetimes in the remote areas I go to.

It's amazing what a good signal amp can do - with cell phones, wireless Internet, and over-the-air television.

Click to expand...

oes amp make your phone work well, too? If so, what amp do you use? I have been interested in this for my country place, since cell service is right on the edge (sometimes/sometimes not), but went to shop where owner has been in cell business for years, thinking I wasn't going to get any better 'expert' than him & he told me the same thing the BestBuy salesman told me (they sell amps), "save your money, you will only be sorry & out several hundred dollars & time/trouble to install". So now I'm asking a user.

LJD,
Don't know f you are still using Hughes, but we switched to
wildbue's new excede satellite from viasat, t s cheaper ad
much faster than Hughes.
We can actually stream videos.

I got Wildblue's Excede July30. I'm sorry I did now. To many outages and when it does work, my quota gets used up far to fast.

That salesman doesn't know what the heck he's talking about. That reminds me of when TV went digital. I went to the local RadioShack for info and the guy me that TV in my area was no longer available. I found later that now only was it still available, it was greatly improved with the digital change. But it takes the correct equipment.

Our worst reception was in northern Michigan (Presque Isle County). I own a small farm there - in the middle of nowhere. My cell phone would get one bar, off and on IF I stood out in the middle of the road. In the house it got nothing. When I got the amp and a small window-mount antenna, the signal went to bars and calls worked fine. When I installed a roof mount antenna, I get full signal (5 bars). It worked so well we bought a 2nd amp and antennas to try with our USB wireless Internet. Same success.

First you need to make sure you've got some remnant of a signal. If you can get on bar, off and on - you're probably fine. Then you ought to make sure what frequency you are on. Now adays just about all cell phones and wireless Internet 3G accounts are one of two bands. 824-896Mhz & 1870-1950Mhz So, you buy a amp and antenna to match. Best way to be safe is buy "dual signal" amps and antennas.

I got two different brand amps and compared in many sitations. Both pretty much work the same.

Number one is: CA-819 - Cyfre Dual Band Direct Connect Amplifier. Shop around. I got mine for $130 with a portable antenna, DC and AC power supply, etc.

http://www.cyfre.com/?page=products&p=1&a=1

Number two is: Wilson mobile amp kit # 811211
I also got it for around $130.

http://www.wilsonamplifierstore.com/wilson-811210-signalboost-vehicle-kit-with-4-antenna

Now - a few more things. You have to decide how you want to use the amps. My USB internet device (made by Novatel) has an external antenna jack. So, to use an amp you get the correct cable to connect the amp to the USB. This is the unit that Millenicom and Verizon use.

If you want to hook an amp to a cell phone -it goes like this. Most cell phones lack antenna ports. So, you can use a cheap cradle. This is something the phone sits in. No hard-wire hookup. Works great but - will only work on one phone at a time. If you want to spend a lot more money - you buy a "whole house repeater amp." This will be wireless and make a strong signal everywhere in the house so everybody's cell phones work - even all at once.

Back to the wireless USB. If you get a special router - you can run multiple computers off it now problem. We have five computers in our house that all work off that one USB.

Verizon operates on the 850 mhz and the 1900 mhz frequencies on the CDMA spectrum; on the Analog spectrum, 850 mhz is used. Analog is relatively universal, however decomissioned in most other nations (as well, Europe uses 900 mhz, even under analog networks); CDMA is not a universalized technology like GSM, that is not widely accepted as the communication standard.

AT&T voice – 850 /1900 and 3G, and 4G uses 700

Sprint is all on 1900 and 4G that is on 2500

T-Mobil has voice on 1900 and 3G/4G on AWS 1710–1755 and 2110–2155

Verizon has voice on 850/1900 , 3G on 850/1900, and 4G on 700

I'm using Millenicom but the best deal depends where you want to use it. I needed coverage in the northeast - from New York to northern Michigan. So, the Millenicom deal that uses Verizon towers was the best deal. $60 per month and 20 Gigs per month of useage. If I was in the Florida area, there is a plan what uses Sprint towers that is cheaper and has unlimited useage.

When we had Hughesnet, we were paying $80 per month with a 10GB limit which we crashed now and then. Also, Hugesnet is not portable. In fact, you can get arrested for trying to move it and use it elsewhere (against FCC uplink regs).

By the way, Verizon also sells Millenicom but just tacks on a fee and charges more money. I called Millenicom and deal direct. Great service and English speaking people who answer phones in the USA.

We had the same problems. Not enough useage allowance and - it would "go out of service" at strange times. Not so much during storms. More in very bright sunshine which is a bit weird. Millenicom wireless with the little USB has never gone out yet - not even for a moment. We've had it 8 months now. Cheaper per month and twice the download allowance.

Yes and what really erks me is they they will have an outage both external (me) and internal (them) and say they can't pull up my account due to the outage and call the next day. So I call and then they tell me "No we didn't have any outage"

I guess on the web, anyone can be an expert. But he is correct that latency is the fatal flaw with satellite internet.

Today, there are very few places in the US where you can't get decent 3G or 4G service, at the same price as satellite internet.

LJD, that's some good info. I did take your earlier advice and switched to Millenicom with good results. Although their service (over Verizon) isn't quite as fast as I had with AT&T, it's an order of magnitude better than Sprint. For a little less than I was paying for AT&T I now have a 20 GB cap instead of the 5 GB AT&T cap.

I also purchased a Cradlepoint MBR95 3G router. This is a great piece of hardware and essential for anyone using a 3G USB modem. Just plug in the Novatel USB760 and you have both WiFi and ethernet, it works flawlessly and I've never experienced a dropped signal.

What I didn't realize is that the Novatel USB760 3G modem has an external antenna jack. It's plugged and Millenicom ships the device with no documentation. I'm going to give the external antenna a shot; when we were at our fourth-floor condo in Florida the service seemed to be a bit faster than we get here at home.

Sir,

When you say 3G or 4G I assume you are talking about cell phone service????? Not familiar with applying those acronyms to internet service.

I have Hughes also and sometimes it's slow but I find that varies and depends upon the destination selected and how busy it is. Problem with it is to get half way reasonable BW it costs $136 per month. Service is excellent barring thunderstorms which can't be helped.

I have a couple of tower internet servers that I could use, one for $40 per month and 3x the BW, but due to my trees, and those of my immediate neighbor, I don't have line of site to the tower and it won't work.

So, would you share some pertinent details about the name and all of this widget you like so that I can check it out. Is it only for cell phone?

Thanks,
Mark

We also have the Cradlepoint MRB95 router. It has worked flawlessly.

With the amp and the Novatel USB device. I at first used it with my cell-phone cradle laying under it. That worked well enough. But I wanted to be able to use the phone AND the wireless Internet. Finally got the 2nd amp and the correct hook-up cable to hard-wire to the little port in the USB. Works great.

After all that - we switched our land-line home phone to the new Verizon wireless "Home Phone Connect." Well - this too is amazing. Unlimited long-distance calling and much cheaper then our land line was. $30 a month, total. And - we got to keep our old home phone number. This was in New York. We took it to Michigan and installed a roof mount antenna for it. It works great with NO amp needed. So, now I hardly ever use the cell phone except when driving or in the woods. My daughter called our New York phone number when we were in the UP of Michigan camping. We had the wireless phone laying on the dashboard of our truck. I find it amazing.

Wireless Internet service uses the same towers and frequencies as cell-phones. 3G and 4G. In my case - there IS no 4G anywhere I go in NY and MI. We get 3G coverage for our AT&T cell phones and our Millenicom wireless Internet. Our Verizon "Home Phone Connect" wireless home phone system is also 3G. ml>

Mark,

All the major cell phone carriers sell devices that allow you to get internet broadband over 3G/4G without a cell phone. They offer a variety of devices, usually either in the form of a USB "thumbdrive" or a wireless (wifi) hotspot. These devices actually are cell phones and have their own number, you just can't use them to make a call. They don't seem to advertise them much, probably because they aren't as profitable as smart phones.

I've used AT&T, Virgin Mobile (Sprint) and Millenicom (Verizon). I don't recommend Virgin or Sprint, but AT&T and Verizon's 3G services are pretty good. Cost is around 60 bucks a month with a 5 GB cap. Millenicom offers a 20 GB cap for $60/mo. Be careful and check with them first before selecting a plan, as they use both Sprint and Verizon and you probably want to use Verizon. Most of the service providers have maps that show where their 3G/4G service should work.

I recommend getting a USB modem rather than a hotspot. If you need WiFi, there are routers specifically for this purpose; Cradlepoint is probably the leader in routers made specifically for use with USB 3G/4G modems.

We just switched from Hughesnet to Wildblue Excede and love it..27 GB"s for $69.95 per month and its looking like we will never use 20 GB"s of it..

Mark and LJD. This is a fabulous piece of information. I never have a problem with my cell phone service from ATT. I will get busy today and check into this.

Amazing about advertising. If something isn't advertised you seldom know about it unless as this, word of mouth.

Course the flip side is all the @#$%^&* commercials you have to put up with on the TV.

Thanks again guys,

Mark

We also got the Verizon home connect device and dropped the land line. They let us try it for a week with a temp number and it worked flawlessly. Moved the home number over to it and it's been great ever since. Saved over $20 a month on phone service.

We also have Hughes Net, it works pretty good just a little slower than using my tablet with a 3G hot spot. I'm in one of those areas that's on the edge of having great cell connection. Unfortunately only have 2 gig a month, for $30 on the tablet. So far has been enough to use when I want to stream small videos or as a backup to the satellite system. We are still on a now older Hughes plan with a 250 meg per day limit, but rarely exceed that. The Gen4 Hughes isn't available in our area yet, price is the same but the down load speed (max) is 10 times faster that the current satellite we use. Price is the same and I believe the limit is a total per month plan, but I also understand new equipment is needed. I bought mine instead of leasing... if we upgrade maybe I can make a fountain out of it or something.

As I said, I could get a great deal on a tower supplier if it weren't for the trees. I checked with the ATT guys and they don't serve my area even though my cell phone is with them. I'm just outside a very large metro area and I find it frustrating that if I were just 20 miles down the road I could have it all for a pittance. Oh well, guess I just have to tough it out as no way am I moving to town.

Mark