Internet options in an area with no coverage

rachua

I live in an area with no internet coverage. I've tried all suppliers including satellite and they either don't cover my area, can't get any signal or are ridiculously expensive for, by their own admission, unreliable coverage as i seem to be in a complete blackspot. I desperately need good reliable internet. Does anyone know of any options i mightn't have heard about or tried yet. Any feedback on q sat or onwave? Any help greatly appreciated.

ItHurtsWhenIP

rachua wrote: »

I live in an area with no internet coverage. I've tried all suppliers including satellite and they either don't cover my area or can't get any signal. I desperately need good reliable internet. Does anyone know of any options i mightn't have heard about or tried yet. Any feedback on q sat or onwave? Any help greatly appreciated.

Go to this map and drop the marker on your house (for some reason I don't see the marker any more, but I can left click on my location and I get the same effect) and tick Wireless ISPs. This will show you any FWA providers in your area. If you call them with your coordinates they should be able to tell you if they can provide a service or not. If they can, then check on this forum for any issues people may have had with them - some WISPs are notoriously bad whereas others are excellent.

I'm surprised that no Satellite provider can deliver a service, but to be honest I would go back to dial-up rather that satellite as it's too expensive for a crappy and unreliable service.

ED E

I assume the OP mean FWA when they said satellite, unless you live down the bottom of a well you can get sat.

niallb

ED E wrote: »

I assume the OP mean FWA when they said satellite, unless you live down the bottom of a well you can get sat.

But possibly not within the OP's budget.

@rachua, for any meaningful feedback, you do need to give some idea of what part of the country you're in, and maybe the names of a few suppliers you contacted who turned you down. Is onwave one of them?

rachua

niallb wrote: »

But possibly not within the OP's budget.

@rachua, for any meaningful feedback, you do need to give some idea of what part of the country you're in, and maybe the names of a few suppliers you contacted who turned you down. Is onwave one of them?

I live mayo and I've tried westnet, digiweb, three, Vodafone, eir, lightnet etc. I got a ridiculous quote from qsat and after many questions about coverage they admitted that coverage would probably be limited and not guaranteed but i could try it for 30 days. Their data package was ridiculous. I've sent onwave a couple of emails and am still waiting for a reply which is never a good sign. Looks like best option is to just move house

Gadgetman496

rachua wrote: »

Looks like best option is to just move house

Isn't that some comment to have to make in 2016?

I suppose one of the prerequisites when buying/building a home now is to check first on the availability of solid broadband?

ED E

Wait until 2020 and the NBP will likely cover you (but not guaranteed) or move.

If you're out in the sthicks of Mayo its not *that* surprising that moving is suggested.

rob14

Did you try Airwire? They don't cover all of Mayo but check their coverage map.

niallb

Mayo covers a lot of ground. I know people doing well with Three near the coast towards Achill with an external antenna.
First time they tried a dongle there, they got no signal at all, but the plug in routers are a different story.

It's a pity Lightnet weren't able to come through for you.
I've had dealings with them in Galway, and they're great to work with.

Onwave are oversold in Ireland, and are often not meant to take on new customers here.
I've set it up for people needing cameras for outfarms or to monitor calving or foaling,
and if you can't get anything else, it's grand but never ideal - also the contracts tend to be long.
If you have your own equipment, it might be possible to get a shorter contract.

To other posters, I'd say broadband access is of course something to consider when picking a house, but there's more to life than that!
I bought a house here in Meath 2 years ago, and I know well that the lack of broadband in the area was a factor in how little competition I had for it.

The best coverage I get is from Meteor (Eir's network, but a good data deal). I get a basic package of 30GB a month, but I can top it up by €15 for 15GB as needed if we run out. The reason I went with them was that they had a 6 month contract available, and did a really good modem.
Mine is simiar to this Huawei B315 and is currently €69 for a refurb on a 6 month €20 (30GB) or €30 (55GB) contract.

Put your location into siteviewer.ie to get an idea of what masts are closest to you.
Asking your visitors what network they're on is probably easiest though to check coverage on all networks in your actual house.
Most phones nowadays even have a speedtest available for them, so you get a better idea of data quality instead of just voice quality.

Best of luck.
N

long_b

Have you tested for mobile signal in and around your house (sheds, ESB poles, roof)?

rachua

Yes I've tested it literally all over the house and every possible place outside. It's generally e, the very odd time H but my phone coverage with Vodafone is also quite bad and coverage is regularly dropped during calls.

rachua

Thanks for that Niallb. Unfortunately i need internet for work so it is a necessity. Wish it wasn't though!

niallb

I'm mostly a network administrator, and work largely from home, so I know where you're coming from.
Internet isn't optional for any of us these days.

What I'm saying about my own location is that it costs me three times as much for a 2-10Mb connection (depending on the time/weather) as city dwellers expect to pay for a 10-100 times faster connection. I have to remember I saved up front on that spend on the price of my house, and for me it's a worthwhile tradeoff.

The only thing is that 2-10Mb is adequate for most work purposes - even Video conferencing. Adequate meaning you can get things done without losing your sanity. Even if it's slow, at least it saves on diesel and travelling time.
The big bandwidth and big download caps usually only come into play for recreational internet use - unless you're a graphic designer or similar.

If you occasionally get 'H' on your phone, a decent modem will get it all the time once you have it in a good spot .
It's better than nothing and likely to get you 4-7Mb or better if you add an antenna.
If you can force it to 4G, the speed increase is very noticable.

If you're in a really remote location, and you do manage to get connected to a mast, you may find you have it mostly to yourself
which is a good thing for your speed.

ItHurtsWhenIP

rachua wrote: »

Thanks for that Niallb. Unfortunately i need internet for work so it is a necessity. Wish it wasn't though!

If you need it for work and there is a VPN involved, then forget about satellite, the latency will make it totally unstable.

niallb

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

If you need it for work and there is a VPN involved, then forget about satellite, the latency will make it totally unstable.

That's usually true, but it can depend on the VPN technology.
I've had an OpenVPN tunnel running over satellite for the last year,
and while it's slow to start moving data across it, it's been solid.
We're just using it to put a public IP on a satellite link for remote access.
To get a public IP from a TooWay provider would have cost serious extra euro every month, so putting an OpenVPN server on a $5 a month VPS worked out much better.
There seems to have been a change in November which makes that cheaper,
but I've no experience with it.

editorsean

niallb wrote: »

If you occasionally get 'H' on your phone, a decent modem will get it all the time once you have it in a good spot .
It's better than nothing and likely to get you 4-7Mb or better if you add an antenna.
If you can force it to 4G, the speed increase is very noticable.

I can confirm this at my home - If I stand outside and hold my phone up in the air with it forced into 3G/4G mode, it will intermittently lock onto HSPA, although not stable enough to do any browsing.

In my loft, I have a directional MIMO antenna attached to a dongle aimed in the general direction of the mast (based on Comreg's Site viewer) and it gets a full (5 bar) signal on 3G and a 2 bar signal on 4G with Three. With iD Mobile MBB (which uses the Three network) in 3G mode, speed peak varies between 2Mbps in the evening and 8Mbps during the day. On 4G, the speed usually varies between 10Mbps and 18Mbps despite the 2 bar signal and a basic Huawei E8278 dongle which can only be connected to over Wi-Fi.

I would also definitely recommend going for a decent router as I've visited someone with a Huawei B593 (on Three MBB) that was picking up a solid 3 to 4 bar 4G signal where my phone could only pick up 1 to 2 bar in the same spot (after going in & out of airplane mode) and kept dropping back to 'H' 3G mode a few seconds later.

niallb

I have a Huawei B593 for my meteor connection which I use for working from home,
and it's the best I've tried.

I also have a www.ruralwifi.ie router made by D-Link which connects to Three.
That signal is poorer and I needed to add an antenna, but it gives me about 5Mb with unlimited bandwidth for €48 per month.
I got in on an introductory offer, and they no longer promise unlimited.
They still do €58 a month for 250GB on an 18 month contract with a 30 day return option.

I have both of them high up in the attic and run ethernet down to a Homeplug to get the signal down to the rest of the house.
The house has a lot of external walls inside as it was extended a few times so I've another wifi access point downstairs.
I previously bought my own satellite gear so I could use it in an emergency without having to sign up to a 2 year contract.
When you rely on a distant mobile phone mast, emergencies include things like your provider "Improving coverage", and "upgrading their equipment".

When the alternative is to move house though, it's worth putting a bit of money, trial and error into looking for a workable solution.