Help Blackson Get Fast Nets!

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Postby blackson » 2010.09.25 (17:11)

So I live in a somewhat rural area. Due to this, getting highspeed internet has become a bit of a chore. At this point, my family is paying for Hughes Net - the nazi's of the internet business. With Hughes Net I get 450mb of uploading/downloading/browsing a day due to it being a satellite provider. I also am getting about 80kb/s downloading speeds. We're paying $80 a month for this. Yes, $80 a month for 80kb/s speeds. I've become a bit frustrated it with it and I decided I'd check out how difficult it would be to get broadband.

We have a particularly long driveway (1/3 of a mile), so our house is pretty far back from the road. As of very recently, Comcast has run a cable along our rode. However, our road = the bottom of my driveway, and I don't think they're willing to run a cable to our house (if anyone here knows otherwise, please speak up). This all leads me to my question(s), how expensive is it to run a self purchased cable for ~2000 feet (the driveway isn't the path we'd run the cable, which is why that doesn't add up)? Will I need signal boosters? If so, how many and how expensive are they? Any help here would be fantastic.

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Postby SlappyMcGee » 2010.09.25 (18:51)

Blackson wrote:So I live in a somewhat rural area. Due to this, getting highspeed internet has become a bit of a chore. At this point, my family is paying for Hughes Net - the nazi's of the internet business. With Hughes Net I get 450mb of uploading/downloading/browsing a day due to it being a satellite provider. I also am getting about 80kb/s downloading speeds. We're paying $80 a month for this. Yes, $80 a month for 80kb/s speeds. I've become a bit frustrated it with it and I decided I'd check out how difficult it would be to get broadband.

We have a particularly long driveway (1/3 of a mile), so our house is pretty far back from the road. As of very recently, Comcast has run a cable along our rode. However, our road = the bottom of my driveway, and I don't think they're willing to run a cable to our house (if anyone here knows otherwise, please speak up). This all leads me to my question(s), how expensive is it to run a self purchased cable for ~2000 feet (the driveway isn't the path we'd run the cable, which is why that doesn't add up)? Will I need signal boosters? If so, how many and how expensive are they? Any help here would be fantastic.

What you should do: Build a small shack at the front of your property, run an extension cord from your home to said shack, and have the guy install it there. Then run a mad sick router.

But as far as running the cable to your house; companies (I can not speak for your branch of comcast directly) are complete dicks about this. The cable itself can be pricey, but the installation is what would end up costing you the most, and they are already very wary about projects like this.
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Postby blackson » 2010.09.25 (19:25)

=w= wrote:
Blackson wrote:So I live in a somewhat rural area. Due to this, getting highspeed internet has become a bit of a chore. At this point, my family is paying for Hughes Net - the nazi's of the internet business. With Hughes Net I get 450mb of uploading/downloading/browsing a day due to it being a satellite provider. I also am getting about 80kb/s downloading speeds. We're paying $80 a month for this. Yes, $80 a month for 80kb/s speeds. I've become a bit frustrated it with it and I decided I'd check out how difficult it would be to get broadband.

We have a particularly long driveway (1/3 of a mile), so our house is pretty far back from the road. As of very recently, Comcast has run a cable along our rode. However, our road = the bottom of my driveway, and I don't think they're willing to run a cable to our house (if anyone here knows otherwise, please speak up). This all leads me to my question(s), how expensive is it to run a self purchased cable for ~2000 feet (the driveway isn't the path we'd run the cable, which is why that doesn't add up)? Will I need signal boosters? If so, how many and how expensive are they? Any help here would be fantastic.

What you should do: Build a small shack at the front of your property, run an extension cord from your home to said shack, and have the guy install it there. Then run a mad sick router.
The shack would be no problem, although we would probably abbreviate it to a small box. Do such routers exist that strong? How much signal would I lose being so far away from the router do you think? I'm trying to get away from the slow speeds.

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Postby SlappyMcGee » 2010.09.25 (20:18)

Blackson wrote:
=w= wrote:
Blackson wrote:So I live in a somewhat rural area. Due to this, getting highspeed internet has become a bit of a chore. At this point, my family is paying for Hughes Net - the nazi's of the internet business. With Hughes Net I get 450mb of uploading/downloading/browsing a day due to it being a satellite provider. I also am getting about 80kb/s downloading speeds. We're paying $80 a month for this. Yes, $80 a month for 80kb/s speeds. I've become a bit frustrated it with it and I decided I'd check out how difficult it would be to get broadband.

We have a particularly long driveway (1/3 of a mile), so our house is pretty far back from the road. As of very recently, Comcast has run a cable along our rode. However, our road = the bottom of my driveway, and I don't think they're willing to run a cable to our house (if anyone here knows otherwise, please speak up). This all leads me to my question(s), how expensive is it to run a self purchased cable for ~2000 feet (the driveway isn't the path we'd run the cable, which is why that doesn't add up)? Will I need signal boosters? If so, how many and how expensive are they? Any help here would be fantastic.

What you should do: Build a small shack at the front of your property, run an extension cord from your home to said shack, and have the guy install it there. Then run a mad sick router.

The shack would be no problem, although we would probably abbreviate it to a small box. Do such routers exist that strong? How much signal would I lose being so far away from the router do you think? I'm trying to get away from the slow speeds.
There is a guide for boosting your router strength over on Lifehacker

2000 feet is quite significant, though. If I were you, I would probably set up some sort of crazy proxy system with 5-10 routers, but I like crazy systems.

Another option is to buy a significant antennae for both the router and the laptops in question. Radiolabs sells antennaes for laptops. As far as routers, look for routers with high levels of mW. A 400mW router should easily be able to cover the distance you are talking about, imo.
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Postby Vyacheslav » 2010.09.25 (20:28)

Are there any trees/obstructions between the house and the mailbox?
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Postby blackson » 2010.09.25 (20:32)

987654321 wrote:Are there any trees/obstructions between the house and the mailbox?
Yes. No trees or anything like that in the way, but it's really mountainous around here and there's a few hills in the way.

Slapps, I'll respond to you in a few.

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Postby taaveti » 2010.09.26 (00:40)

My first instinct would be to run fiber, but you're looking at about $400 just for the cable, plus at least a couple hundred for a switch which supports it (of course, if it saves you $40/month, it'll pay for itself pretty quickly). Alternatively, if you have decent cell service, you might want to consider a MiFi-type device (Virgin has a $150 MiFi with a $40/month unlimited data plan).

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Postby blackson » 2010.09.26 (01:12)

=w= wrote:
Blackson wrote:
=w= wrote:
What you should do: Build a small shack at the front of your property, run an extension cord from your home to said shack, and have the guy install it there. Then run a mad sick router.

The shack would be no problem, although we would probably abbreviate it to a small box. Do such routers exist that strong? How much signal would I lose being so far away from the router do you think? I'm trying to get away from the slow speeds.
There is a guide for boosting your router strength over on Lifehacker

2000 feet is quite significant, though. If I were you, I would probably set up some sort of crazy proxy system with 5-10 routers, but I like crazy systems.

Another option is to buy a significant antennae for both the router and the laptops in question. Radiolabs sells antennaes for laptops. As far as routers, look for routers with high levels of mW. A 400mW router should easily be able to cover the distance you are talking about, imo.
I'll definitely consider the router if we can't get a cable down there (prefer the cable and make a day's hard work of it rather than have to worry about a cord coming lose and having to walk all the way down to fix my problem).
taaveti wrote:My first instinct would be to run fiber, but you're looking at about $400 just for the cable, plus at least a couple hundred for a switch which supports it (of course, if it saves you $40/month, it'll pay for itself pretty quickly). Alternatively, if you have decent cell service, you might want to consider a MiFi-type device (Virgin has a $150 MiFi with a $40/month unlimited data plan).
Looked into cell as well, but we've been dancing through carriers and the best we get at our house is 2 bars of service. Where can I buy fiber? Is it something I can just run or does it have to be professionally installed?

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Postby taaveti » 2010.09.26 (18:55)

Blackson wrote:Where can I buy fiber? Is it something I can just run or does it have to be professionally installed?
I'd start with newegg, then maybe google around a bit. Google shopping results for "fiber optic cable 2000ft" brings up some reasonable results 3-4 pages in.
For installation, as long as you're reasonably careful (e.g. don't bend it too tight of an arc, don't pull too hard on it, and avoid twisting the cable) running the cable is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, you probably aren't going to find a 2000ft cable with connectors, and installing them is a pretty precise business- even a tiny error (e.g. a speck of dust in the air landing on the end of the cable) can lead to significant signal loss. If you have access to a pro at a reasonable price, it'd probably be best to get help with the connector installation and testing.

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Postby blackson » 2010.10.02 (15:06)

taaveti wrote:
Blackson wrote:Where can I buy fiber? Is it something I can just run or does it have to be professionally installed?
I'd start with newegg, then maybe google around a bit. Google shopping results for "fiber optic cable 2000ft" brings up some reasonable results 3-4 pages in.
For installation, as long as you're reasonably careful (e.g. don't bend it too tight of an arc, don't pull too hard on it, and avoid twisting the cable) running the cable is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, you probably aren't going to find a 2000ft cable with connectors, and installing them is a pretty precise business- even a tiny error (e.g. a speck of dust in the air landing on the end of the cable) can lead to significant signal loss. If you have access to a pro at a reasonable price, it'd probably be best to get help with the connector installation and testing.
We're going to a Comcast store to see what they will and won't do. If it comes to what you're saying I'll definitely take your advice. Will update after what they say.


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