uh-oh said:
No phone competition and thus stuck with dialup with very slow speed. Connection is worse or non-existent when damp outside.
- Not to defend your phone co., but quality (both voice & dial-up speed) deteriorates the farther you are from the phone co. equipment. My phone company's equipment is over 25 miles away and the fastest dial-up speed I got was 19.8 Kbps; some neighbors got even less. That's how/why I got into satellite internet.
Satellite internet connection would be our only other option as there is no DSL or cable here. I want to make an informed decision:
*how many satellite companies are there?
- as The Tate posted, HughesNet and Wildblue are the only two-way satellite internet companies to consider, and definitely stay away from those satellite services with phone line for upload, satellite for download.
*which one would be best for the tech impaired?
- Correctly installed, both Hughes & Wildblue are transparent - you start up your computer, open a wen broswer, and you're online.
*what is downside of satellite connection vs dialup? I am miserable with our phone service, and we are stuck with them for phone service because a cell phone won't work here - we live in mtns in valley.
- Really no downside to dial-up, but comapred to other broadband services (DSL / Cable), satellite has a latency issue: You're connection is travelling almost 50,000 miles before it hits the internet "backbone" (up to the satellite in orbit over the equator and then back down to the earth bound gateway). So, when you click a link on a web page, there is a few seconds' delay before the link starts to load.
*we have big dish and directv and happy with both. We also have satellite radio and happy with it. There are problems, of course, but nothing is perfect - we manage fine, and have a tech repairman an hour away to help.
- Just make sure your satellite internet dealer / installer is reputable, and is reasonably close by to provide support. Good luck!