# any alternatives to dial up in rural area



## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

I live in a very rural area and yes, I can get broad band but I have enough bills. The cost is three times what dial up is. The phone lines in the house are fairly new and so is the modem but, I still can't download video and it is generally slowwwww...the maximum speed it connects at is 52.3 bps, usually slower than that. I have loaded Accelerator from the ISP which has helped a little. The pics are awful b/c of it but I can adjust that if needed. Specifically, is there any way to speed up good ol' dial up? :help: The 'puter is my entertainment but it sure is frustrating trying to peruse this forum and having it take "forever" or being booted off b/c of this connection. :flame:


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

Basically to answer your question is NO.

Dial up is dial up.

The accelerators offered by ISP are just compression programs. They just take the images and compress them small in file size. Thus the bad images.

You can only squeeze so much speed out of a basic phone line.

If you are getting booted off the dial up then it is not the dial up. I is most likely not enough system resources to maintain the connection.

A computer is like hypothermia. It will shut down non critical programs,(modems) to save itself from dying completely.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

With the way the internet is progressing - there are more videos, images and larger pieces of data - and the frustration you're experiencing on dialup will only get worse. There are ways to make "dialup" more tolerable, but the internet is becoming a "multimedia" medium, and without a broadband connection, you really are missing out on a large portion of what it has to offer.

You're fortunate in that you're rural and you do have broadband available. Some rural folks have satellite internet as their only broadband option - and that is very expensive compared to DSL or cable.

You obviously have a phone line, so that is where I'd start "shopping". Can you get a phone line cheaper? Can you get a land line and DSL as a "combo" package? I recently spent a few hours doing some "comparison" shopping, switched providers and knocked about 40% off my monthly internet/phone fees.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

The only other alternative that maybe within your budget is IF you can get Wireless, and if you can then that Broadband maybe better to budget around but dial-up is just that dial-up, and not much can be done that you are not already doing.
Satellite is WAY up there in price.
The only other thing is just wait to see if and when Broadband comes in over the electric power lines, they are starting to roll this out now in different areas but then that is also new and maybe high in price to start with.


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2007)

I have the same problem. Dialup with accelerator. I can't watch streaming videos, but I can download certain types of videos to my hard drive first, then watch them.

What types of videos are you wanting to watch? There are different ways to get different videos.


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

I pay $49 a month for satellite. If you have dishnet or directtv, you can get a good package deal.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

OK, wrong info, we can get DSL NOT broadband. I tried shopping around for phone lines and most that offer DSL, including the ISP, don't offer it in the area I live in. Our current company does but it is over three times what I pay now. I hate to click on any ads but I saw a couple on this site that caught my interest. 
The videos are ususally informational i.e. weather, health etc. None of them load well, not even the quick ads. I guess I will have to go back to sqaure one and start looking at ads (ugh) and see if there are any companies in this area that are less money. Thanks for the input.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

Broadband is a "generic" term which covers DSL, cable, satellite, etc. DSL is broadband.

Also, some DSL providers offer different packages - such as "lite", "standard" and "ultra" (the names may be different, but basically the same). The DSL "lite" is usually very affordable, is the slowest of the connections, but still much faster and more dependable than dialup.

Also, in some locations, you do not have to purchase the DSL service from the same company which provides your land line - they can be seperate providers. You may want to talk to some "computer techs" locally - they'll know the best services, service providers, best rates, etc.



tab said:


> OK, wrong info, we can get DSL NOT broadband. I tried shopping around for phone lines and most that offer DSL, including the ISP, don't offer it in the area I live in. Our current company does but it is over three times what I pay now. I hate to click on any ads but I saw a couple on this site that caught my interest.
> The videos are ususally informational i.e. weather, health etc. None of them load well, not even the quick ads. I guess I will have to go back to sqaure one and start looking at ads (ugh) and see if there are any companies in this area that are less money. Thanks for the input.


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2007)

tab said:


> The videos are ususally informational i.e. weather, health etc. None of them load well, not even the quick ads.


 What I meant by types of videos, like youtube videos, or video clips on news sites, or what?

I use youtube catcher to get youtube videos. For other video sharing sites I use a combination of keepvid.com and Free Download Manager. I can't watch streaming videos, but on *some* sites I'm able to view page source and find a link I can paste into the d/l manager. There are ways to get yet other videos, but they take a lot of technical expertise. And of course there are plenty of videos I can't get at all.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

I always learn something when I visit this forum, whether I post or not.
Thanks for the ideas.


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## Labrat407 (Aug 24, 2007)

You will have to look for the links to get this but it is still valid, I think.

$10 internet from AT&T


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2007)

Labrat407 said:


> You will have to look for the links to get this but it is still valid, I think.
> 
> $10 internet from AT&T


 Darn, can't get that here. We don't have AT&T.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

ladycat said:


> Darn, can't get that here. We don't have AT&T.


Tell me about it, I am surrounded by ATT, aka SBC, aka Southwestern Bell. I unfortunately have what used to be Alltel landline, now Windstream. Windstream sent me offer of the two lowest speed DSL, but made no promise they would work. I thought $35 for slowest DSL was no bargain so didnt bother replying. Looking online, Windstream DSL doesnt have great rep for reliability. Alsso my lines are marginal anyway so didnt figure DSL would work great if it worked at all. And frankly since library offers free broadband via wifi that I can use to download big files when I go there with my laptop in tow, having high speed internet at home is not big deal. I can live without regular access to Utube.

Yep internet is moving to more streaming video and such but the important things still can be accomplished with dialup like banking and paying bills. Video is just icing on cake, not cake itself. Unless websites only start caring about customers in urban areas they are going to have to offer alternate access without requiring video or flash or java applets or other big bandwidth requirements. It will be a long time before everybody has cheap access to broadband in their home. Still annoying to run into sites that slow way down just cause they want to try and force me to watch some stupid animation or design their website with bunch carp that isnt needed, just eye candy.

As long as dialup is functional or until I can get $10 DSL that works, broadband would have to somehow pay for itself in economic benefit, not just eye candy entertainment. 

By way I have heard that the trick to the ATT $10 DSL is that they dont offer the free modem rebate with the $10 service, so monthly payment works out to $15 per month. Unless you can reject the modem and pick up a cheap identical one off ebay. Dont know if they let you do that or if they force you to buy a modem from them at their high price.


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

I am on dialup from the only game in town. I am close enough to get DSL but it is over $35 for the cheapest. Normal connection speed is 28.8kbps, sometimes 26.4, never faster. I use Firefox and keep the graphics turned off unless I know the site isn't overloaded. I also use an ImgLikeOpera plugin so if I want to see a picture, I can easily have it load up. All the flash animation is also turned off. Some pages load up with dozens of little triangle arrows, meaning I would have had to load down lots of silly flash things. It works for me.


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

I used to think that way - most of my interests were information based and I saw no real need for video, music, etc. etc. Within the last few years, I've attended many online seminars, began using things like UTube to follow some of my interests, used VOIP for free North America calling, etc. etc. There is real value in a broadband connection - and I'd definately disagree that video is just icing on the cake. I agree that some of the high-bandwidth "fluff" like animations and useless graphics are both annoying and not required.

I doubt it will be that long before the majority of the population has a cheap broadband connection, because most of the population is in urban areas. I'm nearer the city, and I can get a 5mb DSL connection for $19 per month including the modem and tax. Dialup has all but disappeared from many urban areas.




HermitJohn said:


> Yep internet is moving to more streaming video and such but the important things still can be accomplished with dialup like banking and paying bills. Video is just icing on cake, not cake itself. Unless websites only start caring about customers in urban areas they are going to have to offer alternate access without requiring video or flash or java applets or other big bandwidth requirements. It will be a long time before everybody has cheap access to broadband in their home. Still annoying to run into sites that slow way down just cause they want to try and force me to watch some stupid animation or design their website with bunch carp that isnt needed, just eye candy.


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## Use Less (Nov 8, 2007)

We are stuck with dial-up, too. Our place looks rural, but we are 45 mins. from a fairly large, tech-savvy city, so go figure. The problem here isn't our phone/lines/modem, it's the phone lines out there. 18,000 yds. from closest access for cable, etc., which they would be glad to update at our expense. :grit: Somebody at the phone co.actually said that to me! I have heard that satellite won't do much for us- we probably still couldn't stream video or download music sucessfully (source: guys at Soundbytes, longest-running radio call-in program for computer stuff.) I've thought of getting a laptop and doing free wifi at the coffee places when I do go to the city... but don't know if I'd be able to see/hear anything I got onto my computer once I came home again??? Sue


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

OntarioMan said:


> I used to think that way - most of my interests were information based and I saw no real need for video, music, etc. etc. Within the last few years, I've attended many online seminars, began using things like UTube to follow some of my interests, used VOIP for free North America calling, etc. etc. There is real value in a broadband connection - and I'd definately disagree that video is just icing on the cake. I agree that some of the high-bandwidth "fluff" like animations and useless graphics are both annoying and not required.
> 
> I doubt it will be that long before the majority of the population has a cheap broadband connection, because most of the population is in urban areas. I'm nearer the city, and I can get a 5mb DSL connection for $19 per month including the modem and tax. Dialup has all but disappeared from many urban areas.


The local only isps I am sure have disappeared from urban areas do to extreme competition, both from broadband and super cheap dialup, but the networks are still in place so some tiny isp halfway across the country can offer dialup to you under $10 a month cause it leases from the wholesale networks which have numbers nationwide. 

As to whether broadband is worth it, depends on the individual and the price of the broadband connection available. I personally have hard time using up $10 prepaid phone minutes in 6 months so VOIP would be pointless for me. I've yet to see anything on utube that would be worth paying to see. And somehow just cant see myself being active in some online seminar. The stuff I do value I can still do with dialup. My hobby with open source software, I can satisfy with free wifi connection at library once or twice a month.


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## Jena (Aug 13, 2003)

I just switched to satellite and I'm loving it. The finances worked out like this...I was paying $75 for a land line, plus $18 for dial-up for a total of $93. I ditched them both and now pay $60 for internet, plus an additional $30/month on my cell phone for all those extra minutes. I about broke even, but now I have decent internet.

I am saving about $5 per music CD by using itunes, which I could not use with dialup. I buy a lot of music, so that is a good benefit to me, though not for everyone. I joined netflix and that is saving me in gas and late fees! I guess you can get netflix with dialup, but it got to where everything was so slow I only used the internet for what I really needed.

The installation costs of satellite were about $300. I don't regret paying it. I cannot get cable, DSL or anything else out here.

Jena


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Jena said:


> I was paying $75 for a land line


What kind of set up costs that much. Did you have every bell and whistle offered by the phone company or just live way out back of beyond and had to pay through the nose to get line brought to you? I just paid my phone bill today and for a private land line phone, it was $22.22. Yep it fluctuates a bit depending on what weird charges/taxes they add or take away month to month. Dont use long distance at all as I buy prepaid minutes elsewhere. The $18 isp charge you mention I can understand if you are out in boonies with only one or two isps with a local number. 

And yes I have netflix, no problem navigating their website. I cant however take advantage of their bonus online movies without broadband and windows operating system. Doesnt seem quite fair as I pay just as much as somebody who can take advantage.


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## Guest (Nov 22, 2007)

HermitJohn said:


> What kind of set up costs that much. Did you have every bell and whistle offered by the phone company or just live way out back of beyond and had to pay through the nose to get line brought to you? I just paid my phone bill today and for a private land line phone, it was $22.22. Yep it fluctuates a bit depending on what weird charges/taxes they add or take away month to month.


 I wondered the same thing. The landline here is something like $23/mo. That $75 quote made me go


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

Me, too. That's close to family's worth of cell phones. My land line runs around thirty a month with the only "bell" being caller ID. Funny how that stopped some really annoying calls but, that is another story. The taxes on either line is really worth :Bawling: .


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## Jena (Aug 13, 2003)

Basic phone service here is way more than $20something. I did have a few features as well. When my kids were still here, I had unlimited long distance, but then my bill was $95/month. We live near a state line and all my family is out of state. $95 was a bargain!


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## Suemo (Sep 19, 2002)

Qwest offers unlimited long distance for ($22 per month) plus taxes. Check them out to see if they are in your area.
I am very pleased with their service.
Suemo


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

You get 52 off of dialup... lucky!!! Back when I was on dialup, if I hit 20, I thought I was in heaven. Finally bit the bullet and went to the Satellite. IF two way Sat's were more popular back in 2000, I wouldn't even have a land line... I'd've went with two way and made all my phone calls thru the Sat.


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## Snowdancer (Sep 23, 2002)

My dialup was connecting at 26.4 on the fastest days, mostly it was 19 something. :Bawling: We don't have the option of DSL or cable here-it's either dial up or satellite.

I finally had Hughesnet Satellite brought in and I love it! It runs me about $69 a month but since I do a lot of photo's that need to be uploaded and sent out; the cost is worth it. I couldn't get my digital photo's to load correctly at 19kbp and forget any videos or Youtube.
In fact, my neighbor who has always been on dial up is now considering satellite, while traveling he experienced Broadband and agrees; once you have used some form of Broadband it's real hard to go back to dial up.


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## WindowOrMirror (Jan 10, 2005)

my dialup won't hit above 14.4kbps and that's after making the wiring in my house PERFECT. Shared ground wire and all that. Our phone went out one day, turns out the ground was disconnected by an auto accident over TWO MILES away (same ground).

so, we have satellite.

R


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## WisJim (Jan 14, 2004)

Interestingly, our desktop dialup would connect at 37 to 44kbps, then an electrical surge through the phone took out the surge arrestor and the modem. Got a new modem, and now it connects at 45 to 55kbps all the time. But, we bought a new laptop a couple of weeks ago, and I hooked it to the phone line last night for the first time, and it only connects at about 27 to 32kbps. A few minutes later I went to use the desk top after disconnecting the laptop, and it was a 47kbps. Seems like the modem makes a big difference. 

We would consider something faster, but I can use a computer at work at 1gbps connection, and our dial up is free, through my job. Anything else would cost us money.


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