# Internet access in remote cabin?



## Jakobud (Jun 24, 2013)

I have a remote cabin about 9 miles outside of Crested Butte, Colorado. There is power but no phone. I can sometimes get some cell service there but it's spotty. I don't think cell data reaches back there.

Does anyone have any approaches that work for getting internet access in a remote place? Satellite? Cell phone hotspots? Cell signal boosters? Special directional antennas that I can point toward the town to get a signal? Anything?


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## vonrow (Oct 20, 2015)

I once had a satellite service plan. The caveat was that you had to have telephone service of some kind to complete the initial setup. After the install was done, the phone line was not required. The company has since improved their installations and as such they don't always need the land line these days. Wild Blue was the ISP's name.


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## zuren (Feb 13, 2015)

Satellite internet may be an option but from what I remember, a phone line was required. The technology may have improved by now eliminating that need. However, satellite internet is expensive.

You'll need to figure out if cell data (3G or 4G) reaches the cabin at all. I would not plan on doing much beyond some surfing and checking email on 3G. If you can get 4G, some streaming is possible. If you have friends with smartphones and different carriers than you, you might want to invite them up for a weekend and see whose phone works the best. You can also look at the map here to get an idea:

http://opensignal.com/

You can also try standing on the roof with your phone or see if you can get higher (tree, tower, taller building, etc). Cell phones are simply radios and only work with line of sight to the towers. Signal can skip a little beyond line of sight or what a map shows but is highly dependent on terrain, structures, weather, etc.

If you can get a data signal (even a couple bars), you are halfway there. Then you can worry about boosting the signal and installing a hotspot or tether your smartphone to your computer (via a cord; this is what I do in a pinch). 

Wilson Amplifiers offers some nice equipment for boosting a signal. I have one of their vehicle kits:

https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/medium-sized-home-solution-kits/?sort=bestselling 

But there needs to be some level of signal to boost; it can't create a signal from nothing. See if you can figure out what kind of signal you can get at the cabin and report back here. We'll try to get you set up!


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

I have Hughesnet.. No phone service required for it.. 

I had it about 10 years ago and it was really bad.. Now it's no so bad, but it still sucks to be limited with data caps (20gigs a month peak time)


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

No phone service required for Exede satellite, in fact my wife's phone is through the satellite. 10 gig/mo data cap but unlimited data after midnight and before 5 am on the classic plan.


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