Rural Internet Frustration

I know this question won't be of much interest to most folks here. However, its causing me a great deal of frustration.
As you know, schools are closed and we are expected to continue our children's education via the internet and things like face time, skype and continuously downloading materials and visiting activity servers. To the common theme of folks in my area, we don't have access to internet. So our kids suffer greatly because of it.

I installed a very pricey Explornet system yesterday only to realize in the first few minutes that its going right back where it came from. I cant believe anybody would build that **** on a stick!

My company provides me with an Ipad that allows me to connect to the plant when I'm needed but as for home internet, we have none. Apparently there is "High Speed Over Phone Line" at 1.5mbps available for 115$/mth but the network is at capacity and I or anybody else in my area can't be added at this point no matter how much $$ I offered them. There is only 12 currently used connections in this little network. Pathetic.

Our amazing liberals rolled out this big connect rural Nova Scotia plan in 2018 with promises of 50mbps for everybody, but as the regular course of anything goes for our liberals, it was a GIANT failure and nothing more than a campaign strategy.

I'm wondering what you folks do? Is there any good LTE systems that you guys use that I may be overlooking? Perhaps an antenna I can buy or anything that you could think of to get reliable enough internet for my kid to be able to do a simple facetime with his teacher?

What about a point to point connection I could set up with my plant? Its far, like 30 KM without a line of sight. Is there technology I could use to push a connection that far, I'm doubtful .

I realize there is likely nothing, but I'm just venting and getting very frustrated with the government expecting these kids to complete the year over a service we were told was coming but still don't have. There are many kids in our area in this same boat. Lessons are happening daily but so far he hasn't been able to participate. I'm worried he will have to repeat his year if I can't get something going.

sorry for venting but I just hate to see him fail because of this

what types of speeds do you get on your phone when using cellular data? That is probably your best option, but the towers may also be crowded.

In my area some of the schools have beefed up their wifi so that people with slow connections at home can drive to the school parking lot and log in there to get access to the lessons.

Any neighbours/friends within line of sight who do have a sufficiently fast internet connection that they might be willing to share with you? You may be able to use regular home wifi hardware combined with outdoor directional antennas to cover a moderate distance within line of sight. Under normal circumstances I am of the opinion that we should all pay for our own connections. But if none is available where you live and a neighbour can help you out then I don't see a problem with that option under the present day circumstances.

Steve Bailey said:

In my area some of the schools have beefed up their wifi so that people with slow connections at home can drive to the school parking lot and log in there to get access to the lessons.

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As for sitting in the school parking lot all day, ok but I'm still working full time, this would technically work but I would have to be off a lot, facetime lessons are daily from 11 to noon and activities on the servers to be done in the AM, my kids school is 50 km from where I work, not to mention our orders are to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.

One of my neighbors does have one of the 12 connections that the provider calls "highSpeed" in our area, we do borrow signal sometimes with a powerful WIFI access point but now they are off work and online ALL THE TIME making what little bit we get from them when they are online basically useless. Its only 1.5mbps remember.

Its a very frustrating situation. I feel like I have to do something but.... what? I never cared at all before about the internet as I view it as a tool, not entertainment, iv never had access to internet for entertainment so I didn't really care before. Now its a necessity.

How about satellite? Dish has one that they sell but its Hughesnet, not sure of the cost but it was fast, its been a couple years, I also had a Verizon signal booster and that was good for the cell signal

I feel your pain.

Way back when, I tried a satellite based internet from Wild Blue. It worked well during the wee hours, but the latency made it useless for remote control of my office PC and I think they oversold the service because during prime time, it would basically stop working. I paid $80/mo for two years and cancelled it.

Now, I have what I call Green Acres Internet. I don't have to climb a pole, but I do adjust my bandwidth with a pipe wrench.

I have a Verizon phone with unlimited data and I use its hotspot to connect to my home PC.

It won't get a cell signal at my place due to the fact that I live in a low spot out in the country. So I bought a cell phone booster and put the outdoor antenna on a pole. The first one had an omni antenna and it worked so-so. It got killed by lightning so I bought a 2nd one like it. 4 years later it died (probably lightning again), so this time I got a Hiboost unit that is much better and handles 4G as well as the older technologies. It has a flat panel directional outdoor antenna.

I can rotate the pole 1/16th of gnat's ash and drastically alter my signal. I have found one spot that works well for both my AT&T (work) cell phone and my Verizon phone...

I am not sure what speeds I am getting, but probably not near 1.5mbs.

Searching for "WISP in Halifax" shows that CanWISP held a conference there in 2018. So there might be a WISP in your area.

A WISP is an internet service provider that uses fixed wireless access points to distribute internet bandwidth. They can have speeds up to 1gbps, however they will usually be able to provide 25-100mbps. Because they are wireless they can service areas that are too expensive to run fiber/coax to. They can also service areas many kilometers from a town center (where internet is usually good).

Sometimes I have traveled to small villages without cable or WiFi or ADSL connection, but most of the time I have always been able to connect using the phone as WiFi AccessPoint since 3G/4G coverage usually was.

The only drawback is not to exceed the monthly Gigas limit ...

I would check with Verizon. I was told they offer the same plan as we have in the states.

A 5 gig a month data plan for Verizon here in the states is $50.00 and month. As long as you don't stream movies/music this should be more than enough for home/school use.

Then I would purchase a cellular modem/router $250.00 - good antenna($125.00) and thats all you would need except for a Ethernet switch depending on you connection needs

Starlink is coming ... for the liberals.

Jon Musk said:

Starlink is coming ... for the liberals.

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This is the first time Iv heard of Starlink. It looks promising.
Coming for the liberals... I'm not sure about that.
I cant say I even really understand what it means in the USA to be liberal or otherwise.
All I know is that in our little province, the word liberal to most working class folks means the closing of industries, the end of any lifestyle driven careers and a demanded conformity to the "new age of life". Empty campaign promises, such as providing high speed internet in 2018. We lost another MAJOR saw mill yesterday to deals made by or dishonorable Stephen McNeil, a third generation saw mill that has been modernized and directly employed 150 people, indirectly another few hundred. All the while they continuously boast efforts to keep things like call centers open and toot their horn about the amazing jobs they have been doing. It all makes me a little sick to think about being as how my family, me included is heavily dependent on these industries, forestry in particular. I know this is going off topic and Iv spouted about it a few times now, but it just seems wrong that that in any given
industry where you have a ready and able work force, you have infrastructure, you have raw product and demand for the final product that your government would rather shut it down for good an import these final commodities from other provinces or countries. Oil and gas included. It makes our lands and seas and all investments in them worthless. Not to mention our employment rate.... (pre-covid mind you) was growing exponentially due to these decisions. It just seems criminal to me.

Anyway.. I hope Starlink does come around soon. The latency is very attractive at under 35ms. I didn't see any data limits though and they suggested approx 80$/mth..... The Explornet system I installed a couple days ago, that doesn't work, is set to cap at 10GB. They also sold it to me with a promise of 10gbps minimum and higher, last nights speed test showed me 0.46mbps, latency almost 1700ms! Thats 119$/mth. plus tax for 100GB? Ouch!

PLC Pie Guy said:

My company provides me with an Ipad that allows me to connect to the plant when I'm needed but as for home internet, we have none.

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You may be able to set up that Ipad as a wi-fi hotspot, but best to ask permission first. Or possibly do it with one of your phones. Check the data usage "fine print" if you go the phone route. Either way something cellular is going to be the quickest fix if there's good enough signal at your house.

I think someone said it earlier, but what about Hugesnet?

Would something like this work for you
set up between your home and you work
I know you said you don't have line of sight but depending on your exact location
maybe connect to neighbor the has internet that will let you connect
I think it'd worth looking at


http://afar.net/wireless/ethernet-bridge/