Advice needed for wireless broadband.

[soundbeltfarm]

I live out in hickville and we cant get broadband here (we've tried )
and my dial up is crap too i'd be better off running to the bloody library and looking in a book for information , it's that slow and it not to good a line with all the bloody electric fences and water in our phone lines here after it rains.
what i want to know is with farmside at the moment they are offereing 99 dollar install and about 80 dollar a month for 1 gig data and it say 256kb sec download and 128 kb sec upload.
how long does it take you broadband users to use a gig?
and how fast would i actually get data? i know they say 256 but is that the spped i'd get?
i looked through some other threads on here and i see that there are speeds much quicker and cheaper than i'l be able to get.
but i not to worried about the cost as im at the end of my tits with all thia dial up shit.
cheers for anyhelp.

[Beemer]

I don't know much about wireless as we're lucky the local country school got broadband and the line ran past our road! But we have the same problem with the electric fences and water in the cabling.

It depends on what you use the net for - I went onto Xtra's basic $39.95 plan (wow, 12 times the speed of dialup!) last year and I've never once exceeded the 1G limit - or even got the warning email when I have used 80% of it. But then I don't download music or movies or play games, so if you want to do any of that, someone else may be able to give you an idea of what capacity you will need.

You won't know yourself when you eventually get broadband - the homepage of the NZ Photographic Society used to take 11 MINUTES to open and that reduced to 11 SECONDS! It's so much nicer when someone sends you a big email too, no waiting for 45 minutes for a photo file to come through!

[Macktheknife]

Data speeds can sometimes vary with atmospheric conditions, but generally I would say go for it. Lets face it even if it only works for 70% of the time and performance, it will still be better than dial up.

[johnnyflash]

trouble with wireless (if satelite direct - or a local repeater) can be crappy in foul weather with atmospherics and such, (and winters coming), but as said by others here, ANYTHING is better than dialup... I run Broadband (6mbit) and use around 3-5gig a month but if u were using it only for email and web browsing probably wont use much more than 1 GB month (again its big file / miusic / video downloads that do the damage, check out the major ISP's websites for info...

[Daffyd]

trouble with wireless (if satelite direct - or a local repeater) can be crappy in foul weather with atmospherics and such...

They said the same about Sky Satellite TV but in 5 years I have only lost about 10 minutes in total.

[johnnyflash]

They said the same about Sky Satellite TV but in 5 years I have only lost about 10 minutes in total.

true but data behaves a wee bit different, in that if it degrades u still get the data but it might have to try many many times before the checksum on the data pkg verify, so it will still work but much slower than it should.. (mind u anything would beat dialup ;-) and satelite also seems to be dependant on just what angle and from where it is being sourced, a mate who has sky in among the ranges of manuwatu has real ratty service he has either outages or very scratchy reception many times a month, particularly winter months, I thought originally it was just poor tuning of dish so I went and checked, everything spot on (as his installer had said...) just crappy...:mellow:

[cowpoos]

I live out in hickville and we cant get broadband here (we've tried )
and my dial up is crap too i'd be better off running to the bloody library and looking in a book for information , it's that slow and it not to good a line with all the bloody electric fences and water in our phone lines here after it rains.
what i want to know is with farmside at the moment they are offereing 99 dollar install and about 80 dollar a month for 1 gig data and it say 256kb sec download and 128 kb sec upload.
how long does it take you broadband users to use a gig?
and how fast would i actually get data? i know they say 256 but is that the spped i'd get?
i looked through some other threads on here and i see that there are speeds much quicker and cheaper than i'l be able to get.
but i not to worried about the cost as im at the end of my tits with all thia dial up shit.
cheers for anyhelp.
cheaper to use telecom or vodafone mobile broadband... telecom is $49.95 for the first gig and $10 for the second...on contract...so 2 gig $59.95...
theres info on the mobile phone part of the telcon website...I think vodafone is similar in pricing..

been there done that with the rural dial up bro...one thing to try before going to mobile or wireless broadband is trying a dynalink rural modem...designed for noisey connection in NZ and auz over long distances and with interference with elec fences and shit...it improved my dialup by a massive amount while I was in dannevirke and down south!! was alot faster!!

[scracha]

noisey connection in NZ and auz over long distances and with interference with elec fences and shit...it improved my dialup by a massive amount while I was in dannevirke and down south!! was alot faster!!

Lot of my customers around here have the same problem. If you can get a Vodem or Telecon signal in your area then go for it. AFAIK the Telecon one still requires a laptop (it's a PCMCIA modem) but there's a lot of moby's with bluetooth or USB cables that will do the same thing. Speed's not as good as ADSL or "wireless" and the latency is pretty large too though. If you're getting crap dialup then nag nag and nag Telecon about the line quality. They give up and actually fix it in the end*. Also I've found most external dial-up modem perform better on noisy lines than internal ones. The Dynalink rural modem is very pricey so I wouldn't consider it.

*I had Transco out for the fifth time in 2 weeks. Line still $hitty with clicks and buzzes & huge attenuation but ADSL speed has went from 112kbps to 800kbps which means it's now useable.

[offrd]

Probably a bit late to reply :zzzz: but i used to install two way satellite broadband around NZ (farmside and wirelessnation) so if you have any questions still, i may be able to help.....

:2thumbsup

[Naki Rat]

I live out in hickville and we cant get broadband here (we've tried )
and my dial up is crap too i'd be better off running to the bloody library and looking in a book for information , it's that slow and it not to good a line with all the bloody electric fences and water in our phone lines here after it rains.
what i want to know is with farmside at the moment they are offereing 99 dollar install and about 80 dollar a month for 1 gig data and it say 256kb sec download and 128 kb sec upload.
how long does it take you broadband users to use a gig?
and how fast would i actually get data? i know they say 256 but is that the spped i'd get?
i looked through some other threads on here and i see that there are speeds much quicker and cheaper than i'l be able to get.
but i not to worried about the cost as im at the end of my tits with all thia dial up shit.
cheers for anyhelp.

Forget about F***side! Their (satellite based) service is crap, and the download/upload speeds they offer are wishful thinking. We are currently fighting them over the $299 + GST disconnection fee because we are now with http://www.primowireless.co.nz/ and loving it. 6Mb download at a cost comparable with the townies' broadband deals. And tell Matt you heard it from me.

Coverage so far is Inglewood, Bell Block, Waiongana, Merrilands but this little high performer is growing by the week:woohoo:

Hope this helps :banana:

[CookMySock]

we are now with http://www.primowireless.co.nz/ and loving it. 6Mb download at a cost comparable with the townies' broadband deals. And tell Matt you heard it from me. Coverage so far is Inglewood, Bell Block, Waiongana, Merrilands but this little high performer is growing by the week:woohoo:I highly recommend Matt and primowireless. Matt is one of these people who really needed to change his situation, so he grabbed it by the nads and changed it, and is now growing exponentially. Also he is one of these people that you will like instantly, and will do anything for you. Talk to Matt about wireless internet no matter where you live. Gee thats three micro wireless-ISPs on KB.


DB

[sinfull]

You got kids ? 1 Gig wont last SFA if ya give them free access lol ! Be carefull if you do go with the 1 gig, that you keep an eye on ya usage and know what you will pay should you go over that limit ! You ususally have to ask what you will be paying, as they should but usually dont mention that part of it !

[Hitcher]

trouble with wireless (if satelite direct - or a local repeater) can be crappy in foul weather with atmospherics and such

It never rains in southern Taranaki...

[nadroj]

Someone on this site was installing repeaters around the Opunake area, so not far from you. Go talk to Jim Dodunski at the Opunake pub - he will know something.

[ynot slow]

It never rains in southern Taranaki...


Ya think,shit have another swimming pool,don't need to fence though,has evaporated this afternoon.


Someone on this site was installing repeaters around the Opunake area, so not far from you. Go talk to Jim Dodunski at the Opunake pub - he will know something.

Think the guy was Shane Pivac? from Pihama,was standing for local council mayoralty last time.His ideas sounded good when interviewed about his campagn,might be able to search the daily news website to confirm it.Might not be same guy as on here.

[Hitcher]

It pours. Man it pours.

[ynot slow]

Holy hell did it what about 15 mins ago,I think I saw Eltham float past.

Seriously would hate to be up the mountain in a hut,the noise of the rain was deafening,let alone a non insulated iron building like the outside toilet.Still let it piss down and be fine for weekends.

[Hitcher]

I miss the sound of proper rain on the roof.

[soundbeltfarm]

Holy hell did it what about 15 mins ago,I think I saw Eltham float past.

Seriously would hate to be up the mountain in a hut,the noise of the rain was deafening,let alone a non insulated iron building like the outside toilet.Still let it piss down and be fine for weekends.


was loud alright.
the back coundry of the farm is the boundry for some of the national park and man have we had some rain.
our rain gauge tells me we have had 127mm rain since sunday night.
my water pump is tripped out and i hope it still beside river because the river was raging.

[Delphinus]

Whereabouts do you live? We have some gear in the Opunake/Pihama region if you're interested?

Send me a PM if you prefer.

[gammaguy]

if you have a cellphone with vodafone live coverage you can use it as a wireless modem,i use mine like this all the time when i am away from home and of course it is broadband and pretty fast:mobile:vodafone have just dropped their data rates too so it is now very affordable.send me a PM if you need more info(NO i dont work for vodafone!:laugh:)

[Naki Rat]

if you have a cellphone with vodafone live coverage you can use it as a wireless modem,i use mine like this all the time when i am away from home and of course it is broadband and pretty fast:mobile:vodafone have just dropped their data rates too so it is now very affordable.send me a PM if you need more info(NO i dont work for vodafone!:laugh:)

Been there, done that (with a Vodem). From our, and friends', experience the Vodafone wireless broadband is only a go if you are in a 3G/GPRS coverage area.

When we tried it early last year that was restricted to only within a kilometre or so of central New Plymouth in the 'Naki and I suspect that hasn't changed (but could be wrong). We are within 7km of NP CBD as the crow flies and so only 2G coverage. The Vodem gave us 'broadband' speeds comparable to dial up and was very temperamental and prone to having to reboot to "wake the Vodem up". Connecting via a 2G vodafone cellphone produced similar results.

Vodem found a new owner via Trade Me and we had to buy our way out of the GPRS/3G contract. See my earlier post for where we went from there with Farmside :angry2: then PrimoWireless :clap::2thumbsup

[gammaguy]

having said all that I am now on Scorch,(http://www.scorch.co.nzat home,(i am extremely rural,living on the crater rim of banks peninsula)which involved digging a trench,running a 100m cable,installing a dish which faced the relay station down on the canterbury plains,and all the rest.Its fully worth it though i now have super fast internet which is not susceptible to Telecom's whims and those frustrating days of dial up are a distant memory.:2thumbsup.hopefully you will find a solution i know how frustrating it is in dial up land:zzzz:

[Lias]

Not to derail this thread, but I'm genuienly interested in what rural folks think. There has been a fair bit of stuff in the papers about whether or not us townies should subsidise rural broadband.

Are farmers willing to pay more for rural access, and do you think its fair or do you think you should pay the same as in town?

[scracha]

Not to derail this thread, but I'm genuienly interested in what rural folks think. There has been a fair bit of stuff in the papers about whether or not us townies should subsidise rural broadband.

Are farmers willing to pay more for rural access, and do you think its fair or do you think you should pay the same as in town?

I can smell a troll.

[Lias]

I can smell a troll.

That'd be me.. But not this time.. I'm actually curious.

[gammaguy]

i am more than happy to pay for my own.broadband is a priveledge,as are many things and i am comfortable with my bill each month.not to say that if i didnt have to pay it,i wouldnt bling up one of my toys..............any offers?:whistle:

[Beemer]

I wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for good access - and a decent phone line and tv reception too! We live on a ridge but get crap tv and mobile phone reception and when it rains we often lose our landline. Crappy old cabling and poor maintenance and we're expected to like it or lump it - and we're only 8kms from town - pathetic!

So yes, if it was good and quick and reliable, I'd be willing to pay - but not heaps more, just a bit...

[CookMySock]

We live on a ridge but get crap tv and mobile phone reception and when it rains we often lose our landline. Crappy old cabling and poor maintenance and we're expected to like it or lump it - and we're only 8kms from town - pathetic!You are in an ideal situation to install your own radio link to town. This will carry your broadband and as many phone lines as you want.

DB