Wired vs. Wireless (high-speed internet)

I have never used wireless except for free wi-fi here and there. We are also most of an acre from where the cable branches off to come to the house. We solved the rodent problem (gophers in our case) by burying the cable in PVC pipe. The first drop (also buried) got chewed through. That was back when it was just for TV. When they came to fix it they also brought the PVC. I have no clue why you would be burning through modems. I'm only on my second one in seven and a half years. I'm sure someone more knowledgable will show up with answers.

MM

It's extremely unlikely that wireless is going to be cheaper. Faster and more reliable depends on the cable alternative. Wireless isn't as fast as DSL.
Modems dying is more likely the cause of power surges, i don't think there is actually any way that the network connection can kill a modem.

Lightning? I don't know; lightning kept killing my phones. I got sick of repair people, so I went to totally cellular.

My cable connection is bad, too (low quality picture, but not enough to bug me unless there's a storm), so I skipped cable internet, too.

It's something in the lines before my house. We're rural enough here to just assume that the lines are very old or something, just unimportant to the companies because there aren't many of us, probably.

I use AT&T 3G wireless (I can get connected wirelessly anywhere), but it's not cheap and the usage limits would get you if you want to watch TV, etc, with it

My recommendation is to talk to other people in your area. Ask your friends and neighbors who they use for Internet. Learn the type and frequency of problems they encounter. All Internet providers are different and choosing one technology over another may be of little benefit.

It appears you live in the Pacific Northwest where weather can have a major impact on Internet performance. DSL and cable often suffer from moisture and physical connectivity. Radio, cellular and satellite are also negatively affected by inclement weather. Snow will cause problems for anything requiring a dish. Satellite will have a high latency (bad for online gaming). The list goes on and on.

I live in northern Idaho where even getting Internet can be a challenge. As a computer professional I deal with Internet issues on a constant basis. I support every flavor of Internet available to my customers and on any given day one will outperform the others. Finding the best balance for your usage is the key.

I can’t speak to your area but in mine we have the most trouble with radio providers. DSL generally works well but is unavailable in most areas. I use cable Internet at my office and cellular at my home. I’d say my cable Internet goes down more often than my cellular but when it’s up the cable connection is faster. The cellular works most of the time but some days I can’t watch Netflix without my movie pausing continually.

My advice is to put a good surge suppressor on your cable connection to stop frying modems and do lots of homework on your choices. Ask for free trial periods or waved setup fees and don’t hesitate to try options until you find the best fit for you.

Friend of mine used satellite for a while - okay unless you're playing online games, which I gather she found it less than ideal for.

In the past six months I went from dial up to the Cricket Wireless modem. It's not a wi-fi system so I don't worry about someone tapping into a my connections. I checked into the Verizon system because that is what my cell phone service is, but they are way too expensive for what they offer.

I pay about 45 p/m for unlimited access. While I don't play games on line, or down load movies and music, I have no trouble watching a 30-60 minute TV except and the picture quality is as good as my satellite TV system.

One of the benefits to this system is that when I travel, I can take my wireless modem with me and use it on my laptop, so long as I am in the Cricket Zones. So far no complaints with the system or service and I am happy. And no...I do not work for or own stock in Cricket...

Lhun said:

Modems dying is more likely the cause of power surges, i don't think there is actually any way that the network connection can kill a modem.

Click to expand...

We have a whole house surge suppressor (bought from and installed by our power company, between the meter and the house), and then the essential computer stuff is plugged into an alternate power source. Every thing else is plugged into surge suppressor power strips. We used to know some people who had everything electronic in their house fried by a lightning strike about a quarter of a mile away.

MM

i feerz lightning

I feel so lucky sometimes *hugs nice DSL modem*

Check out the HELP: DOWNLOAD OVER-USAGE thread right here in this forum:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180104

Do you have a land-line for a telephone, even if you don't have phone service on it? If so, you could get a DSL line, if they don't say it's too far. Do any neighbors have DSL?

And yeah, I don't want to be out of Internet until the the phone company gets me a new DSL modem, so whenever I know a storm is coming up, I unplug the DSL modem (from both the wall AND the phone line).

You wont get the speed you want with current wireless unless WIMAX is being deployed in your area. Your problem I would guess is with how your cable is installed, or you live in an area pnone to a large number of hits.
Power surges on the Cable generally take out modems not the power grid so your whole house surge suppressor wont help much you need to be certain the cable company has a grounded surge arrestor near the entry point of your home. It has to have a good ground with a good low resistance connections. A surge protector is only as good as its ground connection, A 100 million volt lighting surge can easily develop ten's of thousands of volts across a bad ground and fry your equipment. On the radio towers I work on we have to have a chemically welded bond to the ground rods because the screw type will have too high a resistance. (.0001 ohms to ground at a 100million volts is 10KV) So if the lightening is striking nearby you could try to force the cable company to improve your grounding and suppression.
I would ask to make sure the cable people have their equipment properly installed.

Forget about wireless if you want to watch TV or videos etc. Your problem is probably your coaxial cables if you get poor speeds. DSL sucks. Your best bet is probably satellite (which I guess is wireless) but too have drawbacks and you wont get the kind of speed you get from cable or fiber optics.

It sounds like you need to make the cable company fix whatever problem you're having. You shouldn't be going through modems at all, let alone every couple of months. This sounds more like a problem with your home wiring, or the power grid you're on. If this is the case, you'll have problems with most systems.

There's a problem somewhere, and I doubt it's directly related to the cable company, unless the cables are simply way out of date. An acre is simply not a long drop for cable.

The only wireless we have around here is from a router hooked up to the cable, but there's nothing I'd trade this system for. On a really, really slow day, I get 7 Mbps, and it drives me crazy. On most days, I get 15 Mbps. On a really fast day, I get better than 23Mbps.

You can't come close to this without a T3 line. I have a friend with satellite, and it's just molasses slow in comparison. So is all the wireless I've tried.

FYI satellite is used only for the downlink (Downloading) and you have to use telephone for the uplink. So you upload speed is really slow on satellite.