How important is really high speed internet to you?

[Frag Mortuus]

My dad recently purchased 6 acres of land. There are spots for 3 houses, his is on one spot and there is another that is secluded where he is going to allow me to either build a home or buy a double wide trailer and put it there.

Here is the problem: It is on top of a mountain in rural WV and the highest speed internet is 1mb.....ONE MEGABIT.... Also, there is barely any cell phone signal. Which I can deal with easier than the internet speed.

The pro's of this opportunity are:
-Free Land
-Beautiful country setting that is only 10 minutes away from town.
-Owning the land takes a huge portion of cost out if I were to build or buy a prefab home.
-Get to spend more time with my dad.
-Kids will live right next door to their grandparents.
-Extremely quiet and peaceful.


The con's:
-Super slow internet
-No cell signal
-Will have to purchase home phone service
-Will have to pay for city water (the water on the mountain has too much iron, so the well that the property has is useless)
-The roads in the winter get really bad, so a four wheel drive is pretty much mandatory


Honestly, the only con I really am worried about is the internet speed. I download a lot. I'm a bit of an internet pirate. But, my only real concern is playing games online, watching Netflix and other streaming services. I don't know if these are functions are capable with such a slow speed.

What are your thoughts? Would you all move to a place like this? Honestly, I could have a house and land paid for in 10 years.

[fastbilly1]

Ack and I have a good friend who lives in middle of no where Alabama. He is a huge PC game fan and operates on a 1meg aDSL line. He has done so for the last ten years. How he does it is schedules his downtime around it. So when he needs to download a new game, he schedules it out ahead of time. When it is downloading he does other things. He can use Netflix without issue, but not in HD. Heck we have streamed two different movies at the same time before (but that was a bad idea). He can host up to two other people in games like Left 4 Dead 2 or Saints Row 3, with voice chat, but more than that and we have to swap to another connection.

I would say go for it. Free land, minutes from town, is nothing to sneeze at. And you will find with a large yard you will have to do alot of work on it anyway. You can boost your cell signal with a cell amp (put it in your barn).

Edit:
Are you sure the fastest you can get is 1meg? I have to ask, it is from a telco/cable company right, not hughesnet? If it is hughesnet, dont do it.

[BoringSupreez]

I lived in rural areas from the time I was 7 until I was 19. Let me assure you, super slow internet is a special kind of hell. Having experienced both rural and suburban life, I can confidently say suburban is better. Everything's so much closer, there are more job opportunities, internet is cheaper for faster speeds, and there's such a thing as cell signals. The peace and quiet of the countryside is nice but in the end it's not worth the hassle at all.

[Frag Mortuus]

Are you sure the fastest you can get is 1meg? I have to ask, it is from a telco/cable company right, not hughesnet? If it is hughesnet, dont do it.

This is from a phone company. They offer up to 30mb in town, but not at this location. We won't be moving for at least a year or more, so I'm hoping in that time they will upgrade their network or the cable company will move up that way. But, I doubt it.

Also, I'm a huge PC gamer. I have over 200 games in my Steam account. I honestly have given that a lot of consideration. Like what if my HDD crashes and I have to redownload all of my games. How long will that take?

I lived in rural areas from the time I was 7 until I was 19. Let me assure you, super slow internet is a special kind of hell. Having experienced both rural and suburban life, I can confidently say suburban is better. Everything's so much closer, there are more job opportunities, internet is cheaper for faster speeds, and there's such a thing as cell signals. The peace and quiet of the countryside is nice but in the end it's not worth the hassle at all.

Yeah, I'm worried about it. I don't want all of my enjoyment of gaming and other tech related things to dwindle because I can't get decent speeds.

[samsonlonghair]

I understand, Frag. The Infrastructure out here in West (by god) Virginia leaves something to be desired. In the past, I've had to put up with No internet connection at all, no cell service, no mail delivery, poisonous well water, and dangerous roads.

There are options for internet. Satellite internet is the most obvious solution, but not the only one. You may be able to convince Suddenlink to run some cable to your property. ATT, Sprint, or Virgin Mobile can set you up with 3G mobile hotspot on most mountaintops (not so much in the hollows). I used one of these for a little while to get internet connectivity.


If none of those options work for you, consider disconnecting from the internet when you're at home. I have found from experience that slow internet can be worse than no internet. Just use the internet when you're at work, or go to the Princeton Public Library or Concord University to use their wi-fi.

[Frag Mortuus]

If none of those options work for you, consider disconnecting from the internet when you're at home. I have found from experience that slow internet can be worse than no internet. Just use the internet when you're at work, or go to the Princeton Public Library or Concord University to use their wi-fi.

I've considered this. I know that I will get used to it. The 1mb that my dad uses is consistent so I know that it will work for basic web browsing and I may be able to get a cell phone booster to be able to use one of those wifi hotspots. I'm just really holding out hope that Frontier will upgrade their network soon. I'm going to talk to Suddenlink to see if they have any plans of expanding in that direction, but I'm not holding out much hope for them.

[Frag Mortuus]

Actually now that I think about it, my step brother was living with my dad for a while and he was able to play both WoW and FFXI and he never complained about lag or latency issues. So maybe online gaming will be ok.

[fastbilly1]

Call the cable company and say you want to setup a business class account there and have them survey it to see how much it will cost. Make sure to tell them you have not broke ground yet so they can figure out cost to the property.

If you know the area, when driving around look for a coax loop on the utility pole:

Artistic representation.

If you need help shoot me a PM with address. I worked in the coax form of telecom for a long time and can probably give you an estimate on construction cost to the property.

[samsonlonghair]

Don't expect much out of the local Frontier telecom, Frag. They're not helpful. SUddenlink might work with you for cable internet. They have a good connection speed, but they're none to friendly towards piracy. They shut off my connection for a day when my ditzi friend downloaded Wreck-it Ralph via my wi-fi.

The easiest solution for broadband is a 3G mobile hotspot. Find out who has the best cell service on your mountaintop (probably Sprint or ATT) and get a 3G mobile hotspot from them.

[fastbilly1]

Don't expect much out of the local Frontier telecom, Frag. They're not helpful. SUddenlink might work with you for cable internet. They have a good connection speed, but they're none to friendly towards piracy. They shut off my connection for a day when my ditzi friend downloaded Wreck-it Ralph via my wi-fi.

The easiest solution for broadband is a 3G mobile hotspot. Find out who has the best cell service on your mountaintop (probably Sprint or ATT) and get a 3G mobile hotspot from them.

Wireless providers will give you hell if you try to PC game on their network. And they will throttle/ban your illicit traffic. Atleast in my experience with Sprint's hotspot - Downloading a 4 gig linux distro via http got me a nasty email about piracy. I told them it was a linux distro and it was legal, but they would have none of that. When I tried to do it on Bittorrent instead, that got me another nasty email. Service was canceled shortly there after.