[Cider Jim]

If you live in the Lynchburg area, what are our wireless Internet options? What company are you going with, how much to you pay, and are you happy with the service? (yea, I still have LU dial-up, but I'm beginning to shop for wireless).

[Hold My Own]

Does Lynchburg even offer wireless?

Why are you interested in wireless rather than just getting VZ DSL and set up your own network? That would be the cheapest and smartest way to go about it.

[olldflame]

You should be able to get service through Sprint, AT&T or NTelos by purchasing one of their cards and signing up for the service. Pretty pricey I believe, and I'm not sure how fast it will be. I agree with HMO that unless you really need to be able to get on line anywhere you go, it makes more sense to get DSL and a wireless router at home.

[Cider Jim]

HMO, I just need something that enables Mrs. Cider and me to use the Internet at the same time on our laptops. What's my best option to achieve that?

[ECUnited]

Cider,

Just what was already recommended. You'll have to purchase internet service like Verizon DSL and go to BestBuy, Wal-Mart, etc. and pick up a wireless router. Then you and Mrs. Cider can surf the net simulatneously.

[ALUmnus]

Ntelos is the way to go. It's very affordable and fast. A friend of mine had it for a little while and it worked great.

[jcmanson]

I just need something that enables Mrs. Cider and me to use the Internet at the same time on our laptops.

Why, has she gotten addicted to FF.com too?

[Fumblerooskies]

Ntelos is at best "medium speed" internet. I would check to see if VERIZON is available in your area...they provide a wireless router with their service.

[flamesbball84]

dont settle for DSL unless you have to...

[ALUmnus]

I think he's looking for an entirely wireless service. Ntelos offers a wireless service that uses cell signals (I think), so there is nothing that needs to be done in your home to use it, and it's completely portable.

[Hold My Own]

HMO, I just need something that enables Mrs. Cider and me to use the Internet at the same time on our laptops. What's my best option to achieve that?

Oh ok, then no everything everybody is offering up is "Air Cards" which allows you to get internet anywhere you go although only allows one person at a time...plus its much more expensive.


Get Verizon DSL 15-20 bucks a month, buy a Wireless router plug it in and you now have wireless internet and your whole block could get on the internet (which you dont want so you'll need to set up a password)


I have a business line at one location the fastest money can buy and DSL...when surfing the internet you cant tell a difference...if you are going to be uploading huge movie files or something then DSL will not be for you...but i doubt you will be

[Fumblerooskies]

The Ntelos is called wireless broadband. You get a receiver in your house that picks up either the signal from Candlers Mountain or from a tower near Poplar Forest. The customer then runs the cable from the receiver to the router. I have it and it is "OK" at best...but my only other option as Verizon did not work in my neighborhood.

[TDDance234]

I would go with a hard-wired service and get a wireless router for $25-30 bucks at WalMart. We pay $35 a month and have no problems running two laptops and a desktop.

[ALUmnus]

Okay, so I was wrong. Sorry, I'm still drunk off my 1000th post.

[flamesbball84]

The Ntelos is called wireless broadband. You get a receiver in your house that picks up either the signal from Candlers Mountain or from a tower near Poplar Forest. The customer then runs the cable from the receiver to the router. I have it and it is "OK" at best...but my only other option as Verizon did not work in my neighborhood.

Ntelos is garbage, we were going to get it but it didn't even work here at my house despite Ntelos saying we should have a very strong signal seeing as how we are less than 10 minutes away from Poplar Forest. They even came out here to see what the problem was and they couldn't even fix it.

[Kolzilla41]

I have comcast and then setup a network at my house. Haven't had any problems. Is DSL really that much better?

[LUconn]

What ever happened to that signal that LU owns? I think they were trying to lease it or something to clearwire. But there is still no working wimax signal. At least none that's available.

[flamesbball84]

I have comcast and then setup a network at my house. Haven't had any problems. Is DSL really that much better?

no, DSL is slower, a lot slower...

[Hold My Own]

But you have to put it in context...its quite a bit slower if your downloading but just looking at web sites its hardly different and def not enough to pay 2x and sometimes 3x as much as VZ DSL...like I said the one business line we have is $99 and the best Lynchburg offers and the VZ DSL...Comcast offers a cheap plan though thats pretty good as well

[El Scorcho]

I have comcast and then setup a network at my house. Haven't had any problems. Is DSL really that much better?

no, DSL is slower, a lot slower...

That's a generalization, not necessarily true and depends on how you intend to use your Internet connection. It doesn't tell the entire story.

In Lynchburg, Comcast offers three connection speeds. 6Mbps ($33), 12Mbps ($42.95) and 16Mbps ($52.95). The latter two are not actually full-time connection speeds but "burst" speeds that make more bandwidth available for downloading large files. "Large" is a relative term as Comcast customers are limited to downloading 250GB of data per month. That's a lot, and not something most users would ever hit, but it's still a cap. At one point Comcast customers were also having their traffic "shaped" based on what type of traffic it was. Furthermore, they do not offer guaranteed bandwidth. Comcast oversells the amount of bandwidth they have to offer such that if a few users in a neighborhood are hogging it all, the rest of the customers connected to that same network node are affected and will have slower connections.

For me, the price of cable and all of the special exceptions to the bandwidth rates they quote were unacceptable. While my cable connection was almost always connected for the two years I was with Comcast, the bandwidth available to me was always a guess at best. Some days I might get my full bandwidth, some days I might get half of what I was supposedly paying for. It's all in the fine print.

So, I switched to Verizon DSL. I'm currently using a 3Mbps connection from them and have been very happy with it. I know that I always have that 3Mb of bandwidth available to me. Doesn't matter what my neighbors are doing, what type of content I'm downloading or how much I've already downloaded this month. It's always the same. I prefer the reliability of DSL. Verizon just recently started offering 7Mbps in this area, and I'm considering the upgrade.

[Fumblerooskies]

Our problem with Verizon was not a Verizon issue...but more of a location issue with us. We were at the tail end of the DSL "run"...and the phone cables running into and through our neighborhood actually were two different gauges...thus, service would intermittently drop. When it worked...it was great...but re-setting the modem 10+ times a day got VERY annoying. Thus, we decided to go with the "medium speed" Ntelos that for us was at least reliable.

[Hold My Own]

I have comcast and then setup a network at my house. Haven't had any problems. Is DSL really that much better?

no, DSL is slower, a lot slower...

That's a generalization, not necessarily true and depends on how you intend to use your Internet connection. It doesn't tell the entire story.

Thank you...going from dial up to DSL he will be in love...and like i KEEP SAYING it's a matter of uploading and downloading....we are paying $99 a month for the business connection and NEVER hit the kbs we're supposed to...DSL is the answer for you IMO...not to mention how much is the VZ 3mb? Like 14.99 a month?


I know they offer something for that...which is the reason Netzero and others are slowly dying