You Tube dilemma

[GPW]

Dear TD’s ... We do enjoy a good instructional Trailer video on You Tube , but lately our ATT DSL is so SLOW , all I can get is Error messages on You Tube ... and every other video site . Where I live (in the woods on the edge of the city ) ATT cannot deliver anything more than 1.2Mbps, and not consistently. They say the better service (U-verse) is not available in our area ( and likely won’t be soon) .. Their excuse is “ well you live so far away from the box" ( like it’s my my fault )
Due to my long driveway , the “cable" company won’t run a cable down my road, so that’s out ... I was thinking of going satellite internet ... but wonder if anybody is having Luck with that ...
Although I’ve been loyal to ATT all my life , they no longer seem to care , and when I have a problem , I’m connected to someone in India , that frankly doesn’t speak English very well... and is of very little help .. Yet for such rotten service , ATT still charges the same rate as everybody else ...

Anyone with an idea or HELP would be greatly appreciated... !!!!

[dales133]

I've used sati lite in the past and whilst not the ideal connection it is the best option for someone in your position sometimes.
Just check the upload download speeds and prices as sometimes that's a deal breaker

[jstrubberg]

Satellite is OK as long as you NEVER plan to do anything interactive. The restricted upload speeds (usually dial up) and the signal lag make anything two-way completely impossible. It also tends to be very expensive and bandwidth per month is usually limited.

We have seen broadband wifi take off in our rural area over the last five years or so. My father lives three miles from the nearest paved road and gets 6mb internet from them for about $10 a month more than AT&T wanted to charge for basic DSL. You might look around and see if there's a provider in your area.

[GPW]

OK Thanks !!! As I get it it’s more like a WL phone account where you pay for a bloc of data ... somewhat confusing ... but waaay better than what I have now for $50/mo.
But will that really fix the YT video thing ? And will it cost a Fortune to watch You Tube ... Actually , I was able to watch You Tube successfully , up until about a month or so ago ... and wondered if they changed anything.

Interactive ? I do this and a couple other forums , but no games , no Movies ... A little You Tube for trailer/boat videos , and music for the band... I guess that’s not interactive at all eh ?

[Bill n Robi]

Well, most sat internet is spotty in my experience, NEVER run VPN over it, you probably don't need it but I used it for security.

I can offer one piece of advise. I use a free program called ATUBE Catcher. I get the video URL by clicking on the video and paste the link into the program. It will download in various formats of the video and can convert to any format you want. I use NO CONVERT and download as MP4 - saves it to the video folder. Watch later without downloading again. I have saved two dozen videos just for TD and a couple for my TV - copied to the iPhone and they are there when I am outside where I need the info.

[wagondude]

What do you have as far as a cell phone goes? Flip phone or smart phone? If it's a flip phone it won't be of any help. If you have a smart phone and can stream the videos ok on it, you can set it up as a wifi hotspot and link your computer to it to watch on the bigger screen. That will hit your data, though, so don't get to carried away. The download and watch later route is probably best.

[48Rob]

Due to my long driveway , the “cable" company won’t run a cable down my road, so that’s out ...

Run your own cable...?
Wire isn't very expensive.

Rob

[dales133]

Check and see what your is has changed.
It's possible they have reset something at the exchange.
We've had it happen to us before and even though we are in suburbia we get the not avaliable in your area for full speed Internet ect.
Check that first then look at your options.
If satilite isn't to expensive it sounds like it will suit your usage if it's the only other option

[GPW]

We’ve got the Old man phone (flip phone) , and we’d have to sink phone poles down my 350’ driveway to run cable ... That could be expensive and ugly since all my other services are buried... And , I live in the forest where falling tree limbs take down my neighbors phone pole wires all the time ...
I’ve already got DTV (satellite) which works well for me ...
And we’ve got a land line phone , (ATT) which is not really a good deal anymore ... and the service has become , not so good. The DSL is bundled in with that .

A good part of what we do each day is think about little travel trailers (Naturally !!! ) , which involves some computer drawing , some video watching of what others are doing , talking to You good folks . In the last several weeks I can’t even watch ANY internet video , even on the lowest setting ... All the “computer guys" we’ve had come over and look at it blame the ISP ... ATT , when cornered , can offer nothing but excuses and blaming me for living at the end of the road .

Since I don’t do anything on the internet but forums and watching a few build or music videos ... don’t expect I’d need much for speed , just something “consistent” ...

[dales133]

Why can't you burry phone lines?

[daveesl77]

If your cable company won't run a cable to your house, why not run your own cable down your driveway and build a junction for them to tie into?

Do you have a neighbor that 1) has a fast internet connection and 2) you both trust each other? Reason I ask is you can get a high-end parabolic antenna for like $45. Get the neighbor to agree to let you link up to their system using the antenna and you'll pay half the bill. I did this with a neighbor for about 2 years, we both ended up with a much better system as we dramatically increased the speed at very little cost increase, since we were sharing the bill. Unfortunately, he moved. Depending on the transmit/receive power you can go up to 1/2 mile (or more) away. Just need a clear line of sight.

Antenna - http://www.amazon.com/TL-ANT2424B-Directional-Parabolic-connector-resistant/dp/B003CFATOW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429791147&sr=8-1&keywords=parabolic+wifi+antenna

Use routers that you can install DD-WRT or Tomato firmware on, then you can control the transmit power and antenna choice.

dave