I can't help you Ned.
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Who's Ned Some?
Stick with Dial-Up, neighbor.
If a Wireless Internet Service Provider is available in your area, that may be a better service that satellite.
The cellular phone companies like Verizon Wireless and Alltel may also have broadband service available, like "EV-DO". I hear that Verizon has a great new wireless service in the Dallas area, supposedly better than EV-DO.
I thought the thread was going to be political advice to the Democratic nominee for US Senate from Connecticut!
Sorry, don't know from nuttin' about satellites or even computers, come to think of it... if I don't get what I need by pushing the power on button, I don't get it. Good luck to you.
How far away are you from an area that has DSL or cable? I've seen accounts of people who've managed to get some impressive distances from wireless. The main tricks involved are that you have to have line-of-sight to the access point, and you have to find a person or business to let you set it up at their place.
Do you get Sprint in your area? I have a wireless Sprint card that is $59.99 a month unlimited and I have been happy with it. In a lot of cities (I would assume DFW as well) you would be able to get EVDO capability which is high speed. Plus it is portable! Very handy.
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While not that brand, my wife's business has satellite internet, and they are well-pleased with it, compared to the old dial-up service. Wireless network covers about 7 separate buildings on the grounds, and their guests love having the access.
We have HughesNet/DirecWay. I think the install was $600 (yikes!) and we had quite a few issues with the installers showing up, doing the install correctly, etc. Once all that was ironed out, we've been okay with it now that it's been used for over a year. If there's bad weather (storm, etc.) it won't work. And downloads are slow. Not as slow as dial-up, but pretty slow.
Ironically, we're moving out of West Virginia, back to civilization, next Tuesday, so I called to cancel and they accidentally cancelled our service while I was on the phone with them. Couple that with several of their satellites going down, and I've been offline the past 36 hours. But, that's the first major issue we've ever had in the year/plus we've had it.
Overall, it beats dial-up, but it's pricey ($97 a month), but out here in the sticks, it was our only option other than dial-up. I hope this helps!!
I have a friend who had DirecWay (which is now HugesNet) and was not happy at all. According to her, it was down all the time and not a whole lot faster than dialup. I'm stuck with dialup too. DSL is in the next town over which is about 10 miles, so hopefully its heading this way.
Sorry, I live in Illinois...
If you have fiber optic cable TV, then their broadband is the way to go.
I have heard that some phone companies can give you a paired ISDN set and it can be much better than a dial-up but still slower than a DSL. Have you asked about that?
You might want to check out Wild Blue. I'm in the same situation, so opted to go with satelitte.
Having had both DSL and cable in the past, I can tell you that satellite is not nearly as good, but it's far better than dial up.
I'm paying $50 per month for Wild Blue. I put a router in the house, and have both computers hooked up to the same connection.
Good luck.