Life on the Farm
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005There are lots of advantages to living on a 300 acre farm. High-speed internet is NOT one of them. I finally got my DirecWay Satellite Internet working today after spending over a month trying to get it installed. I didn’t realize just how far out in the sticks I must live until I tried to get an installation guy out here to hook up my satellite correctly.
Actually, the first guy came out over a month ago and hooked it up. But, 30 minutes after he left, it quit working. It took over a month to get them back out here. I spent lots of my time on the phone with DirecWay support - usually people that I couldn’t understand and obviously couldn’t understand me either. I have to say that until today I have been very dissatisfied with their service. Of course, they charged me for the service and to put up the pole for the satellite (well over $800 total) the day the first guy came out. They also started charging me my regular monthly service at that time even though I only got to use the so-called high-speed internet access for about 2 hours total during the whole month of July. Needless to say, I’ve not been a very big DirecWay fan. But, beggars can’t be choosers.
Today, I can download files at lightning speeds compared to the dial-up service that I had. But, my surfing has not speeded up very much. I’m still not happy with their service. But, it beats dial-up and since I can’t get my money back for this dish sitting in my yard, I guess I’ll keep the service until a better alternative comes along.
I do have to say that the service I get with DirecWay can’t be any worse than the service I’ve gotten with BellSouth. And I expect that the $800 satellite will eventually pay for itself. By the time you figure what we’ve paid BellSouth over the last 6 years since we moved here (over $10,000) we could have bought several satellite dishes by now. We both work from home so we have 3 telephone lines (one for my husband’s office, one for my dial-up account, and our home phone). This doesn’t include the ISDN line that my husband has for his work computer. Thank goodness his company pays for that expense.
Just before I got the Satellite, BellSouth called me, emailed me and direct mailed me through the USPS just to tell me that I could get DSL. I was SO excited! But, then when they came to activate the service, they told me that I was too far out. Of course, the guy across the field isn’t too far, just us. Probably because we are paying them over $200/month for our current ISDN, dial-up and 4 phone lines (5 if you count the extra line you get with ISDN). Why would they want to give us DSL for just $50/month? I don’t blame them.
But, now that I FINALLY have the satellite internet installed, I can get rid of at least one of my telephone lines and the dial-up service. If it works out well, we will probably get another hook up to replace the ISDN service too. That’s when I expect that BellSouth will somehow miraculously extend the DSL service a little further than the house next door so that it will reach my house.
Until then, I’ll stay in the country. It beats the rat race that we left 6 years ago. Working from home has its frustrations, but at least I got to do all this in my shorts and house shoes instead of my skirt and pumps!
Cindy 