wifi questions

sandhills · February 19, 2013, 09:26:35 AM

We have recently moved and have no land line service at our new home so we got a little "jetpack" wifi box for internet that runs off our cell phone account. My question is we're now up to 6 gigabites and we've already used up most of our pro rated cpu's or something or another after a week or so, my daughter just got an ipad from her school but she really hasn't downloaded anything but what she needed for homework and aside from that other than me checking in here once or twice a day where's it all going? Does anyone know about getting service through the satellite tv? Thanks in advance for any help and please realize I know nothing about this stuff, I just can't afford the cell phone bill the way this is going.

Jeff · February 19, 2013, 09:57:51 AM

The major contributor to bandwidth use, is media. Just a few youtube videos can eat up your allotment in short order. Another cause can be an unsecured wifi connection that your neighbors may discover and then leach off of. I can comment on Satellite as I've got no experience with it.

pineywoods · February 19, 2013, 11:22:05 AM

Like Jeff says, media, especially videos use a lot of resources. The satellite connections really have nothing to do with satellite tv, just another service of the same company. They also have restrictions on bandwidth usage. In a nutshell, if you want to download pics and videos over the net, you pay the fiddler one way or another. Lots of guys on here have only dial-up connections. Pics are slow and forget videos. Thankfully, Jeff kept those guys in mind when setting up the Forestry Forum.

Leigh Family Farm · February 19, 2013, 11:35:50 AM

Also, make sure that your computers do not automatically check for daily updates and then download them. Same thing for your phones and iPads. Also, apps on your mobile devices checking you in or automatically tracking your movements takes data usage. You can turn off all these things on your devices. It will lower your bill but not a lot.

How costly would it be to run a phone line into your house? Have to contact your local cable company about running a line? Maybe splitting the costs? Sometimes if you get enough neighbors who want the internet/cable service, service providers might be willing to install the line for you.

thecfarm · February 19, 2013, 12:40:06 PM

I'm in the same boat as you are. We just got wildblue. Supposed to better than the old blue. The wife will see. I have dial up on the forum. We use to have cell phone coverage. With only 5gb it don't last long and that is with only her on it. Now we have 10 gb for the same money and that is nothing to brag about. She will still have to be careful and watch her usage still. With 3 people on it,10gb is not much at all. Her computer and tablet gets shut down when she is done with it. She canceled the cell coverage and they asked why,she said because it was not enough gb and they said we have many that use the same package and have no problems. She said,I guess they don't do much than. :

She had this for about 2 weeks and so far is working good.
We tried to watch a high school tournament basketball game a few weeks back with the cell phone service. Not a chance at all. Would not even up load. The new service did it very nicely last night. Ask me in a year how I like it.

Brian_Rhoad · February 19, 2013, 01:52:09 PM

You still need a land line with a satellite for uploading.

thecfarm · February 19, 2013, 01:58:22 PM

I don't think so. I thought everything came from the satelite. If it came through our phone lines it would take HOURS to upload. Our land line is not contacted to our internet satellite at all. BUT we could hook up the TV satellite to the land line. But there again no way that would work,it's not high speed. The only way for us to get high speed is from a satellite.
About 5 miles from us they have all that. Unlimited and all. A bundle,TV,Phone,Internet is just about $100. I pay 50 just for the Tv and we down sized that.

Ianab · February 19, 2013, 02:27:18 PM

Satellite can be one way, or two way. I think most of them are 2 way now where no land line is needs. Of course this needs a better router and dish, as you are transmitting TO the satellite, as well as receiving from it. It works, but there are issues. Weather, cost, and latency (which is the time it takes for the signal to get to the Sat and back to the server you are talking too).

I would only recommend it where there is no other option....

Cellphone based is generally cheaper, although that depends on the company you are connected with. Do they have other plans, or is there another company you can use?

Ian

lowpolyjoe · February 19, 2013, 02:42:04 PM

There's some info on the 1 and 2 way satellite communications in here somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Internet_access

Although it's probably more of an issue finding a provider and getting prices than learning how the systems work.

Out of curiousity i did some sniffing around and found an option for disabling pictures in Internet Explorer... not sure if it prevents the actual download of the pics - i assume so, otherwise it's a useless option

Videos are a much bigger hog, but lots of useless pics on very busy looking sites can hurt you if you're on a tight data budget. Obviously, browsing the internet with no pictures isn't much fun though :(

Tools (menu) -> Internet Options -> Advanced -> Multimedia (sub-heading in listbox) -> Show Pictures (toggle on/off)

Hope you sort something out. Good luck!

clearcut · February 19, 2013, 03:01:12 PM

Older satellite connections used a land line for upload. The current versions are two way and do not need a land line. Satellite TV providers request a land line or broadband internet connection if you want to buy on demand programming. Both Dish network and DirecTV will bundle satellite internet service with TV programming. Or you could purchase those independently from either HughesNet or WildBlue.

Video, photos, streaming music / audio, and large software updates will eat up data allocations very quickly. Check if WiFi devices are automatically syncing data. My Android phone, will automatically sync any photographs or videos I take if I don't turn that feature off. Windows PC can automatically update system software by default.

There are apps for the iPad that will track its WiFi usage. Data Monitor claims to track usage and has limits to keep you from exceeding your allocations. I have not used it though. There are similar applications for PCs.

If you stay with a cell phone internet connection, check other providers, I find that Verizon (Jetpack) tends to be the most expensive and most restrictive. It may be more cost effective to unbundle your cell phone from your cellular internet.

Look around your area for a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP). These use directional WiFi or a WiMax system and often have cheaper rates, better service, and improved connectivity. Unfortunately they are line of sight are not available in many places.

Brian_Rhoad · February 19, 2013, 08:26:42 PM

Satellite is download from satellite and upload by phone line. In order to upload by satellite you would need a license to transmit by satellite.

sprucebunny · February 19, 2013, 09:16:31 PM

I have a small antenna/modem from the cellular company that plugs into a USB port. It's not very fast but usually fast enough to watch a Utube video.
My limit is 5GB and I rarely use half that. I can watch a couple or 3 videos a day and do all the browsing I want.
It's from USCellular and cost $49.95 /month.... plus taxes. I've had it 2 years.
I monitor it's usage with "SurplusMeter" a free download that works better than the usage monitor within the device.
You couldn't watch movies or streaming with it because of speed and high GB usage.
Here's a link
http://www.uscellular.com/wireless-modems/PCD_UM185_index.html

They have lots of ads for a 4G device in the paper but then they tell me 4G isn't yet available here. I haven't figured that out, yet.

sandhills · February 19, 2013, 09:19:24 PM

Thanks everybody, WOW I got a lot to learn. I don't go to U tube but am I using gigabytes (or whatever) up watching videos that were posted on the ff? Also I'm not sure what it would cost to get a land line here, the old one is in pieces on top of the driveway and has been for a few years so I doubt it would be cheap, plus we just rent this place. Thanks again.

thecfarm · February 19, 2013, 09:26:47 PM

sprucebunny,we had that same thing for a while. wife does alot of Utube on baking-knitting. She had to watch her usage. Than she brought a tablet through them and used that. Now she has wildblue.

sprucebunny · February 19, 2013, 09:31:16 PM

Sandhills, yes. When you click on/watch a video here, it's coming from Utube through the forum.
Big pictures in your email use GB, everything does but some are small and some are big.
I never listen to music on the internet but I think that uses a lot.

pigman · February 19, 2013, 11:25:49 PM

I have the same thing as Sprucebunny, only through Verzion. I watch most of the videos linked here on FF and a few others. My wife shops a lot on the internet and we use Skipe with our children. The most we have used any month is 4 GB with an allowance of 5 GBs. We recently upgraded to 4g that is much faster than the 3g we were on the first two years and the charge went down to $50 from $60 a month. We do live close to the interstate with their data towers.

Warbird · February 19, 2013, 11:34:29 PM

You aren't watching Netflix videos or anything, are you? Also, your kids could be using a lot more than you think. Final thing to consider is neighbors. Doesn't sound like any are close enough to be leeching off your service but thought I'd mention it just in case.

Can you give me an example of why you think you're consuming gigabytes instead of megabytes? Can you actually post the numbers? Sometimes folks get a bit confused when counting out the decimal places, or when referring to bits as opposed to bytes.

Finally, you can do a quick test. Change the password on your wireless and don't give it to anybody for a COUPLE of days, not even your kids. See how your usage looks. Give the password to your family and see what happens. ;)

clearcut · February 20, 2013, 02:07:17 PM

Quote from: Brian_Rhoad on February 19, 2013, 08:26:42 PM
Satellite is download from satellite and upload by phone line. In order to upload by satellite you would need a license to transmit by satellite.

Nope, HughesNet and WildBlue are both two way systems. No license needed, just a credit card and a clear view of the southern sky.

Larry · February 20, 2013, 04:46:23 PM

I think I have the same service as you have. A "Jetpack" thingy and it comes from Verizon. It's 4G...fast and extremely reliable. Me and the wife on it. She uses it for shopping and we have a business doing medical billing. I use it for browsing and a lot of utube. We were starting to get close to the 5 gig limit so I went to a 10 gig plan. I hardly even think about conserving bandwidth on utube anymore. We usually hit about 7 – 8 gig a month. Verizon has an automatic notifier when I hit 50%, 75%, 90%, and 100% which is nice.

CATV wanted $5,000 to extend cable to us. Were to far out for DSL from the phone company. Satellite company told me to cut a few trees for a good view of the sky, plus we had outages when we had it at another location. Other than the expense and data limit were completely happy with Verizon.

sandhills · February 20, 2013, 10:16:32 PM

Thanks again everyone, still learning. I can get it through satellite but have to buy another dish, 10 gig would be $50 a month with 20 gig available. Warbird, I do nothing on this but the ff and the occasional auction site (gov.deals), my wife is gone right now so can't give you numbers, I don't have a clue what a gigabyte or a megabyte is, but I think your idea on the password change is in order, I just can't imagine I'm using these all up. Closest neighbor is a little over a mile away as the crow flies, does that count?
Larry and pigman, your experiences are what I was hoping for with this, sounds like the 6 gig plan should be a great plenty for us, I called the school and they checked (and can whenever they want because they own them all) my daughters ipad, nothing downloaded that didn't need to be and she knows how to shut it off from downloading when she's not in school and at home. I'm almost sure I'm the one screwing up here, like I said, still learning.

thecfarm · February 20, 2013, 10:24:39 PM

10 is what the wife has,$50 as you said.we changed the password first thing. She tracks her usage daily. Someone could even drive by and could pick your signal up or ours.
By the way sandhill,I don't know what you have for a device,but the wife had to tether from the tablet to her laptop. That GOBBLE and I do mean GOBBLE up the gb.She was some riped about it. When the contract was up she went to wildblue. Something about going through the laptop and than into the laptop really used up her time. She was right on to the phone and than went to the store too. I kinda felt sorry for them.

sprucebunny · February 20, 2013, 10:49:53 PM

I don't know if you've done it already, but maybe you could call the provider and ask where you stand for usage.
With mine, the device says that I've used way more than I actually have.
The 'SurplusMeter' monitor is more accurate. The meter also gives you an idea of how many 'bytes things are and how the numbers of kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes relate to each other.

thecfarm · February 20, 2013, 10:58:17 PM

sprucebunny is right on that one. I forgot about that one. The wife had some usage meter on her tablet,but was told at the store not to go by it. :

Which was true. She would call every so often to find the correct usage. And was also told to keep only one window at a time open too. She would have 2-3 open at one time and that takes alot more. It's hard not to have a high speed on a cable. Not much out there for a deal.