Broadband in the countryside

On-speed might be useful it uses your normal dial-up service?

http://tinyurl.com/ngfqr

I'm very suprised you can't get broadband in wiltshire, if that's where you're located?

I live in a seriously remote country location (Cambrian mountains) with a very small local exchange, yet our exchange has been enabled for over 9 months!

Before that we had an ISDN line which was reasonably ok, so you could try that route?

My understanding is that if an exchange is ADSL enabled then unless you have a very, very long line, or the exchange has capacity problems (i.e. not enough physical ports free on the ADSL kit in the exchange) you should be able to get connected.

My suggestion would be to contact an ISP such as Zen or AAISP where you're dealing with a fairly flexible human who should be able to hook up with BT wholesale and find out what's going on.

If you try the larger companies like AOL, Wanadoo or perversely even BT I think there's a chance you'll get no further than "computer says no".

Thanks for replies so far.

Barnie, I live in a beautiful but very remote place in a valley between 2 hills... We have no mobile phone reception here and all I get on TV is a grainy BBC2...

Ironically there is a BT station with mast and all kinds of techy gubbins to found right at the top of one hill, not a mile distant...

I am told by someone who claims to know (i.e. I am sceptical under the circumsatnces) that this is a station purely serve the main landline comms link between here and the USA... ah, the irony!

Paul, thanks for the suggestion. I phoned BT as I kept getting flyers sent to me inviting me to sign up for Broadband. I was a bit incredulous when they said it wasn't available at my postcode... the very same postcode that was on the letter they sent to me!!! Whn I pointed out this stupidity the operator said they would put me through to an engineer... the engineer said that he would need to talk to somebody and would call back. I have heard nothing since. It seems BT is confused....

Personally I wouldn't consider BT as a broadband supplier. Not because of any sort of broadband snobbery, they're supposed to be quite good, but I think they have a 12 month minimum term, which I wouldn't be happy with in this day and age.

If you're prepared to pay the £47 or so connection I'd choose a smaller ISP who will probably be more help, plus you'd be on a monthly contract which makes it far easier to change suppliers.

Have you tried this checker?

Broadband Checker

Richard, it's very similar here, a 2 mile drive gets you a mobile signal and even the sky dish has to be located 2 fields away!

What I can't understand is if your neighbour 100yds away has it, your exchange must be enabled, does his phone number start with the same exchange code? We're too far from the exchange to get 2meg broadband (which is the deal we pay for), but I was willing to accept 1meg, which is better than nowt... Maybe you should ask them what speeds are available to you?

Richard,
if it can be done for thirty-five users living on Foula then why not you and the rest of the folks close to you?

I know you say you are remote but are there other people around you that also cannot get broadband? In my area there had to be a certain amount of people who signed up to say they wanted the service (not actually signing up to a supplier) before BT would enable the exchange to cary broadband in my area.
Perhaps if you got a few names in your area this may help.

Same here Alan ,at first we could not get BB yet a neighbour only half a mile away could ,when asked about this BT said I was to far from the exchange ,now I can get a whole 1mb WOW!I keep getting letters from BT & SKY informing me of their new 8mb services ,then further down the page they say unfortunately you cannot receive this service yet !

How far is too far?
I live 5 miles from the exchange and it is regarded as too far.

Line test. More than 60dB of signal loss means DSL not possible. This approximates to 6KM from the exchange.

Ok, I went onto the Zen site and entered my phone number. This was the response:

"Your exchange has ADSL broadband. However, due to your line being supplied using an incompatible technology, it is currently not possible for your telephone line to support broadband service"

Anyone know what they mean by "incompatible technology"...?

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Dane:
Anyone know what they mean by "incompatible technology"...?

Jaysus...your on yogurt pot and string!

Beano

It means that your phoneline is NACA5. Time to downgrade.

ADSL works over copper wire and I know there was some fuss about new estates being built with aluminium phone wiring because ADSL won't work if part of the line is aluminium or fiber.

Honestly I would phone the ISP, they should be able to give you a better idea than the automated output of a checker.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Hutchings:
ADSL works over copper wire and I know there was some fuss about new estates being built with aluminium phone wiring because ADSL won't work if part of the line is aluminium or fiber.

That's true - ADSL assumes copper wires.

quote:

Originally posted by David Leedham:
How far is too far?
I live 5 miles from the exchange and it is regarded as too far.

About 3&half miles !

Richard, since your telephone company cannot support high-speed connectivity in your area, the only other option that I can think of would be to get satellite TV + Internet broadband package from the likes of “Sky TV” or from other service providers.

Kindest Regards,
Brian

Thanks Brian, but sadly the Sky broadband is a landline service and not available over the satellite system. There are some satellite services available but at huge cost... Or has anyone found something cost effective out there??

When discussing this a while ago Willy seemed to have solved the problem.

Yeah,

But the conifer died. Richard, much of the cost was the initial investment in the dish/satellite modem. Right now mine're going spare if you're interested.

Willy.

Only a throught Richard but if your neighbour is in line of site (and agreeable) why not test a wireless connection between your two houses and share the costs of broadband. Assuming neither of you is going to download pirated films (!) it should be fine. My wireless network can be accessed about 150m away from my house (direct line of sight). Needs to be secure of course.
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by SteveGa:
Only a throught Richard but if your neighbour is in line of site (and agreeable) why not test a wireless connection between your two houses and share the costs of broadband. Assuming neither of you is going to download pirated films (!) it should be fine. My wireless network can be accessed about 150m away from my house (direct line of sight). Needs to be secure of course.
Steve

I was going to suggest that but didn't think you could get that sort of range. What base station are you using? My Apple Airport express needs a repeater unit just to reach the back of the house and the garden (40' from the base unit! Fortunately Apple supplied the second unit foc as they agreed it was a rather poor range)

Steve

Steve
I've got a Netgear RangeMax™ NEXT wireless modem router. Punches holes in rock! Adding a 18 dBi Patch Panel Directional Wireless Antenna enables easy connection between buildings.
Of course it needs to be line of sight.
I mentioned in another thread that I am part of a village wireless network at work running on Mesh boxes. That is another option but expensive unless there are a dozen or so households involved.
Steve