Rural living - slow Internet
Discussion
I'm about to put in an offer on a house in the country with an apparent 2mb connection. Does anyone live with a similar connection, if so what's your experience with netflix and streaming in general? The house is surrounded by tall trees to the south and south east so I think a satellite dish is out of the question also, hence the importance of streaming alternatives.
I'm not too concerned with getting HD, SD will be fine just as long as I don't get endless buffering.
I'm not too concerned with getting HD, SD will be fine just as long as I don't get endless buffering.
A mate of mine lives in rural Wales, has 1.8meg. Took my Kodi stick down when we went to stay with him and it was very temperamental. It did buffer on almost everything and that was without anyone using another piece of kit, so guess if the missus was using and iPad/phone/computer etc you'll be stuffed.
We're very rural in NI and get download of 1.5Mb/s. It's enough to stream Netflix most nights. Sometimes it will drop out but I think that's a hardware problem as I'm streaming through an xbox 360 which is on its last legs.
When watching Youtube I generally have to use the 480p setting and I can't play online games anymore because the ping is so slow.
When watching Youtube I generally have to use the 480p setting and I can't play online games anymore because the ping is so slow.
You might be ok with the satellite dish - my house is surrounded by trees & we just put the dish higher so it could get a clearer view. It lives on the chimney stack tucked away quite nicely so it can't even be seen from the ground.
I also think there's a bit on the BT website you can check to see if / when the area is due to get an upgrade. Probably not that accurate but worth a look.
I also think there's a bit on the BT website you can check to see if / when the area is due to get an upgrade. Probably not that accurate but worth a look.
Firstly make sure your internal phone setup is efficient as possible, one badly wired extension can knock down your BB speed, which will be very noticeable if it is already poor internet connection. I would disconnect all slave extensions and just have a master socket with cordless landlines and a face plate filer
Secondly look to see if there is 3g or even 4g signal, that could be an option, as many providers off unlimited downloads now and you can get a router with a sim in it and use mobile network instead of landlines
Thirdly look into Bonding internet connections, thats what we do in our rural offices, we take 3 x 3mb lines and bond them so we have one 9mb connection. Works well, you can do it yourself now or companies will offer it as a managed service.
Satellite is ok, but when I looked the ping was quite poor, it was pricey and there were download limits.
Ive spent a lot of time getting internet to rural offices with poor broadband speeds!
Secondly look to see if there is 3g or even 4g signal, that could be an option, as many providers off unlimited downloads now and you can get a router with a sim in it and use mobile network instead of landlines
Thirdly look into Bonding internet connections, thats what we do in our rural offices, we take 3 x 3mb lines and bond them so we have one 9mb connection. Works well, you can do it yourself now or companies will offer it as a managed service.
Satellite is ok, but when I looked the ping was quite poor, it was pricey and there were download limits.
Ive spent a lot of time getting internet to rural offices with poor broadband speeds!
RowntreesCabana said:
Thanks for all the replies. I've decided to go for it regardless, but its good to know some of you can use netflix without too much issue. I'll certainly look into bonding if its not up to it.
The view will more than make up for the other issues. Thanks again.
I admire your dedication. The view will more than make up for the other issues. Thanks again.
Lack of decent broadband really puts me off moving to a lovely rural location. I need it to do my day job or out of hours work from home.
Maybe one day my priorities will change or coverage will improve.
Good decision. Do you know that people used to survive without any internet? I know it's unthinkable now.
But seriously, it would be foolish to give up on an otherwise perfect house just because you can't have your life 'on demand'. Hopefully you can work from home because another concern for rural life is being snowed/flooded in approx. 5 days a year. I love those days were I get out of bed at 8.50, put on a dressing gown and work from my sofa with fresh coffee.
But seriously, it would be foolish to give up on an otherwise perfect house just because you can't have your life 'on demand'. Hopefully you can work from home because another concern for rural life is being snowed/flooded in approx. 5 days a year. I love those days were I get out of bed at 8.50, put on a dressing gown and work from my sofa with fresh coffee.
Rural Norfolk here, idyllic village life, nominal 2Mb but in practice often <1. Constant buffering, basically useless for anything other than emails, on-line shopping/banking and simple browsing.
BT guy the other day rabbiting on about UK coverage with high speed soon to be 95% - great, but not much consolation if you live in one of the 5% areas.
BT guy the other day rabbiting on about UK coverage with high speed soon to be 95% - great, but not much consolation if you live in one of the 5% areas.
My dad is very rural and get 2mb if he's lucky. In the past, streaming services didn't work for toffee (TV and DVD player apps); iplayer on the iPad used to work ok but the resolution could drop occasionally. Then at Christmas I happened to take my PS4 with me and the Netflix app on it worked flawlessly; decent quality and hardly any buffer time.
I think Netflix have their software configured for working well on low capacity broadband; my apple tv by comparison buffers for 5 mins then tells you the program will be ready in 14 hours time.
I think Netflix have their software configured for working well on low capacity broadband; my apple tv by comparison buffers for 5 mins then tells you the program will be ready in 14 hours time.
The other thing to look into is whether there are alternative internet service providers available to you.
In our rural area (Shropshire Hills) we have quite a good "line of sight" broadband provider in Secure Web Services. Currently on their 10Mb down / 1Mb up (could go up to 30Mb+ / 5Mb if we wanted) package and unlike ADSL advertised speeds we are actually getting the quoted speeds.
Very happy with this and now much less concerned about the fact that BT has decided it would be too expensive to upgrade the cabinet we (and 200 other homes) are connected to.
In our rural area (Shropshire Hills) we have quite a good "line of sight" broadband provider in Secure Web Services. Currently on their 10Mb down / 1Mb up (could go up to 30Mb+ / 5Mb if we wanted) package and unlike ADSL advertised speeds we are actually getting the quoted speeds.
Very happy with this and now much less concerned about the fact that BT has decided it would be too expensive to upgrade the cabinet we (and 200 other homes) are connected to.
tokyo_mb said:
The other thing to look into is whether there are alternative internet service providers available to you.
In our rural area (Shropshire Hills) we have quite a good "line of sight" broadband provider in Secure Web Services. Currently on their 10Mb down / 1Mb up (could go up to 30Mb+ / 5Mb if we wanted) package and unlike ADSL advertised speeds we are actually getting the quoted speeds.
Very happy with this and now much less concerned about the fact that BT has decided it would be too expensive to upgrade the cabinet we (and 200 other homes) are connected to.
We're also in South Shropshire, and when we first moved here it's safe to say that the broadband was really bad - 1.5MB/s on a good day. But now we have OpenReach, and we're getting a reliable 30 - 40 MB/s at all times. This is getting rolled out to more and more rural areas, so sooner or later everyone's service will improve.In our rural area (Shropshire Hills) we have quite a good "line of sight" broadband provider in Secure Web Services. Currently on their 10Mb down / 1Mb up (could go up to 30Mb+ / 5Mb if we wanted) package and unlike ADSL advertised speeds we are actually getting the quoted speeds.
Very happy with this and now much less concerned about the fact that BT has decided it would be too expensive to upgrade the cabinet we (and 200 other homes) are connected to.
This might be pertinent: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
DavidJG said:
This is getting rolled out to more and more rural areas, so sooner or later everyone's service will improve.
So ConnectingShropshire would have you believe... If you look at the more visible interactive map on their site http://connectingshropshire.co.uk/when-and-where/ it looks like just about everywhere in Shropshire is being covered. Scroll down the same page, however, and you get the following map (where all the white areas have no plans for fibre broadband or anything else anytime soon, and the grey areas are reliant on providers such as Secure Web Services to maybe get something by end 2017): Paints a lot different picture...
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