# Living off the grid: how to get internet and TV?



## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

From time to time I have considered living in a rural/remote area. but then, I'm kind of attached to internet and TV. Anyone have experience with internet and TV reception in remote areas? what are the pros and cons?


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## Userkare (Nov 17, 2014)

Pluto said:


> From time to time I have considered living in a rural/remote area. but then, I'm kind of attached to internet and TV. Anyone have experience with internet and TV reception in remote areas? what are the pros and cons?


If there's no phone line capable of DSL, or cable, satellite TV is pretty universal - unless you're living in a gorge. Satellite Internet is expensive with high latency. That's not necessarily a problem unless you're playing on-line games. An OTA antenna can work for a channel or two if you can get a high mast with a rotor on the antenna.

There are no 'pros'.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

Also check to see if Xplornet might be in the rural/remote area you are contemplating. It is an alternative to satellite if it is in the area.


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

We have lived off grid for 10 years. We have Bell satellite tv which costs about $100/mo. A bit of a ripoff because you cannot pay for just the few channels you watch. The packages are cleverly designed so you have to sign up for a lot of junk. We watch about 6 channels, but I think we receive hundreds. We pay $15/mo. for a foreign-language channel that comes from where we used to live in s.e. Asia.

We had Xplornet internet for about 5 years or so. Because I need reliable internet for my work, we had one additional isp. That way, if one went out, the other would likely still be working. 

When we signed up, Xploitnet advertised their basic service as being "12.5 times faster than dialup" and their top service as 37.5 times faster. How could they even measure like that? What nonsense and a complete lie. We had just come from AOL dialup at a condo we rented in downtown Vancouver. It was no different. We also had dialup in Asia. Xploitnet was no different. Not at all faster, never mind 12.5 times or 37.5 times. For the 2 services we paid about $350/mo. Two years ago, when we left Canada for a few months, we dumped Xploitnet. The service we now have is passable at about $150/mo., but it's a far cry from what I had in my office in Vancouver. Still, to live where we do, I'll put up with internet that is not lightning speed. Being out of Vancouver is worth any cost. 

Another thing about Xploitnet. When we went overseas and stopped the service, they said we would have to pay about $200 or so to get out of our contract. We had initially signed up for 3 years. I was unaware that, when after a few years we got sucked into signing up for their "Jupiter upgrade", we automatically (according to them) renewed our contract. I did not pay. We we returned, I called them and said I would be willing to start up with them again, paying them $150 a month or more. They said "Pay us the $200 you owe and we'll activate your service." F#$k that. Here I was offering them a customer at about $2,000 a year and they wanted their ransom. They would have made that paltry $200 up in no time. It pleases me to no end that since that time, I have been able to steer 3 newcomers to this area away from them and to the isp we now use. 

The other thing with those idiots was, before we starting dealing with a second isp, we were paying about $160/mo. for a service which gave us 100 GB of use and $2 GB for overage. We were always over. So I called and asked if I could simply pay double and get double - pay $320/mo. for 200 GB. You know what they said? They told me I would have to have a complete second service, a new installation. A techie would have to come out and install a second satellite dish, a second modem, etc. The first install cost about $1,000 for equipment, travel by boat etc. Needless to say, we demurred.


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## STech (Jun 7, 2016)

I don't know about Xplorenet towers (4G), but we had Xplorenet satellite for 2 years, and it was slightly better than awful. They kept on promising us they were about to send another intergalactic space ship to roam Uranus, and it was going to quadruple our internet speed and bandwidth. Horse ****.

If you're lucky to be within line of sight of an ISP tower, chances are you can get a decent internet through a turbo hub, but it won't be cheap.


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

STech said:


> I don't know about Xplorenet towers (4G), but we had Xplorenet satellite for 2 years, and it was slightly better than awful. They kept on promising us they were about to send another intergalactic space ship to roam Uranus, and it was going to quadruple our internet speed and bandwidth. Horse ****.


I think that new space ship was what they called the "Jupiter Upgrade" - touted as being ultra fast if you would pony up more dollars. We got sucked in. As you observed in eloquent terms, "horse ****".


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## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

That's all good info. 
I'm assuming you guys had hydro? or were you all far off the grid and using solar panels and what not?


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

Pluto said:


> That's all good info.
> I'm assuming you guys had hydro? or were you all far off the grid and using solar panels and what not?


We are nowhere near hydro. We use solar, wind and a diesel genset for backup to charge batteries if solar and wind fail to supply enuff. We seldom need the generator in summer. It runs a a few hours a week in the winter.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

Our friends who are totally off-grid have settled on Bell for internet hub. They got an extra device so that one cell phone was no longer restricted.


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## Eder (Feb 16, 2011)

I'm off the grid for the 6 months I spend on the sail boat.

For tv entertainment I download various seasons of popular shows and music onto a portable hard drive for later viewing and listening...I have about 2 terra bytes at this point so am good for a few years. (and no commercials!)

Current news I can pick up on short wave...BBC,CBC,NPR...(bit of propaganda but oh well). 

When I'm out of range of a cell tower (usually) I use a Garmin Inreach... texting & email only, no browsing or facebook etc.


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## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

OK. that's all excellent info. 
I don't think I could go off grid fulltime, but partime seems a nice idea....


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## Pluto (Sep 12, 2013)

Mukhang pera said:


> We have lived off grid for 10 years.


I think I get it. Arthur Beauchamp moved to get away from it all and it was inspiring to you. He's what got me thinking of getting to a remote area.


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