Wireless Internet Access For Farms

There are many advantages to living and working on a farm, but one of the disadvantages is that broadband Internet access is harder to come by. No, DSL and Cable broadband probably aren’t in your future. But there are options available at reasonable prices right now.

It’s true that DSL and Cable are popular with independent professionals, small businesses and home-based occupations. You get a decent amount of bandwidth at a reasonable cost. The one hitch is that these services are distance limited. DSL signals decrease rapidly as you get a mile to two from the telephone company central office. Cable is a wired service that goes only where the Cable company has decided that there is enough population density to justify stringing the coaxial cable. Unfortunately, those factors keep Cable and DSL within or close to the city limits.

What you really want are either line services that don’t have distance restrictions or wireless services that don’t require stringing or burying cable of any type. There are several options that meet this description.

First is T1. This is a telco digital line service first used between telephone company switching centers. The beauty of T1 is that it is designed to be provisioned on two pair of ordinary telephone wires, available just about everywhere. The second advantage is that it was designed to work with regenerator boxes that clean up and boost the signal so that it can go another mile. You can generally get T1 line service miles from the nearest town, although it gets more expensive as you get farther out in the country.

Second is satellite. Satellite broadband service comes from above and needs no wires. All it requires is AC power that can even come from a gas generator or solar panels and an inverter. Disadvantages include the need to get a professionally installed two-way satellite dish installed on your roof and a half-second or so of latency due to the long path up to the stationary satellite. For many email and Web uses, this slight delay from issuing a command to getting data back is no big deal.

A third option is wireless terrestrial Internet service. Many communities have WISPs or Wireless Internet Service Providers. These tend to be locally owned and have a very limited service area. More often than not, WISPs target rural subdivisions and small towns to get enough customers to justify the cost of the equipment and bandwidth.

One of the most exciting new services is fixed wireless or cellular broadband. This service uses the data channels that every cell phone carrier has available for mobile phones and laptop computers. Accel Networks is a leader in this field and has contracts with the major carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint) to connect with their broadband data channels. By combining the coverage areas of multiple carriers, Accel can pretty much blanket the nation except for mountainous and remote areas of the West where there is no cell phone coverage. If you can get a decent cell phone signal, you can probably get fixed wireless service.

The way this works is that Accel Networks customizes their standard interface box and antenna to optimize the signal strength for your particular location. That gives you a really good chance of getting a solid signal that will deliver decent bandwidth. How much bandwidth? This service is competitive with T1 lines with a minimum rate of 750 Kbps download and 250 Kbps upload, bursting up to 1 Mbps on downloads. This is more than adequate for most farm uses, such as getting agriculture reports, using email, general Web surfing and even watching video clips. It’s not intended for high intensity usage like downloading HD movies or running a server.

What makes fixed wireless broadband service so popular in rural areas is that it is readily available and costs half the price of a T1 line or less. Is this the right service for your farm, ranch or rural business? Get pricing, availability and complete details on fixed wireless broadband now. Installation is fast, often within a matter of days.

T-Mobile 3G Aircard For PC and Mac

Would you like to be able to connect your laptop computer to the T-Mobile 3G mobile data network? How about free access to T-Mobile HotSpots? Ah, what you need is the T-Mobile webConnect USB Laptop Stick.

This "stick" is a wireless modem aircard with a swiveling USB connector. It plugs into a USB port on your PC or Macintosh computer. For PCs you'll need to be running Windows XP or Vista. For Macs, it's OS X 10.3.9 or higher.

An advantage of this aircard is that it gives you access to the Internet just about anywhere you can get a T-Mobile cellular signal. That's much of the U.S., although you should check the coverage maps to make sure you'll get a strong signal where you expect to be. In strong 3G signal areas, you'll be connected at speeds comparable to DSL or Cable Modems using the HSDPA protocol. In weaker areas, you'll still get EDGE 2G connectivity for broadband or near-broadband speeds.

You'll also be connected to T-Mobile WiFi HotSpots with unlimited free access. Normally you have to pay a fee to connect to these in Starbucks coffee shops, Borders Books, FedEX Kinko's Office and Print Centers and various airports and major airline clubs. But buy this aircard and data service plan and you'll get the HotSpots thrown in free.

Note that the built-in T-Mobile Connection Manager finds you the best connection for where you are, be it 2G, 3G or WiFi, and makes the connection. That greatly expands your ability to operate at broadband speeds just about everywhere.

But there's even more. The webConnect USB Laptop Stick features a built-in microSD slot that supports up to 8 GB memory cards. Use this instead of another portable flash memory drive when you are on the go.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Moving On Up To The Fast Side

You've heard the one about what a snail says while riding on the back of a turtle? "Wheeeeeee!"

Well, that turtle is the current state of broadband deployment in the world. We in the United States are that snail. If we could actually take the ride, the sheer velocity would be breathtaking. So far behind the bandwidth leaders are we.

But now comes a glimmer of hope. The FCC has upped the ante of broadband definitions in its recent report and order regarding broadband data collection. The existing standard that defined broadband as 200 Kbps and above is being replaced by a new set of broadband tiers. The set of service speeds from 200 Kbps to 768 Kbps will be known as First Generation data. That's another way of saying legacy or antique broadband service. Kinda like the way those early 300 and 1200 baud modems seem so quaint now.

Basic broadband is being stepped up to include speeds of 768K to 1.5 Mbps. That includes such services as entry level DSL and Satellite Internet service, EVDO cellular data, and business T1 lines. Nothing wrong with basic broadband. It's just right for things like email, general Web browsing, and video clips on the go. Looks like Apple just scooted under the wire with their 3G iPhone upgrade. The old EDGE service doesn't make the basic broadband definition.

The next tier up is 1.5 to 3.0 Mbps, followed by 3.0 to 6.0 Mbps, and then 6.0 Mbps and above. While that probably covers the vast majority of residential and small business users, it also says something about the status quo of broadband in America. You might think that anything above 6 Mbps is so outrageously fast that there is no need for further definition until technology advances to challenge the great frontier beyond.

Ironically, that day is already here. The lucky few consumers (potentially few millions) who have access to Verizon's fiber optic service called FiOS start with a download speed of 5 Mbps, with upgrades to as fast as 30 Mbps, and soon 50 Mbps. Even 100 Mbps is in the testing phase.

Corporations, who have been primarily served by 1.5 Mbps T1 lines, now have the option of upgrading to Ethernet service in the 10 to 100 Mbps range from competitive carriers. That's just for those who are limited to delivery on copper wire. If lit for fiber optic service, available speeds go to at least Gigabit Ethernet at 1,000 Mbps.

The rest of the world will probably continue to point and laugh at our pitiful excuse for Internet access. The Japanese and South Koreans can afford to yuck it up. Their broadband speeds average 61 and 45.5 Mbps respectively. They also make a lot of electronic devices that we've forgotten how to build. Sigh!

It's nice to see that the broadband snail is starting to make its move. But if we are going to regain our place as a technology leader in the world, we're going to have to go beyond turtle and start thinking about rabbit speeds. How about GigE as a baseline service to every home and business? That would get things moving, wouldn't it? Then Internet users from other countries could come over here and say: "Wheeeeee!"

iPhone Getting its Video in a Sling

Mobile video is developing along multiple lines, including carrier specific formats such as Verizon's VCAST and Sprint TV, and channel specific formats such as MediaFLO. Now Sling Media is entering the fray with a SlingPlayer for iPhone. This is potentially a game changer because it puts control of content back in the hands of the user.

Sling Media is best known for the Slingbox, a set top box that connects to your satellite receiver, DVR or Cable box, and a broadband connection. DSL or Cable broadband is used as a conduit to control the Slingbox and receive video from it on a computer located just about anywhere. It's as if you could pick up your TV set and carry it with you everywhere without trailing a collection of wires behind. The Slingbox and a WiFi hotspot take the place of those wires.

Alternatively, you could simply view IP video streamed or downloaded from Web sites while you are on the go. But this is currently a hit or miss proposition. Some networks offer full length programs after they've aired. Others only give you short teasers. Many popular satellite and cable channels don't offer the same content for Internet viewing. But with a Slingbox it doesn't matter. You input what you are already subscribing to and view it wherever you happen to be.

This isn't Sling Media's first foray into mobile video. They already have support for Windows Mobile, Palm OS or Symbian cell phones and PDAs. The iPhone version should hopefully be available soon. What the iPhone offers is a large and very high quality video display. The new iPhone with 3G data network capability will let you watch video content literally anywhere you can get a decent cellular signal. With the original iPhone you need the high bandwidth of a WiFi hotspot connection to enjoy the experience.

Corporate users aren't out in the cold, either. You might just want to access the business or news channels between customer calls or at lunch. But the ability to pick up any video without the need to first convert it to IP streaming, gives the Slingbox applications for video conferencing, security cameras, and pre-recorded videos from the home office or customer submissions.

As the iPhone advances to support corporate email, 3G and later 4G cellular data networks, Apple aficionados will have more ammo to lobby for the iPhone as an accepted business tool.