Our internet is ridiculous! In order to get high speed we have to have a satellite dish, because apparently we live in the middle of nowhere. But the satellite limits everyone who uses it to a "Fair Usage Policy" which means that you can only use up to 80% of your plan before they basically shut you off. So with Brian home and using Youtube a lot our usage goes up and then we have no internet at all in the evening. It is on a 30 day rolling basis, so we pretty much have to not use it at all for 15 days or more so we can get it back to normal. It really, really is a pain in the butt!
I have been investigating alternative providers (at work of course, where the internet actually works) and was excited that Iowa Telecom, where we get our phone service, offered HughesNet satellite. I called them yesterday and was told they no longer offer it. HughesNet and WildBlue are the only providers in Iowa for satellite and we are already with WildBlue so then I thought maybe I would just go to HughesNet directly. Checked them out and find their usage policy is even tighter than what we have!
So now I am going to call Iowa Telecom back and sign up for dial-up internet. It will be slow, but at least I will have a backup when WildBlue goes anal on us. If only I didn't live millions of miles away from civilization.
October 7, 2010