Broadband help/thoughts/advice

[Systreg]

Hi,

I've been looking at a house that's very cheap, the problem is, it's in a very rural part of Ireland and about a mile or so along a muddy track to the nearest small village, there's no phone service/line to the property at all and nothing nearby to connect a phone to, that means the only option would be mobile broadband using a dongle in the laptop.

I checked three.ie site for coverage in the area, and it has a map shaded in light blue for "indoor" coverage and dark blue for "out and about". The area the house is in shows as dark blue, I'm guessing that means you can get a signal when your on the move but that you'll also get it indoors?

The other problem with the property is that it's pretty much surrounded by a forest of large pine trees, see house in images below, the trees may stop the mobile signal getting through at all?

I have a 15 metre cable that I can plug my dongle in to and the other end goes in to the laptop, my thinking is, would it be possible to buy a load of 50 metre cables and plug them in to each other, then run them down the side of the track to a clear area with no trees, and stick the dongle at the top of a pole in the ground, if the dongle picked up a signal from there, would the signal from there stay strong down a couple hundred metres of cable to my laptop? If not, how about some sort of booster half way along the cable to increase/keep the signal, that's if the cable idea would work in the first place.

 

[Retired_member41]

Even I know that answer.

No lol

Just wire your dongle to a satellite dish on top of the house

 

[Systreg]

Thanks Caz, I'll ignore your advice, you're even less techy than me at times haha

 

[bb99]

Last time I bought a Three dongle they came with a 14 day money back guarantee. So, if you're serious about the house, buy one and then take it over there and see exactly what sort of signal you can get and where from (and how consistent it is).

If you can't get a signal (or if you can!) then send it back. Nailed.

 

[bensd]

Have you looked into how expensive it would be to run a telephone line to the property?

 

[monaghan]

Wireless repeater from the nearest point with good reception would be your easiest option (or move to a city / town and give up the idea of all that nice countryside!)

You could look at a long range point to point link - something like this may help http://linitx.com/product/13313

 

[WigWam]

How about satellite broadband?

http://www.toowaybroadband.co.uk/order_now.php

worth checking if it is available in your area.

 

[accelerator]

I checked three.ie site for coverage in the area, and it has a map shaded in light blue for "indoor" coverage and dark blue for "out and about". The area the house is in shows as dark blue, I'm guessing that means you can get a signal when your on the move but that you'll also get it indoors?

"Indoor" coverage means you're in a stronger signal area.

"Out and about" means you only get coverage when outside, i.e. weak signal area.

I would definitely borrow or buy a dongle and test it first, but the chances of having a reasonable service don't sound good.

As others have said, another option is satellite, although I think this can be expensive, and slow on the upload side of things.

Rgds

 

[martin-s]

I've just come back from a week in France in a villa with satellite broadband.

Not. Much. Fun!

 

[Systreg]

Last time I bought a Three dongle they came with a 14 day money back guarantee. If you can't get a signal (or if you can!) then send it back. Nailed.

Yeah, I know they definitely offer money back in the shop here if you can't get a signal on it.

Have you looked into how expensive it would be to run a telephone line to the property?

I'm watching another topic on an Irish forum where somone's nearest connection would be their garden gate, which is 150 metres away from their house, and they're wanting to know how much for Eircom would charge to install phone/internet line, I expect it would be prohibitively expensive from what I've read elsewhere.

Buy a wireless router that has a USB port to attach the 3G dongle to, stick that somewhere where you get a signal and then buy wireless repeaters to bring the signal up to the house.

I hadn't heard of wireless repeaters, so that's something to look in to, thanks.

Wireless repeater from the nearest point with good reception would be your easiest option (or move to a city / town and give up the idea of all that nice countryside!)

You could look at a long range point to point link - something like this may help http://linitx.com/product/13313

I don't fancy living in a big city/town, spent most of my life in London and prefer the countryside nowadays as I'm getting old Thanks for the link, had a read of that page but didn't understand any of what the techy stuff is or what it does :lol:

How about satellite broadband?

http://www.toowaybroadband.co.uk/order_now.php

I was looking at that site yesterday as it happens, most ot these satellite broadband site say they guarantee a connection no matter where you live but, when we first moved to Ireland, we had a satellite company out to my mums house, as she can't get internet there.

They had a dish in loads of different positions all over the roof and couldn't get any signal at all, as her house is at the bottom of a large valley and apparently the signal was going over the top of it. All we could get there in the end was a not very strong 3 signal on dongle, which was made a bit better by the 15 metre cable so I could put the dongle up higher.

"Indoor" coverage means you're in a stronger signal area.

"Out and about" means you only get coverage when outside, i.e. weak signal area.

Ahhh, that's a bit of a bugger then

I've just come back from a week in France in a villa with satellite broadband.

Not. Much. Fun!

Thanks for the comment, doesn't sound great, I had read there can be quite a lag on satellite as well.

Looks like the only way to know for sure is to go to the property with a laptop and a dongle, and see how weak the signal is, if any, bit of a pain in the arse as it's a 7 1/2 hour train ride each way as well, and that doesn't include the 1 hour drive from where we are to the train station to start with, and the drive the distance the other end to the property, gotta love rural Ireland lol.

 

[monaghan]

I don't fancy living in a big city/town, spent most of my life in London and prefer the countryside nowadays as I'm getting old Thanks for the link, had a read of that page but didn't understand any of what the techy stuff is or what it does :lol:

Basically it is a directional wireless device with built in router, but if you're not technical, then I guess it will be too complex.

If you can get a half decent phone signal, I'm sure you'll be able to get a local geek company to run a radio on a long pole or standalone tower and hook the setup to a wifi router. The only thing to carefully consider is that looking at your photos, the mast may be the highest thing around, so consider a lightning conductor.

 

[Systreg]

The only thing to carefully consider is that looking at your photos, the mast may be the highest thing around, so consider a lightning conductor.

Re a mast being the biggest thing around, I've circled a couple of things in red on this photo:

Those are these type of electricity pylons:

 

[mally]

I'm more interested at seeing a pic of your house, it looks amazing!

 

[monaghan]

I'd still consider protection as you are so remote.

I know the desire to have land and space, we only need another million or so to get a nice plot round here!

 

[Systreg]

I'd still consider protection as you are so remote.

Rural burglaries are getting more common in Ireland with the recession, even including armed gangs holding people. The next door neighbours to us where we are now were nearly done about a month ago, it happened at about 2:00am, 4 blokes with Northern Irish accents breaking in and woke the people inside as they put the window through, they then fled in a car.

I know the desire to have land and space, we only need another million or so to get a nice plot round here!

It's not really an amazing property to look at, it does require modernisation, it's just a very small cottage, 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom, it's got electric, has mains water on site but needs connection, and has a septic tank installed. It's on a 1 acre plot so not bad for £18k, it's just the probable lack of phone/internet that's the bloody problem.

I want to have a go at living off the land, stick a couple of 40ft x 10ft polytunnels on land and grow my own food all year round, get a few hens for eggs and live the good life etc

 

[scooter]

Couple of things to consider even if you do get broadband.

You defo need a 4x4
There's not going to be any snow plow coming to your aid. Its you v's nature.

(You will probably find the track just as bad/impassible if it is a wet summer)


Looks lovely but be prepared for the annual summer onslought of:
Horse Flies/Clegs
Midges


Will be a nightmare if you need tradesmen. A lot of them will dizzy you as they do not want lumps torn out their vans just to get to you.

Delivery vans (and mailman) may refuse to deliver if the track is bad or does not look like it will support vehicle weight. You may find anything you purchase online is left at the end of your track or at a local shop. This will include vitals like new washing machine, bath, settee. So you still have to find a way to get them to your house.


I'm not trying to put you off, just a heads up. I stayed in a simlar place for over 1yr.




.

 

[boxerdog]

looks like you have a river at the bottom as well, sod the internet just spend the day fishing!!

 

[bulkcorn]

It's not really an amazing property to look at, it does require modernisation, it's just a very small cottage, 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom, it's got electric, has mains water on site but needs connection, and has a septic tank installed. It's on a 1 acre plot so not bad for £18k, it's just the probable lack of phone/internet that's the bloody problem.

I want to have a go at living off the land, stick a couple of 40ft x 10ft polytunnels on land and grow my own food all year round, get a few hens for eggs and live the good life etc

£18k is smashing! You'd maybe get a signpost for that price here in this neck of the woods. Looking to live off the land too ... and live the good life! .... but it's gotta have internet ... definitely!

 

[Simon]

You should look into Wifi Donkeys.