If you are in a remote location...

[Kristianna]

how are you connected to the internet? What is your source of power?

This is one thing that I actually do not have all worked out "in my head".

I would like to be waaaay out in the bush, but I've got five children to homeschool and it would be wonderful to have internet access.

Anyway, just curious about this.

[Jenny]

When we first moved out there, we had nothing that would work. Then got a radio phone, which still would not work with internet. Then the phone company made a "fixed cellular" system available. Chuck can tell you more about that if you're interested. Actually, regular cellular connection would work in a similar way, but may require you to purchase some gizzmo to make it work. Ours worked just like a dial-up system. We had the antenna in a tall tree facing the mountain where the cell tower is located. Didn't work well on windy days, though. But, the main idea is that if you are in a location where you can get a decent (or in our case, even poor) cell connection, you can get internet. The better the cellular connection, the better the internet service. Ours was very poor, so we could rarely "surf the net", or stay online to do anything like this. Short text-only e-mails were generally not a problem.

Although distance from a cell tower does matter, it seems that your actual location and the terrain ( for example, is there another mountain between you and the tower?) seems to make more of a difference. Sometimes you can do what we did once. We turned the antenna toward another large mountain and picked up a "bounced" signal. Not great, but better than nothing.

When we get back to our homestead, we're planning to check on getting a satellite system. That may still be too expensive, but the technology has improved since we last checked, so it may be a better and less expensive system now.

We'll certainly be homeschooling our children when they get older. Although internet is very nice and convenient, it is definitely not at all essential to a wonderful education. In fact, I'm beginning to think that it may actually inhibit our children't overall education. I don't want them growing up believing that they MUST have all the high tech "latest and greatest" this or that in order for it to be the best. If not handled properly, internet can be as detramental (and addicting) as television. Christ, good books, good family life and proper attitude are just some of the things vital to a good education. That said, we probably will still have our internet service when we get home.

Jenny
www.AlaskaHomesteading.com

[UgashikBob]

First the phone. When we first moved here we almost went bankrupt using a cell phone. Very expensive and very poor service because its prices were slanted at the very high percentage of the population that transient during the brief summer months. We then went with a radio phone that connects to the almost regular phone system in Pilot Point
Little over 1K in equipment for initial investment and $23 a month ongoing and we use 3 cent a minute calling cards for intra on out of state calls. Tried the internet on dial up with the radio phone but was slow and spendy unless you can find an ISP with a 800 # Put Starband in about 5 years ago and it was also a little over 1K up front for equipment and is around $60 a month and averages 500Kb down and 60 Kb up and I installed it myself.
When we looked at our options for power renewable energy was the only option if your wanted 24/7 power with all the luxeries we had in the city. One of the deals I made with my bride was she would live in the Bush with me if she had all the luxeries we had in town and renewa ble energy was the only way to accomplish it. I don't sell RE and I am not associated with anyone who does but we are both absolute believers and would do the same thing even if we had to live under the street lights again. Here is a link to one of our photo albums that shows our RE system. The first photo marked solar tracker with 4 wind generators in the background shows the large dish which is for our sattelite TV and the small dish is for Starband internet access.

community.webshots.com/album/51325081tYBJQs

When you say you want to be waaay out in the bush consider this when you locate. When we first got here 20 years ago we thought it was the end of the earth plus twenty miles but over time the rest of the world will come to you. My advise is when you think you are there keep going.

[Jenny]

Is Starband a sattelite system that can be used for internet? If so, that sounds fantastic! The cell system we used, although worked off the phone companies cell tower, didn't cost us like most mobile cell systems. THe phone co. charged us the same as all their residential customers --- less than $25 per month, plus $5 or $6 a month for internet. No equipment charges. We had service with them before we moved to the bush so they didn't even charge us a deposit. Worked out great. But, they said that some phone companies charge for it, which would have been over $1000. Our old radio phone cost about $90 monthly, as I recall, and they said internet service with it was not possible. Sounds like a different system from the one you had. Ours was really poor. An old push-to-talk phone. Still, better than nothing. With the cell system, there were no per minute charges, and the phone in our house was just a regular phone. We used a card for long distance calls, too.

Sounds like you have a great system, Bob. I know Chuck will want to hear more about your system.

[UgashikBob]

Jenny:
Yes Starband is a sattelite base system for internet access only. The only requirement is a clear view of the SE sky at 15 degrees elevation. I'm not exactly sure on the elevation thing but we have mountains on our SE horizon and it works OK.
Starband was in bed with Dish Network at one point and in the more southern latitudes you could get one antenna with a dual LNB and receive both the Starband internet signal and Dish network TV. Even though our latitude is further south than Juneau we are at the western edge of the footprint for the bird and have to use a 6' dish for TV. Even with a 6' dish we are on the edge of some of the transponders. That is the reason why we have a seperate 6' dish for tv and another 1 meter dish for Starband internet service. I have a background in Data communications and even though Starband does have some problems it is probably the best ISP we will ever see on the Outlet of Lower Ugashik Lake.

[woodsman]

Starband is definitly what I will be going with. And then for phone service I will probably go with vonage you can get 500 minutes for $15 a month and unlimeted service for $25 a month. since this works over the brodband conection I can call relative in the lower 48 without paying high long distance fees. You are basicaily paying the monthly fee so that you can have a home number to recive incoming calls. My phone bills in fairbanks averaged around $90 (about $45 for local service and dial-up and another $45 for long distance). This set up looks like it will cost me around $75 for phone service and brodband. You can check these out for your self. www.starband.com/findadealer/index.asp www.vonage.com/products.php