Wifi Connection Issues

[AlexiY]

Hi Neighbors,

Anyone else having major wifi issues over the last 2 days? (I'm on Nedernet). I know that's a reality of living up here, but I'm wondering if anyone else is dealing with this. Or if anyone has any alternatives for when this happens? Thinking of getting a signal boost and/or hotspot, but considering how little cell service we have up here anyway, not sure that that would even solve anything.

Would love any input, thanks!!

[patrickgriffin74]

Hi Alexi,
We are on Nedernet also, over here on Rock Lake, and the last few days we have seen some issues with the internet going down and coming back up, so you are not alone.  A booster might help overall depending on where your router is and where you are at in the house when using the internet.  We have a booster, (wireless router in basement, booster on main level), and it helps, but did not help with the issues over the last few days.  Neighbors use hotspots, but you need a strong cell signal, and only a few areas of the Bar-K seem to have a good line of sight to a cell tower.  We try to take the occasional up and down swings in stride for the most part, as Nedernet has been pretty stable for us overall.
Patrick

[Dan.Novak]

We are all sharing a rather limited bandwidth on Nedernet. This can slow things down when everyone is online and active at the same time. The network has been improved recently and I have seen speeds as high as 30mbps but only during the middle of the night.

I am patiently waiting for Elon's Starlink. I have been on the waiting list for over a year now with an updated ETA of late 2022. I believe you can still pre-order for $100. If you don't need low pings you could also consider traditional satellite internet.

[AlexiY]

Thanks for these responses! I'll look into wifi boosters, but I should have clarified that I was actually curious about cell signal boosters. As for the cell booster it seems we only get 1 bar of cell service on & off in 1 room of the house. Given the fact that it's only 1 bar, I'm not sure how much the signal boost would really help...thinking it might be good to have in an emergency though.

And totally understand that we're all in the same boat here sharing the same bandwidth. I just recently started working fully remote & may need to find some sort of alternative on days when the connection is too poor. We've been on the waitlist for Starlink for a while now too & were considering satellite internet in the meantime if the bandwidth on Nedernet was really becoming a problem. If anyone else uses traditional satellite internet I'd love any info or opinions you have on that!

[Jay]

Have been on Starlink for awhile but had Viasat for a number of years prior. It had decent speed but a long ping. Main problem was that even the most expensive package would run out in about three weeks and then it slowed to a painful crawl until the next billing period. If we streamed an occasional movie or YouTube it chewed up the month’s allotment quickly. We didn’t telecommute. Yes you could always pay for extra capacity adding on as needed but wow, too pricey.

[joeryan80481]

AlexiY,
Not sure I will explain this just right, but I heard from Nedernet that their signal from CenturyLink dropped for about a 1-day period a couple of days ago.  David at Nedernet stated that CenturyLink never explained the dropped signal.  Nedernet had to switch to a back-up system that was slow.  Nedernet had notices about this on their phone message, and later, on Facebook.
Joe

[AlexiY]

Good to know re: satellite internet. And thanks Joe. I got in touch with Nedernet the other day & they didn't really say what happened. Service seemed to be alright today, but I was getting super slow up/download speeds again about an hour ago. Hoping this week is just a hiccup!

[iwasinthepool]

I've had satellite internet once in Red Cliff, then for about two weeks in Jamestown. It's terrible. Maybe I just don't have a good south facing connection, but I got on average, about enough download speed to watch a YouTube video on my phone, but never in HD. I haven't seen YouTube buffer so much since it first came out. Wifi calling was an absolute no, video calling don't even think about it. If you need it for anything other than checking emails and maybe browsing the web, it isn't worth it.
Centurylink seems to be by far the best we could get in JT. Do you not have the option?

[AlexiY]

Thanks David. Unfortunately Centurylink is not an option for our address. I believe Nedernet uses them to route to our area, but I don’t totally know the specifics. With how service has been lately I may need to rent an office space somewhere as the connection completely dropped again this evening. Just surprised with the connection lately - I haven’t noticed it this bad since we started using Nedernet back in the summer/fall, but also hadn’t been relying on it quite as much.

[Sandi C]

AlexiY, the Longmont Public Library has free NextLight fiber-optic internet if you get in a bind. You don’t even have to be a member to use it, and they have plenty of quiet nooks.  I use it to download updates.

[JamieP]

Hey AlexiY - I’m in the bar-k and couldn’t be reached by anyone but HughesNet or ViaSat. ViaSat has been tremendously more reliable albeit extremely expensive. They’ve redone their packages to include more high speed internet and although we run out about a week before it replenishes, we’re still able to stream and I’m able to WFH.

You might want to check with another local company, Elevations. Depending on where you are located, they might be able to help and I’ve heard great things:
elevationsethernet@gmail.com

[AlexiY]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for all of your help, I really appreciate it! I've definitely run over to the library in a bind before, when I've already been in town, but the nature of my work (advertising/animation) requires me to be on calls & videos calls regularly, so unfortunately I need some sort of room so as to not be disturbing others throughout the day & I know the library caps the amount of hours you can book their meeting & study rooms. Jamie - I appreciate the info on Viasat, that's who we were considering & I'll look back into them. The last time I spoke with Elevations there was a fairly long wait for installation, but I'll see if that's still the case. Again I'm hoping that this week is just a fluke - I've been doing this kind of work part time for the last year and really haven't had any problems, but this past week has been a bit of a nightmare. Thanks again all!
-Alexi