Broadband telecommuting around Blue Ridge and Ellijay

There are only a few options currently available to the telecommuters or the local Internet speed freaks. However, based upon my recent experience, these local providers have improved their reliability significantly and ETC is now serving up a 10MB connection for limited areas (just ordered it for the house, can’t wait).

Internet Service Providers - ISPs
TDS Telecom - DSL broadband in and around Blue Ridge and townships

Ellijay Telephone Company (ETC) – cable modem broadband in Blue Ridge area, DSL or cable in Ellijay

HughsNet (formerly Direcway) or Starband - broadband satellite Internet, anywhere with a view of the sky, a computer and electricity

Speeds/Costs
TDS – DSL
3MB download/512K upload - $19.95/month (first six months), then $29.95/month

ETC - Cable
3MB/128K - $49.99
6MB/384K - $59.99
10MB/512K - $69.99

HughesNet - Satellite
700K/128K - $59.99 + $400 dish/modem
1MB/200K - $69.99 + $400 dish/modem
1.5MB/200K - $79.99 + $400 dish/modem

Starband - Satellite
512K/128K - $49.99 + $300 dish/modem
1MB/256K - $129.99 + $300 dish/modem

Need More Speed & Connectivity Reliability? CABLE + DSL!
Since TDS was running this $19.95 special, I decided to order the DSL as a backup for when cable went down or vice-versa. However, while thinking through the hassles of running two home networks on two different broadband connections, the term “load balancing” popped into my head and I did a little digging, prepared for bleeding-edge, gadget sticker-shock.

It turns out D-link makes a cheap load balancing router that was a breeze to set up. It’s not a wireless router but you just plug in a wireless access point and your house is covered in most cases. Definitely snappier browsing and downloading two large files at once doesn’t halve your download speed: the router assigns one file to the DSL modem and the other to the cable modem to “balance the load”. On a good cable+dsl day, I’ll download two files at once w/ one downloading @ ~170K/second and the other at around 400K/second (browser downloads). I’ll update these speeds when the new 10MB cable connection is live.

Bottom Line
If I had to choose between the two, I’d go with the speedier, pricier, a bit more reliable, cable. However, the DSL deal is the best bang-for-your-buck if good old broadband is good enough, to which it is for most.

My only problem with TDS DSL is that their cursed “Actiontec Gateways” have to be rebooted every week or so; that never happens with ETC’s cable modem. Why? ETC gives you a straight cable modem & you’re on your own to route it; TDS (locally at least–I’ve asked) makes you use their buggy modem/router/wireless router combo. Personally, I disable routing & wireless, but it still requires pampering on occasion.

Lastly, don’t buy into a satellite system unless you absolutely cannot get cable or DSL. I’ve heard people claim it’s faster than DSL/cable; I’ve had them all and satellite would be my absolute last choice, though it’s way better than dial-up. The speeds they claim are inconsistent, uploads are painful, and the latency makes gaming, etc. pretty much impossible.