How can I get Internet without a cable bill?

arabian knight · #21 04/26/10, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevada

With neighbors nearby you have a good chance of getting free wireless Internet from a neighbor. But you won't be able to do it with a standard wireless networking adapter, you'll need something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/45dBm-Novel-WiFi...item2a068deca4

IF that neighbor lets you do it.
I now have my wireless modem protected with 128 Bit encryption . geesh that was a lot of numbers to put in to do that,,,, a series of 26 numbers of which I thought up LOL, ( boy did I print a few copies of THAT number)~!!!!! but I got it so nobody else can "sneak" and get my wireless connection~!!!

lmrose · #22 04/26/10, 07:04 PM

Joshie-Last year's property taxes were $470 for the year. Our house is 181 years old and not very modern. Barn is just as old. We pay taxes on the house, barn and two acres. The rest of the land is exempt because we are farming it.

All around the vicinity are new half million and million dollar homes except for a few. They belong to summer residents.When they were all built our taxes went way up but I appealed the assessment because our house is so old. The assessors agreed and lowered our assessment way down.Then they capped assessments on all the old properties here in our area. So when our assessment goes up we still pay taxes on the old assessment from years ago. This was done because with all the new expensive houses being built near the ocean. It wasn't fair to penalize people who live in very old homes that have been here for many generations.However if we ever sell this farm the new owners will have to pay taxes on the higher assessment not the capped one. That is the way the provincial government decided to handle the tax thing.I am thankful they capped our assessment but if I was in charge no one would pay taxes on homes over a hundred years old! I guess we will be here until we die because we couldn't afford to pay taxes anywhere else.

As for the internet I guess I will keep the cable for now and look into broadband. The cable company keeps raising prices because of the lack of competition and as I learned today most internet won't work here because we are in a "dead zone". I could take my laptop to town to the library and use the internet there for free but really would miss the convenience of having internet at home. Besides biking 18 miles round trip to town isn't as appealing to me as it was twenty years ago!So I guess I'll accept the fact it is expensive and pay for it if I want it.

Nevada · #23 04/26/10, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arabian knight

IF that neighbor lets you do it.
I now have my wireless modem protected with 128 Bit encryption . geesh that was a lot of numbers to put in to do that,,,, a series of 26 numbers of which I thought up LOL, ( boy did I print a few copies of THAT number)~!!!!! but I got it so nobody else can "sneak" and get my wireless connection~!!!

A lot of them are open. I have a wifi phone that needs Internet. I can walk down any residential street in Las Vegas and find an open router within a block or so.

When I stay at the resort hotels downtown I find plenty of open Internet there also. Some are open on purpose, like the players club area in Main Street Station, while others are open accidentally, like the registration area at the Las Vegas Club hotel.

There are plenty of open router opportunities.

deb · #24 04/26/10, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmrose

As for the internet I guess I will keep the cable for now and look into broadband.

Do you have phone service through the phone company? How much does it cost? It looks like Eastlink will bundle phone and cable internet services for a reduced price.

Eastlink Bundles

Nevada · #25 04/26/10, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deb

Do you have phone service through the phone company? How much does it cost? It looks like Eastlink will bundle phone and cable internet services for a reduced price.

Eastlink Bundles

No, I have Skype. I can make unlimited calls in the USA & Canada for $30/year ($2.50/month) and I can have a phone number for another $30/year ($2.50/month). So I get phone service for $5/month, which includes unlimited domestic long distance.

I get my Internet through Cox Cable for $32/month.

kendall j · #26 04/26/10, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshie

We also have millenicom. It costs us $70/month. Service is slllllllooooooowwwww.

I so very much miss our DSL.

How in the heck can your taxes be less than $50/month? Our taxes are less than half than they were when we lived in our suburban home. They still are six times your internet cost.

I wish we could get high speed internet. There's no way we'd consider satellite internet. I am not going to deal with FAP.

You're Millenicom is on the Sprint network isn't it?

Patt · #27 04/26/10, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevada

With neighbors nearby you have a good chance of getting free wireless Internet from a neighbor. But you won't be able to do it with a standard wireless networking adapter, you'll need something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/45dBm-Novel-WiFi...item2a068deca4

That would be stealing.....

#28 04/26/10, 11:20 PM

IMROSE ,I would like to see a picture or two of your house & barn .

rambler · #29 04/27/10, 12:04 AM

You've never really explained your telephone situation? Are you on a land line?

Most cable companies and most phone companies are bundling - putting TV & telephone & other stuff all into one bill.

Are you getting your trlephone service through the cable company, or do you have a telephone wire available to you? The telephone line might offer you a good DSL package.

--->Paul

blooba · #30 04/27/10, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmrose

Thanks everybody for your suggestions! So I will address them one at a time. - I do have neighbors and once tried paying half of the neighbors internet bill to use her computer.It didn't work as others were always using it when I had time available or no one was home. The other neighbors are the kind that talk to us when they need help!

Your neighbors can send the internet to you wirelessly and you both can use it at the same time. If it's within 100-200 yards they can do it wired(which would be better) but is your neighbor kinda technically savvy?

If so you will need to know how far it is between the houses and what obstacles are in the way of line of sight(trees, barns) you and your neighbor need to goto a GOOD electronics store (computer store would be better) and they can probably set you up with a wireless connection between the houses.

lmrose · #31 04/27/10, 07:38 AM

Deb and Ranbler; Our phone is a land line from Aliant which costs us $29.18 a month with the tax. The internet from Eastlink is $54.18 including tax. which comes to $83.36 a month. However a bundle from Eastlink in my area that includes phone and internet is $92.45 including tax. If you had cable TV to that package it costs $131.94 a month! We have rabbit ears for TV and when analog is gone next year we decided we won't have TV,Hardly watch it anyway.

Aliant has dial up internet that is a little less but my husband doesn't want me tying up our phone line. Dial up and the phone would cost $67.79 a month which is a bit less- about $16 less than Eastlink Internet and the Aliant phone we have now.

blooba- Our neighbor is too far away to connect to her wireless signal and she wouldn't like that anyway. She also has her internet secured. I wouldn't use anyone's signal unknown to them anyway. It would bother my conscience. I would share cost but no one else here has wireless internet.

WV Hillbilly- I would post pictures of our house and barn but don't know how it is done? I would like to put pictures on my blog too. It is something I need explained to me but just haven't had time to look into it.What is DSL and SKYPE?

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Navotifarm · #32 04/27/10, 12:13 PM

I do not know of a way to get free internet other than go to a place which offers it such as the library. I have a lap and several places to go for free internet but except for the library I feel honor bound to buy gas or a meal or whatever. The downside, besides the travel, is that often I have gone to these places to catch up on email etc and their system is down. Store staff do not know how to reboot or whatever. I bought a blackberry curve on sale from AT&T which advertises it has the most bars. yeah they do, in Europe or somewhere, not on MY land! After a big hassle I returned the AT&T Curve and bought one from United Cellular, which does have service to my land. For $89 I got cell phone and internet. This is called a "smartphone." It works very very well but not all sites work with it. for example, BWH letters all run over each other so I just haven't "been back" to BWH. After a few months of using the blackberry for my emails, I went back to the store and increased my contract to the "tethered modem" described in a previous post. This costs $15 extra but after a horrible hassle, once I got it set up, it works quite well. I am logged on to HT right now using my blackberry as a tethered modem (really, an external modem to use older terminology). My bill is now about $100 a month. WAY definitely more than I can afford!!!!! but considering that I have no cable or satellite or broadband or whatever other way to connect in the area where I live, and considering how much gas costs to go somewhere especially to a free site which does not work and the frustration aaargh this is the best way to go for me. I could have done the "air card," too. I have seen people with tiny laptops in the goodwill store, for example, checking prices on dolls or something to see if they want to buy them and then sell them on ebay and get rich, but since I already had the "smartphone," the tethered way is much better than the air card way.
I have a neighbor who has internet who said I could sit in his driveway with my laptop and get free wireless but somehow that just didn't seem ethical to free load on something he is paying for. Anyway, as has been pointed out, if you do not have cel service where you live, the tethered modem or air card would not work very well. Actually, wouldn't work at all where you live!!!
There are some maps on the internet showing coverage, by the way. They indicated AT&T had coverage where I live but my chicken coop did, not my home, which is what I found out. I would hate to get bit by a copperhead on my back porch and have to go all the way to my chicken coop to call for help!!!

Nevada · #33 04/27/10, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patt

That would be stealing.....

The question was:

"How can I get Internet without a cable bill?"

I assume that "without a cable bill" really means with no bill at all. That question has a limited number of answers.

nomifyle · #34 04/27/10, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navotifarm

There are some maps on the internet showing coverage, by the way. They indicated AT&T had coverage where I live but my chicken coop did, not my home, which is what I found out. !!!

I would hate to get bit by a copperhead on my back porch and have to go all the way to my chicken coop to call for help!!!

I almost choked to death laughing at that. So glad you found a way to get connected in your house and not your chicken coop.

Judy

Patt · #35 04/27/10, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nevada

The question was:

"How can I get Internet without a cable bill?"

I assume that "without a cable bill" really means with no bill at all. That question has a limited number of answers.

I get just internet (WiFi) through Windstream. It is $45 a month. No cable bill required!

arabian knight · #36 04/27/10, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patt

I get just internet (WiFi) through Windstream. It is $45 a month. No cable bill required!

Sure that is what the OP wanted to know what other ways to get internet besides cable, and that was not by stealing other peoples wireless signal.

Nevada · #37 04/27/10, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arabian knight

Sure that is what the OP wanted to know what other ways to get internet besides cable, and that was not by stealing other peoples wireless signal.

If the leecher uses but doesn't abuse, most broadband customers can't tell that the bandwidth is gone. I don't do it on a sustained basis, since I have a Cox cable account, but I make phone calls with wild internet feeds all over town.

Think of it this way; my neighbors pass their network signals through my property all the time and I don't charge them anything for doing it, but while that signal is on my property I can do with it as I please.

Patt · #38 04/27/10, 06:52 PM

That's an interesting way of looking at it! One of these days we will have maybe have to get easements for our airwaves!

Joshie · #39 04/27/10, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmrose

Joshie-Last year's property taxes were $470 for the year. Our house is 181 years old and not very modern. Barn is just as old. We pay taxes on the house, barn and two acres. The rest of the land is exempt because we are farming it.

Around here you would pay more in taxes on the bad side of town on a $10,000 house. My mom couldn't sell her house for more than $80,000 to $100,000 (100 year old house on very small lot) and her taxes are $3,500.

Our house is very tiny and our barn is a converted shop from when our place was strip mined. Because it's a rural area, even though our place is rural, our taxes are about $2,900 this year. Hubby will go talk to the county because they didn't give us the senior discount that we should have had.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kendall j

You're Millenicom is on the Sprint network isn't it?

Yes, our millenicom says sprint on it. We have Verizon for our land line and our cell. It keeps kicking me off. Tough to download. Tough to upload. I have a lot of difficulty chatting.

texican · #40 04/27/10, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmrose

Good point Texican about not getting much return for paying property taxes and they keep rising!. I guess I am just plain frugal [cheap] always looking for a way to save money! We have learned to be very careful of how we spend each dollar and try to get the most for our money. That comes from growing up dirt poor and almost not surviving. So for years we have lived careful but well off the farm raising five children on less than $5,000 a year income and some years much less. I am willing to pay more when there is no other less expensive way available. This is a time I may have too if I want to keep the internet. It is my nature to look for the least expensive option and not spend money needlessly. It's a choice like everything else , I guess.

I can totally understand frugalness. I rationalize my sat internet costs as I spend zero money on vices such as tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs. (~ $20 a year is more than I spend each year on 'medicinal' snake bite medicine )