Remote worker in need of good internet near Clyde (Asheville: renting, house)
Western North CarolinaThe Mountain Region including Asheville
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Fulltime remote worker here & use VPN to work from home. Have been looking to buy house in rural WNC within striking distance to Asheville. Came close to putting a bid on a house in the Fines Creek community near Clyde, but when I checked for internet availability using the address only Hughsnet came up as a viable provider. Dish satellite is not acceptable & my company wouldn't allow it. Connection problems & lack of speed are reasons. Needless to say, I want to keep my job, but it Breaks my heart, because the land is beautiful & everything else fit about this property.
My question to the forum is are there remote workers out there using Verizon cell phone (with unlimited data) as a hotspot & how reliable is that if you are logging into a VPN for work? Too slow etc? I'm just trying to think of alternatives....or just give up on the house.
If a potential house place does not have cable access, eg Charter/Spectrum, you might try this ISP provider, Skyrunner...
We have had them for several years, and they are one of the few ISP wireless providers with some speed, albeit you will pay for it.
Hit their site, plug in an address(s), and see if they can be a potential provider; they may need more info than address when you get closer, as in 'line of sight' from house to their relay dish.
The fast(er) versions they provide are pricey, esp compared to usual cable internet, but one of the few wireless ISP providers in western NC, esp in the outer reaches, eg Clyde, Canton, Maggie Valley, the higher elevations of Waynesville, et al.
Skip DISH for internet, and we tried VZ hot spot with very limited results for anything but casual and short term usage.
Other than being a customer, I have zero connection to Skyrunner; just trying to offer an alt that we use in that area.
GL, mD
When we first moved up here (we are north of Canton), we used a Verizon hotspot. It was very fast and worked well and I had to use a VPN, so speed was a must. It ate through our data like crazy though. Funny thing was, when I got rid of the mobile hotspot and just used my phone as my hotspot, the usage eased up immensely. So that is an option, for sure, especially if you have unlimited data.
Thank you both for your input. Looks like skyrunner is advising against it. It's not on a ridge & point of contact would be hard to achieve. 2-3 days of work & installation fees out the wazoo leads me to think I should give up the efforts.
Satellite internet is capable of 25 mpbs. Its latency that would be the issue.
Cellular would be perfectly fine for you to use provided you had good service.
I would take a Verizon and an ATT phone and go to the location and run test to see how things go.
You can get unlimited data from either company, sometimes very cheap.
I have multiple unlimited ATT lines that only cost me $20 each and they are standalone, not add ons. Car connected unlimited plans. ATT shut sign ups down for that but I belive there is still a $29 unlimited iPad plan you can get. All you have to do is sign up with some random iPad IMEI (even an old 3G iPad would work) and when you receive the SIM you can pop it into an ATT or unlocked hotspot of your choosing.
Howard forums is a great resource for stuff like this. Most people will never know about the $20 unlimited plans unless they had visited that site.
So, juggar, at&t throws a pretty meager signal at the new address. I checked using my phone. But Verizon sends a strong one. Unfortunately, they only offer 15GB for using your cellphone as a hotspot. Not enough for a 40 hr week.
We were able to purchase more data under Verizon, but you need to check to make sure and ensure it's not horribly expensive. One other option, if you love the house, is plan on spending your time down the mountain at one of the many places that have free wifi.
So, juggar, at&t throws a pretty meager signal at the new address. I checked using my phone. But Verizon sends a strong one. Unfortunately, they only offer 15GB for using your cellphone as a hotspot. Not enough for a 40 hr week.
As I suspected on the cell phone angle, regardless of carrier/situ, and esp the location in many parts of this western NC topo...
Sorry to read that my SR idea can't 'see' you.
If I was still working and had to do remote from home stuff, I am not sure what I would do ISP wise.
If you haven't settled on a specific house, maybe keep looking for a cable hard wired place house, though one's desire to be out of the 'burbs here often means Sat TV, crummy wireless ISPs, et al.
GL, mD
Buy the home of your dreams and factor renting some cheap office or commercial space with high speed data access nearby to work out of. I'd happily pay $300 - $600+ per month to be able to live and work where I wanted to, especially when you can write some of it off and maybe work a good deal on the property to offset some of the initial cost.
Our situation is sorta the same. Been looking at property in Buncombe County (around Asheville) but the market here is insane. Purchasing a home in Madison or Yancey county means we could keep our kids in the same Buncombe County schools, but to do so we'd have to pay a "tuition fee" each year to Buncombe County of $2,400 per year, per child (we have three kids) to move across county lines and keep them where they are.
$7,200 annually is a lot of $$$ but it works out as home prices in those counties can be 30% less (or more) than the Asheville area and taxes there are lower. Just have to factor the cost into the overall numbers and see if it's worth it to do or not. Good luck!
VTE, we are both in a housing pickle, but yours is complicated ten-fold with kids' schooling. I don't envy that decision.
I've given up on Buncombe county for same reason. Won't play the Asheville housing bubble game. Nor would I put myself back into working from an office ...dream house or not. And I say that after working in a cubicle farm for more than a decade. Besides, there's more than one dream house out there.
Working from places with free WiFi 40 hrs a week isn't practical either. No, the goal is to work from home with a view.
I've just received word from the realtor that the neighbor -also low on mountain- uses SkyRunner by pinging a signal off the neighbor at the top of the mountain. The neighbor had to get permission to do this & arrange with SkyRunner. Seems a precarious situation. What if the neighbor who gave permission changes their minds or moves? Has anyone heard of this type of arrangement before? Has it met with success? How reliable is the signal without direct line of sight?
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