We have Hughesnet. We all are going to be so glad when Verizon, T-Mobile, Spectrum, or heaven help us, someone with better quality is available here.
Carolyn Arnold -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sieghard Weitzel Sent: Friday, September 5, 2025 9:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: finally got internet It all depends on what internet service you have, e.g. what type of fconnection and speed. If you say you are in a rural area, is your internet service even over wire or do you have what generally is known as a smarthub which in itself is a device which connects to the cellular network and then it creates a Wi-Fi network in your home, but the outside connection to the internet is via the cellular network. If it is wired, then it could be via your phone line which means it is ADSL which typically is not super fast, if it is not then it would either be via your cable company or a fiber connection which typically is very fast and with low latency so there shouldn't be any problems there with respect to the actual internet connection to the outside world. But then your actual Wi-Fi connection could still be bad especially if you have a modem/router from your internet service provider, there could be interference or any number of factors. I always recommend that one should have your own router and while for most people it's not necessary to buy the absolutely top of the line model, it's also not a good idea to buy some really cheap router. Whether a straight forward router is enough or a mesh router which typically comes with at least 1 satellite unit depends on the size of your home. If you live in a 6,000 square foot concrete mansion, you would probably need 2 or 3 such satellites to make sure you have good coverage everywhere. Finally, when it comes to phone calls, your internet and Wi-Fi should not make any difference unless you have Wi-Fi Assist or wi-Fi Calling turned on. Wi-Fi assist means that if you have a poor cellular signal but you are on a decent Wi-Fi connection, that can be used to make the call better. Wi-Fi calling is something most carrier's offer and similarly it will route calls through an available Wi-Fi network. If I visit my family who has a Ranch in a truly remote area in Northeastern British Columbia and I'm in my Mom's house in the basement bedroom, I get at best 1 bar from the cell tower and that only if I am in the right spot in the room. Making or receiving a call may work and it may not, if it does it may cut out after a while or it may not, in short, it's extremely unstabil. But if I have Wi-Fi calling on and I am connected to my Mom's Wi-fi, I can make and receive calls just fine even though she is on Starlink satellite internet which has a very high latency when compared to my fiber connection at home. There is always a solution for everything. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Carolyn Arnold Sent: Friday, September 5, 2025 2:52 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: finally got internet It could be. My son's house is not as big as mine, and he was the one who convinced me to just get my phone off Wi-Fi, and once I did, problem solved. I could be sitting to where I could touch the router, and people would say I was cutting off. Carolyn Arnold -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Friday, September 5, 2025 2:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: finally got internet Carolyn, it sounds like you might need a Wi-Fi extender. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Carolyn Arnold Sent: 05 September 2025 14:21 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: finally got internet And, I use only cellular data, because my Wi-Fi causes my phone to cut out and be staticky, whereas cellular data is clear. The same is true for my VOIP phone. It is staticky some of the time. I rarely use it now, other than to access my bank account. Carolyn Arnold -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Vicky Collins Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2025 10:41 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: finally got internet First, thanks much for the explanations. I actually did know most of that, although I do have to confess I really can't say what type of Internet Spectrum has, but opting not to use any cables except what's required for the modem and router, I have everything connected via Wi-Fi. And second, grin, note that I said after I activated my Spectrum cell phone but before they came and set up my internet, thus I would have needed to use some kind of hotspot as my internet hadn't been set up yet, or so I thought before I figured out how Spectrum did things, so I figured I might as well give the Spectrum phone a try with that. However, unless there's a rare instance when I don't want to be connected to my Wi-Fi network, like when the router or whatever chooses to block a site and I use my cell service to go there, I rarely use my cellular data or the personal hotspot when I'm at home. Vicky Collins USA Sent from my iPhone On Sep 4, 2025, at 3:47 PM, Sieghard Weitzel <[email protected]> wrote: Now that you have what I assume is fiber internet, why would you connect your computer to your cell phone’s hotspot instead of directly to your Wi-Fi which will be much faster and permanent? The entire point of having an internet connection with a router which generates a Wi-Fi network is to connect all internet devices to said Wi-Fi. Your router probably also has at least a couple of ethernet ports which would allow you to use an ethernet cable and connect a desktop computer which does not have Wi-fi, but any device you have which needs to access the internet and which can connect to wi-Fi should be connected to your Spectrum modem’s Wi-Fi network. This means your cell phones, your computer/laptop, any TV box you may have, e.g. an Apple TV, Roku TV etc., any tablet like if you have an iPad and any home automation devices like connected thermostats, cameras and so on. Basically you only use your cell phone’s data when you are not at home and connected to your Wi-Fi. I have never found it necessary to own more than one cell phone, I haven’t had a home phone for close to 20 years and at least for us here in Canada it’s so rare that cell phone service goes down that it is certainly not worthwhile to have a second cell phone on a different provider’s network in the hope that if one goes down the other one may still be up. The same applies to our fiber internet connection, it has in fact gone down maybe 2 or 3 times over the past few years, but while once it was down for more than a day, it’s typically more like hours rather than days. And Spectrum Mobile is in fact an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) which means they use in Spectrum’s case the Verizon cell network and not their own network. From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2025 12:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: finally got internet As the subject line says, finally realizing I shouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak, in case of a disruption of cell phone service for whatever reason, I actually broke down and got internet service from Spectrum. Now, grin, to make that on topic for this list. First, when I got the internet service, Spectrum had a promotion where they were offering a free year of cell phone service along with the internet purchase. So since it was free, of course I took them up on it and was able to disconnect one of my cell phone lines from AT&T. Thus, if one of my cell services goes down, I’ll hopefully have a backup way to call someone, even if I don’t have a regular landline home phone. I am going to be kind of sad, though, to lose one of my opportunities to participate in the Walmart Black Friday cell phone deal and get the E-gift card for upgrading one of my cell phone lines, but I’ve no regrets and the peace of mind is well worth it. Second, after I had activated my Spectrum cell phone line but before they had come to set up my internet, I connected the Spectrum cell phone to my computer via personal hotspot and used it for a while and it worked just fine. However, when I checked my cellular settings on my iPhone, I was really surprised to find that I hadn’t used any cellular data at all but had been using some sort of Spectrum Wi-Fi. Apparently, they use some sort of Wi-Fi hotspots to let people use their Wi-Fi connection and save their cellular data, and I had lots of other folks in my apartment complex using their Spectrum routers and thus providing me the necessary hotspots. I may not have the terminology exactly correct, but either way, I guess it’s how their model of service works and I’m certainly not going to complain about it. And third, at least for now, in addition to getting the internet and cell phone, I let them talk me into a TV promotion, even though I was sure I wouldn’t do that when I first called. But now that I finally realized that AT&T has sold all of their interest in DIRECTV, something I found out researching things afterwords, I had no regrets about taking a Spectrum promotion and disconnecting my DIRECTV service. I do regret, though, letting them talk me into the Spectrum TV Choice plan where you get eighty channels, 65 fixed and you choose fifteen, as I was coming from the Go Big from DIRECTV where I had lots more of the popular channels readily available to me, rather than having to choose just fifteen. But the sales person was focusing in on lowering my bill once I told him how much I was paying for DIRECTV, even first suggested the streaming package without the local channels, so I didn’t even think to ask about the higher-priced packages. Thus, since I left AT&T, anyway, I decided to also get YouTube TV and try it for a few months as well, as it had many more channels readily available anytime, so I’ll play around with both for a bit and see where things go and how making any changes with Spectrum, either going up or down in package price will affect things. I’m not in a long-term contract with either service, at least not where I have to pay to get out of a contract, but I could possibly lose my internet/cell phone/TV promotional price, two years for the internet and TV and one year for the free cell phone service, should I make any changes with Spectrum, so I’ll still try both for a while and then call Spectrum and see where things stand if I want to make any changes to my services with them. So far, when trying to use the Spectrum TV and YouTube TV apps, which has only been a few days time, I can find what I want easily enough most of the time. I find the favorites, at least so far, easier to set up with the Spectrum app, but I can usually do a search and find what I want with either app. To select my fifteen channels with Spectrum, though, something I can change every thirty days, at least so far to change them, I have to go to my computer to do that, as going to the website for that purpose on the iPhone just opens up the Spectrum app where I’m not able to make those type of changes. It’s early days for me right now, though, so I’m sure I have lots more to learn about using either iPhone app. Vicky Collins USA -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> . 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