Getting my in-laws online, at last

CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman's in-laws live at the top of a mountain, are off the grid, and have missed the last 30-plus years of innovations in media. On Monday, they got satellite Internet installed. This is the view of their new dish from the deck of their mountain-side house.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

NICE, Calif.--This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Imagine getting to introduce to the Internet a couple of otherwise-normal 60-somethings who, having lived off the grid at 4,000 feet in the middle of national forest, have missed more than 30 years of media innovations.

That's what I did earlier this week, with my in-laws, Tyler and Donna. They're perfectly nice people. They just have never used the Internet before, haven't watched TV, really, and even their cell phone is turned off most of the time to conserve their limited solar power.

I've been coming to visit them for nine years, and there were countless conversations with them during which my wife and I, both Internet junkies, rhapsodized about its virtues. We gushed about Google. We raved about Second Life. We couldn't stop beating Wikipedia's drums.

We'd get weary nods and, "It sounds great, but we don't really have any use for the Internet."

For my wife and me, that was nothing but further motivation to get them online.

A couple of years ago, we replaced the ancient desktop computer on which they did their accounting with a new PC that we joked was the planet's healthiest Windows machine, having never been anywhere it could meet a virus.

We also began bringing them DVDs, and they fell hard for "The West Wing" and "The Wire." But it was my wife's masterstroke--getting them a Netflix subscription--that probably won them over.

They had no way to manage their Netflix account, so we did it for them. They'd get the movies at their P.O. box, 45 minutes away, watch them, return them on their next supply run, and repeat.

Two installers from HughesNet putting the finishing touches on the satellite dish.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Setting up their queue was beyond surreal. They'd seen nothing. Not "Goodfellas," not "Pulp Fiction," not "Gladiator," "The English Patient," "Traffic," or "Chariots of Fire." Hardly anything. Do you know anyone like that?

The last time we visited, Tyler asked me to find out how much power a satellite dish, a modem, and a wireless router used. He wasn't sure that their power system was up to the task.

It was, though, and last week, as we were getting ready for a visit, my wife said, "By the way, they're getting satellite Internet installed on Monday."

Our incredible toy
I'm a geek, so I don't mind telling you how eager I was to show off our incredible toy. Despite being avid readers, radio listeners, and now movie fans, my in-laws still had no idea that the world was coming to their door. On Monday.

Some friends visited the mountain with us, and they also got excited about introducing my in-laws to the Internet. Over the weekend, we made a list of Web sites everyone agreed they had to visit: Snopes.com, NYTimes.com, NPR.org, BBC.co.uk, Huffingtonpost.com, Google News, PostSecret, Craigslist, Flickr, BurningMan.com, Epicurious.com, TED.com, and others.

But on Saturday night, we asked them what they wanted to explore first. In my mind, it would be something fanciful. Maybe a site about science or history or politics.

"Oh, something about fava beans, I imagine," Tyler said.

On Monday, HughesNet sent two installers, and then, after nine years, it was game on.

In the in-laws' little office, where their PC lives, I sat down to work on getting the machine secured.

We're buying them a Mac, but for now, my eyes were on the prize: the latest Windows security updates. But the connection speed they were getting was painfully slow, around 13Kbps. Windows Service Pack 3 is more than 300 megabytes--more than eight hours of download time away. We had to leave long before that.

I decided to forgo SP3 and instead install AVG, a free antivirus package. But the connection was so slow that the download failed. Twice.

The screen on the computer of one of the HughesNet installers as the satellite Internet connection was being set up for the first time.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

I was embarrassed and frustrated. To diffuse the situation, we decided to turn the focus to picking a Gmail address. They suggested a series of what to any veteran Internet user were obviously unavailable names: Tyleranddonna, Donnaandtyler, Beautifulmountain. Using my MacBook Pro and an EV-DO card, we finally found something.

I also decided to download AVG on my Mac. That, too, was painfully slow--we were at 4,000 feet, far from town--but it worked, and I copied the AVG file to their PC via a thumb drive.

But AVG needed its own updates, and so it went looking for them. I noticed that the download speeds had slowed even further, now to less than 2Kbps.

Slowly but surely?
This was ridiculous. They had signed up for a 1.0Mbps connection, which, I read, promised downloads of more than 500Kbps. They were getting 1Kbps.

I called HughesNet, and a technician told me that the account had surpassed its "Fair Access" limit. It turns out that satellite Internet users get only so much bandwidth per day--in my in-laws' case, 200 megabytes. Go over the limit, you get dial-up speeds for 24 long hours.

The technician told me that there was nothing he could do about it, despite my insisting that there was no way they'd passed 200 megabytes. A supervisor confirmed that he had "no mechanism" to lift the limit for the day, even when I explained that I had to leave soon and that I absolutely needed to finish downloading the security patches before I drove off the mountain.

In the HughesNet pamphlet that had finally lured Tyler and Donna, a footnote I now discovered really concerned me: "Based on analysis of customer usage data, Hughes has established a download threshold for each of the HughesNet service plans that is well above the typical usage rates."

CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman's father-in-law sits at his computer, looking at his Internet connection for the very first time.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

This was alarming, as one of the things my wife and I were most excited about was the idea of her parents being able to . This vision now looked endangered.

"In order to arrive at our Fair Access Policy, Hughes conducted an analysis of HughesNet customer usage and then established a download threshold for each plan that was above average usage rates," Hughes wrote me in an e-mail Thursday. "Certain activities are more likely than others to exceed the daily download threshold, such as continuous downloading or viewing streaming-media content such as audio or video programming."

Users do get unlimited high-speed downloads from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. EST. Long after the in-laws would be watching streaming movies.

This was not good. What worried me more was that even watching YouTube videos might quickly put them over the top. The Hughes e-mail, though, seemed to dismiss that worry: "Activities such as viewing Web sites, checking e-mail, watching short streaming-media presentations, i.e. YouTube, and automatic software and antivirus updates are not likely to exceed the download threshold."

Back on the mountain, I decided that, slow speeds be damned, I was getting them online before my wife and I departed.

So I pulled Tyler over to the PC and sat him down.

This would not be so simple. After all, he had no experience with a browser. He didn't know where to click, or how to enter a URL, or how to tab between fields. There's a huge learning curve here for my wife's folks. They need Internet for Dummies--and now.

We booted up Firefox--I had downloaded it for him, as I would never let Internet Explorer set foot in their house again--to head to Google (see the video below, which evolves slowly).

Starting with the basics
I showed him where to type, and a little while after he typed in "Google.com," he got his first look at the search engine's wonderful, spare home page.

It was a moment of truth: What would be the first thing he would look up? Would it be FDR? The Vietnam War? Barack Obama?

Nope. It was fava beans. He hadn't been kidding earlier.

Before we knew it, Tyler was on EveryNutrient.com, a good site, it seems, to learn about the nutritional value of fava beans.

After a little more browser 101--explaining that words in blue are usually hyperlinks, and how to use the back and reload buttons--we hopped over to Wikipedia. More fava beans.

But things went downhill when we tried Gmail so that Tyler could send his first-ever e-mail--can you remember when you did that? The site wouldn't load. The connection was simply too slow.

My wife and I had built this moment up so much in our minds over the years that we were clearly more excited than her parents. Yet Tyler was frustrated. And that was crushing.

Looking for a graceful way out, we adjourned from Gmail and moved into their living room to talk.

We asked them what they were looking forward to using the Internet for. And again, practicality won. Donna said she wanted to be able to get better fire information than she could on the radio, which makes sense, since they live in the middle of a forest.

I said there were always real-time maps online during fires.

"That's exactly what we want to know," she said.

Tyler added, "That'll be tremendously helpful."

They also said they were excited about investigating the various weather sites, since they are deeply subject to the whims of their environment. And, yes, they expect to spend a lot of time reading up on nutrition.

For my wife and me, it was time to leave. But I felt sheepish.

I had had such high hopes for this experience, and instead, it had been deeply disappointing. I couldn't even bring myself to ask what they had thought about their initial experiences on the Internet.

But it will get better. We'll go back soon to make sure.

[sci062999]

Use Adblock+ for Firefox. That will help to eliminate unnecessary ads and save on the bandwidth. Remember to switch off the LinkScanner feature in AVG.

i love adblock - but i was wondering does it just eliminate the ads from being displayed on screen or does it prevent the from being downloaded alltogether? if its the second, only then would it conserve any bandwidth.
and i am wondering if its the second case - then how does it know that a pic is an ad until it downloads the ad and then checks it?

[rpokane]

Daniel,
Great read! This is the first article I've read to completion in a while.
Please keep us updated.

[Get_Bent]

Why not go with a more low-power computer since your in-laws have limited power availability? There are plenty of options that would still give them a decent computer without sucking down the watts.

And I suggest that you burn the service packs, updates, utilities, etc. to CD and take it with you on your next visit.

[Daniel Terdiman]

I'll definitely be bringing everything up to them next time on CD. Being a Mac guy myself, it hadn't entirely occurred to me what they would need to get their Windows setup fully secure. But I do now.

Thanks for the tip.

[rapier1]

The thing to keep in mind is that switching a Mac won't alleviate the need to download and install bulky service packs and updates. Its just a fact of modern computing life that you'll need to do it. Also, I've noticed that some people are reluctant to switch operating systems because of UI differences. More than a couple of people have gone to Mac and then switched back because they didn't want to learn a new way of doing things. If your in-laws aren't having any real problems with windows and they know how to do what they need to do I would be hesitant to push a different solution on them even if it might arguably be better.

[thedrexl]

Good article but someone needs to fired for all the horrible grammar problems in this.

[chinapanda]

I agree good content, so I can forgive the grammar. I'd recommend reading tech sites for their content and not their grammar.

[AJ Pants]

Agreed, Could have been really good but simply has not been not written well. Stick with your day job mate.

[stan2w]

Kettle calling the pot black, check your own!
I thought that the article was interesting, one of the first that I have read all the way to the end.

[stan2w]

AJ Pants, Why the double negative?

[natebow]

Also living on a mountaintop (but in north central PA), satellite - and also for me Hughesnet - is the only option. No cable, no DSL, not even EVDO wireless is available here (I have to drive 7 miles to get a reliable signal on my mobile). I would agree that the "Fair Access Policy" Hughesnet uses causes noticeable headaches. I don't know the ins & outs of satellite internet, but I can imagine there are more bandwidth concerns and availability issues than for wireline internet (maybe I'm wrong? I'd love any ammo to take back to Hughesnet). Despite the Hughesnet pamphlets, even modest YouTube viewing can put me over the limit - they make it sound better than it really is, in my experience. I use one of their top tier plans for my home and hit the daily use cap, and NEVER download or stream movies or TV shows.

Rural areas DO need better access to broadband internet, and satellite service, in my experience, does not cut it. Whether a fan of the current federal stimulus or not, I do hope the rural broadband access packages included bring much-needed help to those of us who choose to not live in the urban areas! We're not lesser citizens because we live away from high density populations, though broadband providers, and popular culture, certainly cast us that way. Expense or not - phone lines and electric lines have made it to most every corner of our country - it is time for politicians to stand up against corporate greed (rural service at the expense of corporate profits) and get this done for the greater good of all US citizens. Though there are tradeoffs to living rurally rather than in an urban area, broadband should no longer be one of those.

[Daniel Terdiman]

Yes, this really concerns me. I am worried that if their experience is not satisfactory, they'll abandon the whole project and our hopes for having them be connected will be dashed. I guess we'll have to see how it goes, and if they need to up their threshold, we'll find a way to make it happen.

[rapier1]

The main problem is that you can't really upgrade the bandwidth on a satellite without replacing the satellite. With terrestrial networks its a lot easier and less expensive to upgrade the bandwidth. So I'm sorry to say it but you are right. That being said, wireless may be an option for some people in rural communities. Using directional antennas, outdoor wireless bridges and so forth its possible to extend the range to several miles with line of sight. Probably not a feasible option in the case though.

You mentioned that while at their house you have EVDO access using your Mac. If you're get a Rev. A connection at their house, I'd recommend you sign them up to whatever wireless broadband provider (Sprint or Verizon) you use. If you're not within the Rev. A coverage area and were just connecting on the 1xRTT network, they still might be able to reach the Rev. A coverage area with an out-of-the-box booster antenna (about $25). I used the Verizon-brand booster antenna a couple years ago to get my Rev. A connection 2 miles (as the crow flies) from the edge of without-the-antenna range.

Get the free (with the plan) PCMCIA EVDO card, and stick it in a $70 Airlink AR360W3G Router, which they can connect to with the desktop's LAN cable. I use Sprint and get a reliable, consistent 24/7 1.1-1.3 mbps connection, and have never suffered from Sprint throttling due to high usage (although I used to have Verizon's EVDO and they DID throttle after about 15GB in a month), and I download/use about 2.5-3.5 GB a day. The cost is about $60/mo (for both Sprint and Verizon) for unlimited data with a 2-yr commitment. Considering the price of most satellite plans I've looked into (don't know about this HughesNet one you got them on), this would even be cheaper.

This setup also allows them to take their internet connection on the road (with a cigarette-lighter power inverter), which may not be useful to them now, but could be later (after you've convinced them to get some power-sipping netbooks).

Cheers, and good luck whatever your decision!

-Arthur Grumbine

[xtrasico]

Liked it too. Nice reading. Nice ending. Not like a fairy tale but REAL.

[loose_screw]

Once again it just goes to show that, while content is important, bandwidth is crucial to a satisfactory web experience nowadays.

What happened to the promise of WiMax providing fast internet access to rural areas?

[rapier1]

Still hammering it out but the issue is mostly one of funding. If you can't make a profit on it people just aren't going to be interested. Hopefully some aspects of the stimulus plan will help accelerate the current glacial progress.
http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2009/february/Broadband-Stimulus-a-Boon-for-Rural-WiMAX-0223

[chinapanda]

Nice article---I can SOooo identify,,, I don't have any encouraging words for you though as I've continued to have this problem with my parents connection for years. A bad connection is all it takes to eliminate the usefulness of the internet. That's kind of scary since I rely on it so much. Now my parents hardly ever use it after years of my fruitless attempts to show them all the 'cool' stuff that's possible. Somehow though they continue to live fulfilling lives without it. I'd recommend relaxing and taking an internet 'fast' next time you go for a visit.

[jwilson00m1]

I had to get my parents on a satellite connection too. It was awful. Hughesnet was terribly slow, they were always getting "fapped" (exceeding the fair access policy) especially after they got a mac Mini and had to download 300mb of updates. So, after a painful 2 years and a half I switched them over to a Sprint USB card. It has a FAP but it is calculated on a monthly basis and since parents use their connection in large bursts but not continual steady use, it works better for them and they have yet to be "fapped". The satellite dish is now an expensive lawn ornament. Sigh.

[Daniel Terdiman]

I am deeply concerned about this outcome. I just bought my in-laws a new Mac, which I hope will make it easier for them because they won't have to deal with all the configuration nonsense that is necessary with Windows machines. But they bought their satellite dish instead of leasing it so if their connection remains too slow, it will also become an expensive lawn ornament, and that simply won't be acceptable.

My wife and I are heading back to their mountain next week to conduct part 2 of this process, and hopefully, by then, we'll have resolved many of the issues. But if not, Hughes is going to hear about it, have no doubt.

[btbeme]

I'll trade my hectic lifestyle for your parents. I have a 15 meg connection. They can have it.

[Rickhanscom]

Food for thought.

Hughes offers a 30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee. We hope you are happy with your HughesNet high-speed Internet service. If you are not completely satisfied, you may cancel your service and return your HughesNet equipment to receive a refund. The HughesNet satellite modem, power supply and radio must be returned to Hughes, in good condition, within 60 days of cancelling your service in order to receive the equipment refund. Hughes will provide instructions on how to de-install and return your equipment. You are not required to return, and Hughes is not obligated to de-install or pay for the de-installation of the antenna, mount or any cables. Installation charges and other fees are not refundable.

[loose_screw]

I would return the dish, it's clearly not ready for prime time. Unless you're prepared to browse the web with a Lynx browser.

[dravinashmanwatkar]

why don't you use google chrome,it's the fastest and most easy browser i found out till now. since your in laws are new to browsing they do not have to worry about new page with google to open .simply type any thing in adress bar ,it will show results then navigate according to interest with the links shown in results.
my experience is very nice with chrome.

[rapier1]

Switching browsers won't make their network connection any faster. The bottleneck isn't in the application in this case.

[grabacon9]

At least that your in-laws are willing to try. Most people I talk to won't even budge or try to use a computer.

[MagiMamoru]

Well, I now know that Hughes Net is not a solution,as I would use well over 200MBs a day, just streaming from the SciFi Channel.

Thanks

[brentrbrian]

Thanks for the experiences with Hughes Net ... I have friends that have asked, but, I did not know anyone using their service.

I can send a link to this article.

[sundance808]

you mentioned they have mobile access? why not hook them up with a data plan instead a minimum GPRS/CDMA should be able to give them 33.6kbps.

[wkstar]

After reading this, Satellite Internet is a cruel joke. I guess that I will not be moving anywhere that I can not get a real connection.

[ASROSS]

HughsNet is a total sham. It's almost criminal that they are even allowed to sell their service. Their marketing is totally deceptive to what they actually deliver. Thankfully, they will be out of business soon.