internet and weather around urbana-champaign (Chicago: house, university, tornado)

[noil_noil]

Hi,

we are looking for a place around urbana-champaign (mahomet, st joseph, tuscola, etc.) and were wondering what are the option for high-speed internet?

Also, we were considering country settings, one house is located off US-45, how many days per year should we expect to be unable to get to urbana due to snow, heavy rain, sleet, etc.


Thanks in advance for all the responses.

[linicx]

There is no way to predict weather. All weather channels get reports from NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Some years there is a lot of snow, some years none. You may or may not ever see a tornado or even tornadic activity.

The University at Champaign is part of the Internet backbone. Logically you should get very good Internet and speeds. Historically rural America does not get very good or very fast internet or internet that is a fair price. If you budget for $100+ for phone, cable and Internet you will be close. There are exceptions like AT&T and Comcast, but these companies do not generally service small rural towns, and if they do the speeds are usually much slower. You live close enough to Champaign to get one of the "big guy" or you take pot luck.

I've seen a lot of internet services in a lot of places, but not in the C-U area.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by noil_noil

Hi,

we are looking for a place around urbana-champaign (mahomet, st joseph, tuscola, etc.) and were wondering what are the option for high-speed internet?

Comcast. However, sometimes they don't reach the rural parts of the area, at least not for internet service. As long as you're in town, you're OK.

Originally Posted by noil_noil

Also, we were considering country settings, one house is located off US-45, how many days per year should we expect to be unable to get to urbana due to snow, heavy rain, sleet, etc.

Twice a year, tops.

[linicx]

It not unusual when the weather conditions are just right to have rain turn into sleet and then into ice and snow. In the country a white out or black ice is more likely because it is what happens in rural areas. You don't see it so much in Chicago because there is a ton of buildings, street lights, and heavy traffic -- all of the things missing on county roads and state highways with light traffic. It also happens on Interstate routes in isolated areas not near cities.

My best defense has always been the NOAA ac/dc radio I carried in the car and took it into work.

[BillF]

Living in a rural area just west of Champaign the best bet is to have a Verizon 4G hot spot (imho). The local wireless broadband options are slow and have been unreliable, cable and fiber optic is not available and satellite is just plain bad plus you may need a land line to upload data. I have had AT&T and Sprint hot spots and was unhappy with their speed. Verizon has worked out well so far (8mths). I pay $80 for 10 gigabyte per month. Its $10 for each gigabyte over.

We are becoming empty nesters and plan to sell our home and 5 acres and move to town later this fall or next spring and may keep the hot spot since it has worked out so well. Download speeds have been up to 21mbs and uploads have been up to 7mbs. Sure beats the dial up we had back in the 1980s.