Internet connection in Eastern Panhandle (Martinsburg, Paw Paw: sales, home, bankruptcy)

[sunnybrookfarm]

My kids and I will be moving shortly to rural Morgan County, to my husband's home The boys and I have always lived in an area where internet connection is a given. My husband not only doesn't have internet, he doesn't have a computer so this is all unexplored territory.

Our options are WildBlue through Direct TV (or another satellite provider), dial-up, or a modem through the his cell phone company . None of the DSL providers are even close to coming out to the hinterlands yet.

I am leaning towards the cell phone-modem thingie (surprisingly, he gets excellent cell phone reception at his house), but it's got a 5 GB max for one month and I question whether we'll hit overage constantly. Still, it seems like a faster option than satellite.

I would appreciate anyone's 2 cents.

[cathy J.]

My husband and I have serveral friends along the Morgan County ( Berkeley Springs ) and Frederick County, VA ( Winchester ) boarder. Wild Blue? Maybe they have since changed but as of early 2008 they had no interest in Morgan County as they actually had turned down many of our friends for service. In early 2009 one of our friends had this idea of getting internet through Prettyman Broadcasting ( Martinsburg's WLTF-FM 97.5 "Lite FM" ) since the WLTF tower is just to the east of Berkeley Springs and they had provided some net service to a few in Morgan County in the past but alas Prettyman Broadcasting is having severe money woes right now, so bad that WLTF/WEPM/Oldies 95.9 is about to file bankruptcy even though they are Martinsburg/Berkeley County's main radio stations. Anyway our friends ended up with good old fashioned dial-up AOL.

I wish I could be of more help to you.

[Janipoo]

We have a place in Paw Paw and I know that frontier offers it. I am not sure of the dsl (I know they have it but not sure if it is available there) but they do have the dial up....slow internet is better than none.

[dragons]

Visual link out of Winchester, VA has 2 broadband wireless towers out on Capon Mt. They offer service in Morgan Co. Here is a link to the coverage map Wireless Internet Coverage Maps just hit play or next to view the different coverage maps. Prices are better than satellite and speeds are 100X faster than satellite. My buddy that lives out west of Winchester uses it and it works great. Back in the day I used visual link for dial up and their support was good and rarely any down time.

Visual Link Wireless:
Name: Sales DSL and Residental
Title: Sale DSL and Wireless
E-Mail: info@visuallink.com
Name: West Virginia Broadband
Title: WV Internet sales
E-Mail: office@visuallink.com

Good luck, I know it will stink if you have to go back to dial up. You may have a riot on your hands with the kids.