Mostly just a long rant, but if you have any experience or suggestions regarding internet I'd appreciate the insight. Even if your suggestion is along the lines of "happy place, go to your happy place"!

Before we moved to our new house two weeks ago, we called CableOne hoping we could get internet set up before we got here. They said we're out of their area. We are just on the other side of the city limit sign. So, we thought we'd have to go with DSL from AT&T.

When we got here we learned that all of our neighbors, even those to the south (further outside city limits), all have CableOne. So it can't be that we're out of their area and I went by to talk to them in person. They sent a tech out (again) and this time said "Your house is too far back from the road."

AT&T sent a tech out and said the same thing. "You can't have DSL but you can have dial-up." I don't think so.

I talked to CableOne's tech and I'm waiting for him to take measurements and call us back with an estimate on what it would cost since we are so far back from the road. We took some measurements too--maybe 30 feet further back than our next door neighbor. Bah.

I also looked into satellite internet, and had a real adventure. I called Hughes Net, just to get information. To give me a price, he had to know my area. He also required two forms of id--a credit card number and a SSN. I wish I'd gone with my first instinct and said "Sorry, if you can't do business with me without my SSN, then you can't do business with me." I got all the info, and said thanks and I'd get back to him with our decision. Next thing I know they are calling me to schedule an installation appointment! I said "I never placed an order" and she said "I have an order right here for the lease-option". (I had to keep asking the first guy for the purchase-option info, as I am definitely not interested in fleece-options, but he only wanted to tell me about the fleece-option.) She said "Call this other phone number to get your order cancelled."

I spent a long time on the phone, mostly on hold, and got passed up the chain to "someone who has the authority to cancel your order" (so why did you just waste my time asking me all these questions??) and before I got it cancelled I was YELLING at them. They really didn't want to cancel. They wanted to put my order on hold for 30 days. So that I wouldn't lose out on the rebates. Whatever.

The next day I called my bank and cancelled the card, explaining to them what was going on. I've been checking my account daily and so far no charges from Hughes Net have showed up, so it looks like they really did cancel my order.

Satellite is about the slowest high speed internet available anyway.

I'm not worried about Hughes Net anymore, but I am worried about our internet situation. We are renting the house, and if we had known about this it would have been a deal-breaker. I don't remember for sure if we did ask, but if we did, I'm pretty sure the agent said something like "Oh, it's probably CableOne."

Other than the internet, we love this house. I'd be interested in buying it at some point, but it is not for sale. The owner got out-sourced and got a job elsewhere, and they intend to retire into it. They built it themselves. They are very friendly landlords, quite a shock after the nightmare-bankrupt-landlords we've had lately. However, if we can't get high speed internet, we'll have to move when our lease is up (or before if we can find another tenant).

Other than that, and some vagaries of the last (bankrupt) landlady from the place we moved out of, this move has been very positive and about as stress free as moving a family with a large collection of books and electronics can be. Which is to say, very stressful, but it could have been, and has been, SO much worse!!