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I am away that many corporation businesses like Walmart and McD offers free WiFi in their parking lots. I know people who drive into the city, to sit in one of those parking lots to do their email, etc.
But that is the only method I am aware of to get 'free' access to the WWW.
My town has a cellphone repeater tower, but it is only there because I-95 goes through our town. The cellphone companies want coverage along the interstate. But if you went to either town to our East or to our West, there is no signal. Most townships in my state do not have cellphone signal. They do not have any towers. My understanding is that using a cellphone for WWW access is really expensive, and they have low caps.
Our town has one road. Along our road there is a power line and a land line, for about 2/3 of the road. My property borders the road, so I have access to both power and land line. Some people in my town, living along the road do not have grid power available to them. The majority of parcels in my town do not have power available to them.
When I came to this state shopping for land to buy, most parcels I looked at were in towns that do not have grid power, nor land lines readily available [greater than 10 miles away from the closest power line].
So when you say: "The internet is readily available, often for free so anyone can even live out in BFE". I must ask you, what you are talking about?
Being online does greatly increase a person' ability to socialize with others.
We drive in offgrid towns locally, just for th scenery. I've never seen a closed connection. And the small stores within that have always had open wifi. The town I linked to in this thread has landline phone service, so if it's an emergency, all one needs to do is go to the local store and use their phone. It's free to everyone.
I really don't know of anywhere where there isn't free internet. No where. When our son who works for Apple is in the car, he uses various peoples wifi constantly. It's also at the library which is just a half hour away. SO again, My POINT was, there is no requirement for someone to forego internet in order to be connected to society or not. One can read City Data, learn from others experiences, and still live out in BFE. So all my points remain
I cannot speak for other towns except to say, if this is not the circumstance in yours, to check out other locations for off grid living.
I really don't know of anywhere where there isn't free internet. No where. When our son who works for Apple is in the car, he uses various peoples wifi constantly.
Of course, in many places this is illegal and a felony.
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Originally Posted by MrsApt
SO again, My POINT was, there is no requirement for someone to forego internet in order to be connected to society or not. One can read City Data, learn from others experiences, and still live out in BFE. So all my points remain
Not really. If you TRULY want to be off-grid, that can mean NO GRID in its narrowest interpretation. It does not mean MY OWN GRID + the WHOLE world wide web grid... What you are doing is bastardizing the term to suit your idea of it.
Well that explains a lot!
Im 10 miles from pavement... maybe the neighbors have their wifi open, but they'd probably notice if I were sitting in the front yard lol
To be sure, they'd notice their satellite provider throttling their use, because all of a sudden their bandwidth has shot way up. And I doubt that would win me any points in the popularity department.
And what standard of living are we comparing? I could have electric and not use electricity and my monthly bill would be $22 ("delivery charge"). I would be off-grid for all practical purposes and it would be way cheaper than you spending money on solar panels and setups. However, if neither you nor i used electricity, it would be a different comparison.
A solar setup to power a life equal to an on-grid setup would be pretty expensive.
The people in this local town I linked to have about 8 solar panels and they cost about $250 each. They power their whole house, average size of 1400 sq feet. The do play a bit of a game when using their solar though, partially using some applicances at certain times and avoiding using others at the same time. It's not too bad though, it is just habit.Everyone I know has a back up generator also.
Most people I know on solar had to first ration and limit their electricity usage - this means much more ef
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Living off the grid is MOSTLY for the very well to do or for the ****-poor. You find a few examples of people in between but either you paid for everything in cash (or have a job in town to sponsor your off-grid, self-sufficiency existence) OR you are so poor, having no electricity, no internet, no running water etc. is the only choice....
That is a good point, if you are truly really poor, you wouldn't have money for the set up
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Not many people who have the financial means would choose the later for fun. People who CHOOSE to be off-grid and self-sufficient usually spend money up front to replicate the conveniences of on-grid existence when being off-grid, the only difference is solar/wind/whatever for energy production, own well and septic for water and sewage, so on and so on. All that cost money to put in by the way, didn't come for free and all that affords modern-day conveniences just like being on grid.
So true. It seems it takes about 2 years to start breaking even, depending upon various factors. THen everything is free
Of course, in many places this is illegal and a felony.
if they knew about it that is, I'm sure some people are doing that here. still I would define OFF GRID as off all mains services and that includes landlines, broadband as well as the usual ones.
Yes but I find it somewhat dishonest to supposedly abandon the modern society because of all its faults only to re-join it electronically for your own benefit.
So you should join society for others benefits eh? Sorry but this makes no sense
MY life is lived for me, and others are important, but whether I pay out of pocket for my services doesnt mean I need to work hard to keep them afloat. Let them take the same avenue i am to be self -sufficient.
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Your great-grand father didn't have internet and he lived off-grid because there was no grid. He truly had to be self sufficient and truly had to learn either by trial and error or by exchanging knowledge and experience the few times a year he saw his friends/neighbors in town. That was a TRUE off grid experience.
Agreed.
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What you want is to have your cake and eat it too. You want to shun society and forego all its perceived bad attributes but you are using society's greatest offering to stay on top of stuff... This is not true self-sufficiency and off-grid existence. There is no requirement for Internet in a truly off-grid existence, you shouldn't care what is happening out there and you should be, well, truly self-sufficient
I have never said i want to shun society, what in the world are you talking about? I am not a hermit. I think you are misunderstanding or not reading my posts. You're getting very extreme. And of course there is no requirement for the internet in a truly off grid experience, that is what I said. Someone here said differently, my reply was to THEM.
Wow, what is in the wells today? Is it really that hard to read a post and actually understand the words?
Yes but I find it somewhat dishonest to supposedly abandon the modern society because of all its faults only to re-join it electronically for your own benefit.
Dishonest? I find it dishonest to deliberately misunderstand someone's post too but that's here nor there. Grow up a little
Utilizing the internet is NOT being dishonest, even if it's free.
Seriously, you are on the wrong website to be spewing such bunk.
I can guarantee you many off gridders use the internet, and yes, for FREE.
Nice try at a another false accusation, epic fail
I need to google it but in our State, and some other States, you can utilize dial up internet for free.
Considering you wish to endure some adds and your off-grid town offers landline. The town we want to move to offers it at the local store, a free phone to use for whatever (long distance, hooking up to the internet, etc)
Not really. If you TRULY want to be off-grid, that can mean NO GRID in its narrowest interpretation. It does not mean MY OWN GRID + the WHOLE world wide web grid... What you are doing is bastardizing the term to suit your idea of it.
leave out the swearing ok? You want to have your cake and eat it to as you say. Use your imagination for criminal purposes, make false accusations and such. But want others to converse with you. Leave out the swearing to, will ya. YOU are sounding more like a criminal than anyone here.
I am sorry you are so poor but that is not my fault. Maybe you ought to get off the internet and develop some social skills in the real world
Oh and by the way, you do know that off grid living doesn't mean we are not connected to the internet through our jobs right?
Um..."bastardizing" isn't swearing.
It merely means "corrupting" or "creating a bad copy."
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maybe the neighbors have their wifi open, but they'd probably notice if I were sitting in the front yard lol
