Dish Network and DSL - Yay or Nay?

[Corrderio]

For the past month my I've been getting pretty pissed off at my ISP. Between the shared network/1Mbps limit and not getting emails from some sites due to them blocking IP headers for emails I've decided I've had enough and thought it would be best to find a new ISP.

Now given I live in a tiny suburb in South Dakota I got slim pickings and the only one that stands out is Qwest's service and after talking to them I found a plan that offers Cable, TV, and Internet for around the same price as what I am currently planning but with better results.

However, the TV is going to be satellite (DirecTV) and the internet is more than likely DSL, which worries me since living in South Dakota does mean pretty bad weather. So I'm curious how severe thunderstorms/blizzards would effect my TV/Internet. I have a few people telling me from previous experience they lost their connection in conditions like I'm mentioning (High wind, strong thunderstorms, etc.) so I'm wondering if that's still an issue or not.

[Sigi]

I do not have experience with satellite in blizzard conditions, however I *am* an expert at DSL (outage tester for a company that starts with a V)
Usually most phonelines are subterranean with limited exposure- however there are places that have telephone poles still. A good rule of thumb for whether or not you'll have connectivity issues with DSL during weather is if you have landline telephone issues during weather. This is because DSL shares signal space with your phone service. Of course, adverse weather can affect your service if the feeder trunks for the central office that supplies your DSL access get cut, power outage (should not be an issue since a facility up north should have backup generators as well as appropriately weather-proofed facilities), you have above-ground phone line and an ice storm snaps all the lines for 50 miles around, etc. A good rule of thumb is that you will not likely get 1Mbps upload- usually ADSL has x/768 KbPS with customers w/in 7000' being able to get slightly higher . There are other factors as well for how your line will perform on DSL- cable composition, the condition of your building's wiring, how far you are from the DSLAM (think the big modem for Qwest- the closer you are the better, and don't let sales give you the highest teir of service. See if you can find out your loop length- rule of thumb: (in feet!) <5k, as fast as possible, <7k up to 5MbPS/768k, <10k 3MbPS/768 <12k 1.5/384 (or 768, depends on carrier), >15k 768 IF YOU ARE DAMNED LUCKY. Mind, this is based off my experience working with my company's network, so YMMV

[Corrderio]

Loop length? Sorry but I'm clueless when it comes to networking. However even if it's under 7Mbps, I doubt it'd be 1Mbps like my current shared network.

[Sigi]

Loop length refers to the total run of cable between your modem and Qwest's modem (the DSLAM)
so, if X= your modem and Y = DSLAM

X ========================Y
the distance between X and Y x2 would be your loop length... it's how far the signal has to go through the wire. If you want more explanation, check out Wikipedia's article on DSL (digital subscriber line)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Subscriber_Line
*WARNING DENSE READING BUT GREAT EXPLANATION*

[Corrderio]

Okay thanks a lot. Thankfully my phone line seems to be underground as well since I never had an issue calling someone up in a storm with cable down, so I'll take that as a good sign they're underground.

I'm still concerned about severe weather though since if I can't get to a weather station or website to see what's heading my way it is somewhat pointless to get IMO.

[volcanicweather]

Why don't you just get a decent mobile phone and access the weather on that?

For what it's worth my father lives in rural MN and has DirecTV. Like any satellite service there's occasional outages, but overall it's fine. You may need to brush snow off the dish once or twice a year though.

[Corrderio]

Well after talking to the service rep due to regulation reasons or some kind of BS they can't offer service where I can (I hate dumbassed customer service reps). Anyway I found out my ISP does have an 8Mbps broadband connection where I live so going to get in touch with them.

Mod can lock this now if they want.