How I survived my Cabin Adventure with NO HOME INTERNET for a month!

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This post is sponsored by Wilson Electronics / WeBoost.  All comments and opinions are my own.Last year, my husband and I purchased a small “fixer upper” cabin in Kentucky!  This was a dream that we had worked towards for many many years.  It is a simple little place tucked on a mountainside on the Cumberland River.   It is livable but in need of a full renovation to make it work for our needs in the years to come.  I will be blogging on the experience and sharing all of the fun stories and adventures that we encounter along the way! One of the most important things on our “must have list” when looking for a place was internet service since we work from home and I am online at least 12 hours per day.  With an extremely limited budget and our desire to have our own piece of heaven in a very rural area, we found that to be a major issue.  After researching every option available, we were told that we would be able to have satellite internet and scheduled the installation for the day after we arrived at our property.  It was going to be pricey but it was our only choice so we bit the bullet, paid the fees and were ready to get it going.Our drive to Kentucky is 10+ loooooooooong hours from our home in Florida.  We timed our trip between work responsibilities and I gave myself a day or two just to get the installation done and me back online seamlessly. Unfortunately, as soon as the satellite internet guy got to our property and took one look around at the 200 ft trees in every direction and elevation on a mountain side he said there was NO WAY we would get service there.  I could not believe it.  I had called no less than 10 times to confirm that service would definitely be available prior to closing on the property and spoke to the technician before leaving Florida to confirm again.  He got out his gauges and walked around from every angle and no signal was strong enough to do an installation.

EEEK! WHAT THE HECK?!

Rosco keeping an eye on the satellite guy from his porch swingI was in a complete state of panic.  Before leaving Florida, my backup plan was to use my cell phone service and “tether” to my laptop if absolutely necessary, but once we arrived I found that my cell service was only strong enough to send or receive VERY SLOW text messages outside (and down the hill a bit) but was not strong enough to make calls or connect to the internet.  For the next few days I would make multiple trips up the hill to the top of the mountain until I found a strong enough signal and would work from my car to get things done.  As you can imagine, this was not an ideal situation and was extremely stressful since as you guys know I am in the facebook chat group and on social media most of the day and night answering questions, getting excited about your haul photos or posting deals. 

WeBoost to the rescue!

I decided to start asking everyone that I came into contact with how they were able to access the internet to see if there were any options that I may have missed.   Most people laughed when I asked about internet in our area or just said good luck with that (how do you live without internet?!).

Fortunately, I ended up getting some AMAZING information from a lady that owns a campground in the area and provides free wifi for her visitors.  She told me about a company called Wilson Electronics and their product line called WeBoost!

Basically, what a WeBoost unit does is connect to a cell tower to access voice and data signals.  It then BOOSTS that signal 32x and sends it to an inside antenna, the INSIDE antenna then broadcasts the signal to all devices in your home.  Sounds amazing right?!  At this point I was DESPERATE so I sat in my car with my laptop connected at her campground and I literally ordered a WeBoost Home 3G unit right then and there with next day delivery.  We had to travel to the nearest UPS station to pick it up due to our location, but it arrived the following day.  It was seriously my ONLY hope and my fingers & toes were crossed while my husband installed it hoping that it would work.

IT DID! IT WORKED!

We went from NO PHONE or TEXT ABILITY inside our cabin to FULL Phone, Text and DATA!  I was able to connect to my laptop via my Verizon Mifi hotspot and was able to work just like normal with no issues!  I could not believe it!  Fortunately, I am on the Verizon unlimited data plan so it didn’t cost me anymore on my cell phone bill to work for the entire month!

I was SO EXCITED about it that when we got back home I decided to try out the unit at my house here in Florida and was able to cancel my home internet service which was costing me almost $100 per month!  At my home in Florida, I literally had to pay for internet service monthly THEN had to get what they called a MicroCell unit to boost my cell phone service on my phone just so that my cell phone would work, it was ridiculous.  If the internet went out for any reason I would also lose cell phone service.   Now with the WeBoost installed I ALWAYS have service since it is not dependent upon the internet at all, it is boosting straight from the cell tower!

The WeBoost unit is AWESOME and they have a BUNCH of other products too!

We will be heading back to Kentucky very soon to start our next round of repairs and improvements and I will be doing some live streaming from there and I feel confident that I will have no issues at all!  The customer service at WeBoost is AMAZING as well.  I have spoken with them a few times to see what all of my options are with the wide range of products they offer.  They have products for your car, RV, home, office, etc that will boost your service wherever you are! I seriously feel like this is the future of how we will connect to the internet.   Why should we have to pay for cell phone data AND home internet too right?!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT ALL OF THE WEBOOST PRODUCTS

I am super excited that the fine folks over at Wilson Electronics / WeBoost sent me the Whole House Connect 4G-X unit to bring with me on my next trip and to try it out! I am very thankful!  I was using the Home 3G unit and it met my needs so I can only imagine how fast and amazing the Connect 4G-X will be!  I will keep you all posted!!

Once we were able to get our internet situation resolved it allowed us to relax and enjoy the area and explore around a bit when we weren’t working.  We have a BIG JOB ahead of us working on the cabin but would LOVE to share our adventure with those of you that are interested in following along.  I have created a facebook page HERE for this and will be posting all of the things that we learn along the way!

Rosco and Moozy enjoying an afternoon of hiking

Finally able to relax and explore once I had my internet working!

Make sure you check out our new  Simple Cabin Living Facebook page about our new cabin adventure!  We will be blogging on our DIY projects, renovations and all of the calamities we are sure to encounter!

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