Best Internet Solutions for Rural Areas

My parents live way out in the boondocks in rural West Virginia. It is not that far from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and the closest real town is probably Winchester in Virginia. Right now I am home from Virginia Tech for awhile, needing to earn some money to continue my education. I need Internet and I am thinking about the relative benefits of dsl vs satellite. We already have a satellite TV service and that is actually the only viable option in this area. You can not even really pick up much over the air TV because of the mountains that surround us here. In fact it is pretty hard to pick up much on the radio and every time you drive around a curve you might lose your signal. So you really want to have an iPod or something in your car around here.

Of course DSL is not really much of an option in this area unless you are willing to accept very low bandwidth. There is one company which offers the service and they do not give you anything which is actually broadband internet. Instead it is about four times as fast as a dial up internet service. Of course you do not need a second phone line and the cost is not too high considering the lack of options. Satellite internet is going to be pretty expensive and it is going to be disappointing as well. Of course I am here to make money, I have a job working for a local farmer who raises a lot of pigs and turkeys. I am trying to work as many hours as he will give me and that should not give me a lot of time to worry about the internet. I do need to do some courses online though and I might just use the county library.