Any suggestions for a Satellite based ISP?

vi edit

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Oct 28, 1999
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Looking for recommendations for satellite service for about 12 remote sites. Would need it to be dual-direction. None of that one way stuff with a dial up upload. Locations are in the midwest(Iowa & Wisconsin if that matters)

Thanks!
 

Abzstrak

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Satellite connections can have high bandwidth, but the latency is also very high (usual ping times are in excess of 1000ms.... I'd highly recommend you find an alternative means of connecting to the net.. fractional T1's are getting pretty cheap.
 

vi edit

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Many of our sites are VERY remote - as in 25-45 miles from a major city/population. DSL is most certainly out of the question, as is cable. It pretty much rules out T1's as well.

Ping times aren't that important. Bandwith is. Thus the interest in satellite.
 

roamerr

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If you go with Satelite make sure you do not get locked into a long contract. I had DirecWay a year ago -- it was horrible. Took many calls and lawsuit threats to break the contract without penalty.
 

Abzstrak

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what do you mean ping times aren't important? They're always important... you'll see what i mean if/when you use one..


i highly recommend you have them give you a demonstration of the service and use it normally... since you looking for service for 12 remote sites they will probably give you maybe a week free somewhere for you to evaluate it... I'd recommend you take it, latency is as important as bandwidth... if you actually want things to load when click on them/request web page/whatever, then latency is alot more important than bandwidth.

Whats the use for these connections?
 

bsobel

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Dec 9, 2001
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Originally posted by: Abzstrak
what do you mean ping times aren't important? They're always important... you'll see what i mean if/when you use one..

Whats the use for these connections?

No they are not *always* important, it depends on the answer to the second question you asked... If his only other option is dialup and they need to move (say) large inventory reports, the satellite will be great. Walmart, Exxon, and many other companies use such systems for just these purposes.

Bill






 

vi edit

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If his only other option is dialup and they need to move (say) large inventory reports, the satellite will be great

Exactly. The connection would be used to dump data from a site controller at the remote location to a data warehouse on the internet. The site controller cashes the data and dumps it every 4 hours. Depending on how many transactions we are doing a day, the dump files could be pretty good size.