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Anyone here beta-testing Wildblue?

JoLLyRoGer

JoLLyRoGer

Diamond Member
I hear they're almost done with the beta-test now and they're in the process of working out lesser details before the official launch.

From what I understand this may be the first (residential) satellite ISP worth a damn. Pricing is about $49.00 for a 512Kbps line, $69.00 for 1.0Mbps and $99.00 for a 1.5Mbps line. Equipment costs are still being worked out and I'm guessing they'll offer the equipment in a fashion similar to Directway and Starband.

Yes it's more expensive/slower/(insert trash talk about satellite internet here) when compared to cable and DSL, but for a rural dweller like me who gets dialup or nothing at all, I'm pretty excited about this.

Anyone here at AT been part of the beta-test? Is Wildblue all it's cracked up to be? Anyone have the inside track on what the usage policy/equipment costs will be?

 
Having used satellite broadband....I choose dialup.

Satellite broadband is horrible. We (my company) tried it for a couple months. It was simply unuseable. We went back to dial up and waited for a DSL provider to come into town.
 
Originally posted by: vi_edit
Having used satellite broadband....I choose dialup.

Satellite broadband is horrible. We (my company) tried it for a couple months. It was simply unuseable. We went back to dial up and waited for a DSL provider to come into town.
Click to expand...

Ya know, the problem is that where I live Qwest may or may consider upgrading the central office around... say, the next turn of the century. I mean really. We don't even have one stoplight where I live. The population is ony about 2000 and out of that only about half of them even have then internet and maybe 1 out of 20 could give a crap about broadband. Hey if I were Qwest I would worry about upgrading this place either; No ROI.

but I have a very hard time believing dialup is better than satellite, but please elaborate, why do you feel this way?
 
Originally posted by: JoLLyRoGer
Originally posted by: vi_edit
Having used satellite broadband....I choose dialup.

Satellite broadband is horrible. We (my company) tried it for a couple months. It was simply unuseable. We went back to dial up and waited for a DSL provider to come into town.
Click to expand...

Ya know, the problem is that where I live Qwest may or may consider upgrading the central office around... say, the next turn of the century. I mean really. We don't even have one stoplight where I live. The population is ony about 2000 and out of that only about half of them even have then internet and maybe 1 out of 20 could give a crap about broadband. Hey if I were Qwest I would worry about upgrading this place either; No ROI.

but I have a very hard time believing dialup is better than satellite, but please elaborate, why do you feel this way?
Click to expand...

Satellite = bad latency. Cannot use VPN/ remoting software.
 
No ROI, but I have a very hard time believing dialup is better than satellite.
Click to expand...

It's fine once you can synch up with a webserver/mail server. But from our experience, the latency was so aweful we timed out half the time trying to do simple web browsing or sending & receiving emails through mail clients.

I really don't think that will change much with any provider. You simply can't shorten the 35,000 miles between your dish and the satellite.

Another problem I had, which may be specific to DirectWay, is that they required some clunky software to be installed and it basically tied the connection to a single PC. It was pretty much impossible to put any sort of broadband router or hardware in place to share out the connection.

Then combine that with asshole contract installers, useless tech support, and a super high price and it's just not worth it.

But again, that was DirectWay. And not this company.

I'd still just stick with a $10-$15 plain old dial up account from a local ISP if I can make free calls to it.
 
Direcway has improved a whole lot since the 4000 systems (The ones that you had the software to install, they were indeed awful although some love them😀).

Anyway, back on topic, we havn't heard anything yet (our company is looking to do installations for them). We shall see though, looks to be better than the Dway systems but until I actually see/install/use one I won't say a thing😀

WTT
DTV/Dnet/Voom/Dway Installer
 
Originally posted by: AdamSnow
upload speed is probably dialup still isnt it ?
Click to expand...


From what little I understand about it, its supposed to be a two-way link.
This is from their website

WildBlue Minidish
WildBlue?s minidish (28? x 26?) both receives signals from the WildBlue satellite, and sends signals from the customer up to the satellite. Using the latest microwave receive and transmit technologies, WildBlue offers a small, efficient minidish which can be mounted on a roof, wall or via pole mount in the ground. WildBlue provides professional installation of the WildBlue equipment which will take approximately 2-3 hours.


Wildblue Communications
 
i am still looking toward cellualar/wireless broadband as a better solution. i am rural, but within 2 miles of a large highway, so i have cell towers close/LOS

i get good signal from a sprint tower and their PCS wireless internet works fine, but is toooo sloooooooooww. they need to boost the speed to keep up with verizon broadband
 
Actually I would rather see a solution like that myself, except that I know nothing about it. I didn't even know sprint PCS offered internet (except thought my PCS Vision phone and you're right that connection sucks hind tit!)
 
I HATED Direcway when I used it for about 6 months. My parents are still waiting for a real broadband solution. What Direcway forgets to tell you is you can only download 150 megabytes in 4 hours or they set your transfer speed to aobut 3-5 kb/s.

Direcway to Customer: How do you like dem apples b1atch?!!
 
Rather than create a new thread I figure I might as well bump this one. Anyone using Wildblue yet? I looked at the response times and it says 250ms response. How bad is that for games like World of Warcraft?

My in-laws want to get it where they live and my brother-in-law plays WOW all the time. Wish they could get DSL or Cable. Cable is a mile from their house and wants 5 or 6 figures to run it to them. Closest CO for DSL is almost 5 miles away. Far as I know max distance for DSL is 12000 feet. Their only choices are dial up or satellite.
 
Wow, blast from the past! www.wildblue.com is down...maybe that's not a good sign of reliability? 😉

250ms ping might be ok for slower games like WoW and such...I remember playing StarCraft without any problems on dialup, so I can't imageine it being too difficult to manage a 250ms ping. Just don't try any FPS games. 😛

EDIT, oh sure, now their site works...😱
 
Originally posted by: Freejack2
Rather than create a new thread I figure I might as well bump this one. Anyone using Wildblue yet? I looked at the response times and it says 250ms response. How bad is that for games like World of Warcraft?

My in-laws want to get it where they live and my brother-in-law plays WOW all the time. Wish they could get DSL or Cable. Cable is a mile from their house and wants 5 or 6 figures to run it to them. Closest CO for DSL is almost 5 miles away. Far as I know max distance for DSL is 12000 feet. Their only choices are dial up or satellite.
Click to expand...
250ms is do-able for WoW. In tight situations, the player is going to need to do a bit of prediction, but it can be played.
 
Why would you be excited about this? It's roughly the same price ad Directway and Starband. I'm stuck in the country too but I refuse to get Sat unless they lower the latency, lower the price, or increase the reliability. I doubt this service will do any of that.
 
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