Satellite Broadband, worth it? If you have it, please advise...

[Stylewar]

I mostly play Q2 on my PC, as well as some other games. I been stuck on dialup for 4 years now, no broadband available yet in my area (go figure). I was considering this satellite broadband service as an alternative, but even the customer service representative advised me that my ping time wont change much. He said that the DL speed is good at 400K, but their upload is only 56K. But at 31,600 (all I seem to connect at) dl and 33K (supposed) upload on an analog line, wouldnt I fare much better with that other service? Maybe someone out there who has the service can advise me if it is worth it to make the switch over to this service as I can get installation and materials for free right now.

 

[Gunbuster]

At least hold out for 2 way sat.

No IDSL? Can you get ISDN?

 

[ArkAoss]

satelites good if your a dl fool, like you pull from napster all kinds of music for yourself, or uhh other places, but i think games require decent 2 way speed, and if when they install the sat you get a better connec, your upload might increase to 40k or maybe the full 56k, but the dl's are always sick, I have cable and the max i was ever aware of was 300k, from some guy on the same cable system, but a friend has sat, and can get 400-500k from dsl's and stuff. . cause the cable lines are limited to 128, or 256 max upload, cause if not you could get 10-20 people on their pulling 300k each, and 300x 10 is 3mb/sec used, and they didn't like that, so they limit cable uplaod, but dsl, and some t1, t3's can get faster

 

[TheBeast]

For playing games online, you will be much worse with satellite than with dial up. Pings are in the 500-700 range (the signal has to go 22,000 miles up to the satellite, 22,000 miles back to earth, then out to the internet, then 22,000 miles back to the sattelite, and 22,000 miles back to your dish. There is no way around crappy pings). Your downloads, though, will be much better.

 

[caboob]

forget satellite....sprint is starting to roll out high speed wireless connection. I looked into satellite myself and even with a 2way (Starband) the latency is reported to still be too high for "shooter" games

 

[rudder]

if your a gamer why not look into ISDN? Very good ping times. The price around where I live is $40 month but I understand it varies widely depending on where you are at.

The Sprint service sounds good, but with most new technologies it sounds as if it will be in the major metro areas first. Our town just got cable modems, but I am a little too far out to get them to come and install a line.

 

[TSDible]

What about games like Diablo II? I'm using it on a high latency system now (hybrid cable: 33.6 upstream, cable down). Will it be as playable on a satellite system?

Anyone with experience, please advise.