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Satellite Internet For the Broadband Needy?

H

Hideous_Hog

Member
My problem here in North Central Indiana is

1. Long awaited cable internet is on hold due to the exite@home fiasco

2. Long-shot DSL via Sprint (local telephone company) appears also be on hold, citing general broadband industry concerns.

3. Wireless is possible, but way, way too expensive.

4. IDSN is available, but at twice the cost of 56K per month, it is a joke.

What about satellite internet? Does anybody know what goes with this? I don't currently have satellite TV, and really don't need it, but would consider it for internet.

I really need the bandwidth for my 4 computers. Sharing 56K internet over 4 computers doesn't even suck.
 
satelite internet is broadband only 1 way, downloading. uploading still uses 33.6 modem speed (even 56k modems upload at 33.6 🙁). not sure the pricing, more than DSL/cable though... the service is called directpc. speeds are in the 100s k/sec i think.
 
I wouldn't recommend satelite internet. True they are faster than DUN but they do have limitations. As soon as you reached that limitation you will basically be slowed down to a point where 56K will be a much better choice. The limitation is with the amount of download you can do in a day! And I heard it's really not that big. If you decide to pursue make sure you read the fine prints.
 
and also satellite broadband have a high latency time--not suitable for online gaming. Just ok for browsing and D/L ing.
 
Actually, the newer installs of Sat are 2 way link via the Sat.

However, consider this: Your xmit time to the bird, relay to ground-based distro point,
out to your Internet destination, THEN back again to you. If you do any Internet gaming
at all, your ping times will be unacceptable. As for the rest of it, if they have the info in
the caching proxy, that'll shave some time off. Also, be careful to check fully into the TCP
services offered. HTTP is a given, but how about FTP? Telnet?

Major problems effecting Sat: Sun Transits, Eclipse, Satellite outage; on top of the usual
Internet problems we deal with everyday. Also, check into the bandwith limitations, and the
FAP.
 
I've had StarBand (bi-directional satellite internet) for almost a year and a half. What do you want to know???

 
If gaming is a concern, satellite wont work. You may want to rethink IDSN. It will give you a good ping if you play internet games. UL/DL speeds are ~ 15k/15K sec compared to ~ 5k/3k for a modem connection.
 
I've been using DirecPc one way for about two years now. It's really not that bad. I pay 39.99 monthly unlimited and use a third party v.92 ISP which cost 6.95 monthly. Direcpc has a policy called FAP which will limit your downloads to about 250MB per every three hour period. Some people experience more or less but, I believe the limit is imposed only during certain times of the day. For FP games your out of luck, pings are generally over 1000ms. Using Download accelerator I exceed 800kb during the day and at night over 1500kb. or about 185k sec. I upload using the PCM upstream option on my v.92 modem w/ my v.92 internet provider.
 
Interesting...

I wonder if I play games over the internet, then maybe I could just go through the 56K connection i/o the satellite.

The speeds you describe for d/l sound pretty good. No chance for me that I could get a $6.95 dial-up ISP in my area.

BTW, what is the "PCM upstream option"?
 
OK here's the scoop...

Cost: Pretty spendy... You're looking at $700 to get started. That's $500 for equipment and $200 for "professional" installation. The "professional" installation is REQUIRED. There's a lot more to the install of a StarBand system than there is to a DishNetwork or DirecTV. I know this, I'm certified for both (StarBand & DishNetwork). Monthly is $69.95 (the last time I looked) for unlimited access. I pay a lot less for mine because I was part of their "pilot program".

Speeds: U/L isn't great. I've seen 50 -70 Kbs as typical. D/L is usually pretty good. I've never seen worse than 500 Kbs and have seen speeds as high as 2000 Kbs (Yes that's 2 Mbs.. cool huh?). Evenings are the worst. Early mornings (4:00 to 6:00 am) are the best. If you need to D/L something really big like a linux ISO (650 meg) it's best to start it late at night. It'll be done when you wake up the next morning.

Ping times: Here's where it gets ugly... The best I've ever seen is 590 ms. Typical is 700 ms. Depends a lot on the server that your hitting. I've seen pings as bad as 1500 ms. In other words NOT fit for online gaming at all.

Service: HMMMM... A pretty subjective call here. Overall pretty good. They've had their problems though. I'd have to say that the last 6 months or so have been real solid. I can think of only 2 maybe 3 outages that lasted more than an hour. Usually early in the morning. That's when they work on the servers. Customer service can be really spotty. If you get a good CSR (and most are) a support call goes really well. If you get a clueless one (there are a few and you can tell pretty quick) the best thing to do is hang up and call back. Hold times are typically short. If they're having a system wide outage plan on sitting on hold for an hour or more. That usually tells the tale though. If you get right through to a CSR the problem is on your end, if you sit on hold for more than 10 or 15 minutes the porblem is most likely system wide.

OK here's few things that you didn't ask about...

Weather: Yes the weather CAN and DOES effect your StarBand service. Serious rain will kill it outright, although I've noticed that it survives bad weather better than my DishNetwork service. When the weather gets ugly here (I'm in Central Florida) the DishNetwork goes out first then the StarBand. Once things improve the StarBand comes back first. All things considered I've probably lost service because of weather maybe 4 of 5 times in the last year. Not a bad ratio really.

Networking: I think I could write a book on this subject... There have been several versions of the StarBand hardware. The early ones were networkable but not easily. The latest version uses the 360 modem. Networking it is doable but... You have to be prepared to buy additional software and have a "spare" machine to use as a gateway (proxy server). Up until the latest software revision you could just plug the 360 modem into a router and install the client software on all of your systems and you were all set. The latest software rev killed the ability to use a router. I'm using WinProxy (the one built for StarBand) and running it on a pretty powerful box running Win2K Advanced Server. Don't take that wrong... Advanced Server isn't required. It will run fine on most anything from Win98 up. I just happened to have an unused copy of Advanced Server. The up side of running from a gateway box is that all of the systems on the network get fully accelerated internet without having any client software installed. Good news for the Macs or linux boxes on your network. There's a ton of information about networking your StarBand floating around on the net. If you need more detail email me and we'll take the conversation private.

Software: Like I said before the current rev of the NetGain software killed the use of a router. HOWEVER... It's the best version yet. Very stable and it gave significant speed improvements over the past versions. It's a really interesting piece of coding. What it does is mess with the TCP/IP packets. It changes the way the CRC's are handled and I think it does some compression to. There are a couple if articles about the NetGain client software floating around. An interesting read at least.

The final analysis... Do I recommend it? For many folks YES... BUT... (there's always a BUT) If there is ANY hope of having DSL or cable in the foreseeable future hold out for one of those. I had ISDN for almost 5 years. In many ways I like the StarBand much more than the ISDN. I especially like the cost in that I was paying about $120 a month for my ISDN line and ISP. There are times though that I miss the pure stability of the ISDN. Oh well... Would I do it again? HMMMM... Yes, probably. All in all it's been a wonderful learning experience. It has however not been without it's frustrations. A couple of times I've been ready to climb up on the roof and toss the whole mess into the back yard.

One last thing... DSL is supposed to become available in my neighborhood real soon (they've been saying that for a year now). I plan to be the very FIRST subscriber in my little town. When that happens my StarBand will go by the wayside just like SO much other technology that I've paid WAY too much for.

Oh well... Such is the life of an "early adopter" 🙂
 
Great info Teknoid. Mucho appreciated.

Sounds like I am best advised to check further into cable availability. I have waited so long, with so many availability dates missed, I am truely getting desperate. One other satellite problem I have here is that the southwest sky from my house is somewhat blocked by trees in a neighbor's yard.

The fat pipe continues to elude me...
 
I had single directional satelitte for a while.

D/L was great- up to 1mb a second (although it varied a lot)

U/L sucked money nuts at 3k/sec

Pings were variable. The satellite was relayed through a terrestrial tower and pings within close proximity (city wide) were better than modem, but got uglier as you moved further away

I went ADSL and am much happier
 
Starband is crap IMHO. My friend has it and he pays $70/ month. I have gotten upwards of 3000ms ping off of him before. The only reason this should be looked at is if there is no way you can get any other sort of broadband. I.E. My friend lives in a private community that doesn't have a cable node and his phone lines are split out(allowing him only 28.8k on modem and no possibility of DSL).
 
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