Satellite Internet

[buckmasterson]

Got a friend who lives in the country in Northern Illinois that can't dial up faster than 20k due to bad lines. He's interested in Satellite Internet. He knows it's expensive, but is wanting to give it a shot. Anyone out there using Satellite, or know of a good provider?

 

[n0cmonkey]

There isn't one.

 

[bluestrobe]

Most I have seen still use dialup as an upload carrier since most satellite networks can only receive and not transmit signals.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
Most I have seen still use dialup as an upload carrier since most satellite networks can only receive and not transmit signals.

It's 2 way now, and it still sucks.

 

[JE78]

I have to agree. I used to live in the country and was looking at satilite. For the price and what you get its just not worth it. I even remember one service offering a certin MB download a month. 20kb on dial-up seems pretty good to me since I only used to get lik 5kb/sec max, tell him to save his money and get a really long cable line lol. Something else it might want to look into is wireless. If its not too far from town and they offer it he might beable to get a signal.

 

[buckmasterson]

Thanks, I guess he'll have to like it or move...

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

Actually, it's not that bad. We have the business version at my company. It's 2 way. Upload sucks, less than dialup. Download is about bottom tier DSL speeds. The big drawbacks are the incredibly painful latency, and the terrible performance of secure sites, since they can't be cached. Oh yeah, consumer services have fairly restricted download limits. Then there's the weather. For the cost, I'd sit tight and wait.

 

[bluestrobe]

My friend lives on a ranch 20 miles from the nearest paved highway and 2 hours from the nearest +5k town and has a DSL linkup 50 yards from his house. It makes me sick thinking about it.

 

[Sentinel]

i get 24k max on my dialup at home, drives me insane. still don't offer dsl and cable is over $50 a month.

 

[stickybytes]

satelite internet iirc, offers very bad ping in games. if gaming is what your friend is getting the internet for, i would tell him to think it over.

 

[Joony]

I bet someone around him could hook him up with some wifi broadband. Maybe a neighbor that can get broadband could sign up for cable/DSL and have a antenna setup for him

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
There isn't one.

Direct TV provides internet via satellite. I dont really know, but dish network might offer it too.

Satlelite Internet is slower than cable or dsl, requires expensive equipment, and costs $75-90 per month.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
Most I have seen still use dialup as an upload carrier since most satellite networks can only receive and not transmit signals.

Not true anymore, they now have bi-directional satelites.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
My friend lives on a ranch 20 miles from the nearest paved highway and 2 hours from the nearest +5k town and has a DSL linkup 50 yards from his house. It makes me sick thinking about it.

Tell him to wait for Wi-Max to arrive. He only has to be with in 50 miles of an antenna to recieve broadband or faster internet.

 

[Googer]

http://www.starband.com/
http://www.dishnetwork.com/

 

[Raduque]

I've done quite a bit of research on this, because I'm stuck on 26.4k dialup, and Verizon hates me and won't remove the load coils from my lines.

Satellite internet truely isn't worth it, unless you meet 2 conditions: 1) somebody else is paying for it (It's big bank, in the hundreds to install, like $300+, and upwards of $90 a month... I was quoted $500 install, and $120/mo for my location) B) You're a LIGHT user. Strictly browsing and email only. Not even streaming audio or music or game demo downloads. The "Fair Access Policy"(a load of crap) limits you to downloading a set amount of MB in a set amount of time, and if you go over that limit, you're throttled down to 56k line speeds. It takes many many hours to get un-throttled, because your cap has to fill back up completely. Think of it like an interweb capcitor. Each provider has their own caps, and nobody spells it out. Phone reps don't mention it, and are reluctant to give any info on it, even if you ask. It's a total crock. Also, as mentioned above, the latency is horrible, worse then dialup.

It's just overall not worth it with the price they charge for the services they offer. Probably cheaper to move into a cable/dsl area. heh.
Hope this helps.

 

[buckmasterson]

Man am I glad I posted this. The company's all show wonderful things, but for a lot of money. It sounds like you can throw a lot of money into nothing. Thanks everyone!!!!

 

[Googer]

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/products/internet/index.shtml

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
There isn't one.

Direct TV provides internet via satellite. I dont really know, but dish network might offer it too.

Satlelite Internet is slower than cable or dsl, requires expensive equipment, and costs $75-90 per month.

DirecTV's satellite internet is horrible. Their customer service is even worse. But they bill you on time.