satellite internet

[brassmonkey7]

does anyone have satellite internet?, how well do you like it?
and are they comming out with a 2 way satellite anytime soon?

 

[Lvis]

link

 

[hominid skull]

I don't think that there is a way to have two wat satellite internet, you'd have to have a transmitter dish, which to my knowledge aren't common.

 

[Wizkid]

Two way is supposed to be available early next year, that's what the guy from DirecPC told me anyways

 

[DarkManX]

I got my dish up and running from DirecPC speed isnt that bad, setup time isnt that bad either if u know what your doing. I talked to there support last nite, to get 2way to work we will either have to replace the LNB on the dish or put on an Aditional LNB. He said it will be available by the end for the year for sure.

 

[mikable]

I'm currently in the Pilot program for Starband, formerly known as Gilat. This is a complete 2-way sattilite system. It includes a lowend PC with a send and a recieve pci cards pre-configured. There will be a USB box available. It will be sold by Starband, Dish Network, and Radio shack

The Systems sold by Starband and Dishnetwork will have an option to recieve Dishnetwork programing, the Radio Shack offering can't do to contracts with DirectTV.

Ping averages 750, although it might be possable to lower it to the 500-600 range it will never be a Gamers system! Also, do to the large ping times, a special proxy is uset to spoof the ping times. heh, imagine having to wait 1/2 to 3/4 of a second for each packet of a ftp download! to obtain a decient download rate we nee to go through this proxy for everything, ftp, nntp, http, https, pop3, smtp..... it's a pain to setup right now and during the pilot they don't support networking. But it can be done

Downloads come down at anywhere from 150Kbps to 900Kbps Starband has promised to load the transponders to provied no less then 150Kbps during *peak* usage. This is kind of tricky, that's jsut a bit faster then ISDN, I'm kind of leary about that statement. but they can lease more transponder space.

Uploads are stated to have a current rate of 70Kbps, wiht a upgrade to 150Kbps in the near future. However, testing of many pilot users indicates a lower upload rate, around 25-50Kbps.....


Starbands offering includes a Dell GPX110 celeron 500, with 64 megs of ram, and a 6.4 gig HD, 15" monitor, basic soundcard and speakers for $499. instalation (required) is $199, but I'm sure there will be a offer for free installation. Service is **rumored** to be 69.95 with this system. This is the system I got for the pilot.

Radio Shack also requires you to buy a complete system, duno the specifics but it's around 600 without a monitor. They claim service will be 49.95, again a rumor.

Dishnetwork will sell the USB box, rumored to be $399. service 49.95



This system should be available this month! It seems they want a 3 year contract! Yicks! I'm leaning on canceling in december, the end of the pilot. it's to much money for to little service for me!

 

[Ausm]

I personally do not have a choice to have cable or DSL so I have to goto Satellite Internet Service...screw the pings I don't online game anyway.

Ausm

 

[Dogcatcher]

Can you use satellite with Internet Connection Sharing?
I just bought DirecPc because DSL and Cable Modem are far into the future around here and Satellite service is now unlimited hours. The csr told me that two way will be hear in this quarter or early next year.

 

[mikable]

Yea, you can, however be carefull. The ICS wizard does a great job blowing out the network settings leaving you unable to connect to anything Manualy configure it! Write down all configuration settings before you start! Image your HD just in case!

What made you choose DirectPC over Starband? Just courious!



M

 

[Dogcatcher]

never heard of startband. I have 30 days to take this stuff back to BestBuy. I'll look into it.

Doesn't look like they are offering to the public yet. DirecPC should have the same two way comm. by the end of this year or early next year. So for right now it looks like I still don't have any other options.

 

[Dogcatcher]

I just checked more into Starband. They don't really offer any info on how to get it from them or pricing. In their press release they mentioned RadioShack. I called RS and he told me it cost $1200 because they sell the service with a speacialized set up PC. My a@@. I asked him what kind and he said a Compaq. F!@# that. I think I'll stick with DirecPc for now until something else comes along. I hope that is soon.

 

[mikable]

heh yea, it's about to be released to the public. I ask cause lots of people that get DirectPC get very vocal about it! Try downloading a linux iso and get your bandwidth butchered after 300 meg to about 10kbps! Not fun

However, I getting a bit miffed at Starband... my system went down 2 days ago, and tech support treated me like a idiot! "ok, now listen very carefully press CTRL, that's spelled C T R L, press ALT spelled A L T, and press DEL, spelled D E L, at the same time" :disgust:


It went down from there, he finally agreed to send a replacement recieve card, 2 days not including weekends... Grrrrrrr

Anyway....


M

 

[Erasmus-X]

Sprint runs a service in the Phoenix area called Sprint Broadband, which uses a microwave dish for high speed access, both downlink and uplink. Average speed is about 1Mb down and 256k up. Apparently, they bought out this technology from Speedchoice late last year.