Posted on 05/08/2008 5:28:28 PM PDT by lightman
I live in an area which is not served by cable TV companies. That has limited the Internet access choices to either dial-up or sattelite. I currently have both, using dial-up on my MacOS9 and Hughesnet on the PCs.
I have learned that DSL has suddenly been extended to my area by Verizon. Hughesnet is costing roughly $90.00/month for less than satisfactory service because of their "Fair Access Policy" and because towering thunderheads frequently block the sattelite signal. I could get Verizon DSL for about $30.00/month--and if the in-house networking goes right, I might even be able to ditch the dial-up and second phone line for still greater savings.
But before I leap forward with what seems a no-brainer I would like to hear from those who are current or former Verizon DSL customer; especially those who have also had sattelite.
Would going to DSL be a good move?
Verizon DSL, Washington DC server:
Up 737 kb/s
Down 137 kb/s
Oops, let me redact that:
Verizon DSL, Washington DC server:
Down 737 kb/s
Up 134 kb/s
I use Verizon DSL. I’ve never had a dropout that I know of, and it is fast enough, but not particularly blazing fast. We can watch TV shows on the internet and it occasionally freezes up.
We got the DSL moden with wireless router built-in, and I haven’t had any trouble with it. We all sit around with our laptops and surf.
I could have Comcast Cable, but I hate giving them any money, even though I haven’t dropped my cable yet — I’m nervous about switching to DirectTV, and we don’t have Verison FIOS vailable yet.
I’ve had Verizon DSL for 4 years up here in southern New Hampshire. Love it! Never had a problem. Easy to install yourself. Meanwhile, I hear co-workers complain constantly about Comcast.
Unfortunately, Verizon recently sold its northern New England fixed line operation to FairPoint. I’m staying with DSL. So far, so good with the changeover.
I have had Verizon DSL for three years now. I have the higher speed version for $30 per month. Before moving to this area, I had Cox Cable internet which costed around $40 per month. I cannot tell any difference between them.
Verizon service here is Palm Desert, CA has been excellent. Very reliable - maybe one or two short interruptions in three years. Plus, Verizon service techs are easy to reach and very helpful, especially when I added a wireless PC. We now run two desktop PCs on a Verizon wireless modem. One is hardwired to the modem and one runs wirelessly.
Our community also has Verizion Fios fiber optic service. I have chosen to stay with DSL because Fios is $20 more per month. Unless you are doing a huge amount of downloads or uploads, as in running a business from your home, it is not worth the money.
With DSL, you will drop your dial up service as you never will want to use it again.
It was OK - better than dial-up. Problem was that my wife worked from home and her company used a VPN network. VPN is NOT supported by HughesNet (despite what their marketing info says....) Ended up having to get a wireless card for her laptop until DSL arrived.
Had we been told truthfully that they didn't service VPN, we wouldn't have invested the money. If you have any special needs for particular services I wouldn't suggest HughesNet.
I pay 29.99 a month for Extreme DSL which is 6.0 Mbs down and I 350 up (Just for the record I have clocked it). My down is usually 5.9 and my up is 330 Mbs. Its fantastic I love it. I am also running WIFI at the house. I use a 17” lap top computer. So I can work any where in the house.
My test ran 8834/1918...Comcast @ 19.99/month
Bump for later.
Have the 1.5/0.5 Verizon DSL; refused to 'upgrade' to fibre as it costs more now and will get more expensive later. This is similar to the stupid Touch-Tone vs. Rotary Dial charges; with the advent of the ESS switching gear they had to put converters in the COs for their dial lines, yet charged the TT lines every month. Gotta admit they did make more money that way!
Other posters have referenced the delay issue, which will prohibit VoIP and some interactive games.
Another thing that often happens with the satellite software drivers is that you cannot run VPN - if you need to run VPN drivers to connect to a corporate network (eg), then you might be out of luck with a satellite link.
One other thing that others have not mentioned is that all three of the major satellite carriers (Hughes, Gilat and WildBlue) is that they have per-week or per-month usage quotas, and when you exceed these quotas, your speed is restricted (sometimes severely) for as long as it takes to get the moving average bandwidth back below the throttling threshold.
For Gilat (formerly “Starband”), the quota used to be about 780MB over a seven day rolling period; ie, if you used more than 976MB of download b/w in the last seven days, they’d throttle you. For you to get unthrottled, you’d have to use as little bandwidth as possible so that within the most recent seven days, you’d use some lower limit - like less than 500MB.
The trouble with the throttling is that their DNS server starts to drop your packets when you’re throttled, so you cannot resolve named and you have to keep hitting the “reload” button on your browser.
Oh - one more thing about satellite ISP’s: During the spring and fall equinox periods, you lose satellite connectivity as the sun lines up behind the bird for about 90 minutes for about 3 to 7 days during these periods.
And no,I don't work for Verizon.
I didn’t really need much convicing—faster speed, no FAP throttle, lower cost.
Reliability and tech support were my concerns and you have addressed those throughly.
DSL, here I come!
As the telcos have upgraded their equipment, they have added DSL nodes so that the “central office” is now a little box. They run fibre to the box and the neighborhood has fast DSL service.
Once AT+T upgraded my area, I went from 3Mbps to 6Mbps.
Verizon is working to roll out fibre to the door, so their DSL service should be fast.
With AT+T DSL, I have consistently gotten the speeds I pay for, even during peak hours. Cable slows noticeably during peak evening hours.
Wow, learn something new every day. I think Hughesnet is a 24 hour quota. I've only exceeded it once with help from some teenagers. Once they throttled my connection it was basically unusable. I could get a tiny web page or two, but could not do IMAP or SMTP to get or send email.
Hughesnet changed its FAP about a year ago. It had been reasonable and now is draconian. When you've been FAPped your service is a useless POS...slower than 28.8 dialup. DSL here I come!
Wildblue has a pretty draconian FAP as well.
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