Potato chip can, high gain antennas to your (friendly) neighbor?
My comcast cable internet is pretty good aside from the fact the company sucks.
I couldn’t agree more, I had them when they were still Direcway. I download books, great speeds for 1/4 of the download, then less than dial-up...if you never need to download large files it may serve you well, if not...run away as fast as you can.
Thanks for the heads up.
You forgot to mention the lag time too. It is a killer if you play games or anything that requires quick response times.
What mine failed to tell me is they go down quite often always after midnight. Hello do they think us vets sleep.
I just got back today from vacation, and my bro-in-law has that company...
I asked him what the heck was he thinking...
he told me the salesman really did a good job, and he signed a contract
YIKES what a scam if you aren’t in an area with cable or DSL
Caveman internet. Now that’s a fun image.
Yes, satellite internet is pretty bad. But if I had to use it, I’d go with WildBlue.
In a couple of years, there is a good chance that you will be able to get wireless terrestrial broadband service that will be much better than satellite.
Thanks for posting this. I was considering it, but I’ll stick with dial up.
Thanks for the warning.
Wildblue, my ISP, uses a 30 day rolling average FAP. When I signed on in August of 2005 I got 10,000MB per 30 days. We were well within FAP limits until they lopped 25% off all packages — reducing it to 7500MB — and didn’t lower the cost. I was up against the ceiling all the time.
Satellite internet is fine for what it is, but it is NOT comparable with cable. No way, no how. You can’t use VOIP, latency makes online gaming impossible, and downloading movies is out of the question.
Take heart, though, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. More and more wiMax and wireless companies are putting up towers in rural areas, mine included. Since we subscribed with Wildblue, Verizon extended their reach and put us in EVDO territory. The town north of us also put in a wiMax transmitter which *might* reach us, giving us cheaper and faster internet access with NO latency and NO FAP!
There are problems with both Hughesnet and Wildblue. I get my service through a co-op, and this is one case where having a middleman has been priceless. People with Wildblue direct have far more horror stories involving installation and customer service than I do.
Ping
I used StarBand for three or four years, a few years back, because it was the only game in town (excluding dial-up).
As a satellite provider, I was quite happy with them. Satellite is what it is. Latency is high (no online gaming— web 2.0 applications suck), and it’s quite susceptible to weather. It is, however, decent for normal browsing, and it beats the hell out of dial-up.
When rural wireless became available, we switched to them, and never looked back. Now, we’re on DSL.
I can't get cable or DSL where I live and was thinking about checking out satellite.
I guess I am stuck with dialup for the foreseeable future...
Well I mostly use my Comcast connection and it is pretty good. I also have a Sprint Air card and an AT&T Air card. Yeah they spoil me at work. I can nearly always get a connection. Make that always.
Who’s your nearest neighbor with cable or DSL? You might be able to work something out on the cheap.
ping for my lovely wife to read.
Thanks for the warning because I have been toying with the idea of sattelite internet, guess I’ll stick with my crappy comcast cable internet, it’s either that or dial up.