Anyone have experience with Satellite Internet?

2/6/06 | me

[alnick]

I've moved to an area where neither DSL nor cable internet is available. It appears that my only high speed options are DirectWay or Wild Blue, both satellite.

I'd love to hear some feedback from users or former users of these services.

Thanks.

[carlr]

I have the exact same issues,19.2-21.6 Kbps at best and it seems more and more that connection speed drops off unexpectedly either disconnecting me or forcing me to disconnect and reconnect to keep going.

No cable,DSL available and unlikely to ever be.

I wouldn`t trade rural living for anything but this is one of the drawbacks.

[soccer_maniac]

http://www.starband.com/findadealer/index.asp

[alnick]

Yes, it is a cool place. I moved from South Louisiana, where the terrain is flat and boring, to an area where there are rolling hills and bluffs. Where I lived before was densely populated compared to where I am now, where most people have acreage as opposed to lots. Housing prices are lower and the people are nicer. And I'm now far enough away from the Gulf Coast that I don't hear about Katrina, Katrina, Katrina everywhere I go.

[Husker24]

The only problem with Direcway, is that its expensive, I think its around $60 a month, and you have to put like $500 down for equipment.

[mad_as_he$$]

ANY satellite will have 3-5 second lag time. If you trade stocks or game forget it. ISDN sucks had it for a year and hated the cost plus tech problems. Dial-up with accelerator is probably the only cost effective answer.

[glorgau]

One word - Latency.

[ModelBreaker]

Try microwave DSL if it is in your area.

[elpinta]

Yes, as a lot of folks are saying, latency is the issue.
Had it for 366 days and as soon as my contract expired I cancelled it. Truly pathetic actually, with customer service to match. Good dial-up came very close.
True saga: I had to optimize the dish myself once by getting on a ladder and re-pointing it, as the 'foreign' customer support person was clueless and waisted my time with coordinates for an hour...
My advise: avoid it if at all possible (mostly Direcway).
Wishing you happy surfing!
EP

[stuartcr]

I have a friend in Japan, that uses his cell phone. He gets about 235k download.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Just between you and me, I would never move to an area where there was no high-speed internet service available. We run an in-home mail order company, and without internet, we'd have no business. In fact, when we lived at our previous home, we were outside of the 18,000 ft. range the DSL companies were telling us we needed to be within, so when we looked at the home we are now currently occupying, this was the first question I asked during the due diligence period prior to closing.

[Howlin]

How does that work?

Which companies offer it?

[Kieri]

I have had Wildblue since September and am VERY happy with it. We have the lowest speed package -- 512kbps upload/128kbps download -- but compared to our previous dialup, this is lightspeed. It was $300 for the equipment and installation, plus $49.99 a month (FINAL cost, that includes taxes & any nutty surcharges). We know the weather is a factor when BOTH dishes go out at once. I have had to reset my modem a few times (unplug it from the power supply, wait 10 minutes & reboot) but it's a huge improvement from dialup. There is no way we'll ever get cable or DSL; heck, we don't even have a landline phone but that's out choice.

We considered DirectWay because we've got DirecTV, but I'd read too many reports that it was unreliable and the price was prohibitive ($79.99 a month).

You might not have a decision to make, however. According to friends of mine and our local Wildblue provider (Waldron Communications), Wildblue is out of satellite room and isn't taking new subscribers. You'll need to call to see if there are openings in your area or at least a waiting list.

Good luck!

[Hodar]

Ewwww, I see an ugly problem.

The latency thing means that moving your mouse on a remote desktop may be a chore. As long as you move your mouse r-e-a-l=l-l-y slow, you may get by. I'm assuming that once you open your excel, power point or word application, you'll be happy. Once these get opened, the memory in your home PC and built into the logmein.com application will remember your keystrokes; so you can type as fast as you want.

Just remember, it's going to be lots of 'fun' working your mouse remotely.

Is there someone in your neighborhood that has a satellite internet hookup? IF you were to log in, and see how well things work remotely, then you'ld have a good indication of what to expect.

From my experience, I've done wired internet to a desktop in California from Austin, TX. The mouse was a wee bit jumpy, but managemable. With the latency issue, I'd expect a workable mouse, as long as you moved it slowly. Othewise, you'll frustrate yourself into a homocidal rage as you over-shoot the icon again and again.

But, as I indicated; if your intention is to only navigate the mouse on your remote desktop to open an application; then I'd venture to state that once you get your application open, you'll be good to go.

You may want to get in the habit of moving the files you are going to work on, into the Quick Launch portion of your toolbar. That way, you can move the mouse down to the appropriate icon, and just squeeze off 1-click.

[Dog Gone]

I saw an ad from Cingular offering it in the Houston area. Maybe others do too. I'm on a DSL line, so it's not something I've really investigated.

I assume you install a network card in your computer with a built in antennae.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/cingular_broadband.html

[antiRepublicrat]

On the activist front, know this about DirectWay/DirectTV before you buy:

There are pirates who were reprogramming the DirectTV cards. Some companies started selling smart card programmers to people, the main use being to pirate DirectTV signals. But these were just smart card programmers, and they were cheap, so a lot of people bought them for various other projects such as computer and home access security.

DirectTV sued and got the customer lists, then sent a letter to every purchaser demanding thousands of dollars in settlement or they'd be taken to court at extreme cost, no exceptions. People who didn't even own dishes, and people who were already paying for full service, paid up because they couldn't afford a defense.

I don't do business with companies like that, which is why I also haven't bought a CD in a long time.

[BlueNgold]

Compared to cable or DSL its a loser.
Compared to dial up it is better - most of the time.

I cannot say my experiences with satellite have been good, and the installers basically blame DirectWay for everything and DirectWay blames the contract installers so its hard to get a good fix. I ended up managing the system myself out of sheer frustration.

[TaxRelief]

I have Direcway. The advantages are many if you have a lot of users. The cost is reasonable after you buy the equipment ($59 / month). You can increase your speeds and bandwidth by increasing your monthly fee. Freeping is fast, downloads are fairly consistent, but uploads of large photos can be slow (but faster than dial-up).

It is not good for VoIP. You can't use it during severe weather. (2 minutes or so, on and off during a really bad storm.)

Biggest advantage: doesn't have those Sunday evening and 5-7 pm slowdowns.

2nd advantage: lots of user names.

3rd advantage: much easier to manage security.

4th advantage: You will not be giving money to liberals like Time Warner.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Cable is better for internet, Satellite better for TV, JMHO

Because cable is hardwired to the house twoway commnuication is easy. With satelite the problem is with the special equipment needed for transmitting. You need a transmitter and a receiver, sometimes with two separate dishes. At least that is the way it was a couple of years ago and that is what runs the cost up.

[carlr]

I put the DirecTV system in on my own and contacted WildBlue about doing the same and they said it was too complicated.
I am thinking this is protecting their installers or is there something more difficult.

[donnalee]

I had Direcway for several years, one-way and last summer I finally went to two-way with Direcway. I was afraid of Wildblue, they haven't launched their own satellite yet and asked for an 18 month delay last summer, the FCC gave them 12 months.

Direcway may not be perfect (recently sold) but they have 10 satellites and Spaceway 3 launches soon, another KA-band. I read the new 7000 modems they are installing are ka-band ready. My speeds equal the Wildblue $79.00 plan and I pay $59.99. I chose by the reasoning, my satellite transponder has been changed over the years (10 year life span?), Wildblue has no place to move me to in case of a failure. Even as bad as satellite can be sometimes, a day back on dialup makes me appreciate it!

I hope Wildblue succeeds, competition made Direcway increase upload speeds and I would switch to whatever was the better deal once Wildblue has a track record. I do prefer Direcway FAP, it "refills" daily. I don't like the WB rolling FAP that once you hit it, you could be stuck on dialup speed for the rest of the month. It's not an issue yet but they have changed their FAP policy twice already.

Normal surfing with only one or two users, FAP shouldn't be a problem with either. One time big downloads (over 150 MB)would be better on Wildblue's higher plans though DW now has a pro plan for faster speeds and higher FAP for $69.99.

I'm still praying for Wi-Max to be reality! Also check out DSL Reports Satellite Forums. Forums for both companies are there.