Internet via satellite...help

[grunt]

I am requesting any information of personal experience concerning Internet satellite. I'm in the process of purchasing new home...in the boonies. It's on a beautiful piece of land, great mountain views and awesome LOS to the southwest (D*movers ) but unfortunately, cable/dsl not an option. Will I be stuck with dial-up again?

 

[CablerMN]

DiRECWAY can be expensive to get into, chokes on secure servers (limited success with Mozilla alternative browser), not good for 1st person shooter games (latency issues - 88,000 mile round trip to deliver your data) and has limited upload speeds.

If those items are of no concern, then it my be an option for you.

Advertised as a "up to" 600kpbs download service we have routinely exceeded that seeing speeds of 1.8 mbps. This service excels at downloading. Big files, MP3s, web sites heavily laden in images, etc. However, pressing the send/receive button of your e-mail client may seem no different then dial-up.

Not sure what else to tell you, it's great of you have no access to cable/dsl but if you have grown accustomed to those services you may get irritated with DiRECWAY if you don't give it a chance.

 

[grunt]

Thanks for your input cablerMN. Starband expensive to get into as well. I've gotten spoiled w/my cable modem. I don't do any on-line gaming but do often download music. I have seen that if you commit to several years contract you can get the monthly rate to an almost reasonable level. I hate being stuck in contracts because with my luck Echo* might eventually come out with something. I better not hold by breath. Thanks for the info, sounds do-able

 

[Stargazer]

Dish Network may have a two-way satellite internet service for under $40 a month with free hardware next year.

 

[mgmrick]

I have had starband since the day one. They have improved alot over the years. If you can live with the latecy (no gaming) , I would go with starband. Always (almost) on and trouble free for me

Thanks
Rick

 

[CablerMN]

Dish Network may have a two-way satellite internet service for under $40 a month with free hardware next year.

Source?

 

[Big Bob]

See if any alternatives are available...
Multiple modems can be combined together for more speed. Takes multiple phone lines and an ISP that can handle it. Sometimes referred to as "shotgun" or (I think) MPPP. Webramp used to offer some devices that would do the modem combining for you. You can still get them on Ebay

Wireless may be an option. Ask around in you new area and see if there is any company offering wireless access.

You may also be able to set up your own long-range wireless set-up between yourself and an ISP. (Or a kind friend who can get DSL/Cable). There are a bunch of not-too-expensive wireless antennas that will reach 5+ miles. Or modify a Pringles/Coffee can....

I haven't looked into it, but some cellphone access is getting much higher speeds (or are about to). that may be a solution....

It might be too expensive, but ISDN may be an option.

Or you might think about talking with some of your neighbors and have a t1 line pulled into your general area and everybody share the cost and access. You would need to set it up properly though. Technically and legally.

All is not lost.

 

[Stargazer]

My source is a Dish Network meeting held for the retailers in the summer of 2003. Ask any retailer that has attended the meeting. They had them in cities where the locals were going to be launched before the launch date. I think I have some paperwork somewhere regarding this that I was able to pick up from the meeting. Some of this was already discussed in the message boards in the past.

Multiple modems sounds interesting. The thing with that though is that you have to pay for each additional phone line from the phone company so that would increase the cost a bit defeating the purpose seeing how it would be cheaper to get satellite internet which would be faster. I would like to do wireless access though and would like to find a good source for antennas and hardware that are cheap in which have a range of 5 miles or more. Is there much speed lost over that much distance?

 

[Satellite Expert]

It's on a beautiful piece of land, great mountain views and awesome LOS to the southwest (D*movers ) but unfortunately, cable/dsl not an option. Will I be stuck with dial-up again?

Anik F2 has been launched and the Ka internet transponders have been successfully tested.

US sales will be done by WildBlue. http://www.wildblue.com/

 

[Claude Greiner]

If you can get cable or DSL, go for it

However if thats not an option, Starband or Directway would be the next best thing. It sure as hell beats dialup

 

[Neutron]

WildBlue is also another alternative. They have announced that their service will be up early next year:

http://www.wildblue.com/

Also look into a Wireless ISP.

 

[video62]

Check out http://www.starbandusers.com - it's a subscription forum site, but worth the modest fee if you're serious about going with Starband. I used it quite a bit when I had Starband.

If all you do is surf, then Starband may be fine for you. If you do file uploading or telnet, then it may not. Check out the Is Starband for me? link on the left side of the page for details.

 

[gale1220]

Thanks for the info about Dishnetwork having a satellite next year for a reasonable price, I will certainly check that out.

 

[Stargazer]

There is no guarantee that they will launch the service just like they cancel produt rollouts of certain receiver models. With the way technology is changing constantly they may not want to risk it if companies such as verizon and power companies evolve the technology greatly expanding to many more consumers targeting customers that they are hoping to get.