Satelitte internet?

[Kenneth Brown]

Anybody have Wildblue ot Hughesnet? Anything else? My folks have Wildblue and I'm not real impressed with it. I need something quicker than my 26.4 dial up and DSL is not available.

 

[The-flea]

Re: Satelitte internet?

How about switching to verizonwireless broadband?

Makes it very portable.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Satelitte internet?

How does it work? If it goes over phone lines I'm screwed because I'm in the sticks. Same for cable. It has to be satelitte, at least I think it does.

 

[Scaaty]

Re: Satelitte internet?

Sattelite is slow, but the only option in some places ..if you can get a good cellphone signal, a service with a wireless card might help..

 

[The-flea]

Re: Satelitte internet?

This is a card that works off the the towers, just like the cellphone. I believe they have one for the PC...they make one for the laptop I know...you can drive down the highway and surf the web. The card just plugs into the slot.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Satelitte internet?

Just checked verizons website. They don't serve my area. So..... Looks like slow dial up will continue.

 

[mscher]

Re: Satelitte internet?

I have Wildblue for $50/mo.

It's faster than dial-up, but that's about it.

Web surfing is slow, but I have heard the system is throttled that way, to control bandwith usage.

Every packet has the latency of traveling to space and back. Packets get even slower or stop, during heavy weather. I had to replace failed hardware, which costs me $500.

File transfers are better compared to web page loading, but are still nothing to brag about.

Consider satellite if it is your only "high speed" option.

Today's Internet functionality is all about high spped.

With satellite, you will spend time waiting for almost everything.

 

[96 Wellcraft]

Re: Satelitte internet?

I had satellite for 6 years because it was the only available high speed. It is expensive, for both service and equipment and slow for surfing. If you need high speed for downloads, it works well, but if you're looking to spend time surfing I vote no!

 

[orion25]

Re: Satelitte internet?

Just checked verizons website. They don't serve my area. So..... Looks like slow dial up will continue.

Check with the other Cell providers in your area. There are a couple of them that offer PC Card internet.

 

[Bassy]

Re: Satelitte internet?

Ditto on what 96 Wellcraft said. We're happy with HughesNet, but it takes a chunk of change to have it. We just had to update the modem and satellite dish due to upgrading to Vista. Oh well, I say we're ahead of the game. I hope so. Good luck.
Bassy

 

[beerfilter]

Re: Satelitte internet?

I have Wildblue for $50/mo.

It's faster than dial-up, but that's about it.

Web surfing is slow, but I have heard the system is throttled that way, to control bandwith usage.

Every packet has the latency of traveling to space and back. Packets get even slower or stop, during heavy weather. I had to replace failed hardware, which costs me $500.

File transfers are better compared to web page loading, but are still nothing to brag about.

Consider satellite if it is your only "high speed" option.

Today's Internet functionality is all about high spped.

With satellite, you will spend time waiting for almost everything.

Ditto on that !
The time delay in excess of 150 - 200 milliseconds will play merry hell with tcp/ip .
That is just for downloads .
Your uploads are through the same phone modems used for dial-up .
Can you say "slower than molasses" ?

For the price , it is a complete SCAM , IMO .
Marginally faster than dialup , at 4+ times the price .

I know a lot of people still are not serviced by any real broadband connection , but , satellite is nothing resembling a real broadband connection .
Honestly , I would rather cut my throat than go back to dial-up internet , let alone pay the 4-5 times the cost for dial-up , and , MAYBE get 2-3 times the download speed and no increase at all in upload speed .

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Satelitte internet?

See if there are any WISPs in your area. I use that type of service. Basically, there is a base station antenna that transmits in either a 900MHz band or 2.4 GHz band with a variation of 802.11b. You would have a very small antenna on your house. My service runs $39.99 a month. Bandwidth will vary depending on the provider from 500Kbps up to 4Mbps

 

[JB]

Re: Satelitte internet?

I investigated DTV satellite service (Now Hughes). At that time it was about $800 for equipment and installation, $80 per month. Would go down if storms get between dish and satellite, just like the TV reception.

No dsl or cable options here and dial-up is copper.

I ended up with a wireless broadband service (WISP), About $175 for equipment and $39.95/mo, but it is quick (when it is working). Goes down about once a month and goes sloooooooow about once a week. Had to replace the transceiver once for another $175.

Thaty sux, but it seems the best option when you live in the stix.

No way would I go for satellite until it costs a LOT less and works a LOT faster.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Satelitte internet?

OK, thats enough Hughes bashing.

I have had Direcway, now Hughes for 6+ years.

It does not use any phone line connection at all.
It is usually on par with the slowest dsl services for larger downloads.

For regular surfing, page load times are in the 2-5 second range, very heavily loaded pages take a couple more seconds. FLASH content seems to take the longest.
Because of the latency (delay) it is not good for online multiplayer action games.

It usually downloads youtube videos fast enough to keep them playing without interruption.

Equipment and install is $300, monthly fee of $60.
You can double the speed for $80 a month. 1.5 Mbps.

Or if you sign a 2 year contract, $80 a month and they give you the equip and instal.

Hmmmm, what does dialup cost?
Phone line, $17, taxes and Algore fees, $14, dialup service, $22.99. = $54 a month.

http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/R...Entity[OID[71A9F5B422ABCE4886D9492F66B5B589]]

Would I get dsl or cable if available? sure, but I would go without internet if I had to use dial-up.

Weather outages are few, and usually brief, like when a heavy thunderhead is dumping on you.
Things do tend to slow down between 11 am and 1 pm central time on weekdays.

Wildblu is not doing very well around here, many problems.

 

[mrfixitman40]

Re: Satelitte internet?

i had hughes when it was direcway and when it worked it worked well but had more equipment problems than it was worth but if it works it works good