Does any one have experience with Satellite Internet? (the good, the bad, the ugly....) THANK YOU! peter
Well, it works. Our park sitters use it from their motorhome. The only problem they've had is with components crapping out. She's a techie and does the R&R on the system.
Here in Angel Fire a good friend of ours also uses it from his house, though primarily because he's up in a small valley, out of visual range from the various wireless providers. He does IT work and needs to download and upload very large files. His only complaint is that it's somewhat slow, so he sometimes comes down here and uses the wireless for that purpose.
I've used Starband in my stationary home way up in the Rockies when it was the only game in town. Download speeds were decent-ish, and upload was on par with good dialup. The software was incredibly goofy, and support nearly non-existent (took them a year and a half to sorta support Win XP SP2). Slow upload means no video conferencing or presumably interactive games. Now that I'm in a low-country forest, satellite is not an option due to a restricted view of the south sky.
If I ever happen to live in a place with cell coverage (gawd forbid), I'd probably go that route. As is, I make do sending large CAD files through a 2-4k ancient phone line over long weekends.
I'll likely try satellite again once I'm at my hermitage at 12,000' (no other option really), and read from the ad copy that the new modems are much faster. The cahllenge then will be keeping the dish snow-free when it piles 30' deep.
Bottom line: Satellite works sorta, kinda OK when nothing else is available, and it does most often beat dial-up.
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We've been using Hughes Internet for about a year now. We're in the woods, though not deep woods, and had to cut a few limbs off a sugar maple to get a decent error rate. Snow on the dish is a downer, as are heavy thunderstorms. The uplink speed is 128kbps due to the 1 watt transmitter, and downlink is around 800 kbps. We've been told that video seen at the distant end is sorta jerky, but coming our way it's fine.
You should be able to find a local outfit that installs and supports satellite internet, have them to come out and demo their system.
regards
my inlaws had hughes satelite and i had to help them out on occasion.
unless you have the patience of a saint you WILL get fustrated with the directway service
first off the only poeple who can install the satelite is directway (hughes net) and that will run you around $800 for equipment and set up last i checked. if you buy used from ebay your still looking at $400 for them to hook you up, you can't register yourself.
upload and download speeds are patchy, very weather dependant. if email, this forum and blogging is you thing then ok. video is not really worth the hassle.
if you're really out in the boonies, don't mind poor tech support, and have no other choice then go for it.
oh yeah, they have a stingy FAP (fair access policy) ie if you download over a certain amount of data per month, i forget the amount maybe 2 gigs, your connection gets throttled to dial up speeds!
go with verizon or if you have a local wifi company all the better.
Looked into it and SLOW was always the complaint from users. Went instead with Sprint's wireless. Not too bad but you need cell coverage for it to work. They advertise "broadband like" speed and that's about what it is. Much faster than dialup. Great for traveling. Even though most RV parks have free wireless, you still have to get the password, upload something else or other. I'm connected all the time.
I'm sure the Verizon is virtually the same.
for my home in a remote area i chose wild blue.
at the time i was searching for systems there
were 3 providers avaialble: Starband, Wild Blue
and Direct Way (DTV/Hughes)
i have had neighbors with each service. we
live where no dsl or cell service reaches.
these are roof top home systems, but i am
looking for a mobile pkg for r.v. use..
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