Word to the wise: Satellite Internet

Ben Slaughter · From: Madera, California

I would strongly discourage anyone from considering DirecWay satellite internet service. I've been lied to and jerked around for two months now, and have been denied a refund. I'm out at least $600-800, have this huge ugly dish on my roof, and my DirecTV doesn't work right (no local channels).

Hughes Network Systems (parent company) obviously doesn't care about customer service. Customer service reps barely speak english (located in India), and salespeople are willing to lie to customers just to get a sale.

Unfortunately, out on the farm I don't have many options for internet. Bad phone lines give me about 14.4kbs connection on dial-up modem. Good thing I gots the T1 at the office (in town).

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Ben
Zum D10, NV400, TubeFex, POD, G&L Guitars, etc, etc.

Gary Shepherd · From: Fox, Oklahoma, USA

I have DirecWay too. I don't care for it much now that I'm totally set up. If I had know then what I know now, I would have gone another direction. Around here, the only other option I know of is dial-up. I did have access to a T1 line but since the fire, I moved to far to connect to it.

My DirecWay system is ok for download but they don't tell you about the download restrictions until after you're set up. THERE's A DOWNLOAD LIMIT. And once you hit the limit, you're throttled WAY down for several hours. Plus, upload speeds are no better that dial-up.

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Gary Shepherd

Sierra Session 12

www.16tracks.com

Lou[NE] · From: Weston, NE USA

Both of you gents might do a search for fixed wireless providers in your areas.

I live in the sticks of Nebraska and considered satellite internet service until I found www.microlnk.com

I paid $400 up front for installation of a Cisco 350 series radio card and antenna (a small affair like a satellite TV antenna) that connects to an access point 3 miles away. For $30 a month I get a 384Kb always- on connection that works great.

Microlnk is a local outfit, but there must be someone near you that provides this service.

Hope this helps you.

Lou

[This message was edited by Lou[NE] on 28 July 2004 at 11:05 AM.]

Jonathan Cullifer · From: Gallatin, TN

I had a friend who had Starband for a while and got rid of it because it was always dropping in and out. He has cable and DSL now. The other problem with satellite Internet is the delays make it nearly impossible for me to work on a Telnet-type terminal.

Doug Ferguson · From: Burnet, Texas, USA

I have wireless 802.11b internet from a local ISP here in the area and we love it. It is a rural area and DSL and Cable Internet just aren't out this far in the boonies. If you find that there are wireless internet providers in the area, see if they'll let you talk to some customers that have their product and get a first hand opinion of their service. We pay about $40/month and the speed is great. It does vary during peak usage time, but it is many times faster than dial up during peak time, and early in the morning, around 7am when I frequently get on line to mess around before leaving for work, I've often pulled down over 1 mbit/second, which is pretty snappy!

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Fergy, MSA Classic D12

John Kaigley · From: Decatur, Illinois, USA

Hey Doug, How far are you away from your ISP's transmitter. I'm moving my shop at some point to another location out in the country. The only wireless povider I know of is about 30 miles away. Haven't given them a call, as the moves probably a year away.

Also, how are they coming in to the PC's? I have a 16 port panduit network here on cable. Just plug in the wall and be on. I'd like to connect via router and hub on the wireless network. I have a customer that had to use a special NIC card provided to him. I had to setup the PC with a USB NIC here. He got it home and his card worked fine on his wireless. Strangest connector I ever saw. Not coax or CAT 5, but was a plug-in. He didn't bring the cable, so I don't know what the other end looked like.

Thanks, John

Lou[NE] · From: Weston, NE USA

Hi John

What you need is a clear line-of-sight path between your antenna and the provider's access point. My original set-up shot at an access point 8 miles away, and worked fine until I began to be plagued with drop-outs, when I had the ISP switch to a closer access point (3 mi.) I'm gussing that something started to interfere with the line of sight on the original set-up.

You would want to check with your provider to find the closest access point to you.

The cable from my antenna is coax as big around as your thumb. Inside the house this gets reduced to a smaller coax cable and connects to the radio card with a connector similar to a cable TV F-type connector.

I have 6 PCs on a hard-wired 100Mbs ethernet network, connected thought a Linksys switch. One of the PCs has the radio card, plus a regular ethernet NIC. This machine runs WinProxy, which provides internet connection sharing for the network, plus firewall and anti-virus protection for everything behind it.

This setup has worked wonderfully for me; hope the info is of some use to you.

Lou

P.S. I know Decatur a little bit; born and raised in north-central IL, and lived in Champaign for 20 years, till I moved here.

John Kaigley · From: Decatur, Illinois, USA

Thanks for the info. I'll probably just throw a PC together to do the proxy server duties, then go to my existing router. I spent several years at "The Rose Bowl" in Champaign. About '92 to '98, I think I spent a week there one night. John

Doug Ferguson · From: Burnet, Texas, USA

John, sorry I didn't reply but I guess I missed this thread for a while.
I used to work for a company that installed WIFI equipment so I ordered the stuff and installed it myself. I have a 50' extension pole about 100' from the house with the Teletronics Wireless Bridge on top, powered over ethernet. Ethernet cable goes to bottom of the tower into a box where it picks up power, and plugs into a Netgear 802.11G wireless Access Point/Router. All my computers in the house and office/garage are using Netgear WG121 USB adaptors, except for my Macintosh. I have a Netgear wireless ethernet bridge WGE101 on it because the USB adaptors are Windows only. I'm using 128 bit Wep on the router so the neighbors don't try to squat on my router.

I had the whole house on a wired network until it got hit by lightning. (that's why the 50' pole is 100' from the house. It also has a lightning rod on top of it)

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Fergy, MSA Classic D12

Joseph Barcus · From: Volga West Virginia

I to have direc way but since ive set it up to use a router instead of a hub wow what a difference. dont let nobody kid you theres a difference in routers & hubs. i have 4 computers here at home on line all the time 3 of them are gaming computers and i just use mine for ebay. but no lag only on rainy days.

Jeff Agnew · From: Dallas, TX

Doug,

FYI, the record for a long distance WiFi connection was set the other day. A couple of nerds used directional antennas with no boosters and got 57.1 miles. That's not a misprint.

Joseph,
Whether a hub or router is better depends on your network's topology. A router may be slower on small nets because of the overhead required for stateful packet inspection. It's almost always faster if you're doing any sub-netting. The router is faster in your case because of having three gaming computers on the LAN. For most people however, a hub is a better choice.

Lou[NE] · From: Weston, NE USA

Joseph,

What kind of gaming do you do via DirecWay? I've been told that satellite internet is useless for the fast-action shooter-type games because of the time lag involved.

Just curious.

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

Doug, do you worry about lightning strikes? That's a tall pole in the heart of storm territory.

Ben Slaughter · From: Madera, California

Lou, I did some blind searches on the net and couldn't come up with anything in my area. The closest thing I found was a WIFI at the Fresno Airport, and I don't think that's what your talking about. Your ISP looks slick.

Looks like those things are tied to urban areas. I believe that the entire Seattle metro area is set up for wireless, thanks to Mr. Gates. Bill, is there anything in Silicon Valley??

Once again, it appears that the Fresno metro area is about 10 years behind the rest of the cities in the US that have nearly 1,000,000 people.

Any other suggestions?

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Ben
Zum D10, NV400, TubeFex, POD, G&L Guitars, etc, etc.

Lou[NE] · From: Weston, NE USA

Hi Ben,

I wish I had some more ideas, but I don't, except to maybe complain to the Better Business Bureau about DirecWay. I do have DirecTV, and I can't get local channels, either. something to do with being too close to the local station. My biggest gripe with DirecTV is that one loses the signal in a heavy rainstorm.

You're correct, what I have is not WiFi, which touts portability, which is why there's a hot spot at the Fresno airport.

You might try some of the links below and see if they do you any good. Good luck.
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Access_Providers/Wireless/Fixed_Broadband/
http://www.bbwexchange.com/
http://www.coastinet.com/

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