Satellite Internet

[Elliot]

What experience have you had with Satellite Internet?

Is it better than dial-up, or just cost more?

Thank you

[bruce johnson]

I am extremely happy with cellular internet from Verizon - portable and good service. We can't get DSL at home, and the satellite deal wsn't as good as Verizon. Had it two years on one, and just got another modem and account for my wife's computer. She was still on dial-up and it was t-i-m-e.

[ClayB]

We've had satellite internet for the last few years. It's all we can get out where we live other than dial up. It's advantages are it doesn't tie up your phone line, you can use it on several computers at a time and it's somewhat faster than dial up. It's disadvantages are it's pricey, you are limited on how much bandwidth you can use, it's not as fast as a lot of other services, there is lag time while your info bounces back and forth to the satellite. Ours costs about $90 a month. If you go over your bandwidth they slow your connection speed down to a crawl so if you have kids downloading movies and music it sucks. You can't do a lot of work from home jobs because of the lag time. If we had any other options we sure wouldn't be using satellite.

[wvcraftsman]

Ditto to ClayB. We've been using it for about 3 years now. It is better than dial-up, but it does have it's disadvantages too. Like Clay said....very pricey. $50/month for the 512K package (we didnt' even mention buying the equipment). If you have bad weather.....no service. I was just now able to get on today because of the SNOW!!

[Denise]

I don't know anyone who is really happy with satellite - unless they compare it to dial up. The air card deal is pretty good - if you have cell service. The quality of your cell service where you live will tell you the quality of your air card service. In our area there are a few companies putting in towers so we can get a wireless connection - different than both the above. Still not as good as "real high speed" in the cities, but not affected by weather and not part of the cell phone service. Problem is the cost of the towers and equipment to get you started, and you need line of sight from a tower to your receiver, so your terrain and trees make a difference. We have a new tower 1 1/2 miles south of us now. Once they get the bugs worked out of the new gear (it is a 46 mile jump from the main tower to this one) then we have a shot at getting something faster. We'll see how well it works for our neighbours before we pop for the $450 installation cost but so far it has potential. The people in our area with air cards are wanting to change over too if it goes well.

[Elliot]

Thank you for the replies.

Was quoted 6-700 + 80 a month.

Salesman would talk over when I tried to ask hard questions.

Will stay with dial up and the rusty bean can connection.

[Johanna]

I do like my Verizon broadband, but it's worthless at home because we can't get a reliable signal. When I travel, it has the advantage of not forcing me to use someone else's network (like a cafe or hotel) to get online, and in some cites, it's faster than my cable at home. I guess I'm a bit shocked by what you folks are paying for Internet service. My unlimited high-speed cable bill is only $35 a month!

Just for grins and giggles, I checked the stats of LW and less than 5% of you connect with dialup. I can't imagine going back to dial-up, especially with the router and all the computers in the house that run off the router. Slow would get even slower.

I just checked the speed of the cable today: 2678 kb/s download 856kb/s upload from a server in Toronto

Check your speed here.

Johanna

[Denise]

Thanks for that link, Johanna. Just checked ours out. The computer says 31.2 kbps but the test says 26 kbps. I know the dial up users overall are a small group, getting smaller all the time. But most of us are here not by choice, but by lack of choice. The companies who make websites with lots of fancy graphics and dancing bears may not realize that they are losing 5% of their possible sales because their website loads so slowly. Or maybe they figure those of us who live so far from town that we can't get high speed don't want to buy their stuff anyway...

(This is also why we appreciate the people on LW who compress their pictures to 100 - 200 kb. We just don't have the time to download a full size picture from todays digital cameras.)

[ClayB]

Well, satellite is a lot faster than Denise's dialup. The check showed download at 1200kb, upload at 86. So I guess at least we get something for the high price we pay, even though it's still not anywhere near what cable is for about 1/3 of the price.

[Johanna]

It's Sunday night and the town has presumably gone to bed:

download 3688 Kb/s upload 441 Kb/s from the New York Server.

download 1138 Kb/s upload 803 Kb/s from the Chicago server.

download 551 Kb/s upload 907 Toronto, again.

Go figure?

~J

[colttrainer]

Thanks for that link, Johanna. Just checked ours out. The computer says 31.2 kbps but the test says 26 kbps. I know the dial up users overall are a small group, getting smaller all the time. But most of us are here not by choice, but by lack of choice. The companies who make websites with lots of fancy graphics and dancing bears may not realize that they are losing 5% of their possible sales because their website loads so slowly. Or maybe they figure those of us who live so far from town that we can't get high speed don't want to buy their stuff anyway...

(This is also why we appreciate the people on LW who compress their pictures to 100 - 200 kb. We just don't have the time to download a full size picture from todays digital cameras.)

Denise

Check out netkaster.ca you will be redirected. We have their slowest & I have no problems at all with the sat. system. The only thing better would be cable but us rural folk don't get that choice & probably never will. The cards don't work in my yard nor does the cell phone. I do believe that netkaster is cheaper than the cell system. I also have unlimited internet usage.

Al

[hivemind]

I am extremely happy with cellular internet from Verizon - portable and good service. We can't get DSL at home, and the satellite deal wsn't as good as Verizon. Had it two years on one, and just got another modem and account for my wife's computer. She was still on dial-up and it was t-i-m-e.

Just noticed this.

Bruce, no need to buy a second Verizon account to share the connection from their wireless broadband. Check out the Cradlepoint devices. http://3gstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=137_186&products_id=961

$140 and it's a wireless router as well. You plug your USB air card into it, and it just works. If your other computers aren't wireless, no problem, it's got an ethernet jack in it and you can pick up a small switch for $20 on NewEgg and plug them all into it.

3GStore is excellent - if you live in an area with low cellular signal, they have a variety of antennas you can use with a wireless broadband device to boost reception dramatically.

[bruce johnson]

Thanks for the tips, but in my case I need both accounts. I carry my laptop to work and my wife does her computer time at home in the afternoon. It is worth it for the frustration factor she was dealing with. Other than an occasional bouquet, best money I've spent in a while.

[leatheroo]

i think my family would roll over and die if we were on dialup... i just did a speed test and i get 4.45 mbps.......i will try and remember to keep any pics down in size