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[MGD_King]

Just wondering if there's anyone here who uses a satellite, such as DirectWay from DirectTV, to connect to the Internet. If so, what kind of speed (downloand and upload) are you getting? How reliable is it? Is it worth the money? Right now all I have available is dial-up and I'd like to get something a little faster for the house. Just wondering if it's worth the money.

[xen-uno]

I've re-aligned a DirectWay dish once, but that's the extent of it. Checked into it a couple years ago (so UL/DL speeds may have improved) when I was living west of Blue Grass. DL speeds are decent (~ 300 to 400 kbs). UL speeds are not (~ 64 kbs to 128 kbs...the lower number for a one way system...ie dial up connection upload). It is not much better for a bi-directional system (transmit/receive thru dish). Bi-directionals require a licensed installer...one ways do not. If the Bi-D's are ground mounted, then the bottom of the dish must be at least 6' up (probably more like 8'). There is some very fast Bi-D systems out there (pricey, though, for the hardware and the service). Latency/lag with satellite internet may annoy you...but once it gets going, it's going.

10^-27

[sraymond]

I've heard that latency is a significant detractor - but I don't have any figures handy.  Something to think about, maybe.

Scott-

[akmed]

I worked with a DirectTV satellite link while testing my company's acceleration device.

Satellite uses TCP tricks to optimize the connection and reduce the effect of the excessive latency.  My observed latency was from 1.4 to 2.0 seconds.  What that means is if you want to play games online, it will never work.  But if you want to download files and surf, it is ok.  Once you get a file downloading, it could reach 400kbps, and that is due to the tcp spoofing and transparent proxy tricks they do to minimize the need for TCP acknowledgements to traverse the satellite.

The problem is that with 1.5 seconds of latency, anything you do like click on a link or send an IM message will have a 1.5 second delay before anything happens, and that can be frustrating.

In contrast, dial-up is .15 to .3 second latency, so it seems to respond faster but the total download speeds will be one tenth of peak satellite speeds.  

If you do a lot of surfing, try Earthlink or Netzero premium dial up with their accelerator technology.  I know how that stuff works under the covers and it is pretty impressive (it's not just client side caching, it's more complex than that).

If you do a lot of downloads, check into satellite.  However, some satellite terms of use contracts will state that they have the right to throttle download speeds if they detect you are doing a lot of downloads and sucking up limited satellite bandwidth during peak hours.

Hope this helps.
--kurt

[MGD_King]

Thanks for the replies! This is some interesting info, and I will definitely take it into consideration. Too bad there isn't a place I can go and test it out for myself.

[jleerigby]

I'm desperate to get off dial up but I heard that satellite is about £1000 installation / equipment and then £60 per month.  That's way too much.