Satelite internet

[kebees4]

Does anyone have direct pc and is it worth the costs? No DSL or cable in my nieghborhood.

[HAL9000]

Our store is currently getting involved with satellite internet. I don't know if it's the same as the one you're looking at, but this one is an up/down link, no phone line required. Initial setup is quite pricey, about $1200CDN (~$750USD) and then about $150CDN (~$95USD) per month! Speeds are in the range of 50-75 Kilobytes per second. Not as good as cable or DSL, but I guess if a person really wants it, can afford it, and has no other choice, why not.

[BFD Deadeye]

I've heard that there is a 1-2 second delay with sattelite internet. Pretty much makes gaming or anything in real time impossible. Any truth to that?

[Confused]

Well considering that bird is in a geo-sync orbit about 23,600 miles up, I would think there would be some. Has to leave your PC, travel to a uplink and back down to some location. Travel on to the site you accessed, be processed, travel back to a uplink site and then back down. Two up and down links will add at least 1/2 second. 23,600 X 4 = 94,400 miles. Light travels 186,000 per second, hence a minium of 1/2 second delay. Does that affect gaming? I don't know.
Chas

[Prew]

Everything I've read says it makes FPS deathmatch type games unplayable. 1/2 second delay would make you noncompetitive and an easy mark for other players.

[kebees4]

Thanks for your replies. Still uncertain if it is worth the money. Will stick to my phone line until something becomes avalible. You would think with the monthly rates they would cut a better deal on the equipment.

[Xayd]

As a rule of thumb, any first person shooter player is gonna want 80-100 milliseconds of latency between him and the server he's playing on, round trip. Half a second is obviously 500 milliseconds, about twice that of a good dialup connection.

[bailey]

my son got the starband one and it states it will not work with games or netmeetings ect.
he even had one h**l of a time getting to work on his home lan.

[LawyerRon]

Only folks I know of that use Satellite don't have any other choice.

[Roberto49]

I had direcway pc installed on 3/19/02. So far it has exceeded my expectations.

Initial expense was a little over $600 and the monthly fee will be about $60. Considering the price of my ISP and the cost of a second phone line, it will only be about $3 higher per month. Thanks BellSouth, without your increase I would not have done it.

Throughput varies but it is no comparison to dialup. A 4MB file takes only seconds now. Streaming video really streams. Pages instantly load, sorry sounds like an advertisement.

I have had issues with my home network, printserver, Zonealarm Pro and this new setup. Right now the only integral piece to overcome is the printserver from the host computer. Works fine with the others.

Caveats include:

1. USB modem

2. Fair Use Policy; If you exceed bandwidth (100 to 200MB per session) the speed will be decreased accordingly. It will still be in the range of 56K modem.
If you restrict your usage for about 10 hours it is reset to optimal.

3. Thunderstorms etc. As with satellite transmissions, atmospheric conditions affect it.

Other then the above, I am impressed and HAPPY with it.

If you have specific questions, I would be happy to answer them.
The price on installation is supposedly of special, not sure if it is or not.