Wireless Satellite internet

[AndrewT]

Any idea how and who provides it? Like.. This one guy had a Satellite modem hooked onto his laptop and connected to the satellite and connected to the internet wirelessly from anywhere..

[Kov-Ice]

I think you're talking about something like THIS.

[Force Flow]

I've used this: http://www.inmarsat.com/Services/Land/BGAN/default.aspx

Basically, it's like a wireless router, put you have to set it up so it points at a satillite

[AndrewT]

That Sprint Thing.. It's a wireless card that connects to the satellite from were ever i am ? i am not talking about a wireless card to connect to wireless routers.. like If im on the bus and i wanna search the web.. Like that.. that's what that sprint thing is??

[ktkendall]

Thats a Mobile broadband card and it uses the cell phone network to connect you to the internet from almost anywhere. Sprint and Verizon are the two that are offering that right now. I'm not sure if AT&T has one yet..

[glc]

Yep - and the service is 60 bucks a month. You only get broadband speeds in major metro areas, it's dialup speed elsewhere.

[AndrewT]

Im sorry for being a NOOB but what's Metro areas?... i live in new york..

[mattaggie]

you need to go to the companys' website and look at their coverage area. Verizon, Sprint, and ATT all offer the service. When you are in a broadband area, it is wonderful, when you are not, you are mad you are paying $60 a month for dail-up.

[glc]

Metro = Metropolitan = big cities. If you live in New York City you will have high speed coverage from both Verizon and Sprint, but go Upstate and you will be slow speed - Verizon shows high speed in NYC, Yonkers, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse only. Sprint shows a lot more high speed coverage, but outside the NYC metro area, it's only along the major Interstate highway corridors.

[AndrewT]

Brooklyn, New york I lives.

[Force Flow]

Why would you want satellite internet, then? Plenty of other alternatives...DSL, Cable, and now FIoS from Verizon.

Satellite is mainly geared towards individuals who are so far out in the boonies that they can't get regular connections.

Also, note that satellite is quite slow. The signal has to be sent up to the satellite, then back down to Earth again. You can expect latiency of about 100ms-200ms. Normal connections get around 20ms-90ms.

[glc]

Force, I think what we are trying to tell him is in the NYC metro area, cellular data solutions will be fine if he wants to roam the streets with his laptop.

[AndrewT]

AT&T just came out with it to.. I just saw the commercial.

[glc]

If you presently have Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, or AT&T for your cell service, it would be in your best interest to use their wireless data card plan, you will get a better deal that way if you are a cell subscriber already. If you have T-Mobile, they have a medium speed plan that's cheaper than any of the big 3 high speed carriers but no data card that I know of, you connect your phone to the laptop with USB.

[Powertrip]

I live to far out for Cable or DSL. I had a small computer repair business and connected via bi-directional satellite connection. I purchased a Huges/Directwave 90 CM Dish with a 2 Watt Transmitter and a DW7000 Satellie Modem. It was a $1400 system to purchase the hardware flat out and the DW7000 had an RJ45 out simular to a DSL or Cable modem so I could hook into a switch/router or wireless access point and connect more than one PC at a time.

Pings were 500-900 MS (1/2 a second to 9/10's of a second). No good for the following functions. Online Gaming, FTP, Hosting, Voice over IP, VPN etc.

I was capped at 150 MB's download every 24 hours with a 5 MB an hour buffer. If I decided to download a linux distro for example at about 175 MB my modem would light up like a christmas tree and then I would be cut back to a 56K connection of about 4 K/second.

Download speeds on windows updates, driver downloads, virus updates were 150-200 K/s down. With a 2 watt transmitter I could get 90 K/Second up

Rain and weather would worsen my performance but only snow on my dish would prevent browsing all together.

I had to sign a 2 year contract for $80 + tax a month. After I shut my business down I had to pay $25 a month just to have it disconnected for the remainder of my contract. I then went back to dial up for $24.99 month + $30 for a phone line.

Worked a hell of a lot better then dial up for what I was doing but I had to put $100 a side every month for a year then fork over $90 tax in a month.

Now I have about $700 worth of hardware and have to pay $400 just to activate my account if I want to browse for a month.

P.S I live in canada and had to go through a company called xplornet. www.xplornet.com

If I was a laywer and wanted internet at my sumer cottage and high speed was not an option I would go for it. But for a home user on a budget it's a financial black hole.

[nubbler]

Originally Posted by Powertrip P.S I live in canada and had to go through a company called xplornet. www.xplornet.com If I was a laywer and wanted internet at my sumer cottage and high speed was not an option I would go for it. But for a home user on a budget it's a financial black hole.

I have wireless internet with Xplornet. It's not sattelite though, it's from a tower. Costs the same as Shaw High Speed, is a little slower but I have never had any down time whatsoever thus far that I remeber (about 1 year). So its slower than Shaw cable but WAY more reliable.

Not sure if that type of wireless would work in a city or on the go. I have a dish on my roof, but if you checked if there were any compaines offering this, they might have a portable setup.

[glc]

That's known as fixed ground-based wireless. It's usually pretty decent, depending on provider.

[matthews]

Hmm I'm suprised you guys have had good xplornet experience in Canada :S. From all the people in my area, and from reading other forums, xplornet shouldn't be touched with a 10 foot pole. Living in Saskatchewan, there is only one *real* ISP in the whole province, that being Sasktel. They have many towers throughout the province, and they work like explornet, minus the fact that you are not capped, shaped, pings are around 200 - 300 which is real good for wireless, good support and rare downtime. I don't know what it is about xplornet, but it seems to be an aweful service, and obviously it shouldn't be when you take a look at what Sasktel has. Then again I love Sasktel . Can't say enough good things about my ISP, and great news is, 60 MB DSL coming later this year