Satellite internet question

[Steffie]

Unfortunately, I live in an area that still to this day, cannot receive any broadband internet connection. I have neighbors on all sides that have DSL, but I am at just the "right" point of it being to far from the hub. I live in the country, so cable is out. So, I wondered if anyone here has/had satellite internet and what you think/thought about it. Any pros/cons good/bad.

Thank you and God bless,
Steffie

[Buzzardhut]

Depends upon the area.
You need to check if you have reception in your area.

[Big Daddy]

I have HughsNet.
It is ok. Only complaint is if you need tech support, you will be speaking with a foreign help desk (India) and they is something to be desired in their ability to resolve issues and communicate.

There will be the occasional loss of signal due to rain, in my case it has to be the severe storm. Not a big deal and rarely lasts more than several minutes.

If you are located in a snow belt, think of locating the dish where you can either clear the heavey snow by hand or a snow rake type of thingy.

They do have a daily bandwith limit, called the FAP (Fair Access Policy) that you would want to read and understand.

It is designed to keep the file hounds from using all the available bandwith.
In other words, if you like to d/l a ton of music or hang on youtube ALL day, you will be effected by the FAP.

There is also the issue of latency. In other words, if you are into online gaming, they will be effected. The connection is fast enough to play these games, but the fact the signal has to travel up to a satelite, and back down to a land reciever, then out to the internet and return by the same path, there is a slight lag between "mouse clicks" and info displaying on your screen. Very slight, you wouldn't notice for most all stuff. But in a game where your gun shot against anothers means life or death, it matters :)

The cost is on the high side of all the internet options, and the performance and FAP put it on the low side. However, I hear stories of some cable users that are in areas with a lot of customers on their WAN that experience low bandwith during peek usage too.

[mourningdove]

I also have Hughes net. All I can say is that it is better than dial up. Still counting the days when I can get real broadband without the satellite and the FAP. I find it is slow on super secure sites, like my bank.

[kenny1659]

I have WildBlue. It is faster than dial-up but you have to watch how much you download. I live in the country too so I know what you mean about being limited to what you can get. They seem to find alot of extras when doing the install so they can charge you more, ($125.00 for a mounting pole). Rain and heavy clouds seem to affect the signal, and it slows down during peak hours. Mine is 10 times faster than my dial-up was but still not that fast compared to DSL.

[Steffie]

Thanks for all the replies and info, I was looking at hughesnet.com and have thought about satellite, but really wish our phone company would just install another hub so that we can get DSL, much cheaper and easier to do that having to install another satellite dish and pay all the extras for those things when with dsl all I need is the new modem.

Ugh, just so tired of dial up :(

[99svtgreensnake]

hughes is launching a new sat this year and it is going to vastly improve the latency issues. Remember you cannot play xbox live online right now with hughes. I am going to get something called tower internet. It is just as fast as sat but there are no latency issues. it is also cheaper since you only have to place a beacon on a tower 300 ft int he air not 23 miles!

[99svtgreensnake]

Also you will be locked into the contract for 24 months if you get hughes.

[Big Daddy]

Also you will be locked into the contract for 24 months if you get hughes.You can buy the gear used on e-bay or other online places, and you just have to have it activated, and you are not under a contract.
That is the way I did it.

NOt as simple as calling them up and getting their "package deal", and not that much more expensive to not be in a contract.