Who here has Two-Way Satellite Internet and how is it? (1 Viewer)

[Ash Williams]

I know this sounds like a poll but with the polls area being overrun by tournments, I fear this thread would get no replys. I am sick of my slow internet connection, I can only connect at 24 kbps(!), and DSL and Cable are not available out in the sticks, so Satellite is my only option. I have looked into Starband and Pegasus and I will probably go with Pegasus since I already have DirecTV. So my questions are:

• How fast is it?
• How reliable is it?
• Can I play multiplayer games like Quake III?

Thanks

 

[LDfan]

I don't have satellite internet but since you have no other options it will be a big improvement. As far as games are concerned satellite service isn't a very good option due to the lag-time. It should be much better than your dial up now so it may be worthwhile to look into it.

Jeff

 

[Dave Schofield]

Ash, what prices have you found for each? I was looking into this a few weeks ago and the prices for both were astronomical.

 

[Ash Williams]

Well, the cost for the hardware for Starband and Pegasus are each $500 plus $200 dollars for installation (you can't do it yourself because of FCC regulations). The monthly access fees are $70/month for both, but if you subscribe to DirecTV you will get by for $60/month with Pegasus. It is quite costly, but I figure I spend more time on the Internet then anything else, except for watching movies of course , so I will be able to justify it. It sucks waiting for a web page to load and taking an hour to download a 3 minute song.

 

[Matt Stryker]

At my former job, we used to use a form of the DirecTV internet system to communicate with remote offices, and it was VERY poor. The bandwidth ranged from fair to horrible, and the latency (lag time) was awful. Most of the time a ping would take around 1.3 seconds (not milliseconds) to return.
If the only thing you are going to do is download files, then latency isn't as much of an issue. If you're going to try to play online games, forget it.
Where are you located? Have you considered ISDN?

 

[Ash Williams]

Where are you located? Have you considered ISDN?

Northern Minnesota and yes we have electricity. Unfortunatly ISDN is not available either so it looks like satellite is the only option. I suppose I could get 5 phone lines, 5 modems and 5 ISP accounts.

 

[Mike Sogge]

Do you know if there are any wireless providers in your area? We were thinking "aboot" switching to it when we move into our HT house, but then found out that we couldn't due to its line of site. You'd probably wind up having the same problem though, will all the trees there.

 

[Matt Stryker]

Ash- you can always get a dual 56K setup, I'm pretty sure both Windows 2000 and 98 support this. You would have to shell out for the second phone line, but you might still save money over sat.

 

[Ash Williams]

Ash- you can always get a dual 56K setup, I'm pretty sure both Windows 2000 and 98 support this. You would have to shell out for the second phone line, but you might still save money over sat.

I already have two phone lines and two ISP accounts for two computers (they aren't networked, but probably will be soon). Since I can only connect at 24 kbps, I would only get a maximum of 48 kbps of bandwith. Which would only give me about 5-6K downloads. The cost of having two phone lines is $30/month and the cost of two ISP accounts is $28/month so I would only be saving $2/month. I would be able to play on-line games, but would have to give up any large downloads. It's kind of a win lose situation.

 

[Ash Williams]

Buzz, that doesn't sound too bad. Maybe I'll go with One-Way. Thanks for the info.

 

[BenS]

So I am assuming that no one here has the two way version right? Ash I am in the exact same situation you are but I would like to hear some reviews of the two way system only. If you ever find any let me know.