Considering satellite for computer

TexasRaceLady

TexasRaceLady

Active Member
This probably belongs in the tech section, but since I'm slightly looney I figured it belonged here. :D

I'm having a new computer built --- I think I've pushed this 12 year old far enough.

Anyway, since my only service choices are dial-up and satellite, I've decided that satellite is the only way to go --- mainly because the world wide web has decided that everyone has broadband. I'm tired of not seeing video clips that have people laughing and news clips that have people talking.

My 2 choices here in East Texas are HughesNet(DirecTV) and something called Wild Blue.

Does anyone here have any experience with satellite --- good or bad. A 'net friend had severe trouble with email, but I'm not too concerned with that.
 
I don't think satellite internet should give you problems, at most, your latency will be high. The minimum theoretical ping to your gateway should be:

(2*30,000km) / (300,000km/s)= 0.200s

So unless you're concerned about playing multiplayer games you're safe ;)
 
My only concern is that satellite TV goes out during stormy periods, so I assume satellite net would too. Then again, if it's that stormy you shouldn't be on a computer anyway I guess.
 
I do side work for a well drilling company here that has it. It seems quite adequate. Plenty fast down and up, but the latency is kind of high (as Luis mentioned). If you don't game you'll probably never notice. They have the Hughes deal and they say it's really dependable. They use the webmail rather than an email client. I think Hughes recommends against using Outlook or Outlook Express. I wonder if that's the problem your friends are having. They use it for their home connection as well. I'm not familiar with Wild Blue although I have heard of it.

PS They are considerably more expensive than DSL or cable, but sometimes it's the only solution. I hate to disagree with catocom but the few folks I know who have it find Hughes reasonably dependable.
 
SouthernN'Proud said:
My only concern is that satellite TV goes out during stormy periods, so I assume satellite net would too. Then again, if it's that stormy you shouldn't be on a computer anyway I guess.
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You're right about losing it during heavy storms, and right about I wouldn't be on it to begin with. LOL
 
chcr said:
I do side work for a well drilling company here that has it. It seems quite adequate. Plenty fast down and up, but the latency is kind of high (as Luis mentioned). If you don't game you'll probably never notice. They have the Hughes deal and they say it's really dependable. They use the webmail rather than an email client. I think Hughes recommends against using Outlook or Outlook Express. I wonder if that's the problem your friends are having. They use it for their home connection as well. I'm not familiar with Wild Blue although I have heard of it.
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Since I have no clue what latency is (LOL), I'm not going to worry about it. I don't game.

I'm considering keeping my dial-up as a backup. If the Hughes mail ever gives me trouble, I can always use my Lycos, Hotmail, or Yahoo.

The Wild Blue price is $49.99 a month while Hughes is $59.99 a month. Not much difference.
 
oh Hughes is fairly dependable, it does have major lag on the system I deal with.
Maybe just this local.
Their tech support really sucked for me though too.
 
Latency is how long it is between when you tell it to do something and when it actually starts to happen. I used a computer once that was on satellite internet and it seemed to lag a lot... I'd click a link and have to wait a bit for it to start loading, but once it started loading it was decently quick. Even with the latency issues, it will be significantly faster than dial-up, especially since if you're far enough away from the phone company's central office to not be able to get DSL or cable, then you're probably also far enough away to not be able to connect at higher than 33.6 or 41.2 instead of ar 56K on dial-up.

As for going out in a storm... a lot of it depends on things on your property that would be blocking the dish's view south. On dish Network (I sold them for a couple of months), the minimum signal strength is 75, and a good installation will give you a signal strength of at least the mid-90s, possibly well over 100, on a clear day. The more over 75 it is, the more cloud cover you can deal with before it gets to below 75, meaning a good installation will have you enjoying your satellite TV through all but the worst of storms... and if you have a storm like what hit Greensburg, KS, you shouldn't be watching TV. I would assume satellite internet would be the same deal.

Are there a lot of trees on your property? I always imagined your place to be on a few thousand flat acres with the only vegetation being grass and a few bushes here and there, with a mile-long tree-lined driveway... AKA the set of "Dallas."
 
catocom said:
oh Hughes is fairly dependable, it does have major lag on the system I deal with.
Maybe just this local.
Their tech support really sucked for me though too.
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I think that's just the nature of the beast, cat. After all, you're limited by the speed of light (I suspect what you're really limited by is the number of space based and ground based switches and stuff, but the speed of light lag is probably noticeable too at these distances).
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Since I have no clue what latency is (LOL), I'm not going to worry about it. I don't game.

I'm considering keeping my dial-up as a backup. If the Hughes mail ever gives me trouble, I can always use my Lycos, Hotmail, or Yahoo.

The Wild Blue price is $49.99 a month while Hughes is $59.99 a month. Not much difference.
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I believe you'll find that there is equipment to buy. I could be wrong, the last one I helped set up was two or three years ago.
 
chcr said:
I think that's just the nature of the beast, cat. After all, you're limited by the speed of light (I suspect what you're really limited by is the number of space based and ground based switches and stuff, but the speed of light lag is probably noticeable too at these distances).
Click to expand...

Actually, my calculation was based only on speed of light. I didn't considered other network lags.
 
Inkara1 said:
Are there a lot of trees on your property? I always imagined your place to be on a few thousand flat acres with the only vegetation being grass and a few bushes here and there, with a mile-long tree-lined driveway... AKA the set of "Dallas."
Click to expand...

How well I know about TV going out. LOL Only during the worst of storms with lots of lightning do we lose signal. We do have lots of trees, but the dish sits out, away from the house to get a clear shot at the sky.

The best dial-up speed I can get here is 42,200 bps ---- so anything, latency or not, is better than this.
 
I've watched a Wild Blue install for a client, and the techs knew absolutely nothing. They left a nearly-full 1000' spool of siameses coax and other tools along with empty drink bottles and stuff. Highly unprofessional, but I think he's content with the service itself.
 
Doesn't a 1000-foot spool of siamese coax cost a few hundred bucks? Plus the cost of tools... not the sharpest tools in the shed, no doubt, and not likely to stay in the business long if all their install fees are taken up by replacing tools.
 
Inkara1 said:
Doesn't a 1000-foot spool of siamese coax cost a few hundred bucks? Plus the cost of tools... not the sharpest tools in the shed, no doubt, and not likely to stay in the business long if all their install fees are taken up by replacing tools.
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Traveling subcontractors (from IA I think), but nonetheless.
 
I "acquired" around 250 feet of plenum grade cat 5e that way when they built our offices in 2001.
 
Mirlyn said:
I've watched a Wild Blue install for a client, and the techs knew absolutely nothing. They left a nearly-full 1000' spool of siameses coax and other tools along with empty drink bottles and stuff. Highly unprofessional, but I think he's content with the service itself.
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Grab it & run.


Has Directv enhanced their service. The drawback several years ago was the download was satelite but the uplink was still phone. As long as you're not gaming, it should be more than sufficient.
 
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