Satellite Internet Blues

[Randall]

Oh dear.

And old friend of mine, who inexplicably moved his family from Southern California to northern Michigan less than two years ago, finally came to his senses and moved south to Kingston, Illinois. Loves the house and the neighborhood, but all they can get out there is satellite internet. I didn't ask him how much it cost or how fast it is -- I think it would break my heart.

But I suppose it's better than dial-up.

Sprint/ClearWire has been testing WiMax in the Chicago area, so maybe he'll have more options in the near future.

Randall

[kitchin]

Main problem is they treat you bad, with contracts and early termination penalties and equipment costs. They know you have no other choice. Of course things are changing all the time, but on the last DirectWay install I heard about... you have to get one of the listed local TV-radio shops to install and aim the antenna (which is a transceiver, and the FCC is very strict about pinging electrons at sats). The shop looks for any excuse to call the install "non-standard" and bump the fee. Etc. I also have a hunch (based on some dead computers) that it may be more susceptible to lightning that a wireful modem. And that ethernet volt surges can go across a modem & router! Leaving the router permanently a danger to anything you plug into it! But that was probably just a one-time event. For any connection, cable, DSL, sat, it's worth checking that the dang thing is well-grounded. Those green boxes the phone company puts on the side of your house have an external ground wire that can get dislodged. I've seen them in outdoor showers!

The other thing people complain about with sat is the ping time (= lag = latency). Pure speed on the other hand used to be very high, then something happened and it went way down, at the two different locations I know about.

[Randall]

Originally Posted by kitchin

you have to get one of the listed local TV-radio shops to install and aim the antenna (which is a transceiver, and the FCC is very strict about pinging electrons at sats).

Forgot to mention the part where the installer drilled through a power cable and left them with no electricity (or satellite) for two days.

I also have a hunch (based on some dead computers) that it may be more susceptible to lightning that a wireful modem.

DSL and cable don't involve things sticking up off your roof, so I could see where that might be an issue. Presumably the telephone poles used by our wired ISPs have some protection against lightning, or at least try to avoid blowing up people's houses.

Speaking of which, Boss #1 had a major scare recently when lightning struck the pole in front of her house. Her computer sits in the corner of the house closest to the pole, and I think she was sitting there when it happened. Didn't destroy anything in the house, fortunately, but she'd probably have some new gray hairs if her hair wasn't white to begin with.

She was especially nervous about her big LCD TV, because any time it needs repair work, LG has to send a guy up from New Jersey ... imagine the usual "between 10 am and 1 pm" time window with extra complications courtesy of I-95, our local highway to hell. She's already been through that a couple of times.

Randall

[Jeff]

We just had a close-by lightning storm a month ago and it melted a plastic part on the outside of our house. Luckily it was the other line from the one the dsl modem is on. I was actually downloading a 12 GB file over dsl and it didn't glitch, but on the other line the phone answering machine kept picking up. I didn't realize how close the thunderstorm was until the next day when the tech found and replaced the melted part when that phone wouldn't ring.

With satellite, grounding is critical. My wildblue dish was pole mount which I like better so as not to be on top of the roof.

But yea, 1000 ms of latency only seems decent after you've been on dialup or nothing for a few months.

Does wimax have a better chance of reaching him than evdo or 3g? (though I guess sprint has just followed verizon and put on a low fap on their evdo plan, so maybe that's not as great as it seemed a year ago.)

[Randall]

Originally Posted by Jeff

I was actually downloading a 12 GB file over dsl and it didn't glitch, but on the other line the phone answering machine kept picking up.

Ze internet laughs at your puny lightning bolts!

When lightning struck our neighborhood years ago, it sent a surge up the phone and power lines. Not enough to blow our AV equipment or the phones, but both of our our dial-up modems went permanently off-hook. We could still get online, but when we were done we had to physically disconnect the modem so we could use the line for other things, like making phone calls.

Still amazes me that nothing else was damaged. I think it knocked out the power, but that was outside the house.

Does wimax have a better chance of reaching him than evdo or 3g?

In a follow-up email he mentioned that he did have a choice between satellite and cellular service -- they aren't totally in the wilderness -- but I don't know if that was Edge, EVDO or what.

After the satellite installer cut off their electricity, he was probably wishing he'd gone with the other option.

Randall

[Monty]

I use Hughes in my RV and for $59 bux a month, it's hard to beat. I manually point my own dish without any problems each time I set up. If you want to spend a few more buxs each month, there's higher speeds available. I don't have any issues with the $59 plan for the most part. It's way faster than any dialup I have ever used.

[Randall]

Originally Posted by Monty

I use Hughes in my RV and for $59 bux a month, it's hard to beat. I manually point my own dish without any problems each time I set up. If you want to spend a few more buxs each month, there's higher speeds available. I don't have any issues with the $59 plan for the most part. It's way faster than any dialup I have ever used.

Based on his new email address, Hughes is what he's got. Good to hear that there are things to like about it.

My friend's main complaint is that it gets knocked out by storms, which seem to be a daily occurrence there. (He does tend to exaggerate a little.)

Randall

[Jeff]

On the satellite forums I've seen a few dozen people post about how happy they were to switch from satellite to EVDO but I can't remember hearing one switch from EVDO to satellite. But with a 5 GB monthly FAP on verizon and now on Sprint (think alltel is still unlimited right now) satellite probably has its place for audio and light video use, big file downloads, and such.

[Andilinks]

My friend's main complaint is that it gets knocked out by storms...

If Internet satellite is anything like TV satellite it is much more reliable than cable in my recent experience. My comcast cable has been down for hours several times in the past year, but the DirecTV connection has only been out once and for about ten minutes in an electrical storm. Since DirecTV doesn't offer the internet over it's satellite but uses DSL in its package there is obviously some difference.

But the summer time here does see a lot of wind and lightning, and doesn't affect the DirecTV satellite at all...

I plan to eventually move to a place in N. California that is now served only by satellite or dialup so I am following this thread with some interest. Hopefully one day satellite internet will get as reliable as TV sats.

[Jeff]

DirecTV and Direcway used to be one - then Direcway split out and became Hughesnet.

Here two-way satellite was pretty rock solid through storms - maybe 2 or 3 outages a year due to water sitting on the wrong part of the dish transmitter/tria but when it went out it was raining hard enough that I couldn't read the 12" letter on the dish 100' from the window. If it really does go out weekly due to weather, my pure guess would be not ideal alignment.