Satellite Internet

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by sly1, Feb 13, 2008.

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  1. sly1 Heartless Registered Senior Member

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    I recently moved in with a friend to help him catch up on his morgage for a few months. He had no internet and the house he lives in, is in a rather undeveloped part of town.

    Comcase, Qwest, DLS......nothing. The only possible means of internet is via satellite.....its about as expensive as cable internet so I was like sure whatever.

    Finaly got the satellite installed and the internet running and had an oh duh moment when i realized satellite internet has about a 500ping.....regardless of your mb/sec speed......the signal makes a 110,000 mile round trip.....so video games etc are out of the question.

    I wasn't too bummed as I mostly used the internet for my music/art/ productions. After about 2 weeks of uploading and downloading info I noticed my connection speed went from bareable to SLOWER than 56k......i mean I can literally go and make a sandwhich between loading web pages......

    so naturaly I call and ask wtf and aparently not even in small print and no mention of it anywhere at all in their service when you "sign" up.....there is a "fair access" policy or whatver.....aparnetly you can only use so much bandwidth a month before they knock your speed down to 128k.........

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    so considering I can tell them to go fuck themselves as their my only source of internet.....i feel like im getting raped here......roughly 60$ a month for 1mb/sec connection that has a 500 ping and is only good for a limited bandwidth per month?!??!

    I called comcast and quest and they dont have any incentive to come out here and install a line......

    any suggestions? really im at a loss of what to do with this. Satellite internet is definatly not worth the cost but I have absolutly no other options.....we cant even do dial-up out here lol
     
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  3. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    which country are you in?

    If its Australia i sugest you contract the department of telecomunications because they maybe able to help. Actually they will pay the difference between what you can get on ADSL in the city and what it costs in the country or remoter area's

    Also you could see if 3G was avialable in your area and again if your in Australia that will be made compareable to ADSL
     
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  5. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    How far in the line of sight is the nearest good cable connection?
    You may be able to set up a speedy wifi network connection using two precisely aligned powerful yagi antennae.
     
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  7. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    How is bandwidth usage measured? I mean if you are just reading a page, that is not using extra bandwidth right? Then you might try to load the pages from history or some other tricks so you can limit your usage..
     
  8. sly1 Heartless Registered Senior Member

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    I live in the U.S.

    I have no idea HOW they are measuring it but im getting the idea im being screwed here. The customer service is beyond horrible and no one seems to have any idea how to fix the problem. They just keep telling me to try and upgrade to the next "package" of 1.5mb a sec.....which wont help because of the bandwidth limit.

    Oddly accross the street they have Comcast CABLE......so I don't know why they wont just run a line accross the street. Ive asked and just say they dont have plans to run a line to this area.....?? :shrug:

    Its becoming rather irritating because I can't get any help on fixing the speed through direct TV or Wildblue......the satellite and ISP providers......they transfer my calls back and fourth to eachother and its useless to talk to the morons.

    As far as setting up a wifi network I have no idea how I could do that.....somewhere I can read up on it? considering the people accross the street have cable?
     
  9. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    your other option as i said is 3G or whatever they call it in the US. Or you could just ask your nabor across the road if they would let you set it up there, get a wireless router and off you go
     
  10. Echo3Romeo One man wolfpack Registered Senior Member

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    Inquire about IDSL. Slower than whale shit (144kbps) but since it runs over the ISDN network, it is available almost anywhere and is always on. Also, you'll get a static IP, which is nice.
     
  11. Dr Mabuse Percipient Thaumaturgist Registered Senior Member

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    you got Fapped...

    you will get Fapped one way or the other... due to the limited pipe on satellite...

    Link on the FAP... a higher bandwidth setting would help with the first kind of FAP... described in the 300 meg file area...
     
  12. Repo Man Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, satellite blows. It is better than dial up, but that's the best thing you can say for it. I have HughesNet, and I hit the FAP limit just this last weekend. I watched too many YouTube videos, and began to watch the film Freaks online. I knew I wouldn't be able to watch the whole thing, but I watched too much, and I had to live with the consequence (slowed down until late the next day). I can only listen to internet radio for a couple of hours at a time. If I want the latest version of Ubuntu, I download it at work, and bring it home on a thumb drive.

    You hit it a few times, you'll learn to be more careful.

    I only live a few miles outside of town, a fair sized city in northern California. I think ClearWire is available here now, but even better, I recently saw crews from a cable TV company running cable out this way. I'd be so very happy to be able to ditch my satellite and go to cable.
     
  13. Dr Mabuse Percipient Thaumaturgist Registered Senior Member

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    i know the man who founded Clearwire... and several of the executive officers... i used to do business with them a ways back when they were jst getting started...

    you would prefer that link over satellite guaranteed...

    if you can switch to clearwire you might want to...
     
  14. draqon Banned Banned

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    sly1 get Spring Internet Satellite...they got it for 50$
     
  15. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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  16. Challenger78 Valued Senior Member

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    We're still waiting for proper 100mb/sec down here. Singapore has it ,but nooo, we had to have a shit telecom company.
     
  17. weed_eater_guy It ain't broke, don't fix it! Registered Senior Member

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    I've always wondered, would it be possible to outfit a camper vehicle or something with a satellite rigged for satilite internet? Not that I have any reason to do it, just seems like an elegant idea.
     
  18. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Weed eater i do see why not but wouldnt wireless internet work as well if not better? (has a better upload speed for starters)
     
  19. phlogistician Banned Banned

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    I've heard many and various people falling foul of the FAP with Satelite Internet, but let's face it, you are sending a signal into space to be relayed back to Earth, so the overheads are high, and therefore it's an expensive commodity, so to be available at a reasonable price, has to be rationed.

    Asguard's mention of 3G would be an excellent solution if it's available in your area. In the UK, you can sign up with a phone company, and get a USB adapter for your computer which accesses the 3G network, and for £15 a month, get 3Gb of downloads, and it's pretty fast (up to 7Mbps), not sure what the ping is like though. I'm looking to buy a holiday home, and I will need internet access there, as it will be my summer residence, and I will be working from there, and using a 3G solution. It's cheaper than paying for a static line/service charges, and far more flexible.
     
  20. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    phlogistician i have been wondering if the rest of the world refered to it as 3G.

    Actually you dont even need a modem with 3G, if you have a 3G mobile (ie a mobile that can do video calls) you can use THAT as your modem in most cases.

    You can then bundle it with your mobile and you can generally get a better deal that way, Also in Australia if your in an area that you cant get ADSL then you can recive a top up from the goverment to make the cost the same as for a city conection of ADSL

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  21. scifitm Registered Member

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    I used to install Wild Blue, setting up the satellite is highly precise... there's a very tiny spot in the southern sky unlike satellite tv, you'd definatly have to have a toner and absolutley no trees or other obstructions.

    I always informed people before I installed the equipment that they had a bandwidth ceiling, though I knew some kid way the heck out in the remote area of Oklahoma that could play W.O.W. just fine...

    Personal advice - get yourself a good wifi antenna and read up on Poison routing, or ask a neighbor to share.
     
  22. phlogistician Banned Banned

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    Dunno, but we do in the UK at least.

    Sure, but the dedicated USB one is about 7 times faster. I guess it depends on the packages, usage and all that, to see which works out best.
     
  23. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    3G is an International Standard for "Third-Generation Mobile Technologies & Networks".

    It's relatively new, since I remember the UK testing phase being reported when they tested it out in the Isle of Man. The main problem is that the US still has a lot of older Cellular technology in use and it's a long slow process of parallel implementation and Phasing out older phones and networks. (Some people love their bricks.)

    3G is more than likely to be phased in built up areas rather than rural and for most people wanting higher speeds they get lumped with being in the rural areas. The problem with being say 7 miles outside of the limits of the nearest town is a person might live up a dirt road and certain utility companies would actually charge the client to have the cables put in all the way up to their house. Which is why some thought the Satellite connection to be the answer.

    I believe that Bell Atlantic was working on a kind of Wifi connection that could span 10-20miles, of course the main problem with any distance is data loss so such systems might deliver a slow speed. The only option for most though is to go to the nearest hotspot (Usually a Tacobell) to access the net wirelessly, Word of warning though it's actually Illegal to just access their network without buying anything from the shop. So buy a cheap drink or something just to make your access legal.
     
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