2. Weather can affect a dish greatly. I have a Dish 500, and when it rains or accumulates snow my signal drops.
3. Not sure what directway is. Is it a DirecTv system? If so, then you should be able to replace the dish and keep the recievers. If it is not, expect to replace everything.
4. Anything over 15000' from your nearest telco station is unreliable and would not be supported by the ISP. Even >10000' is worrisome for most ISP's since they have to listen to you bi***.
5. Gaming is affected by latency.
6. If you intend to have an always on connection, I would recommend a hardware firewall/router (Linksys/Netgear/etc) (don't lose the software firewall to protect against trojans). Other than protecting your network from hackers, just make sure you tweak your network settings to allow the highest throughput.
Lastly, I recommend you spend some time at DSLReports. There are many discussions, tools, and guides to help anyone through the mess that is broadband. You can especially find help in deciding on your ISP and latency.
Good Luck!
Latency, Latency, Latency. While the download bandwidth seemed a bit less than my 1.5 Mbps cable modem, the truly frustrating part about using the satellite service is the latency, or turn around time, for requested information.
I don't know if it comes from the system using a time-windowing method, or if there is just a certain delay to be expected in sending a signal ~100,000 miles (Up-back-up-back), but it is certainly noticable compared to my cable modem, my offices 384K DSL, and even a good fast dial-up connection.
Not a lot of info, but I hope it helps.
I was talking to a PacTel manager the other day and I believe he said that technology is coming to push out that 3 mile limit. I live within the 3 miles of the switch but I went with Cox Cable on advice from Freepers. Four days and I had the service. Only problem of theirs was a microwave went down for 10 hours. PacTel is running cable up 101 to Eureka but Caltrans sees a new revenue source so the project is on hold. Once it is completed Cox will buy in and drop the microwave.
You can see a lot of customer discussions at alt.satellite.direcpc
Hopefully, some of the new systems coming along in a couple of years will be better (e.g. SpaceWay, Teledesic, and maybe WildBlue, etc.).
Nos. 1 and 2 will be similar to your DTV experience. You already know how it behaves in wind and rain - you can expect the same for D-PC. No. 3 - you've already got one dish in place, why rip it out if you don't have to? There no particular advantage to two dishes, so unless you have some aesthetic preference for one, I'd say don't bother.
4) depends on the phone company. If you call them, it's very likely they'll tell you you're too far and you're out of luck. And that'll be the end of that.
5) People have alluded to the latency of the connection already. I'll tell you straight up - you can forget about online real-time gaming with a satellite connection. It just ain't gonna work - the latency is waaaayyyyy too high. You can try, but I promise you won't find the results useable.
6) Get a hardware firewall/router and plug the satellite modem into that, and pass the connection through it to the computers. You'll sleep a lot better at night, trust me. ;)
Last of all, I assume you're aware of the price of all this - Directway ain't cheap. And the other thing you should consider is that Hughes has serious, hard transfer limits. If all you do is websurfing and email, mostly, you'll be fine. But if you do a lot of filesharing, or other large downloads regularly, you're going to hit that cap REAL fast. I suggest you take a good, hard look at D-PC's Fair Access Policy to see if that's something you can live with...
No Change to Your StarBand High-Speed Satellite Internet Service Network is Up & Running Business as Usual for StarBand Details at: www.StarBand.com/InfoCenter Today StarBand announced it has taken a difficult but necessary step to regain control of our operational and financial future by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Chapter 11 does not mean that a company is out of business. On the contrary, it allows a company to restructure its finances and continue operating its business while seeking debt relief.
The press release we issued today can be found at the following link: www.StarBand.com/InfoCenter.
So how does this event impact you and your StarBand service?
No Change to Your StarBand High-Speed Satellite Internet Service From a service perspective, StarBand should look the same to you. Our network is up and running and our customer service and technical support teams remain in place to support you and to answer your questions.
Business as Usual for StarBand StarBand plans to be your high-speed Internet service provider for the long term. Through bankruptcy court, StarBand intends to restructure its debt, bring an infusion of new equity into the company, remove any impediments created by existing shareholders and emerge with a plan that will achieve our goal to hit profitability.
If you have any service related questions, please refer to your online customer support tools at www.StarBand.net. To get the latest up-to-date information on today’s events as well as a set of customer FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) please visit: www.StarBand.com/InfoCenter.
You don’t need to do anything at the present time other than continue enjoying StarBand high-speed satellite Internet service.
Thank you for choosing StarBand.
Zur Feldman StarBand
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer