Rural internet (look ma no wires)

[PBMAX]

Hey all,

Boy have I got catch up reading....

Ok, has anyone out here looked into the new 2way internet satalite systems? That are now available in most areas.The parrent co is at www.starband.com

They claim a min of 150k down loads even during heavy traffic hrs and as high as 500k during off peak hrs.Sounds good,but the equipment here in bama is $400 plus $200 to install and it must be installed. They will not do "do it yourself kits".Since the sat. transmitts and recieves the FCC apparently has put there foot down.

The service package they are currently offering is $99 a month for both always on internet and there 150 chnl package for the TV.Bit steep I guess but were I'm building cable isn't available and they have no plans to bring it in. So I have to go sat. for the tube.Just trying to decide if I should do both....The local phone service is dated and slow since it's both an older system and I'm miles from the nearest switch...The access speeds according to the soon to be neighbors is pretty slow...

Any ideas???

Lil' Paul
Proud new owner of TC21D
Laziness is the Father of invention.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[rekees]

Paul

I looked into this due to our rural slow 28,800 phone connection. As I understand it, the catch is that you can only RECEIVE from a satellite and not transmit to it. Therefore you still have to use the slow phone line to transmit data. Maybe www.starband.com is new techinology? What I'm talking about is using a large C-band or small digital dish like those used for Direct or Dish TV?

Due to the cost and complexity of satellite I decided to stick with the slow 28800 connection.

Chuck in IN

 

[Richard]

Chuck,

Paul has it correct as far as I know. I own one of the dishes you refer to, the Hughes Direct-Duo. gives me internet capability and DTV. I don't currently use the internet connection part of it (use ISDN)

The "next generation" does in fact involve a dish that can send and receive. I don't know much more information than that, but as an owner of the receive only type, it has caught my interest.

Regards
Richard

 

[RAllen]

PBurns

I looked up the website and this service is two-way. I use the DirecPC system which is one-way. You download via satilite and upload through the phone. Its cumbersom- I must use two ISP because DirecPC does not have a local access number.
The StarBand is legit and the first on two systems to come online. DirecPC will soon have two-way as well. Dish Network and Microsoft are involved with Starband. Think it would be a good choice if you cannot get DSL service.

Rick

 

[rekees]

Richard,

Yes, I checked that site and Paul is correct. It completely bypasses the phone company and can send as well as receive! According to the site you can buy this stuff at Radio Shack so it's not a fly-by-night operation either.

I personally don't like to be a bleeding-edge techno-pioneer so I will check back into this in a couple years when the technology will have been a marketing flop or at least the prices will be lower. Does sound like a good alternative for we folks out in the boondocks who want faster internet access than copper phone lines can provide.

Chuck in IN

 

[PBMAX]

All,
A friend in the PC business here has the Direct pc and says it's still better than the phone line when your way out( he averages 66k instead of the local 28k ).I read through the starband site just today it looks cool and as they say this has been available on a commercial level for a while back even to the C band days according to some I've talked to locally....The reason I called it a parrent co is, that they are allowing DirectPC and Dishnetwork to use the system as well.The DirPC system which is at Rshack & MSN now,but requires you to buy a Compaq PC that is set up with DUAL Net work cards no choice and is around $1200.

I was thinking about getting the one of the other two since they come with a Satalite USB modem and I figure that would be easier to deal with if problems pop up down the road .Besides I preffer to build my own PC's.I'm not big on the prices of off the shelf PC makers want for upgrade and replacement components.

AS for the DirectPc that uses the phone it would be equal to or cheaper to go 2way and get better speeds. For the following...Local land line $31 area calling $36(or call long distance to B'ham 25 ml away) direct pc $20 thats what about $90 amonth and I would still have to get a sat package or stick with rabbit ears for the tube....DSL is a no chance according to the phone co engineers......I'm way to far out on the system.Plus since I work for a Cell phone co I can skip the local land line and save $$.

RAllen,How do like the speed and reliability of the direct pc?Do you think you would like the new system?

Lil' Paul
Proud new owner of TC21D
Laziness is the Father of invention.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[markcg2000]

This is wierd. Just today I was reading a review (PC Magazine, maybe?) of this at the doctor's waiting room. Never heard of it before.
The review said the target market is exactly people like you; really, no alternative. They also said that the speeds appeared to be as advertised - up to 500k up and 150k down. The also said the company is trying to average ~350k upload and ~50k download. The price the reviewer paid, per month, was (I think) $59 for data only - no TV. I figure that isn't all that bad when you consider their target audience has no choice.

<font color=green>mark</font color=green>

 

[WillingtonPizza]

I may look into this, I have no cable and the fastest connection I have ever got was 26,400.

 

[LarryT]

Well guys, never thought my business would actually show up on the tractor forum. But here it is. I'm in this satellite business, but not with either of the two companies you mentioned. Yes, those two are first. Like many "firsts", they are less than optimum and at premium prices. If you can stand to wait, or you can get in without a long committment and without a big up front costs, I can assure you that there will be several competing systems over the next year or so. You will see better performance and lower costs as the next generation systems hit the street. My company is not in the "service" business like those two, we build the equipment for several competing companies. Again, wait if you can. If you can't wait, resign yourself to upgrading within two years.

Larry...

 

[Rowski]

My next door neighbor sells and installs dishes for a company that used DirectTV. He told me he is going to school near the end of January for this new 2-way DirectPC. The school is somewhere in Boston or Newyork city, can't remember exactly where. He is keeping me posted on what is going on. Basically I have heard what you guys have heard. Also I found a link for DirectPC. Some of the links don't work yet but the FAQ has some good info. I am also looking at this 2-way setup for faster speeds than a phone line. If I come up with more I'll post it.

Derek

 

[RAllen]

Paul
DirecPC is ok. Its better than just a conventional modem. As I mentioned, I have to use a second ISP for local acess. This means there are two companies that can have an outage. If I could get DSL, I would use that. DirecPC is better than any other present choice. If I was starting today, I would seriously consider Starband. DirecPC will provide the same service very soon but it is not generally available at this time.

Rick

 

[PBMAX]

LarryT,Yeah I kind of figured that an up grade would be some ware in the near future. 2 years in the electronics industrie is pretty good stretch for upgrades. When you figure they say the average PC is in its old age at 6months to a yr...By the guru standards.

You mentioned trying to avoid long term commitment.Dishnetwork wants the usual 1yr term and I would imagine DirectPC will still do there no contract deals like they have for the TV service(but as I mentioned they insist you buy an new PC to get theirs)and Starband (being the the ones holding the ball)of course has their own system they will sell you for the average price, but I don't recall the terms.

If Starband is currently the only Parrent co out there ,I would say the price will stay were it is till the target market is saturated.

I will most likely be in new house by the end of this month or middle of Feb. so if I do go this way I'll let ya'll know what I do and don't like...Besides the price....OUCH!!! $600 would by something nice for the TC21...Like mabye a remote vale and hydro. toplink... If any body beats me to it let me know how you like it.....

Thanks folks, YA'LL have been great.....

Lil' Paul
Proud new owner of TC21D
Laziness is the Father of invention.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[W5FL]

Re: Rural internet -ISDN

Richard, I am going to get IDSN also. Still is expensive, but hope to eventually be able to use it to replace both analog lines, so the charge per month will be the same. I did not get their "additional call offering" package to start with, so it will not step back from 128K to take an incoming call, but hope to add that after the system is working properly. At the very least, I will have moved the local pbx out in the boonies and have an analog connection located right next to it so everything should work better even on the analog lines. The digital lines operating compressed are quoted at much higher rates, but time will tell.

Any comments about ISDN that you would offer? I bought an ADTRAN 3000 modem that outputs two analog lines from the ISDN and hope to get it hooked up this weekend. The cost of the whole setup is about $50 per month which is less than I was paying for 2 analog lines of poor quality (26,200 at best) with 56K modems.

 

[fishman]

Re: Rural internet -ISDN

Wen,

I am showing my ignorance here, but could you explain how IDSN differs from a normal phone line? Are you out in the boonies as well? It sounds like it would require laying an additional cable, and like others on the board, I live in a location where most of the technological nicities are not available. Hope I'm not the only one on this board wondering about this . . .

 

[W5FL]

Re: Rural internet -ISDN

Yeah, I live in the boonies too. All they do is use the same old twisted pair but they send digital rather than analog data down the line. You have to have a modem to do the conversion at your house. There are actually 3 digital lines in a single ISDN line. Two 64K digital lines and a 16K control line. ISDN is old technology, but several TELCO's have dropped the price to compete with DSL, Satellite, etc. I will let you know if about a month how things work out. The investment was really small here, but the nice thing is that I should have considerably better service for the same price. The other nice thing is that you can be using both lines for 128K and an incoming analog call will come right through to your phone and reduce your bandwidth to 64K without missing a beat. It is not heavily advertised. My wife saw a writeup in the local paper from a resident, so I checked into it and should have a line installed in a couple of weeks.

 

[fishman]

Re: Rural internet -ISDN

Thanks Wen, I'll be anxious to hear how it works out. Limiting my tractorbynet.com fix to lunchtime during the week can get frustrating.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Rural internet -ISDN

Watch out for the connect time charges with ISDN. Around here ISDN costs $39 a month plus the internet provider cost if you sign up for both local and long distance with the same company. This only includes 50 hours of connect time. After that it is $1 per hour of connect time! The connect time is per channel so if you want to connect at 128k, you use 2 channels and one hour counts as two. Any phone calls are also counted towards connect time. We use a lot more than 25 hours in a month, sometimes more than 120.

Andy

 

[Richard]

Re: Rural internet -ISDN

Hey Wen..sorry long to get back...had flu for several lifetimes it seems.

I'm not sure I can offer you anything more than you seem to already know. Indeed, you already espouse more than *I* know.

Here in Tennessee, it seems, we get the lowest rate in the nation for ISDN. Business ~100/month and I think residential was around 30. That's for unlimited usage. Now, my ISP (bellsouth.net) has some usage limits, but not the line itself.

I don't know the Adtran brand, I use 3-Com at home and here at work. At work, I patch it into our network. I admit to having asked the Boss if I could terminate 5 modem lines and do this and they EXPRESSLEY told me no. Well, after terminating 5 dedicated modem lines at 20 each, and adding this ONE line at 100 (hmm, even swap so far) they LOVE me for the speed they now have. Sure is interesting how they just don't recall telling me NOT to do it.

/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have starband. It transmits 100K and recieves 500K and costs 99 per month including 150 Dish Network channels. Nice to have FOXNEWS! Only draw back is sometimes there's connection troubles with servers that use some security protocols because the information transmits in bursts and is not continuous. Really beats the hell ouyt of my previous 24000 connection. FYI the dish is a 3 foot in diameter oval thing.

 

[gws]

The starband system is a true TWO WAY system via satellite. No phone line for uplink is required. This is not the same as the direct PC offering.

Starband is ok as long as your mainly interested in web surfing, email. It is not usable for remote caming and many 2 way streaming audio and video services or VLAN links to the office due to the packet delays.

Its a bit expensive but if your looking for high speed access it may be you only choice

Hey, I am Gary