Whats up at Direcway?

[rockyridgefarm]

** Speed: 1059(down)/165(up) kbps **
(At least 32 times faster than a 33 kbps modem)
Finish.

Upload speeds....

Ping times ~725ms

 

[rancar]

Is Direcway DirectTV's internet service? Have you subscribed to it? If so, how do you like it? Is it worth the monthly fee they are charging? Any other pros and cons you'd care to comment on? Thanks.

...Bob

 

[Hank]

<font color="purple"> ** Speed: 1059(down)/165(up) kbps **
(At least 32 times faster than a 33 kbps modem)
Finish.

Upload speeds....

Ping times ~725ms
</font>

One thing I did learn in the five months I had to use DirecWay, is that those speed test sites are all written so they only work correctly in the Microsoft Virtual Machine (in other words, they are not Java compliant). When you use Sun's Virtual Machine, you get distorted results like those above.

Current satellite return technology does not support upload speed greater than about 128Kbps, so be suspicious when you see any number higher than that. My upload speeds typically ranged from 90Kbps during non-business-day hours, to less than 10Kbps during the business day. That is worse than a modem, and I was forced to use dial up as an alternative, at times.

The download speeds are great, as high as 2Mbps during off hours.

The latency is horrible. Your ping time of 725ms is excellent for satellite. The theoritical minimum is about 650ms. During the business day, I often experienced latency in excess of 2000ms /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Now I am fortunate to have wireless cable modem service. I have 768Kbps down, 256 up, and ground-based latency (30-50ms). I could not sell my Direcway dish and modems quickly enough /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I would recommend Direcway if you have no other alternative.

 

[PBMAX]

Hank I was thinking my self those are really good #'s. I have been considrering this system but because of the lag time you can't do much on-line gamming. I can see it now take shot at some one and they see 3-5 seconds later....(wouldn't really happen but it sounds funny) I fugure those speed were based on the fact that the system is digital and mostlikely uses compression. Thats how cellphone do it.to get higher speeds. the phone is realy running at 19200 in mosts cases.But will show 33k to 128 depending on the company...

 

[rockyridgefarm]

FWIW I am on beta software for Direcway. The numbers recently jumped to these. They are seeming to stay there.

As to whether it is worth it; it is for me. Where I live, I will never get DSL, or cable. Almost certain there is no wireless coming my way. The Direcway is a little pricey, but not much more than a second phone line and AOL (I'd shoot myself before using AOL)

Latency will never go away, so don't expect to do online games, VOIP, or VPN with it.