SatSig topic:

New to Satellite Internet

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Oct 18^th, 2006 at 3:10am

I currently live in Mississippi, and seeing as DSl/Cable is extremely rare here, I've started doing some researching into Satellite internet and have a few questions regarding it.

1) How much faster would one-way satellite be compared to dial-up? As I understand, it uses your phone line to send what you want to a hub, then that is downloaded via satellite to your computer.

2) Is two-way worth the extra price when upgrading from dial-up?

3) How is one-way for online games?

That's all I can think of now, may post more.

Oct 19^th, 2006 at 3:36am

Hello there.
I'm not sure anyone even sells one way satellite systems anymore. As with all satellite systems, latency (or ping times) are going to be high ~ on the order of 700 - 900 milliseconds. this makes any kind of action based gaming futile. By the time you shoot someone you have been shot three times already. That being said, the three major players are Hughes, Starband, and Wildblue. Right now I understand that for some portions of the country Wildblue is not taking on new accounts, because that particular spot beam is full.
There are lots of good deals out there ~ you should be able to find a system as low as $299 for equipment, $49/month for 500 kbps by 100 kbps. Installation, depending what is being offered at the time, runs from free to $250 - $300. Starband is the only company that will let you go online for free, take a course, get certified, and install your own system. You can save a lot of money that way and not have to rely on anyone else to trouble shoot your system.
Any more questions ~ feel free to ask away.
Good luck!

Oct 19^th, 2006 at 4:51am

1. depends upon grade of service. Sending would be no different than dialup - because it IS dialup. Receiving, perhaps 20 times faster.
2. If you factor in the cost of a 2nd phoneline, two-way begins to look attractive
3. one way is only half as bad as two way, but they both suck. Good day pings on two way will be 600-700 ms, double triple that on bad days. One way pings are roughly half that of two way.

//greg//