SatSig topic:

Is This A Typical Installation?

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Jul 24^th, 2007 at 7:17pm

We bought our house about 4 years ago and there was a sat dish on the top of the peak of the facia that faced south. We removed the dish and tossed it. We just had Dish Network TV and Wild Blue internet installed. The installers used LAG bolts that went through the roof when there was plenty of facia available on the south side of the house. When I went out to see what the install tech was up to he was driving bolts through my freaking roof? Is this a typical installation?

The Wild Blue tech and the Dish network tech seemed to be buddies and the Wild Blue tech also placed the Wild Blue dish directly onto the roof facing my HVAC unit. Literally. MY ping is 999ms. The only option I can see is to move the damn thing myself. If I had known the technician was inept I would have done the installation myself, and done a better job. Is this also a typical installation?

Jul 24^th, 2007 at 8:08pm

Wildblue guy musta been a SatTV installer at one time. Too many of those in the field to suit me.

Fascia is typically only 1" board, hence not usually sturdy enough to support the wind load. Wildblue-specified mounting options are vertical (side of the house/chimney/etc) or polemount (extra charge). Their installation instructions contain no guidance relative to roof mounts. Pretty sure it's a liability thing, not wanting to be responsible for subsequent water damage. Another reason NOT to roof-mount is the stabilizer bars. Design limitations are such that it may be difficult to find suitable rafter anchor points for the mounting arm AND two stabilizer bars

Your reported ping time however, is actually lower than reported by many other WB users. They typically experience 1200-1500ms and more, so comparatively 999 ain't all that bad.

//greg//

Aug 18^th, 2007 at 11:31pm

I have had WB for two weeks now. I too have a roof mount. The installer tried to sway me towards a pole mount due to the size of the dish but I in my situation I did not feel there would be enough Southern visibility to do this.

My installer was a Sat TV installer. He said Dish Network sent all their installers for training installing WB systems. I think he did a fair job but could tell by talking with him about what type of service to expect compared to other providers that he was not very computer literate.

That said, I have been rather pleased with the service. I do not get 999ms pings to anything as you mentioned however. Average is 1100 to 1300ms for me. I have the platinum package and average around 1.2Mb downstream. I have not tested the upstream but it is good enough for me to be able to work from home using gotomypc. I would prefer remote desktop access to the office PC but the VPN is unusable over WB. I was prepared for this beforehand though so it was no deal breaker.

I have seen Sat TV anchored to facia many times. But with the size and weight of this dish I don't think I would want that. The HVAC unit is kind of odd but it sounds like your service is working. Your ping is great...how is your bandwidth in relation to the package you are using?

Jan 12^th, 2008 at 9:16pm

It's not really pointed at your AC - draw a line from the small reflector panel to the center of the dish, then pretend you're playing pool and bounce that at the same angle. You'll find that it goes upward a bit.

1000ms of latency is about right - orbit and back twice.

That said, the installer should have told you he was going to do a roof mount, gotten your approval, and had you sign an installation plan that made this clear before he began.

-Dane