Directv vs. Dishnetwork

TerryinMD · Nov 29, 2001

RAllen,

That is very interesting about your comment on ADSL (for the uninitiated, there are variants of DSL - more techno geek stuff). My in-laws live in Somerset County, PA (SW PA) and have just been notified that they are illegible for DSL. That area is also very rural. A little more dense that your discription, but not to far off.

I live in Washington County, MD about 30 miles west of Frederick, MD. Our area is more populated than my in-laws area, serviced by Verizon (baby Bell), not far from DC metro. So you would think we are elegible. NOT!! In fact, there are people who live in densly populated DC metro areas cannot get DSL and that have neighbors with DSL access less than a couple of hundred yard away!! Now, go figure!!

IMHO As far as using two-way satelite, I would recommend Starband over the Hughes system. Why, because Hughes was late, has/had problems, and is still working out their bugs. Starband has upgraded their equipment and has been working on their networking problems a little longer.

Terry

Edited by TerryinMD on 11/29/01 12:53 PM (server time).

Bird · Nov 29, 2001

illegible????/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

TerryinMD · Nov 29, 2001

Doh - though I corrected that!!

Eligible?? Elegible?? oh darn, able to get....

/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Terry

TonyC · Nov 29, 2001

Bird though I'm not familiar with your particular software, my guess is that your computer has been scanned or "hit" by someone out there.What your firewall is doing is determining the IP address of the hit and blocking it, evidently for 30 minutes. There are probably options in your software as to how to handle a hit like that. You could probably set it up to block them forever.

ejb · Nov 29, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

>>But the thought of a T1 into my house instead of 'just' DSL makes my mouth water almost as much as one of those deep fried turkeys Bird was talking about the other day!

It should...I have a T-1 in my house, since where I live there is no ISDN, no DSL and no cable...luckily I can write it all off as a business expense...you get really spoiled, really fast.

Initially cost me about $1300 per month, but has dropped to around $1050...still awfully expensive considering that IF I could get DSL or CABLE I would have almost (but not quite) as good service for about 5% of the cost.

I work for myself and used to rent office space for around $1000 per month...decided to work from home and spend the extra money on the T-1 instead. Good decision!

MarkV · Nov 30, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Initially cost me about $1300 per month, but has dropped to around $1050

Now that is a dedicated TBN member./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

MarkV

scruffy · Dec 1, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

here is a link to DirectTV DSL ... 19.95 per month for first 3, and 49.95 thereafter.
http://home.thirdage.com/SmallBusiness/shinydangle/

DaRube · Dec 2, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

I have Starband 2-way internet connection. I moved here 3 months ago from a location where I had Roadrunner Cable Modem (thru Cox).

Generally, my old cable service was excellent. I seemed to have slowdowns maybe once a month or so, which might last for a day. I lived in a neighborhood where I think many people were buying cable, but I wasn't displeased with the bandwidth sharing, although I can see how that could ultimately become an issue. I was also somewhat of an outlaw, hosting a web server at home using a technique called Dynamic DNS, and I had several computers on my home network sharing the cable connection thru a Linksys 4ch router (which I think is commonly available for around $150) which also served as an entry level firewall. Speed was impressive for downloads, and not bad on my small scale for uploads and web-serving.

Here, with the 2-way Starband, my experience has been mixed. I can still share the connection, but only one of my computers can be directly connected to the Satellite modem. This computer then serves as a gateway to the others (by way of IP forwarding and a second network card - or using the USB connection to the Sat-modem and one network card) and would host a firewall product. Bottom line is...you would need to be a bit more network-savvy to do this.

Performance wise, I've given up on hosting a web site here. Uploads are just too slow, and the latency would aggrevate anyone trying to browse my site. My downloads are good most of the time. The latency interferes with development tools such as MS Visual Interdev and FTP also, so it is less than ideal in that scenario.

Also, Starband is not supported (and minimally compatible) with Win2K Server. It is better with Win2K Pro, though. I started out trying to use a W2KServ box as my primary and it stunk. I switched everything over to my W2KPro box and everything is much better.

Be aware that Starband has 2 versions of modem out there. The older one....model 180, and a newer one....model 360. There are significant differences in how these two are setup...and possibly in their performance as well. So as you gather opinions, see if you can identify which platform is being described. I have the 360, myself, and never had the 180.

Supposedly, Starband has been doing 2-way longer than DirecPC....and has worked out more of the problems. This from a salesman who was able to sell me either one....and said he had no appreciable commission difference.

And of course, the satellite hardware 1-time purchase is expensive as hell. And the monthly cost is higher, also...$69.95/mo vs $39.95 for cable.

So....if I had every possible solution available to me, this is the order I would rank them.

1) Cable (in a neighborhood with a favorable bandwidth-sharing situation)

2) DSL

3) Cable (in a neighborhood with a less favorable bandwidth-sharing situation)

4) Satellite 2-way (with a nod toward Starband)

5) Satellite 1-way (with a nod toward Starband)

6) ISDN

7) Dialup

Good luck, all.

TerryinMD · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

DaRube,

If you do a search for home networking with Starband, you can find ways around using one of the PCs as a gateway (well at least with the 180. The 180 had two means to network. USB and ethernet. Yes, ethernet!! You had to take the unit apart to disable the USB. Once you did that, you could then buy a LinkSys or similar router, reconfigure it as your gateway and voila... real IP networking in your home. I do not know if this is possible with the 360's or not.

We have not bought Starband as yet, just can justify the cost of the equipment. Pricewise, it's a trade off between using a second phone line, ISP, and Dishnetwork as a package deal. Maybe, $5-10 difference a month. The bigger issue is that all of the services are being sold via a dealer network. They are going to make a buck off of you one way or another. Don't mind someone making some money, but geez.... $200 for installation by some cable monkey. Hmmmm....

Terry

MikePA · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

I don't know how true it is, but I've read the reason there is a mandatory dealer installation is the criticality of aligning the dish to transmit/receive data versus just receiving a video signal. I've also read that it is/was possible to take the Starband installation test online and become your own installer.