DIRECTWAY SAT INTERNET

FamilyFarm · Jan 1, 2003

I have Direcway internet service. I live too far out to get anything else. I had cable modem service before moving here.
Downloads on a 'high-traffic' night are slower than cable, but most of the time little difference if any. I actually ran a series of download speed tests one morning and got 1600-1700! Uploads are another story! Typically uploads run around 35-40, much slower than cable (DSL probably similiar to cable modem). My cable uploads were around 250 and downloads about 900 consistently.
Other than slow upload speeds, the only problem is severe weather can temporarily shut you down.

Terry

Anonymous Poster · Jan 1, 2003

I had satellite two internet service for almost three years. It was through Dishnet/Starband and not Directpc group. I stayed away from Direct because many in the town and area that had them, were not happy campers. It was a continuous battle trying to keep something (tv or internet) up and running. As far as starband goes, the tv side was awesome. Maybe lose 3 hours of service in last year we had it. Now, the starband internet side of the dish was different. We lost at least 3 hours a month. The tv side isn't so touchy as the internet side which is HIGHLY touchy. So much so,if a small cloud zipped by, internet service could and most times did, go off for a period of time. Speeds averaged 450 out and 600 in. Baud rates, that I used several ways to check. Overall it was well worth it to me considering that fastest phone service EVER, was 21 baud. I, getting 300 plus e-mails a day being the financial treasurer of a large veterans helicopter group, and 21 baud phone, jsut couldn't cut it anymore. The satellite for my purpose was well worht it. And, if your wondering, the service is expensive.

Anonymous Poster · Jan 4, 2003

I have a home office and thought that satellite was the way to go in my area. I used direcPC for about a year and had pretty good luck with it. I think the biggest problem with direcPC is that the uplink is a standard modem. Our lines are very noisy and I got dropped many times because of that. Due to Murphy, it seemed to happen most often at the 90% point of a big download and quite often when the lines were wet (even when using just a standard modem both ways). The download speed was quite often very very good. I used VPN for work and it worked about 50% of the time. For VPN, reconnecting usually cleared up any problems for a while. There was always a slight pause when connecting to a new web page, something like a second, then the page would load quickly. I've never had dsl or cable modem but my company has a "T1" which is fast, fast, fast.

I was considering directway but when I called, the sales people were confused because they had just started selling it and I got different answers to the same questions each person I asked. I then discovered I had ISDN available. It was expensive but very reliable and fast enough for me at 128K each way. Since I work at home, the reliability was what sold me.

JimMc · Jan 4, 2003

Just got my wireless network going with my DirecPC one way satellite. Average download 924kpbs, upload 21kbps. Will be going to 2 way ASAP. Works very well with a couple of computers on simultaneously. Always a fight with 3 kids for internet time. Will add a couple more laptops next week. I can even wander outside to the deck and stay connected. Currently my daughter is surfing and talking on MSN while I'm listening to web radio, talking on MSN and ICQ, and browsing TBN.

Cacinok · Jan 4, 2003

We bought a house that had the one way sattelite already installed and I did some checking on the net and called DirecPc to find out the cost of upgrading from the one way to the two way. What I found out was that to upgrade to two way requires two additional pieces, a second (up) modem and a part that attaches to the sattelite.

The killer of the deal is that the price is just about $100 less than buying a two way set up brand new. The deal they offer to extent members is $99/mo for 12 months for the upgrade and then it is reduced (which is the same price for buying a knew two way). Here's the link

http://two-wayupgrade.direcway.com/index.html

From the advice on http://www.copperhead.cc/ the best way to save money is to search this site or ebay for the other pieces, but it is likely a guy would have to buy a whole set up, albeit at a lower price than Direc Pc wants.

So if anybody is looking into sattelite definitely go two way to begin with.

If anyone knows of a better more economical way to upgrade let me know, as sattelite is the only available option to feed my high speed addiction.

Clint

Alan L. · Jan 5, 2003

Re: Hughes satellites

I've never been on the business end of Direct Way, but I have a client that is running terminal services and Directway at a golf course that is 40 miles from anywhere. I login and run their accounting software from my office and I can hardly tell I'm remote it works so well. My end is a full T1. They had a 128 ISDN before and the satellite is much better. Haven't noticed the latency issue.

FamilyFarm · Jan 5, 2003

The two way is clearly the way to go - no phone line tied up - but UPLOAD speeds are still very slow compared to cable/dsl (of course MUCH better modem and ISP miles and miles away!).

Terry