DirecWay 2 way Satellite update

[RMulkey]

Some great news (to me anyway). We had a DirecWay 2 way Satellite (downlink/uplink = 400/128Kbps) system installed last night. What a huge difference. Web based DSL tools measured the actual speed at 591Kbps download and 234Kbps upload.

Since moving into our new home 2 months ago, we have been using dial up connection at 28k and I was ready to jump off a building. I admit we were spoiled at our old home where we had both cable internet and DSL. The satellite system seems to work well with no glitches so far. My service providor is DirecTV (a reseller of DirecWay service, but there are several others). I was skeptical, but this system is at least as fast as the measured bandwidth of my old cable and DSL connections. I will be experimenting with integrating the system to the home network and adding 2 VPN connections to our work locations. I have been told by DirecWay that I may need to upgrade to business class DirecWay service to make the VPN work correctly. The good news is all the equipment is the same up to 1000Mbps.

The price was $100 installation. $100/month for the first year (includes all the quipment) and then $59/month.
It's nice to be out of first gear again!!!

Any body else out there using this service care to share their experience??

I will keep you posted.
-Roger

 

[RobS]

Just curious Roger, what kind of wiring does your system use within the house? I strung a bunch of coax and cat5 this past weekend and I hope it's compatible. Are you using that for internet only or is it your TV also? I'm new to the whole satelite thing as we have cable in our current house /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[BKColeman]

Glad to hear it works well. I've been debating about it for a while. We had to give up our cable modem when we moved into our new house in December. It's been killing me. Satellite is our only option now for anything faster than dial-up. Keep us updated on any problems.

--Brad

 

[kbarrett]

Brad,

Not sure where in Virginia you're located. If you're reasonably close to a metro area (within 30 miles), ISDN
might be an option to look into.

 

[DavidInNH]

Wow! Where did you find that deal? The last time I looked, the DirectTV 2-way was over $800 in equipment cost, plus install and $75-80 a month. I've been kind of leary about it because we have to deal with Pegasus for DirectTV and I haven't been real impressed with their abilty to manage a TV system, much less be my ISP...

They are actually claiming to support VPN connections now? What about multiple computers through the same link? Dish was supporting this, but IIRC, DirectTV explicitly said no.

28.8??? I feel good if I get 24K and I share that with 3 computers...

-david

 

[DVerbarg]

<font color=blue>They are actually claiming to support VPN connections now? What about multiple computers through the same link? Dish was supporting this, but IIRC, DirectTV explicitly said no.</font color=blue>

I have the Dish system (Starband) and love it.

Support VPN? No (at least on Starband). The latency issues with satellite based systems makes it a little slow.

Multiple computers? Starband tells you: "The StarBand service is intended for Internet connectivity and customer support of a single personal computer connected directly to the StarBand satellite modem. Additional computers, networked in such a way as to utilize the StarBand service and consume additional bandwidth, are not supported by StarBand and may result in service restrictions if the bandwidth usage exceeds permissible levels under the Acceptable Use Policy. Prior to requesting customer service and technical support for the StarBand software installed on the PC connected to the StarBand satellite modem, it will first be necessary to remove any networking software.

Networking multiple PCs to share access to the StarBand service is done solely at the member’s own risk and may invalidate the ability of the StarBand software to function properly. Members who still choose to assume this risk may minimize the impact to the StarBand network and risk of improper functioning of the satellite modem by using a product by Ositis Software called WinProxy for StarBand. REMEMBER: Ositis Software is responsible for any networking support needs associated with the use of WinProxy for StarBand software.

Have used the WinProxy software and worked fine after an initial installation error on my part /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif. Am not currently running it as I recently reloaded a PC and have not reinstalled the WinProxy software yet.

Was not cheap to install (roughly $800) and have a monthly charge of $75 (but is reduced to $60 if you subscribe to the Dish150 package - total bill $84) but it sure is fun! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[rockyridgefarm]

I have four Direcway (New name for DirecPC) systems. They encourage networking (it sure helps you justify the cost...) Networking is easy and works perfectly. ICS is ready and Direcway is coming out with a router. A router would even be better.

You are right about the business class for VPN. I have the business class at one of my clients, most use the residential. I haven't tried pcAnywhere, but it might be better than vpn...

You are ALMOST right about there being other companies offering 2 way. StarBand excluded (I don't have any experience) shoot yourself before going to anywhere but Direcway themselves. I could scare you to death with horror stories, and Direcway isn't perfect either. But it is much better than it was, or thay are.

If you can get ISDN, get it. Latency is the real issue (like torque on tractors) ISDN with 128Kbps with negligible latency beats a lot of other connections with much higher advertised speeds. ISDN is usallu more, though. If you can't get anything else Satelite is the way to go.

for info on Direcway by DirecTV

At first you could only get directv from Hughes. Then they Only sold thrugh Pegasus, earthlink etc. But after it became clear that that wasn;t working, they now offer it through directv

I am on a Slick and 21.6K is the best a modem could do.

I am doing this on my direcway setup at home, I have the tv. too.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Each feed from the dish requires RG6, Mine has 4 runs, Transmit, Receive and two TV runs. They go to the TV's and the computer (2 there)

Use cat5 to link the computers for ICS or router.

Before going this route, be sure that there are no other broadband choices, go check out <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.dslreports.com>Get Broadband - DSL Reports</A>

Don't forget, if you live way out from the telco's CO, DSL won't go very fast.

If you want to know why latency is so important read this and weep:
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.stuartcheshire.org/rants/Latency.html>Its the Latency, stupid</A> (his title - not mine)

 

[RobS]

Fascinating stuff Mike, thanks. It seems I have a lot to learn before I invest in a solution for our new house /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[WVBill]

Mike: When I click on your "Get Broadband - DSL Reports" Link, I get sent off to web pages that have nothing at all to do with the subject. Actually, it opens up two additional browser windows. One to a non-existant web site titled something about parking and another that changed the two times I tried, first time something about making money from home and second time something about high school reunions....

I went into view page source and can see that the link you pointed to is www.dslreports.com and when I type that url into the browser it goes to the correct web site.

Puzzling....

 

[BobT]

The article you reference on latency was written in 1997, and the comments were regarding download satellite, with uploads via phone lines.

The current DirectPC broadband is two way satellite transmission. While it does have some latency, the delay should be under one second in most cases. I would like to hear from someone who is actually presently using the service, just how the latency affects daily service.

 

[MikePA]

The latency I've read about refers to the time it takes to to get to/from the satellite and it applied whether there was a one way or two way satellite link. The impact is usually to interactive game playing.

Also, does DirecWay still have the FAP (Fair Access Policy) where they monitor how much you download and, if you download too much, they slowly cut back your speed?

 

[TerryinMD]

It affects VPNs also. There is a lot of overhead in setting up and utilizing the VPN tunnels. Don't know the actuals on the overhead, but it is a very "chatty" protocol. This is to ensure that the tunnel is there. There is also some dependencies on if the connection is point to point or a full mesh. Point to point is straightforward. A VPN mesh is very, very messy. A mesh ensures that you pretty much have a tunnel available to you.

There is probably a lot more to it and I could dig it up. Oh... let me check... anyone's head tilted to one side with drool running out of your mouth. /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif - thought so. I'll turn off the geeky stuff now!!

Terry

 

[WVBill]

We ran VPN tunnels from site to site in the last project I worked on and found that the "overhead" used by the VPN was 40% of our bandwidth utilization on any given link.
AND the additional latency (latency = the time it takes a packet to get from here to there) introduced by the VPN caused unacceptable slowness in our Lotus Domino Database application (I know, why the heck were we using Lotus...). We were wresteling with the "do we dump the database or dump the VPN" decision when I left the project.

 

[TerryinMD]

WVBill,

If it were up to me, I'd dump the Lotus Notes. But, that's me. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Never liked the silly product.... But, that's me. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Did I mention that I don't like Lotus Notes. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Terry

 

[JonLeonard]

You guys are a bit harsh /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif As a Lotus Notes administrator and developer for the last 4 years, I can feel your pain though.

Jon

 

[DVerbarg]

The satellite system is very fast where significant chunks of data are downloading. For simple and small text web pages the speed difference between a simple dial-up and the two-way satellite is insignificant, but then when was the last time we saw simple web pages (besides the "latency" link listed in the post above)? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

At work we use Citrix server for remote access to our network. It seems to be a rather "chatty" type of setup. I can work just as well on a dial-up (sometimes faster) than I can with the satellite /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Usually I use the speed of the satellite to download the files, work for a few hours, then upload them again. Of course this is not the "approved" way of working but it works best for me.

The network guys tell me that the VPNs are even more "chatty" then Citrix server but they are contemplating going to a VPN. Had to remind them that satellite systems don't do VPNs (Starband highly recommends not attempting it) and that half of the people at work who use remote access use satellite based systems. They think I'm a "wet blanket" and I think they are crazy!

 

[RMulkey]

Hi Rob,

The DirecWay tran/ceiver is for internet only (no DirecTV support) requires 2 coax connections and no other wires/cabling. They make a model that uses the same dish for both DirecWay and DirecTV but we already had a DirecTV dish for standard TV. The transmitter/reciver plugs in to any USB port. The internet connection can be shared across all members of the home nextwork. DW allows (even encourages) up to 8 active connections for home service at once.

You also asked about home wiring. We just finished building the house ~3 months ago. We used a structored wiring system from OnQ (was a subsidary of AMP corp) with active video distribution, 100Mbps Eithernet and 6 active phone lines routed to 15 locations in the house. They offer a full line of home automation products at <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.onqtech.com/>http://www.onqtech.com/</A>.

I will post some pictures later tonight.

Hope this helps.
-Roger

 

[RMulkey]

David,
You can choose 2 deals from DirecTV. One you pay all the up front costs and then $59/month or $100 installation and 100/month for a year. The actual $$ spent over the first year turns out to be exactly the same but you spread out the payment over the first year.

Go to the direcWay Site <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.direcway.com/>http://www.direcway.com/</A> for more details.

 

[DVerbarg]

Starband is also offering a similiar deal just a little higher: $200 equipment and $100/month for a year or $500 equipment and $70 a month. Its nice to see their pricing is beginning to change. For awhile both DirectWay and Starband had the same prices and there did not seem to be much competition.