[NCLUG] off topic Direcway Sat Broadband

[Michael Dwyer]

Joshua SS Miller wrote:
> 
> Anyone here have any experance with the two way satillite internet
> access products?  How are they affected by snow?  Good or bad overall.

I'm afraid the only experience I have with them is second-hand, and
based on my comparisons with DBS satellite.  That said, I have never had
a snow outage on my DBS TV dish.  The installer (DavCom) comes with
STRONG recommendations from me.  He installed the dish is a protected
space, where it doesn't get much snow, and where it is easily accessable
if I ever do need to clean it off.  If you do have problems with is,
dish warmers are available.  

As for the service, the watch-word is 'latency'.  It takes something
like 300msec to make the trip from your computer to the internet.  Once
the connection is open, the transfer speeds are pretty high, but
anything interactive is pretty painful.  File downloads are speedy, but
it is painful to use SSH, and impossible to play the multi-player
first-person-shooter of your choice.
They normally come with some wierd software, that is as a rule, Windows
Only.  The software is a news spooler and web cache, mostly -- things to
keep you from noticing the latency.
The hardware is often Windows only, as well.  I recall hearing of a hack
against one of the receivers to activate the ethernet port, though.
(This was Starband, I think...)

Anyway, if are off in the boonies, I think it is the only choice... but
other options, such as DSL and CATV should probably be looked at first. 
Another 'in the boonies' option might be CWX.net.  It is a little slower
than satellite, and it is still not recommended for playing net-games,
but it is an excellent option...