Which satellite broadband is best?

echristie

Rural West Cork Village - what would you guys recommend for BB? Eircom has no plans to upgrade exchange to BB, no wireless options available either and village has not enough interest for any group scheme.
How do I work out what capacity I will need, how do I choose a satellite provider, any experience on reliability of service etc. Have Sky TV already, so do I need 2 sat dishes?
Had BB in other countries for years, though not familiar with terminology like "ping", coz never had to go into it in detail before. Hate the thought of paying stacks of money now. Oh, and I use MAC as well, so that means more money for technician to configure the satellite. Any thoughts?

watty

I'm afraid you won't like this...

Satellite BB is fairly poor at anything other than downloading.

Normally they won't let you host anything.

The ping times are WORSE than 1.2kbits per second modem no matter how fast the link is due to the 100,000 mile at least round trip via satellite.

The "ping" command is used to measure the "reponse time" to a distant server, Download speed is not the same thing. Online games need good ping times.

It is more expensive often than 8 hrs a day dialup on ISDN!


It needs a separate dish unless you get a downlink only service.

The MAC is not a problem. Setting the network properties is easy enough. The "box" connects either with USB or Ethernet. With Ethernet no software drivers are needed, just the similar network settings to any broadband.

The cheaper satellite systems may offer little real spead increase over dialup! Only the expensive ones are Broadband speed. The "contention" is typically much worse more serious than Broadband.

It is really either for a company that needs hispped fro video conference and can pay 1000 Euro a month (good broadband speed) or at cheap end of 70 Euro a month (poor dialup speed) for someone that can't get a phone line at all.

watty

The cheapest services are just one way, you use your phone line the whole time online and for upload.

1340harley

I have satellite connection and i must say its a lot better than anything Eircom could offer and, following numerous email and letters to them, a lot better than they planned to offer within the future.

I got the standard response of it would cost too much and there was not enough interest so they were not prepared to offer any form of service. Seems they think its my fault for living in the countryside.

Satellite was the only option open to me and i must agree it is expensive but works fine with 2 PC's connected and still works out cheaper than what i was paying on dialup for the 2 lines etc.

If someone could give me a normal BB connection then that would be great but until then i am happy with the satellite link.

crawler

1340harley wrote:

I have satellite connection and i must say its a lot better than anything Eircom could offer and, following numerous email and letters to them, a lot better than they planned to offer within the future.

I got the standard response of it would cost too much and there was not enough interest so they were not prepared to offer any form of service. Seems they think its my fault for living in the countryside.

Satellite was the only option open to me and i must agree it is expensive but works fine with 2 PC's connected and still works out cheaper than what i was paying on dialup for the 2 lines etc.

If someone could give me a normal BB connection then that would be great but until then i am happy with the satellite link.

Lots of people are happy with satellite, it just needs to be understood - for example gamers would find it a complete nightmare but many SOHO type people find it perfect.....

satellite sometimes comes in for a bad name but if applied to the right use etc it does the job very well....

echristie

Thanks for the feedback.Sounds like I will have to do more research. I don't have to host anything, I use only email and internet --- mostly download (sometimes software updates which can be 40 MB - impossible on dialup) and occasionally I would be emailing 5-10 MB files. Incoming email is rarely over 3MB. So would a "cheaper" satellite package be sufficient? I have no need for VoIP or gaming capaciaties. Would I may be fare just as well with ISDN and use both lines most of the time? But then my provider wil just charge me more anyway. It must be my fault for living out in the fields!

kaizersoze

echristie wrote:

occasionally I would be emailing 5-10 MB files

That won't be any faster than it is now. Don't forget your upload is through normal dialup. Other than that, if you stick to what your other requirements are, it should suit you fine.

byte

Unless he opts for 2way satellite internet access.

2 way satellite is very expensive though.
http://www.digiweb.ie/athome_broadband_satellite_pricing.asp?i=3&i2=6&i6=29

Zaphod

It won't be much help for sending large emails, but 1-way SkyDSL do allow for offline email delivery.
http://www.teles-skydsl.co.uk//?tpl=page/inklusiv

joeirish

Zaphod wrote:

It won't be much help for sending large emails, but 1-way SkyDSL do allow for offline email delivery.
http://www.teles-skydsl.co.uk//?tpl=page/inklusiv

Do you use this? Is it any good. Which package would you recommend?

Zaphod

joeirish wrote:

Do you use this? Is it any good. Which package would you recommend?

Of the 3 Sat ISPs I've tried (netsystem, satspeed, skydsl), skydsl is the best. Definitely makes browsing, downloading a much less painful experience than standard dial-up. I have only ever tested the offline email facility as a once-off, although it did work fine.

Using the cheapest package as it's the most suitable for current requirements. YMMV. There are other options too e.g. Centralpoint.
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/censura.php?cmd=browse&category_id=5&x=10&y=11&sortby=avgscore&direction=desc

watty

You can have a kind of free "teletext" style web page download using Casablanca.

Very useful before I got Broadband.

damo605

Have you tried www.rapidbroadband.ie (Absolutely brilliant) or www.digitalforge.ie (No experience of them) as they offer wireless broadband covering a good bit of West Cork from €25 per month?
I know with digiweb 2 way satellite it's about a grand for the install and about 100 euro per month but you get 512 down and 128 up for that - latency is a bugger alright but in general it's still a million times better than dial-up if you're not gaming online or anything like that. Monthy quotas are tight though, maybe only about 3 gig on the basic package!

netwhizkid

I use Skydsl 1mbps service for €16.90 per month with 1gig of download allowance included and if i go over that then it is 1.5¢ per MB. It is quite good, however the Dial-Up is a wallet killer unless you go for one of the Higher up flat rate packages available from Eircom. That would provide too many hours for my requirements however and would be more expensive then! It is a brilliant service to use and makes the Internet usable again! Only snag is you are limited to 44Kbps Upload or whatever dial-up speed you use. It works with ISDN too, but requires an Pentium III ideally a Pentium 4 processor and doesnt work with MAC or other non-windows systems or at least it didn't when i signed up 6 months ago. It is self install and aligning the dish to Telecom 2D at 8° West is very tricky, I myself had to buy a Satellite Meter from Ebay to align the dish at a cost of €160.

watty

A 20 Euro beeper will work fine too.

netwhizkid

Possibly but I had a proffesional out and all he had was one of those and after two hours no luck ! But i guess if you kept at it it might work

watty

Well 8W is not a huge signal and if you are on the wrong H/V and low/high band you get nearly nothing.

5W is louder to find and then move dish west slightly and fine tune again.

Perhaps the "expert professional" was only used to getting Sky / Hotbird /astra which you might get on a rustly bin lid. I have a suitable shiny bin lid and for amusement I will see if I can get a Sky signal on it

echristie

damo605 wrote:

Have you tried www.rapidbroadband.ie (Absolutely brilliant) or www.digitalforge.ie (No experience of them) as they offer wireless broadband covering a good bit of West Cork from €25 per month?

Looks like neither have coverage in my area and as ususal there is likely to be mac incompatibility. I will phone them both and see.

Sponge Bob

there is no mac incompatibility issue any more because they use ethernet boxes in their customers homes.

for satellite you may have more probs than with wireless.

echristie

Sponge Bob wrote:

there is no mac incompatibility issue any more because they use ethernet boxes in their customers homes.

for satellite you may have more probs than with wireless.

can you just clarify who you mean by "they"?

Sponge Bob

'they' are the Wireless or VSAT operators.

if the operator is wireless and ethernet only in your home they are mac compatible.

if the operator is usb only in your home they are not mac compatible

if the operator is 'internal card' in your home only they are not mac compatible

most VSAT systems (one or 2 way) require you install an internal card (will not work) or that you take a USB external box (will not work) . An alternative is to get one PC running windows XP (dell do them as cheap as €350 at the moment) and 'share' the connection with the rest of your gear on an internal network in your home .

some of the 2 way ones will give you an ethernet presentation option but not the 1 way ones

Zaphod

Silvermead?
http://www.silvermead.co.uk/satellite/oneway/modems.html

Robxxx7

Zaphod wrote:

Silvermead?
http://www.silvermead.co.uk/satellite/oneway/modems.html

Don't use Silvermead.... they are terrible ...severe lack of support and you can never contact anyone there .... try and ring up there support and get an answer .... it goes to voicemail and they never call you back (but hey...thats just my experience)

Zicom

Hi,
I run a company <.cg snip> and we are the Master Partners in Ireland for SkyDSL.
We offer download speeds of up to 16Mb/s and the service is alot faster than the 2Mb broadband offered by Eircom. The contention ratio (how many other people are sharing your bandwith) is alot lower.
We also offer prices lower than skyDSL themselves as all our monthly tariff prices include VAT.
The service has other advantages over ADSL from Eircom and BT as there is no download limit on the unlimited packages. I download aprox 30GB a month with no problems and great speeds.
The service is no good for gaming though as no satellite service is at present.
OK for VOIP but there is a small lag bue to the ping times.
Take a look <.cg snip> see the options.

croiadh

.

watty

Zicom wrote:

(Snipped boring advertising stuff)

I download aprox 30GB a month with no problems and great speeds.
The service is no good for gaming though as no satellite service is at present.
OK for VOIP but there is a small lag bue to the ping times.

My terrestrial BB is good for gaming and VOIP and is wireless. No phone line. 30G cap. Four / Five of use use it and download about 7.5G per month.

No Satellite will ever be good for gaming and is mostly very poor for VOIP. Even ordinary phone calls are only allowed one hop in one direction. VOIP by DSAT has at least twice the latency, as extra latency is introduced by buffers etc.

BTW you can't advertise for free here.

damien

watty wrote:

BTW you can't advertise for free here.

It's ok Watty, an invoice has already been sent out. The Terms and Conditions state that advertisements cost 15 euros per word in this high-traffic forum or an affordable 400 for a one day ad (or part thereof). I'm sure DeVore will be quite happy with this additional bit of cash. Thanks for the support Zicom!

crawler

Latency?
Lag?

Do the guys not know that satellite is now "latency free" due to the invention of the satellite fluggel binder.....

I despair....

cgarvey

Zicom, add something to the discussion other than exaggerated satellite is great claims, or read the forum charter before posting, or don't post at all!

ta
.cg

Altreab

damo605 wrote:

Have you tried www.rapidbroadband.ie (Absolutely brilliant) or www.digitalforge.ie (No experience of them) as they offer wireless broadband covering a good bit of West Cork from €25 per month?
I know with digiweb 2 way satellite it's about a grand for the install and about 100 euro per month but you get 512 down and 128 up for that - latency is a bugger alright but in general it's still a million times better than dial-up if you're not gaming online or anything like that. Monthy quotas are tight though, maybe only about 3 gig on the basic package!

the cost is €99 +VAT (€119.79) a month. This is for use the "fair usage" policy. You are also left to the end of the Q when downloading if other higher paying customers are using the bandwidth. This is not a problem if as crawler says your aware that this is the case.
The monthly quotas are around the 3Gig mark (Digiweb never given an exact monthly allowance) and are calculated on a rolling 30 day basis .....so download 4 Gigs on days 1,2 and 3 and you will be restricted for the next 30 days. (not that this has ever ever happened to me *cough cough*)
When i say restricted i mean the actual download speed is about halved, then slowed again until you wise up and get your rolling average down!! Could this be described as "throttling" download speeds?
Funny thing is outside certain hours the download speeds revert to full speed again
Now if your uploading files such as websites you may actually find it quicker to use dial-up to do the job. I have found this to be the case on a number of ocassions!! Dial-up been nearly 15% faster on average!! EDIT..... This is what i found on the sites i was working on at the time!! as always results may vary from site to site and the type of files been uploaded!!!
Again like all things Satellite has its advantages and disadvantages ......you just have to know them and be willing to live with them!!

The Real B-man

echristie wrote:

can you just clarify who you mean by "they"?

Satellite Isp's i.e Digiweb