getting broadband, a little help ?

netwhizkid

Hi guys,

Basically my situation is where i live adsl broadband will arrive at about the 12th of never. So i'm getting satellite broadband, i'm getting it via Central Point, 256kbps one way, diy install. Has anybody ever done this ? Are these guys Central Point good to deal with ? and also what sort of a service do they provide is it in lay mans terms okay ?

Any help would be most appreciated,

Regards,
netwhizkid

diarmo

Are you sure one-way is the best option??

Most satellite BB providers offer a two-way service nowadays, thus elimaniting the need for a phoneline/modem to upload files.

Maxwell

I would be interested in what happens with you net wiz kid. I am in the same position as you and will need to get sattelite broadband in.Where are you based?
And have you already got your sattelite dish connected etc?

Maxwell

Why are you going for Central Point - are they the cheapest?

Xcellor

256kbps one way seems woefully slow.

I pity those who don't have access to broadband. We all bitch and moan at Esat, Eircom, UTV and IBB (etc) but at least we've got broadband.

I think I would rather stick with dialup than go for a puny 256kb sat connection though.

Dcully

If its for gaming dont touch satellite bb.

Xcellor

Dcully wrote:

If its for gaming dont touch satellite bb.

Unless of course it's turn based
X

Mutant_Fruit

Have you fully researched satellite. Do you fully understand how woeful it really is. Especially one way satellite. Thats just glorified 56k. This is really a last option. Hell, it'd probably be cheaper to get a second phoneline and get a dialup package off esat or something. And better value too.

jbkenn

netwhizkid wrote:

Hi guys,

Basically my situation is where i live adsl broadband will arrive at about the 12th of never. So i'm getting satellite broadband, i'm getting it via Central Point, 256kbps one way, diy install. Has anybody ever done this ? Are these guys Central Point good to deal with ? and also what sort of a service do they provide is it in lay mans terms okay ?

Any help would be most appreciated,

Regards,
netwhizkid

Firstly, netwhizkid you are not getting broadband, you are getting giddyup satellite, worse than that, you are getting one way giddyup satellite.
Secondly from their own FAQ

I'm getting really high ping times. Why is this ?
Satellite internet doesn't enable you to have fast response over internet protocol in this way. Remember that the data you receive has to be transmitted from the Astra base station to the satellite and back down to your dish. This is a considerable distance. Even though the radio signals involved travel at the speed of light, it still means a lag of around a quarter of a second before your computer received the response.
This makes little difference when browsing the web, receiving email or downloading large files, because once you've requested the data, it can be received in a continuous stream. However, applications like voice over IP, video conferencing and internet gaming require fast reaction times, which make these applications unsuitable for satellite internet.
Some people have had limited success in developing and using these kind of applications over satellite, but we can't recommend using them.

At least they have the decency to tell you in aint worth a $hit

Get in touch with your local council, and ask to speak to the County Co-Ordinator for the County and Group Broadband Scheme he/she will be able to advise and assist you in starting a group broadband scheme in your area.

jbkenn

Xcellor

Satellite internet connections used to be like gold. Then online gaming was invented/voip/video conferencing etc. now they are last resorts for many.

X

Maxwell

Ah jesus - i am at the end of my thether now!!!

I am in a rural area and broadband will probably arrive when my unborn child turns 20

So What can I do - I am willing to spend the money to get better accesss that 33.3 kps

What about an isdn line????

Is eircom Hi Speed ISDN? Is it recommended to go for?

help - I can't take it anymore!....i thought sattelite was my only option/???

Xcellor

Maxwell wrote:

Ah jesus - i am at the end of my thether now!!!

I am in a rural area and broadband will probably arrive when my unborn child turns 20

So What can I do - I am willing to spend the money to get better accesss that 33.3 kps

What about an isdn line????

help - I can't take it anymore!....i thought sattelite was my only option/???

Buy a 56k modem

If you are wanting decent internet in the short term your only option is to move near an enabled exchange.

ISDN is expensive, not that fast. (64 k for single, 128 for dual)

X

Maxwell

I checked with Eircom re: high speed - Jesus!!

€199 to upgrade my line to ISDN
This gives me 2 lines of 64k speed
So if accessing internet on 1 line - Im at speeds of 64k - buuuuutt if I use noth ports I will get 128k but each call will be x 2! Twice the call price them!

My rental will be upted to 37.50

Why can't they help the poor people who can't get Broadband by slashing the costs of ISDN - at least give us 128k at half the price of broadband for fecks sake!

In talking to the Rep from Eircom she said that she was told that EVERY exchange in the country will be broadband enabled by the end of year (2005) - is this right or pure bull?

I really need help or I am going to lose it - Im accessing (on a brand new line by the way) the interenet at speeds of 33.3!!!!

Why can my father in law in the next town get speed of 49 even when his line is older than mine??

Maxwell

I have a 56K modem - but I still only access at 33.3

Why? oh Why?

.......and Im not moving as I love it where I live!

netwhizkid

Hi,
thanks everybody for the great response in really appreciate it.

Originally posted by diarmo
Are you sure one-way is the best option??

Most satellite BB providers offer a two-way service nowadays, thus elimaniting the need for a phoneline/modem to upload files.

Yes I’m sure one-way is the best option for me, its not the best option overall but it will do fine for me as I won’t be using online gaming or VOIP

Originally posted by Maxwell
I would be interested in what happens with you net wiz kid. I am in the same position as you and will need to get sattelite broadband in.Where are you based?
And have you already got your sattelite dish connected etc?

I’m based in South Kerry, afaik ADSL will not be here UNTIL after September, Thats Eircom told me anyway, but I know it’s a ploy and it won’t actually arrive until the 2007 deadline. Eircom has an deadline for themselves to reach of 90% BB coverage by then. And as for the other 10% they’ll either have to do without it or maybe they might come under a government group BB scheme. No I don’t have it installed yet I was hoping someone here might have had got it and would post to tell me if it was any good. I have chosen Central point because they are the cheapest I could find with the DIY install coming in somewhere under €200 (including internal sat modem card and all set up fees). The monthly rental will be UK£18.50 or roughly between €26 to €28 depending on rates for the 256kbps package. They also have a 512kbps service and that is UK£28.50 or over €40 per month but I’m going with the 256kbps package. I have got a Sky 80cm dish so what I plan to do is replace the lnb with either a dual or quad lnb and route the 2nd cable to my Pc. Although a guy on the icdg satellite forum advised me this.

Originally posted by cormacl
advise you get the correct sky type (usually a single or quad LNB are all thats available for Sky dishes). The Sky dish shape is not fully circular and normal LNBs are not perfect for it.. people do get results with normal LNBs but from what I hear its not the optimal.

It seems that and I never really noticed it until now is that the sky dish is not round like an old Sky analogue dish for example so it seems I shall have to source a Sky Dual or Quad Lnb for the purpose.

Orginally posted by Xcellor
256kbps one way seems woefully slow.

I pity those who don't have access to broadband. We all bitch and moan at Esat, Eircom, UTV and IBB (etc) but at least we've got broadband.

I think I would rather stick with dialup than go for a puny 256kb sat connection though.

I know it is slow compared to the 1 & 2 Mbs by esat and the rest of them. But for me it will be like going from a donkey to a Ferrari ! I currently get 44kbps on my dial up and with this it will be a massive improvement for me. I am hoping it will be between 4 or 5 times faster. I am considering getting eircom high speed isdn so that as you still have to dial up in the normal sense it would enable me to phone calls at the same time as browsing the net also it would up my upload from 44kbps to either 64kbps or 128kbps depending on which I choose, after all it will only add an extra €13.32 to my monthly telephone rental and the install is €119.99 so its not an awful wad of cash plus it would make it more broadband like with the ability to receive and make calls while online. I am hoping that normal BB will arrive sooner than later and I am seeing this as a temporary solution, plus its not going to break the bank compared to eircoms sat bb which costs €423 to install and your on a 12 month contract as with Central Point you can ditch it after the first 3 months if you wish. I will propably sign a contract with them next week or the week after I will try to get the turnips in Eircom to give me a date on which my local exchange will be enabled, if it was within the next 6 to 8 months I’d wait, but after that its one way puny glorified Sat BB for me, but as I say anything will be better than what I have, 44kbps and I guess I should count myself rather lucky I know people getting between 12kbps and 26kbps. I noticed when I upgraded my PC from an Packard Bell 6yrs old that my speed went from 40kbps to 44kbps it not much but as the say every little helps.

I will post back here soon to let ye all know how I got on I’ll also post back here to tell ye if the idea is dropped, but as it stands now I’m on course for Central Point one-way Sat BB.

Thanks for all the info guys,
Feel free to to post any suggestions or coments you may have,

Regards netwhizkid

Maxwell

Net Whiz,

I would be very interested in how you get on - would you mind posting back here when you get it set up so you may let me know how you got on. That is when I am looking to get it done and would like to have some added advice from someone going through what I have to go through aswell.

Thanks for posting this thread - and I apologise for hi-jacking it.

Sponge Bob

One way sat providers such as silvermead and cpsat and AVCBroadband and Others broadcast from the Astra2 Eurobird cluster so if you can get one of them you can get ANY of them .

They generally ship the same 'modem' a DVB-S card, the 'modem' is available here in Germany , http://www.dvbshop.net very cheaply, €70 incl delivery or €50 on its own

http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_10&products_id=123

also twin pack of cards

http://www.dvbshop.net/index.php?cPath=1_10

then get a Dual LNB for your sky dish

Heres one for €25 that you put in instead of the existing one on the existing dish

http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php?cPath=21_42&products_id=182

and some F connectors and a length of shielded cable from the dish to the back of the PC .

Cable €15

http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php?cPath=4_18&products_id=143

and F connectors

http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php?cPath=21_47&products_id=144

Thats all the extra h/w you need to add to a sky dish for a one way sat system for about €110 incl delivery .

Connect the Dual LNB to the dish first instead of the existing single and make sure teh SKY box is happy with it and once that all works then add the cable run to the PC from the LNB and install the card in the PC .

Your PC also becomes a Hard Disk recorder and Telly as you can view and record UNENCRYPTED channels such as the BBC on the PC through that card (but not Sky channels )

HTH

netwhizkid

Hi,

Thanks for all the info,

My plan for Central Point Sat Broadband is after losing alot of its charm i am after discovering Euroskynet. I am surprised i didnt find this earlier, a quick google and there it was on the right on the sposored links side. They may be able to deliver up to 4MB for as little as €34.90 a month the snag is that i'll have to get a bigger dish at least 80CMs but i reckon it will be more around the 1.2 metres size i shall have to do research into it. They also offer 1Mb from €6.90 a month and sign up for 12 months and the first 3 are free this also applies to the 4MB package. They go all the way up to 16mb. I am drooling like a kid in a candy store at the prospect of possibly being able to get this. This is far ahead of the 2mb max offered by smart and 1mb by eircom adsl. I know theres no upload speed only crappy dial-up and no VOIP etc but that dosent matter to me as with alot of people all i want is to be able to surf at high speed. you can check out euroskynet here. I am hoping to be able to get this, but like i stated earlier any thing is better that dial-up wheter its central point 256kbps sat bb or euroskynet sat bb from 1mb to 16mb.

Regards netwhizkid

PS i'll keep ye posted, on whatever choice i make, and Maxwell i'll post here if i choose Central Point, dont worry i'll everybody know how i'm getting on.

Maxwell

Im drooling now aswell - thanks for the link!!

If this works??????


Happy days!

Giblet

It sucks though, because you have to have you're phone line connected for uploading. Which is all the time.

Maxwell

Giblet wrote:

It sucks though, because you have to have you're phone line connected for uploading. Which is all the time.

Yes, but its a HUGE! improvement of dial up of 33.6!!

Will get it until Broadband becomes available where I live.

eircom, shower of gits!

diarmo

Maxwell,

Have you done much research into a bi-directional Satellite BB service??

Even though I have EsatBT BB...16mbits looks very nice indeed and spending €200 on the extra equipment dosent seem like such a massive investment as 16mbit dsl is at least 5years away.

As I dont play or intend to play games or use VOIP...a full-duplex Satellite service seems very impressive for the raw downloading/uploading capabilities.

netwhizkid

well,

I have ordered Skydsl Classic 1 €6.90 a Month 1MBps plus 1.5cent for every MB i download, which for me will work out at about €20 a month MAX. I also ordered the dish and other stuff i need from www.satellite.ie quite a handy service, imagine tracking down all that stuff manually, impossible. The whole lot between satellite.ie and and euroskynet cost me €293.22 yes more expensive than Central Point but remember its 4 times faster and the monthly rental is cheaper.

I expect all my stuff to arrive within 2 weeks so i'll post back here to let ye know how i got on with the install and how its working.

Regards netwhizkid

Maxwell

Excellent - wish you all the best NetWhiz.

If this works for you, then I am going to go the exact same as you.

I don't mind paying the 293.22 as long as I get the increased speed at a €20 a month for the benefit of 1MB sounds great to me.


Let us all know how you got on and best of luck!

Maxwell

Diarmo,

I havent done as much research as netWhiz here and am only jumping on the bandwagon. He would be the best person to ask.

niallb

diarmo wrote:

As I dont play or intend to play games or use VOIP...a full-duplex Satellite service seems very impressive for the raw downloading/uploading capabilities.

One way sat and your current broadband would surely be cheaper than any two way sat option.

There's no hard rule that says your return path has to be by telephone. You use your normal ISP with the sat providers.
You just need to access a particular type of proxy.

This would allow you throw away your bandwidth caps, and up your download speeds for little extra.
If you did want some low latency application, like VOIP,
hey you still got broadband.

From euroskynet's faq.
http://www.euroskynet.com//?tpl=page/faqs#53

5.5 Can I combine skyDSL with a traditional terrestrial DSL service?
Yes, this is possible.

NiallB

ndillane

Netwhizkid
Any chance you could provide more info on what exactly you bought from Satellite.ie.
BTW what's their service like?
How do you intend to "find" the satellite signal. i.e. do you have some kind of meter or something ? (Obviously I know little about satellite but have reading lots)

netwhizkid

Hi,
Yeah, from satellite.ie i ordered a channel master 80cm dish, Digiality .3db LNB, 15metres of cable and some f connectors, The service is quite good, it was a day delayed, An posts (SDS) fault the dish was slightly dented but this appears to be an posts fault again. I didnt get around to putting the dish up yet, my Pci satellite modem card from euroskynet has also arrived with driver disks and manual. When i ordered the skydsl service from euroskynet the website said i'd be working of the atlantic 2D satellite, but 3 days after when their emails came back to me with confirmation of the sale it turned out it will be the E Bird 2A satellite i shall be recieving off, this means my cable i ordered will be too short because the satellite dish shall now have to mounted on the other gable of the house, I ordered my dish and skydsl stuff the same evening, if anyone follows my path order your satellite equipment after euroskynet replys not before.

I intend to try and install the dish myself it says in the manual if i can get roughly locked on to the satellite that the software will guide me to locking on for the best signal. If this fails i will get an installer, i know of one whos company does sat broadband so he should be able to help me if i fail.

about satellite.ie 's service i found it very effecient, and the service is good, i spoke over the phone to the guy there and found him very helpful and geniunely interested in my custom.

I will post back here to let everyone know how i got on i hope to be up and running by mid-week or next weekend at the latest.

Regards netwhizkd

netwhizkid

Originally Posted by myself
i hope to be up and running by mid-week or next weekend at the latest.

Yeah i wish, man what problems i've had with it, so here are some rules i'd follow if you were going to go with it.

1. Don't order your dish and Equipment together, Wait until your euroskynet skydsl stuff comes first. Then order the dish etc.

2. Have patience, It took nearly two weeks for my Pci card and software, manuals etc. to come, i thought i was after being scammed.

3. Get a compass, or your never align that dish, i still haven't lined mine up but an installer is coming this saturday to try and help.

4. Consult your pc manual when installing that pci card, quite tricky unless you read the Pc manual.

5. Check to see if you have a firewall, it turned out i had two, the Mcafee one and the windows default one, they and the skydsl software got on like like a bag of cats, but i fixed it eventually. (With Dells help)

6. This is their contact number in germany, seeming they didn't have the manners to post it on their website. Use telestunt to ring them (at local call rates) as you will probably will be kept listening to bethoven for a few mins. When you get through it be in german but they have english speaking reps. Just say "Speak English" and they'll help you the best they can i found them rather helpful, they even rang me back to see how i was getting on.

7. What can i say, i hope it works for you as it hasn't for me yet i hope to rectify that this saturday. They said they'll refund me if i don't get it working, i might yet have to hold them to that, hopefully not as 1mbps for €6.99 plus 1.5cent for every mb you download (that the package i chose) is not to be sniffed at.

8. Ignore E-bird 2A and 2B they are over Ireland but unless your with nasa or unless you have an awfully expensive meter with those satellites on it you won't pick them em up unless you accidentaly pick them up. Telecom 2d at 8 degrees west is what i'm aiming for now, it has a stronger signal over Ireland unfortunatly i'll have to move my dish again, i wouldn't mind but thats what according to the website i was aiming for first day and then an e-mail from them said use Transponder E-bird 2A. :mad:

9. If it goes belly up for me and they refund me it only have cost me €150 for the dish and add ons (lnb etc.) and i can use them for freesat or some european channels or i might get my installer to align it to the sky digital setting so i can get Central Point Sat BB if Euroskynet Skydsl fails.

10. Budget an Extra €100 to €150 incase you'll have to get an installer as i did.

Well i'll post back here next Monday evening to let ye all know how i got on with the installer and how its working (if its working that is)

Regards netwhizkid

ndillane

Netwhizkid
Any news yet, did you get this working yet
tks
N

netwhizkid

Hi ndillane,
Well about getting it working, i got my installer out and he couldn't get it onto the right satellite (Telecom 2D), but i have bought a satellite meter off ebay and its on the way i'd say i should have it maybe next wednesday or thursday. But to add insult to injury now when i'm almost ready for the sat bb, my computer goes haywire, i lost all my files and everything a friend of mine who's a genius at pcs has taken it and is re-loading all the main windows etc. It will be like a new computer, Dell eh ? So when i reload all my drivers for the sat bb and when i get my sat dish aligned with my new meter i should be working, on the other side i'm never getting out of bed on a friday the 13th again !

Regards netwhizkid