Satellite Broadband is it worth it?

1huge1

jimoc wrote:

Just to give a bit of personal experience here.
Our office in Limerick has DSL from Eircom.
Our office in Wicklow has two way satellite from Aramiska. (no LOS for anything else and allegedly too far from the exchange for DSL.)
Don't even think about getting Satellite if you are doing anything except downloading large files or surfing pages.
VPN is useless.
VNC is useless.
PC Anywhere is unusable unless you are used to moving your mouse at a rate of millimetres per second.
VOIP is like using walkie-talkies. After every sentence you will have to say 'Over' then wait for 3 seconds before the person on the other side starts responding.
And as for ssh connections all I can say is, it is possible to make a cup of coffee while waiting for a response from a simple ls -la command
So my advise is, stay far far away from a satellite connection.

just out of curiousity does caherconlish have any bb options other than satellite because hospital is fairly close to it and all we have is satellite and we are a good bit bigger than caherconlish

oscarBravo

Caherconlish has been approved for a group broadband scheme (using fixed wireless, not satellite) under the second call for proposals. The rollout of services should begin in the next few months.

Hospital's satellite scheme was approved under the first call for proposals.

1huge1

what kind of idiots are in charge of our broadband scheme why would we want satellite over wireless or adsl

zuma

1huge1 wrote:

what kind of idiots are in charge of our broadband scheme why would we want satellite over wireless or adsl

Lazy idiots who dont want to go to the trouble of going the wireless route as Satellite BB is far easier to setup!!!

genie

Please excuse my ignorance but why do you still need dial up for satellite BB? My brother has just bought a cottage in the arse end of Co Sligo, nearest house with a phone is one and a half miles away, he has a mobile and doesn't really want to get in a phone line. Is satellite BB completely out of the question here?

netwhizkid

genie wrote:

Please excuse my ignorance but why do you still need dial up for satellite BB? My brother has just bought a cottage in the arse end of Co Sligo, nearest house with a phone is one and a half miles away, he has a mobile and doesn't really want to get in a phone line. Is satellite BB completely out of the question here?

Well for one way satellite broadband (which requires a dial-up or mobile connection for the send part of it and for uploading) You'd probably require a dial-up connection for Skydsl which is what i have. I am getting extremely sick of it though as it has been down about 5 times in the last 2 weeks, the customer service is manure, Basically german speakers and if you want help expect up to a week for e-mail reply. I am looking forward to terminating my contract this march hopefully the CGBS (County Group Broadband Scheme) will have delivered it by then as major steps are afoot right now to bring it to my community. Has anyone any experiences with these group broadband schemes ? How do they compare to ADSL from Eircom or is there any difference ? Right now i am so P*ssed with my satellite bb that i'd advise against it unless you know that broadband won't be available where you live for like a year or whatever.

genie

Thanks for that! Looks like he'll have to make do with his mobile and use the pc's at the library. :rolleyes:

1huge1

netwhizkid wrote:

Well for one way satellite broadband (which requires a dial-up or mobile connection for the send part of it and for uploading) You'd probably require a dial-up connection for Skydsl which is what i have. I am getting extremely sick of it though as it has been down about 5 times in the last 2 weeks, the customer service is manure, Basically german speakers and if you want help expect up to a week for e-mail reply. I am looking forward to terminating my contract this march hopefully the CGBS (County Group Broadband Scheme) will have delivered it by then as major steps are afoot right now to bring it to my community. Has anyone any experiences with these group broadband schemes ? How do they compare to ADSL from Eircom or is there any difference ? Right now i am so P*ssed with my satellite bb that i'd advise against it unless you know that broadband won't be available where you live for like a year or whatever.

ya my town of hospital got our broadband from the rural community thing total waste of time all we got offered was satellite broadband dont get your hopes up

oscarBravo

netwhizkid wrote:

...hopefully the CGBS (County Group Broadband Scheme) will have delivered it by then as major steps are afoot right now to bring it to my community. Has anyone any experiences with these group broadband schemes ? How do they compare to ADSL from Eircom or is there any difference ?

Depends on the provider - more to the point, depends on the technology they're using. What's your local scheme?

netwhizkid

oscarBravo wrote:

Depends on the provider - more to the point, depends on the technology they're using. What's your local scheme?

Afaik the community is giving the idea of working with eircom to fast track exchange enablement consideration, We are in the process of canvassing people to see how much interest will be there first as their is only about 700 people but there is about 150 new houses being built in the community. A meeting will be held and i will be doing more research between here and then. Ideally exchange enablement would be the solution as it would allow for everything like P2P, voip, gaming etc. Another solution could be wireless as my area is farily mountainy. Any more info on the new wimax wireless that supposdley allows for non-line of sight usage ? The satellite thing i have is grand as its back again now, whatever went wrong ! but ideally i want 24/7 365 unlimited access as does everyone, ah we can all dream !

oscarBravo

netwhizkid wrote:

Afaik the community is giving the idea of working with eircom to fast track exchange enablement consideration, We are in the process of canvassing people to see how much interest will be there first as their is only about 700 people but there is about 150 new houses being built in the community. A meeting will be held and i will be doing more research between here and then. Ideally exchange enablement would be the solution as it would allow for everything like P2P, voip, gaming etc.

If you're considering going that route, be sure to demand a minimum level of line passes from Eircom. I'd suggest at least 80% of connected lines. If they're not willing to commit to that, ask yourself why.

netwhizkid wrote:

Another solution could be wireless as my area is farily mountainy. Any more info on the new wimax wireless that supposdley allows for non-line of sight usage ?

WiMax doesn't do NLOS outside of urban areas.

Sponge Bob

oscarBravo wrote:

If you're considering going that route, be sure to demand a minimum level of line passes from Eircom. I'd suggest at least 80% of connected lines.

80% of connected lines (on that exchange) on day one, otherwise Eircom will never fix them up. If they install the gear and then test the lines off the exchange and find that 60% pass they must fix some lines pronto before the exchange is declared 'live' and they get paid .

When talking to Eircom this kind of guarantee is called an SLA or service level agreement and is normal in the tecoms industry so they cannot pretend they never heard of it