No offense to my ISP, but I’d like better (ie, FASTER) connections. I checked with the local phone company for DSL, which we now HAVE in this area, but seems my house is 3,000 feet OUTSIDE the required area for DSL.
(The phone company laughed uproariously when I suggested they move their switching station closer to my house.)
Now, I’m hearing I can get the same faster connection with a satellite server. Does anyone know more about this? How would I find satellite servers in my area (San Antonio, TX)?
SPEEDO’S…I want SPEEDOS! Ooops. :o
“There will always be somebody who’s never read a book who’ll know twice what you know.” - D.Duchovny
A friend of mine has satellite access, and it is pretty good, though only really effective on large downloads. You can watch the download speed accelerate as the system gets up to speed. However, you’re limited to regular modem upstream. Personally, I’d recommend looking into a cable modem before going satellite. Cheaper and faster.
A satelite connection requires a telephone based internect connection to send out data requests for your computer. Only incoming data is sent by satelite after routing through the satelite upload service provider, which is another person for you to pay. It does cost more for this type of service, and don’t forget the special hardware purchase of the dish and card. Your television’s DDS dish isn’t going to download the signal for you. The provider’s can be found on the internet using a search engine. I have not looked it up for about a year. It was Direct something. Satelite? Dish?
I contemplated Direct PC briefly, but dropped the idea because you need a direct “line of sight” to the satellite. Obstructing walls and buildings (they say a window is okay) will interfere.
Personally, I am thrilled with cable modem service. It’s about the same price as the most limited ADSL, but I consistently get 1.1Mbps down and 250Kbps up.
Don’t forget about shotgun or multi-ppp connections. You just need multiple phone lines. The one shotgun I looked at would dial on the second phone line as load increased. For me, I’d go from 26400 to 53800. ADSL will be in my neighborhood in March and I’ll be on that bandwagon.
I didn’t find a whole lot about multi-ppp connections, I think it’s like shotgun, only with n modems.
DSL just came to my area, Monterey, California. Right now its $54.00 for the min. speed [128-345k?]. You are connected to the net all the time. You can get regular phone calls all that time too. External modem is $189.00, installation, $200 [an hour or so], parts, splitter, etc included.
Cable modems are fine, they do it thru something called @home. However, the newsgroup newserver sucks.
Also, most if not all, of the best newservers are now changing to the more you download, the more you pay.
Frankly, Im still at 57k until they work out things for the ADSL [read stories about people who have it in newsgroup: ba.internet]. Soon, internal modems [$100] & not always connected, but still ADSL, $20 a month should be coming in later this year.
@Home is only one of the cable ISPs. I have Road Runner (DC area). My news server rocks. I can consistently pull as much as my cable modem is capable from it.
One disadvantage to cable service is that at least as things stand now, you don’t get to choose your ISP. If your cable company uses @Home, that’s your only choice. My only choice is Road Runner. Fortunately, Road Runner has worked quite well for me.
I have road runner as well. So far it has worked well.
I get 1+ Mbps download and not sure about the upload.
The DSL/ADSL is roughly equivalent speedwise, though is usually costlier and limited to you having to be within 3 miles or so of the switching station.
The Satellite is the most likely to be available in all areas (barring the line of sight thing), the problem is that it is only 400Kbps for download (max) and modem speed for upload. Usually it is very expensive to have. My cable is 40 per month, ADSL in Atlanta is 50 per month, but Satellite is like over 100 per month for the 400 K speed.
DirectPC is one and Dish network is another.
I think there are some good articles by the folks at Ziff-Davis on all these technologies. Try searching www.zdnet.com
I have a cable modem from @Home. I get 100KB/s when I’m luck, usually around 40-60. Uploads are pathetic at like 10 KB/s. Personally, although it’s the fastest I can get in my area, I am very dissappointed with the service. Plus, the modem which I have to lease has this problem of disconnecting, and when I get a high bandwidth DL, it times out every few minutes. If I were you, I’d talk to the peopel in my area about the available services before you decide.
I have ADSL and I think it rocks. I am paying $50 a month, and got free installation. I bought the ADSL modem for $150 because it was $7 a month to rent it and now I can take it with me when I move. I consistantly get 1.5 Mbps up and down. I was even given a static IP address so I have setup an FTP server at home. I am very happy with it. One thing though, when I called to order it I had to ask if they had any price specials they were running. That is how I got the free installation. They were not going to volunteer the info, so be sure to ask.
Bill Gates has put up several billion dollars towards a global internet satellite system called Teledesic. If they actually get it launched and running, it will provide a full two-way internet link anywhere on the planet. (Not to be confused with Iridium, the global satellite cell phone/pager service.)
My dad’s company (he is a partner) recently changed from a $500 a month satellite dish required by the home office to a DSL. I do not remember which service they went with but I think it was something under the http://www.covad.com consortium. They offered relatively competitive rates and they are a good place to find DSL ISPs in your area.
There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men.
All of this has been helpful in making me realize I live in South Texas. I’d be doing better with two cans and a piece of string. …but thanks for all the good suggestions.
“There will always be somebody who’s never read a book who’ll know twice what you know.” - D.Duchovny
There is a new video, kinda new, Net Force? , about a world wide take over thru computers. The boss guy look very much like Gates. the video store guy said that everyone thought that flick sucked, but I could see the hidden meaning of it. To take over the world thru satellites, computers & operating systems.
Talk about speed, here is from a letter from my ISP the other day:
We are adding three more DS3s to Red Shift to handle growth of DSL and
other services so that we are ahead of the curve on bandwidth demands. A
DS3 is the equivalent of 28 T1s, roughly 45mbps.
Red is the DSL product of Comdisco, which they market through a subsidiary called Prism. It’s currently a NY metro kind of thing, but they’re growing their footprint rapidly. There’s lots of DSL discussion here and elsewhere, and it all applies to Red
…but thanks for all the good suggestions.