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Re: Satellite ISPs

Started by Larry, January 31, 2004, 03:55:17 AM

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Larry

I think Mozilla Firebird will run on any OS.  I know it runs on windows just fine.  They just had a new release and changed the name to Firefox.  It is an easy download and install.  You can run both IE and Firebird and see which you like the best.  Comes with an un installer if you don't like it.

Here is the link if you want more information.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

I wouldn't go to any big expense to get broadband unless you really need it.  DSL is a lot closer than you think.  The biggest obstacle is laws which require the REAL telephone companies to sell their service to the resellers at a loss. >:(  I know everybody is told they are too far (more than 18,000 cable feet) from the central office for DSL but I have designed everything from 56KB to full T-1's and distance is no problem – just a little more work.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Corley5

I've about had it with my super slow dial up internet.  I NEVER connect any faster than 26,400 but never any slower.  Can it get any slower?  In 50 years we may get some kind of cable or updated phone lines out here.  We've got satellite TV.  I've looked into Satellite internet a bit and it's a little pricey but we've also reached a point where we need a 2nd phone line if we're going to keep using dial up and high speed dial up isn't available around here at this time.  So if you figure the combined cost of the extra line and the dial up ISP bill on a monthly basis there isn't much difference in the monthly cost of the satellite service.  It's the intial cost for the satellite hardware that's a bit steep.  Anybody out there using satelite internet and if so how do you like it?  Any advantages or disadvantages?  My year's ISP subscription runs out next month and I'm exploring options. I don't like mine any more because of some e-mail account issues, I don't think much of the one Mom uses.  I'm ready for something new.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

ADfields

My brother down in Arizona got it from Dish Network on a 2 year contract for around $75 a month with all the equipment some how and when thats paid out the service is $45.   I looked into this very hard but it's not something that will work hear in Alaska without a big buck upgrade, to far north. ::)   He has had it around a year and loves it!   E-mail him at cmfaz(at)juno.com and tell him I (Andy) sent you and he will tell ya all about it and how to get the deal he has if you like.
Andy

SwampDonkey

HI Corley:

My dialup connects at 24 to 26 kbits/sec also. I'm not far away from highspeed internet access, but it will never be out here. I think these isp's still have these super cheep 24 k modems instead of 57.6k ones. I looked at satellite hookup and its just too expensive for emails and websurfin. I have the old big dish type c-band receiver. I have up to 10 email accounts on yahoo with my website account at $11.95/month. I got the account when they had a deal waiving the $25 hookup fee. I find the email on there isn't as reliable as my isp though. I get alot of server error messages sometimes. I just wouldn't pay that extra $$ for my needs.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Brian_Bailey

I looked into Direct TV's satellite internet hook-up, whew, way to expensive for me right now.  We currently have their satellite TV hook-up and the only concern I would have with an internet hook-up is the occasional loss of satellite signal due to heavy cloud cover. This could be a problem while doing an important down / up load.

My boy has the hi speed cable service where he lives. I made the misfortune of using it and now appreciate the true meaning of www. ( world wide Wait ) when using a dial up  :D.  
WMLT40HDG35, Nyle L-150 DH Kiln, now all I need is some logs and someone to do the work :)

tawilson

I've got Directv and Direcway one way satellite. The rain outages don't seem to be such a problem with the Direcway possibly because of the larger dish. The 2-way satellite was too $$$ for me, and the download speed is the same for both systems. Although Direcway does the job for me, I would switch to cable or DSL if it was available.
Tom
2017 LT40HDG35 WIDE
BMS250 and BMT250 sharpener/setter
Woodmaster 725

MrMoo

I took a good look at DirectTV high speed link. I ended up staying with the snail phone link. My decision was based on the fact that we don't use the internet that much. Some of that is based on the fact that both my wife I have high speed access at work and can use that after work if we need to. If I didn't have that I would go with DirectTV. Their TV service is very good.
I also looked at cable modem access when the boobs from the local cable company ran cable wires 800 feet up my driveway by mistake  >:(. The cost there was about the same as DirectTV.

LKasdorf

Don't forget Starband as another satellite ISP. I signed up with them a few years ago, as our dialup was deteriorating to the point of not working at all usually!

It was about $70/month (ouch!) but we were paying $30 or so for a 2nd phone line, and 20 or so for 2 dialup sip accounts, so the difference was not much.

I think they have dropped the price a bit, and I know that if you commit for a longer period the price drops to 50 or so.

I think Directv is a bit cheaper.

Performance? Pretty good. Ping time is bad- that is, there is a fixed latency of about a second, but once downloading starts, it is pretty snappy.

Of course, if DSL or Cable was available, I'd go for it.

Another thing is microwave. Some rural area are starting to have this available. I think it is pretty fast. This is a technology where you have a 2 way antenna that needs line of sight with a terrestrial tower. Around here (where it is available) it is $56/month.

You may want to search for microwave providers and see if they have any plans to deploy in your area.

etat

I have just  a plain dialup connection.  Bellsouth.net.  I also use their free accelerator program.  With it download is much faster but pictures are fuzzy and less quality.  So, when you want to see a good picture you either refresh the picture with full quality, or you can refresh the page with full quality.  Their performance meter estimates without acceleration 12.4kps. with acceleration. With acceleration 51.9kbs, based upon comression of text and graphics. Average speed up 4.2 times. For prior 29 days use, measured time with acceleration, 34 hours and 47 minutes. Estimated time without acceleration 124 hours and 19 minutes.  

I don' t know that it saves as much time as it says.  I do know stuff loads faster.  If there's a picture I want to see with more quality as I said I can right click and refesh only the picture, or if there are multiple pictures on the page I refrresh the whole page at full quality.  Maybe this'll help somebody.

Also since I'm in and out a lot I usually keep my home phone forwared to one of our cell phones.  This allows you to be on the computer, and still recieve your calls without having a second phone line at your house.
Old Age and Treachery will outperform Youth and Inexperence. The thing is, getting older is starting to be painful.

Patty

What you may consider is using your cell phones as your phone source and then your home line as your dial up connection. We chose not to have a regular land line for a phone where we live, and just use our cell phones. It came to the point of how many phones do we need; I had a cell, Norm had a cell, and we were looking at putting in phone lines. We decided to just put in a line for the computer, and to forget the phones. It is just an idea, and it may save you a couple bucks until you can get DSL or something in your area.
Women are Angels.
And when someone breaks our wings....
We simply continue to fly ........
on a broomstick.....
We are flexible like that.

SwampDonkey

@ Patty

Cell phones cost more than land lines here. Some packages offer good deals on long distance, but are they $0.15 a minute on cell? ;)

"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

@ cktate:

Emerson has a 'Switch Board' so you can be receiving a fax, talking and on internet using one line at once.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Larry

Doubt if we will ever be able to get cable or DSL where we live.  Feel fortunate just to have a phone.

I have been playing with a new free browser called Mozilla Firebird.  It has something called tab browsing where you put in your favorites.  While you are reading the first page, it loads the rest of them.  Don't have a lot of experience with it yet but with some applications it seems to be a lot faster.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

raycon

I just got my estimates for high bandwith via cable and high bandwidth with directway.
The directway hardware + install cost is $600 and the monthly bill is $60. (We currently subscribe to Directv--no deals for current customers)

Adelphia is coming to our area. The cost for hookup to cable estimate  was $2,888.00 (no cable from road) montly cost $50.00. I called to see if we could run the line ourselves in hopes of shaving a few $$$ -- will find out in spring.

The directway rep said directway can not compete with cable in terms of speed/bandwith. Did not give a reason why though.
Lot of stuff..

SwampDonkey

@ Larry

Isn't that for machines running the Linux OS. They have alot of open source programs on that platform.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

@ Larry

Yes I see. And I d/l'ed Firefox and Thunderbird. Had to goto their UK and Japan site to access them though. The US site is down because of bandwidth overload. :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Corley5

I just saw on the local news tonight that G Traverse, Leelanau, Kalkaska and a couple other counties S.W. of got a grant of some sort to get broadband brought in.  That sounds promissing.  Using cellphones as our main phones would be great but cell phone service in our neighbor isn't very good.  Here at the house I can make a call sometimes other times I can't even get a signal.  At the bottom of the drive by the road there's nothing.  Fitzner's on the county Farm Bureau board and he told me today that FB was looking into some rural grants of some sort to get high speed internet to outlying areas.  Maybe I'll just wait for a bit and play it by ear.  I am going to tell my current ISP to pack it.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

woodmills1

When I got to this house I would hook up at around 20k when was at 56 at old one.  I talked with a friend of mine who woked for the phone company.  He really was helpful.  He said the phone company wont care if you tell them your dial up is slow but will if you report noise on your phone line.  He said pick up headset and then push any button and listen for noise.  I did it and heard noise.  Problem is now must find out if noise inside house or outside.  I had noise so ran a line from outside right to computor and got up around 30-35k.  Put phone on that line and still heard noise.  Made service call to company and they found a bees nest in juntion  at pole across street, said my line had corrosion from bees expanding rubber around juntion letting in water.  Service man was ready he had bee spay with him before climbing.  I now connect at 56k.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

SwampDonkey

woodmills:

I kinda suspected that also because my phoneline wiring is pretty shotty here. My brother's line is slow also. I'm going to check for noise too. Thanks for tip.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

rebocardo

I do not know where you are located, though almost every place has DSL or ISDN (128k)/Centrex available because they both work with POTS lines.

It gets expense, but, you can get 56k frame (min. speed) ANYWHERE you have telephone service as long as the local MaBell supports it. If this is an option, let me know. I still have my old CSU/DSU and router somewhere.

Basically for frame relay, you use a few pairs of the 36/48 cable that is attached to each pole. I had it for a while when I was running a server (back in the old days 1996) it was many times faster than any dialup.

SwampDonkey

Rebo, I think you mean DSL is available according to population. There's alot of rural areas that are fortunate just to have a phone. Out here in amongst farm fields and wagging horse tails its dialup only.  ;)

 :D  ;D  :D  ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

DanG

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service is rapidly becoming available to many more users, due to new developments in the technology. But, it is still only available to a small percentage of potential customers...only those who live within 18,000 cable feet of a DSL terminal. More and more remote DSL terminals are being installed in "remote" areas, but it is a complex and expensive venture for the phone companies. It takes months of preparation, including the time for the vendors to provide the new equipment, for the phone company to provide the service, once it is determined that the demand justifies the installation.
Your best bet is to request the service and get on the waiting list. The more requests they recieve in an area, the sooner you will get it. Don't just assume that it won't be available to you just because you live out in the country. More and more rural areas are being served by small, roadside terminals that are fed by fiber optic technology, and these are all capable of DSL service. They just have to justify the cost of installing it, and have the time to get it put in.
Believe me, the phone companies are not dragging their feet on this issue, as it means a huge revenue boost to them. I spent the last few months of my career installing these remote units, and I can assure you they are putting an "all out" effort into providing the service where it is wanted. You just gotta let them know that you want it!  Bug them about it!

That being said, I have been accustomed to a 256k ethernet connection, at work. At home, I use dial-up, and regularly connect at 48k. I really can't tell much difference in my through-put rates, because of the upstream delays. I can tell, however, that it is getting better. :)  The Internet has made astounding progress since I first started working with it, some 15 years ago. I don't see this rate of progress continuing, but it will continue to grow, both in size, and as a way of life. I enjoyed being a small part of it's growth, and I enjoy using it, but now I want to go saw some lumber. 8) ;D
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

SwampDonkey

DanG

Want me to hold the flashlight tonight? ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Corley5

I looked into DSL and it's not available here at the present
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

johncinquo

Well maybe I can hep ya out a bit.  I went through this already, I have no phone at home, use cells only, and require high speed to work and keep sanity.   There will never be DSL out my way unless cows learn to type and need internet.  The cable company got their grant money, and stopped promptly at the city proper limits so I wont see cable unless one Moooo to live becomes popular.  Leaving me with the only option of Direcway.   That price for new equipment was a little brutal to bear, so being the bargain shopper I am I turned to my favorite resource, EBAY!  You have to be careful what you buy, but there are used systems out there that will work great.  I think I paid about $150 for my system.  It is used, but works just fine.  I bought a 2 way system, when buying one you want 1 way or two way.  1 way uses the phone line to return info back to the net.  Kinda a older and dumb idea to me.  2 way is faster, and no phone line.   You want to get a guarantee that whoever you are buying it from has NO BALANCE, $0 with direcway.  Otherwise, you will be paying whatever old bill they have outstanding before they will activate it.   Now if you do this, here is where my first hand knowledge will save you some serious aggravtion.   Direcway does not really like someone buying used equipment, so they make it a real run around to get started.  Dont call sales and expect any help.  Start by calling Billing.  You need the numbers on the equipement, all three pieces, sending unit, receiver, and boom.  Call them and up and tell them what you are doing.  They check out the equiment and accounts, and verify it is paid up.  They then activate the account and set you up to pay for it.  Now, Dway is not going to help you in getting it installed.  They get part of the $200 you pay the installer, but only if they make a referal, and they only make a referral if you buy new equipment.  (can you see a theme here?)  Get out your phone book and start calling companies that install satelites and ask if they install direcway (not direct TV)  No you cannot install it yourself due to FCC regulations.  I used Malcomsons out of Stanton.  Since then I also found Microtek out of GR.  Anyway, they come out and set it up, tune it in, and get you started.  So instead of $600 to get started I kept it under $300.  I also do not have a contract for 2 years, and can cancel anytime.   How does it work?  Well since I got virused at home as well sa work I havent had a chance to use it in a couple weeks.  When it was working it was pretty wuick.  Definetly faster than a phone line, but way slower than the DSL at work.  I ran a couple speed tests and it was right in line with what I was expecting to get.  When I get it back up I will get the #s and let you know.  I have heard people complain about rain, snow, or one guy that said at dusk his went out every day, but I did not have any of those problems unless it was coming down real hard or the dish was completely covered.  Spray the dish with PAM and the snow slides off!  Well hope that helps.  JB
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