Satellite internet question [RE-wrenches]

[Tom Elliot, Guffey Energy Works]

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Bryan,

I used a satellite internet connection for years and from what I can tell 
concerning Wild Blue they are little different than Direcway or Starband.  I 
had Direcway and used the ethernet modem.  I understand they now have a new 
modem with higher upload speeds.  The ethernet modem worked just like any 
cable modem and was simple to connect to a wireless router to create a local 
area network connected to the satellite.  It works with any computer, Mac, 
Linux or PC with no problems.  It was the earlier USB system that was a 
royal pain in the butt.  Those are now history and I'd recommend DirecWay 
with no qualms at all.  Very low power usage also and the system can be shut 
down and restarted without a hitch.

The download speeds are actually faster than cable but what they do instead 
is to restrict the total amount of data you can download to something like 
40MB/hour, so for normal surfing there is no problem but if you are in the 
habit of downloading lots of data, like music or ISOs of Linux or that sort 
of thing you'll run into some restrictions.  Basically once you exceed the 
hourly amount of date they throttle the download speed down to something 
near dialup until a certain amount of time passes and then ramp it back up 
again.  I think that is true of all satellite systems.

Other than that one peculiarity they work just like a cable modem.

Tom




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Vick" <brian at whidbeysunwind.com>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 8:12 AM
Subject: Re: Satellite internet question [RE-wrenches]



Wrenches,

  Way back in Aug of '04 their was some talk about satellite broadband on
the list and a couple of folks said to wait for Wildblue instead of Starband
or Direcway. Have opinions changed? We are searching for good feedback on
any of the choices. Online reviews swing from great to horrible on services,
so I am reluctant to believe them. Is there specific hardware or system we
should look at over another?

Thanks,

BRIAN VICK
Whidbey Sun & Wind
Renewable Energy Systems
360-678-7131
brian at whidbeysunwind.com
987 Wanamaker Rd
Coupeville, WA. 98239

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