ccnnc Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 Hey... Just got word my wife is going to be able to do some work from home, but we need a much better connection than our old dial-up snail. No cable or DSL available this far down the road, so I'm looking at satellite. WildBlue looks like the best deal and speed -- anybody have any thoughts???? TIA, Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan's Mom Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 I'm interested in hearing thoughts as well because when we finally find a place...we may have to resort to satelite as well...hubby can't live without the "connection". What kind of cost are you finding Colin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 The people I know with Wildblue are quite happy with it, FWIW. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firchow Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 I have never had Direcway but my Wildblue service has been almost perfect since I had it installed last August. I subscribe to the "select pak" and my speeds regularly exceed the advertised maximum by about 25%. The keys are to be sure you have a good install (it's more technical than Huges, I think) and that the beam you will be on is solid. They are putting a new bird up in the fourth quarter of this year which will more than double their capacity. There are some minor latency issues with any satellite connection, but unless you're doing VOIP or fancy gaming it quickly becomes a non-issue. The other thing to be aware of are the FAP limits placed on your connection. They've not been an issue for me (even remotely) but some people seem to like to whine after they have downloaded a bunch of full-length movies and then get fapped. The best place to read all the good and bad is at Copperhead's forum: http://www.wildblue.cc/wbforums/index.php You'll see more bad than good there, but that's the nature of forums - people tend to post when they have an issue. Glenn Firchow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2 Devils Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 We had Direcway for about 2 months until we could get cable internet. We were not happy with them at all. We had a ton of issues with including horrible latency, slow speeds and just getting someone to get out to install the stupid thing. When it worked like advertised it was great it just did not happen very often Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maralynn Posted June 29, 2006 Report Share Posted June 29, 2006 One of my brothers used Direcway for several months. He had some issues with both speed and reception. Some days it just wouldn't work at all. He switched to a Altel wireless card that he plugged into his laptop. The Altel card works out well for him, and he can use it just about anywhere. I think that Direcway was about $60/month plus a $800 (?) system/instalation fee. The Altel card costs about $70/month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 I used to have cable and now I have Wildblue since we moved back to God's country. I have generally been happy with Wildblue. Customer support is great. Two major exceptions. When I signed up, I was emphatic that I wanted an ISP that supported Internet standards -- I didn't want to be stuck using a service that required me to use Internet Exploder and Outlook. They said they would make no such requirements, with the caveat that they wouldn't necessarily be able to troubleshoot all applications. No problem. But a few months later they made some upgrade to the webmail system that made it so my e-mail client, Eudora, no longer worked. And their answer was, essentially, tough. The other gripe I have is that when it rains really hard (which is a lot these days) we sometimes lose our connection altogether. If you're used to cable, Wildblue will seem slow. If you're used to dialup, it will seem pretty fast. I think you'll notice the latency -- the time it takes for the signal to reach the sattelite and come back down to earth -- either way. Depending on what your application for your connection is, latency can be a killer, even if the pipe is big enough for your use. Basically, you can't do anything that's "real-time" like video conferencing, voice over IP, gaming, etc. The other technical issue is that the upstream is slower than the downstream. So if you need to send lots of large files out, it's a bit slow. Still way better (like 4 or 5 x) than a fast dialup connection. We pay $80 a month for the mid-range wildblue package (we could get a faster service or a slower one) and the equipment cost $300 up front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firchow Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Originally posted by Bill Fosher:The other gripe I have is that when it rains really hard (which is a lot these days) we sometimes lose our connection altogether. True - this is the same for satellite TV, although we lose our TV signal long before we lose our WB signal. (Bill, I'll trade you a couple of days of connectivity for a couple of days of rain) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Hah! Deal! We've had half a year's worth of rain in the last 6.5 weeks. On Thursday we had 1.75 inches of rain in 90 minutes. Today we have a clear blue sky, and as soon as I stuff lunch down my face it's back out to try to get caught up on some of the backlog of outside work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melly Posted July 1, 2006 Report Share Posted July 1, 2006 Colin, I have Hughesnet/Directway and I HATE it. I'm in the boonies and have no access to cable(which I personally favor). My satellite is so slow, I can plant, grow and harvest potatoes while waiting to get online or do anything. If I had a choice, you can be sure I would go to cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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