Satellite Internet????

[austinbb3]

Any tips or Pros or Cons on the hughes system internet service.

[Louis]

Tried Direct TV's internet for a month or two. Turned out to be more expensive than regular cable and doesn't work during heavy rain.

[Anonymous]

Cable is not an option for me.We live in the middle of nowhere and they won't run it out to us. I've heard the rain issue before and read some topics at a broadband forum. Most of the techies there all blamed poor installation. Keep the ideas coming. Someone talk into it or completely out it.........AB

[SGTDad]

There are two main downsides to satellite internet:

1. Since satellite is a 1-way communication, you'll still need a modem and phone line. Because of this, your upload speed to the internet is limited to the modem's speed. Your download speed is fast, though, which is what you want 90% of the time

2. Latency. Satellite connections are high-latency connections, so they are bad choices for things like gaming, which are best with low-latency connections. If you don't need a low-latency connection, then you shouldn't have any problems. It will take a second or two longer, for example, if you click on a web link for it to come up because of the large latency.

[ian]

There are two main downsides to satellite internet:

1. Since satellite is a 1-way communication, you'll still need a modem and phone line. Because of this, your upload speed to the internet is limited to the modem's speed. Your download speed is fast, though, which is what you want 90% of the time

2. Latency. Satellite connections are high-latency connections, so they are bad choices for things like gaming, which are best with low-latency connections. If you don't need a low-latency connection, then you shouldn't have any problems. It will take a second or two longer, for example, if you click on a web link for it to come up because of the large latency.

#1 is not the case anymore with DirecWAY. They have 2 way communication now.

#2 Unless you are playing games this is a non issue.

[Tim E]

My B-I-L has satellite internet - doesn't use phone line at all. It does get screwed up with weather (rain, heavy cloud, etc) and slows way down or quits completely. On a good day, it is still slow but better than dial up or nothing at all.