Has anybody here ever used Satellite Internet w/ Direct TV? My parents are considering getting it because they live out in the country and can only get dialup that usually doesn't connect any faster than 19K. They are way too far out for DSL and cable will probably never get out there. They have a second phone line for the internet so they hope they can get rid of that. Sat Internet doesn't require a phone line does it? If it does can it be your primary phone line (can it be in use for internet while talking on the phone)?

If you have Sat Internet can you use it on multiple computers (ie. hook it up to a router)?

Of course if there is bad weather it won't work, but is it other wise dependable?

Speaking from absolutely no experience at all and an internet-technological-backwards country (although improving), sat internet normally requires a phone line. The phone line is used for upstream data and the downstream comes back via the dish. You can get a 2-way dish but it costs more. Probably the way to go, I doubt it would be significantly more expensive.

One point, don't even think about playing FPS games online with a connection like that, satellite can be quite fast but I believe it has horrific latency.

Thanks.

My parents won't be playing any FPS games so I don't have to worry about that. Basically email and general webbrowsing.

Any body else have experience w/ using it? If you have the phone line for upstream data is it like DSL where you can talk on the phone or would you still need the 2nd line if you wanted to keep your main line free.

You'd still need the second line.The upstream line is just a stock dial-up connection which can also be used as backup downstream if the weather throws your dish out of whack.*

* = i don't really know much about this, just making guesses based from what I've heard from unreliable sources

That is no longer true people. I am typing this on a two way DirecWay satellite link right now. They used to require a phone for the uplink, but the DW6000 is a router and its dish is a transmitter/reciever.

Most weather won't kill my sat link. It will drop while it is snowing heavily, but rain and even fog don't seem to effect it too much. When the weather is clear or even half-way decent, my download speeds are around 193Kb with upload being near the 128K they advertise. One thing though, Direcway has the WORST customer service in the known universe. As long as you don't need to call them on the phone, it is a great service.

I've heard pricing on Satellite Internet is amazingly expensive. In my neck of the woods, rumor has it that it's $600 USD setup, then $60 USD/month for roughly the equivilent of 128/128 which is truly sad IMHO.

Obviously I have been fortunate enough to have a telco nearby, and more recently, with cable dominating the world, getting awesome speeds for a slight bit less. Right now I pay ~45/month for ~3mbit/256kb through Comcast, and it's been very reliable.

If I were in the boonies, I'd probably look at starting my own small ISP and forking it out to the neighbors and just split the cost (not really make any or very little money, just get the benefit of lower cost) so you can get some decent speed without having to pay a ton.

Ah well, hopefully it's a better situation than the rumor mill has portrayed

Cool

That's no rumor. It is expensive. I paid $103 (US) per month for the first 14 months, and now pay about $50/month now that the hardware is paid off. I live way out of range of cable and DSL so it was Sat or 26.4K dial-up. It would be cool to have alternatives.

How could you set up an ISP out here, without some form of high speed pipe? If there is a way I am all ears.

My uploads are limited to 128 max. My downloads vary, but are commonly well above 128. The biggest complaint I have about satellite is the FAP, or fair access policy. If you download more that 169MB in under four hours the connection speed throttles to 56K for about 4 hours. They claim it works like a bucket, with a 56K trickle going into it, once empty thats all you get. To me it feels like I am the bucket and they are pissing on me.

Thanks everybody. Good info.

I really doubt they would go over the FAP so that shouldn't be a big deal.

Pcghost, I assume you have DirectTV as well, correct? My parent's TV signal goes out during heavy rain. Are there times where the internet will work but the TV signal is gone? I guess if it's raining that hard the computer should be off anyways if there's thunder and lightning .

PcGhost: Trust me...
If you contact a well-known GSP (VIS, Qwest, Genuity, etc) and tell them you wish to setup an ISP, they'll run you an OC line so you can do so... But be prepared to pay out the bum for it.

Actually I find the opposite to be true. During moderatly crappy weather my Internet goes out, but my TV is fine. It is due to the fact that the Internet dish transmits (at low power) and is therefore more sensitive to weather changes. Heavy snow borks them both (I have two dishes).