Several people in the group are now
asking me about my broadband connection details (ATT customers?). Rather
than answer each of them individually, I thought I'd just post the info to
the entire group.
I use www.direcway.com 2-way satellite from
Hughes. If you can get DSL or 2-way cable, DO SO! This is the option
of last resort for those, like me, who have no other option.
Pricey!! Professional installation (req'd by FCC) and equipment is $600 to
$1,000 up-front. Service is $60 to $70/month, depending on which dealer
and if you want a backup dial-up account. It is 50K miles round trip to
the satellite, which means high latency with ping times in the 850ms range vs.
125ms for cable/dsl. This cannot improve without increasing the speed of
light. Can not be used for internet gaming or with most VPN systems as a
result. Can not be used for web or FTP hosting or
with PCAnywhere or services like www.gotomypc.com. You will suffer 5-10
minute outages during heavy thunderstorms and snow storms on occasion.
Only advantage is incredible file download speeds. I get at least 8MB per
min in peak times (3x better than comcast cable at my office), and several times
that speed in the wee hours of the morning (feels like another hard
drive). Hi-fi MP3 files download in one ninth of real
time. It is a huge pot of bandwidth, shared by all users in the western
hemishere. Up load speed maxes out at 128Kbps, but I think it is typically
more like 80K (double dial-up at best). Transmitter is only 1 watt so you
don't fry the little birdies that land on the dish. Two-way system like
mine is always-on like cable/dsl, but it is a dynamic IP address. Their
computers will slap a governor on your download speed for several hours if
you start consuming more than about 100MB of bandwidth in an hour in accordance
with their "Fair Access Policy", to stop hogs from slowing down the
system.
More info, links and picture of dish can be found
here:
Hope this helps.
TTFN,
Todd