Re: OT: earthlink satellite internet

Posted by Hal/ Eastern WA on January 02, 2014 at 18:48:08 from (97.114.74.200):

In Reply to: OT: earthlink satellite internet posted by thebigyellowtruck on January 02, 2014 at 08:10:26:

We had satellite internet for a few years. It was a lot faster than the glacially slow dial-up internet we had available at the time. But it was not THAT fast, cost nearly $100 a month, didn"t work if there was bad weather and finally it quit working at all for a couple of months when something went bad inside the satellite. If I remember correctly, we also had to buy the equipment, which cost about $600, and pay to have the equipment installed. One reason satellite based internet cannot get much speed is that there is measurable time lag when the signal is broadcast from the satellite to the home receiver and then processed, and again when a signal is broadcast from the home dish to the satellite and is processed there. Even at, or near the speed of light, sending the signal that distance takes a bunch of time.

When microwave based internet became available from a mountain about 5 miles from our house became available, we got rid of the satellite service and got the new service. It was MUCH faster, about the same money and except for the time the power went out on that mountain, it worked all the time.

A couple of years ago, our phone company redid some equipment in our area and land line DSL became available to us. It is as fast or faster than the microwave system we had, and costs about half as much. So far it has never gone out and it seems to work the best of any of the systems we have tried.

We live out in the country a ways and never expect that the cable companies will go to the expense of wiring this area for cable. Comcast used to be the cable company that served the metro Spokane area. I know lots of people who have cable based internet and most of them have said it was entirely adequate for their uses and it was lots less than we were paying for the various internet systems we have used.

So, from my experience, satellite internet is a way of getting reasonably good internet service, but it isl quite expensive, doesn"t work all the time and is relatively slow. I would choose it again only if my only other option was the lousy dial-up. The microwave based system was pretty good, but expensive and you had to be line-of-sight to the microwave station that served it. The phone line DSL we have now is the best. It is fast, less expensive than some of the other providers, and always works (hope I am not jinxing it!!!). But for lots of areas, that service is still not available.

But if I had cable based internet available to me, I think I would at least try using that, as it is supposed to be plenty fast, less expensive than all but dial-up, and it is supposed to be very reliable. If it was available, I probably would also subscribe to cable TV service, rather than the Dish satellite service, since it would be less expensive.

You will need to make your own decision, but I would sure look into the possibility of using Comcast, especially if the cable is already in place at or near your house. Good luck!!

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