What is the bandwidth and quality of service?

TIA

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I think most potential users are put off by the process where the download is via the sat, but upload is through telco. If you're doing any form of video conferencing or remote hosting, sat is going to bottleneck at the phone line.

Thanks for the feedback!

Dang it. I'm confronted with the dilemma of using ISDN, sat or seeing if I can convince my neighbors to share a T1. Based on your feedback, I'm gonna go with the ISDN and talk with the neighbors. Oh, yeah, I also found that we can get fiber and 45 mb bandwidth at a mere several k$ per month. Of course, while it is almost transporter technology, it still can’t deliver a pizza by internet.

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Here in Honolulu, we can order Pizzas (albiet from Pizza Hut . . . ugh) through Time Warner Cable. Pizza on Demand . . . I sense the end of the civilization cannot be far behind.

I use it at home since it is my only option. There is no DSL or Digital cable in my area. I'll be glad to send you some performance numbers.

I use an alternate server as a router and share the line with my wife. That server is running ME so it has problems. It will lock up and not allow Internet access from time to time. I recover by resetting the application. I've just been too lazy to migrate it to a more stable OS.

The DirectWay system is two way satellite so no phone line is involved.

My DirectWay results from bandwidthplace.com

Communications 914.8 kilobits per second
Storage 111.7 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 9.2 seconds
Subjective rating Good

I'm not sure how to benchmark uplink speeds. Any ideas?

Thank you so much for taking the time for this! Looks like a really good performer. Does weather or more directly, rain, snow, fog, sunlight have any impact on performance? Also, what do you pay for DirectWay?

Another item - I don't understand -- would the uplink speed be the equivalent of overall latency or just one point of latency?

Lastly can you get a static IP?

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I found the directway website. it appears that the slow spot is in uploads, which they claim tops out at 50K. Actually about as good as dial up, but still more pricy (to my surprise) than ISDN.

Here's a link to their performance & speed

"home"
http://surf.direcway.com/home_service.html

"pro"
http://surf.direcway.com/pro_service.html


didn't see if they support a static IP

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Static IP is no problem. All you do is put their server as your primary gateway and another of their servers for DNS and you are done.

I use a static IP on my router and DHCP or static on my servers.

My maximum speed for dialup was about 28k. My monthly fee is $79. The choice for me was a no brainer.

Ah, the plot thickens. I just got a call from Qwest. They say that the circuit that comes to my house doesn’t qualify for ISDN. They can pull another wire out to my house for this purpose, but they have to start the pull 19 miles away, and if I really want ISDN this 19 mile pull will cost me an additional $67 per month, for ever......

Satellite is looking better all the time~ providing i can't talk the neighbors into splitting a frame relay.....

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Tkamia,

Thanks for the note! We are talking about ISDN. While by no stretch an expert on ISDN, before DSL swept the world, I did about 2 dozen ISDN installs for customers. But that was years ago and even though I can configure a router and do the install, doesn’t mean I know anything about how to get the circuit to the customer’s site.

I didn’t think there were issues with line type for ISDN. After all, the spec was developed to provide digital signals over copper All I can relay is what Qwest, the phone company, said. I did a little research and it appears that the issue may be one of the circuit rather than the line itself
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/cisintwk/ito_doc/isdn.htm

There are also many RFCs related to ISDN. I read part of one for grins
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3398.html

So all I can guess at is that they either won’t or can’t extend the current circuit by using existing lines. Whatever. It isn’t worth a surcharge of $67 per month for ever on top of about $90 + taxes to get this near cripple 128K bandwidth. Maybe I could get a neighbor to ask for ISDN, then pay a month and loose the service. I mean, after all, once the circuit/line is there, they are not gonna rip it out just because a customer cancels.

Also, the problem with using satellite is that I wanted to set a web site. Well, really, just a couple of elk cams, and remote access or vpn, but with a mere 50K uplink the elk cams are doable but the vpn would be s-l-o-w, plus, as you pointed out, Hughes doesn’t support it anyway. I also don’t know how a satellite dish would respond in a snow/ice storm, or with a weeks worth of snow and ice build up on it. I have my doubts....

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I had ISDN too, before DSL became an option. I got pretty good at configuring the routers due to the number of customers I supported who also used ISDN. Some customers used ISDN and had 20+ people sharing a 128K line! Talk about yer bear skins and stone knives! There were some tricks, mostly that Ascend (router manufacturer) offered pretty good support back in the day. Now that I think of it, I might even have a couple of ISDN routers in storage!

There are a number of reasons I want to use a static ip. The elk cams are part of it, - I found some cool remote cams that can be aimed and zoomed, and aren’t too expensive. But they would be worthless if I was limited to 50K uplink speed. Plus I wanna manipulate the house heating system from far away (i.e. turn on the furnace before we get there). But mostly it’s an opportunity for another toy.

Given the options, I will make an effort to split a T1 with my neighbors. From what I've found, if me and 9 other neighbors split the costs, I’d be into it about the same as ISDN would cost me, alone. Plus no crippled bandwidth, upload or weather related problems (as with sat), save for the occasional power outage. The community has its own power substation that I'm told is a relay station for a ski resort a little up the road. In the last 2+ years power hasn’t been out for more than a couple of hours. What would be really cool is to get one of the fiber links. I’d have to convince most of the community to make it cost effective, but how sweet would 45 mbps be?!

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I am using Direcway. It is two way satellite, so there is no dialup upload. I am in much the same situation as you are with there being no alternatives. As for the quality of service, my neighbour and I have had more downtime due to modem problems than what I would normally tolerate from any ISP. We are both fed up with this service, and only continue to use it, as the alternative is to go back to dialup. With me, that means letting Sprint back into my house, and putting up with their "holier than though, and you must be an idiot" customer service. I'll put up with Direcway's outages before I'll give sprint another cent of my money.

One of my favorite "issues" with Direcway will be that my email works perfectly, but I cannot load a single site. This condition will exist when it happens, untill the modems are rebooted. Satellite latency will prevent you from doing any online real time gaming, so if you are into this, forget it.

When it works, it works great. However, they do have a long way to go to make this service a viable option where there is competition. The percentage of times that this system is experiencing some form of outage or problem, is still way too high.

I wouldn't recommend this service to anyone who has any other alternatives to receiving broadband internet.

Well I have signed up for Direct Way today and should be installed next week. I live too far out to get DSL or cable, so I got the $99 special. I just hope it works ok, but I really need the higher speed than I have now, which is dialup..any Directway subscribers I would like to hear comments..Thanks

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