Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Anyone using Satellite for ISP?

We're in the midst of signing up for satellite TV for the first time in pretty much a decade, and I'm tossing around the idea of adding internet service while I'm at it.

I currently have DSL - slow (2.2 MBPS down) but fairly reliable. I'd love to be able to get something faster, but not at the cost of reliability - I work from home regularly and that connection is a requirement.

Anyone use satellite internet service and if so, what's your opinion of it?

I've got HughesNet at my place in Cisco. I'm not sure if it's any better than DSL. My phone is faster then the satellite internet is.The reliability might be a problem depending on the weather and if you can get the dish up high enough for good reception. I only have 2 choices of providers so my experience is limited. Once I retire and move out there, I'll be looking for something else. Not sure what that'll be though.

Our satellite (Direct TV) goes out during thunderstorms and during heavy snows when it loses line of site to the satellite. Satellite internet will do the same.

I would be happy with DSL at 2.2 MBPS down, we are literally the last customer on the line and get 1.3 MBPS down, lately it has been half that during peak hours as our provider is over subscribed in the area. The good news is that they are currently working on upgrading the lines in the area.

DL my Verizon 4g hotspot is faster than the Dish Sat ISP that I am fixing to cancel after 2 years of unsatisfied speed service.

Shorty you can increase you Sat signal to prevent loss.
1 is by just upgrading to a 1 meter dish for around $100. Also note that using 1 dish can not be aimed 100% directly at multiple sats (say for regular sat & HD sat). This is why if you look into places that have Sat service for large multi drop environments you will see the generally have multiple 1 meter dishes pointed directly at individual sats.

The issue with satellite connectivity in working from home is the latency of the signal from earth to the satellite back to earth. The timing of that usually best case is around 600 milliseconds, or 6/10ths of a second.

If you are doing nothing but surfing the web, in most cases it's fine and you really don't notice that network latency. For example if you click on a link to www.foxnews.com, your PC sends a small request for the information and the data to create that page is sent to your computer in lots of packets to display. There is not a lot of interactive activity to see that slowness.

Since you stated you work from home, the issue you may see is when the work you do may be very interactive and your PC and the servers you connect to at an office or data center need to continually talk back and forth. Then what occurs is the PC/Servers start waiting for responses because that 600 milliseconds starts becoming very apparent. This is especially true if your remote work is requiring a VPN connection.

It's why cellular is faster. Your PC is transmitting wireless only to a tower a mile or so away, then that data packet travels across high speed fiber. Probably at a rate of 60 milliseconds, ten times faster. So all that back and forth acknowledgements of data transfer happens faster, hence faster response time you notice.

Your actual bandwidth plays a lesser role in noticeable speed for most functions you are performing.

For surfing the web, it most likely will be faster. For working on servers remotely in an office, it all depends on the work being done and the application you may be using.

Sorry, it's hard to describe this stuff without becoming too technical, hope this helps.

IF cell signal is good, right? Here at my place I have to have a signal booster to reliably use my cell phone.

I had the same problem with internet. Dial-up or satellite was the only option. And with lake effect snow storms and rain/thunderstorms, the signal would be lost. In a bad snowstorm, I could be without a signal for 1/2 day or more.

I now have cable, and those problems are behind me. I still will lose signal once in a while, and it could be for 24 hr periods, but on a yearly basis, overall with cable I have less lost hours than with satellite.

Also, if you get heavy snowfall, make sure you can get to the dish to clean it if going satellite. Snow buildup on the dish will affect signal too.

I just checked. CNET speed test showed 48.xxx mpbs speed for me.

Yeah after speaking with tech support (and asking for someone more technical twice because the person on the phone knew less about their solution than I already did) it appears that a VPN connection is virtually guaranteed not to work with satellite...which mostly makes sense when I think about it.

Guess I'm stuck with DSL.

FWIW When I hooked up our Dish Network I asked about internet. Their sales rep advised me against it as we have two teenage boys who would quickly eat up the data allowance when they play games. She recommended I get cable for the internet so I signed up with Comcast and have had no issues with my VPN connection to work.

My sister has Hughes, and well, it don't work very good. Can hardly get online, and when they can, it's not all that great.

They oversold the area, as typical. Wild Blue would not subscribe any more around here, but Hughes apparently will still take your money.

Living in the boonies/sticks has some challenges for decent internet service in remote locations, especially in heavily wooded areas.

A local ISP (which we tried a while back when they first offered a service) has been installing directional antennas along the road side, about 7' or so above the ground and providing internet to those who live on the zig-zag roads thru the woods. Don't have first hand experience with this, but did talk to a local who has the service and they say it works OK for what they need.

My AT&T 4G has it's moments, but usually works pretty good up here in the sticks. They recently fired up a new tower that is north of here, so don't have any issues with the tower south that seemed to get drastically diminished by the power line out front. The local ISP we tried had the same issues with the new power line.

Should be getting some demo equipment soon to test for a project I have up north. Supposed to do point to point wireless for up to a 38 mile range. The longest hop I have is 4.7 miles and only transmitting a 4-20ma signal from a Hydrostatic level sensor on an 8400+ acre lake. Not looking to be very cheap at all, if it works, because there are actually 2 sensors, but the longest distance to the control system is 4.7 miles. See what they come up with.

Latency, I was watching the same channel on internet as my Dad was on Dish. I was telling him what they said before it showed up on his TV. It may be a tad more than 600ms.

We had satellite at the farm. It was terrible. Slow all the time and unreliable in inclement weather.

Funny thing about our fiber optic hook up from the local phone company. The feed is down state via satellite. So if there are thunderstorms down state we get the same issues as if we had a satellite! LOL

Do like the speed of the fiber optic!

I'm using a $99 antenna from WalMart for my TV service at Bowie(no internet). I get 49 UHF and VHF stations originating from the D/FW area. A lot of them are marketing channels. We get 2 Vietnamese channels, about 15 Spanish channels and a lot of old time movie channels some of which are black and White only. That's 75+ miles. On occasion it gives me problems but not often.