Satellite Internet?

[CountryGent]

I am curious if anyone is working from a satellite Internet connection and can provide some feedback on how you like it, what service you are using, etc.

The last I worked with such a connection was the late-90s to the early-2000s. The connection and service then, frankly, sucked. However, a project I am working on now will almost certainly involve a location without wired Internet service such as cable.

Thanks for any thoughts, pointers, etc.

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[JRuby]

When I looked at Hughes net they did not support VPN which is what I needed to do my job.

 

[Kruel J]

It's expensive, and also has monthly caps that are REALLY low compared to cable/fiber. HughesNet's most expensive plan is 50GB per month. That isn't much, especially if you stream. Comcast has a 1TB monthly limit and I've come close a few times. We stream everything in our house and with the kids it really adds up.

 

[John Brown]

Once we establish our Space Force, and monopilize space, prices will come down.

 

[Elf]

If you have any 4G cellular service available in your area, it is not great, but I would recommend it over satellite. Latencies will always be high on satellite just due to the speed of light and the distance to the satellite orbit and back. Bandwidth is also a limited and expensive commodity so you also usually see caps that are way below what modern computing requires.

If you have coverage and also happen to have an LLC or some other corporate entity, these people have quite a reasonable deal: 4GAS® Internet |1-815-205-3300 | Rural Internet

 

[rick benjamin]

Internet requires two-way communication.
Satellite provides one-way communication.
The other half is your telephone line.
Of course, I've been wrong before...

 

[John Brown]

Putin owns the satellites. BE careful.

 

[notazombie]

I don't have satellite. What I have is line of sight that uses a dish to receive the signal that's transmitted from the side of a town water tower a few miles away. No cable or phone lines involved. Speed seems good. Several people can stream simultaneously. Not sure about limits or actual speed but I've never had any issues over the last year.

 

[GOG]

I have HughesNet for interwebz, Dish for TV and Century Link for a landline telephone. Other than the landline they all suck.
The computer is darn near as slow as dial up but without the charming sound effects. It takes a while to load and often has buffering attacks during videos. Although it's fine once it gets rolling. I have no idea about streaming so I can't help there.
It's mediocre at best. If you're going to be dependent on it perhaps there's a way to check it out without spending the money up front only to find out it doesn't work for your application.

Got any grand kids that could give you the lowdown?

 

[edzz]

We use a 4G hotspot, its fast enough for my wife to watch TV with the Roku thing while we are both surfing on our computers. Our experience with satellite was horrid, granted that was hughs net ~ 6 years ago, microwave wasn't much better.

BTW our 4G internet is bundled with our cell phones and satellite TV. We can also use our phones as portable hotspots, no data cap on any of them and have never experienced throttling in our area.

 

[WAYNO]

I have used satellite internet at sea a number of times over the past couple years. When it worked, it was fine. When it didn't work, which was often, it sucked.

Reminds me a bunch of how cell service was in its infancy.

 

[The Heretic]

Internet requires two-way communication.
Satellite provides one-way communication.
The other half is your telephone line.
Of course, I've been wrong before...

No. There is two way satellite internet and phone service. As mentioned, the latency is high and it actually does work better if you use a phone line for the uplink instead of the satellite link as the uplink is barely better than a old tech phone modem and not as good as DSL.

I had Starband about 10+ years ago and it mostly sucked.

As mentioned, most will not allow VPN, the download limits are low, it is expensive, both for the service and the hardware (mine cost about $700) and the hardware is specific to the vendor.

If possible, cellular is better if there is no DSL.

I use long distance WiFi; Upward Access - a local small provider who provides a WiFi link via antenna over a particular coverage area. The landline is Comcast. I get about 3.5 mbps, but that is often not enough to stream without interruptions - I often get interruptions and warnings about bandwidth on my Firestick. It sucks, especially after having 10 gbps in town, but it is better than DSL which only gives me 1.5 mbps because I am at the extreme distance to my local CO.

 

[2Wheels4Ever]

I run satellite internet, and it is less than good. When we were looking at choices there was HugesNet or Exceed. At the time Huges had a hard data limit so that it would cut you off after your data expired. Though I am not sure if they still do that. Exceed is slow and expensive, I think our 10gb/month plan is $80. It is around 10mb/s when you have data (though it lasts about 3 days) and .02mb/s when they throttle you back.

We don't have 3/4g service out here or cable so it was the only option. Youtube videos are only wachable in 144p and even then you have to let it buffer. If you wait 30m for a 5 minute video you can see it in 480p. This site and craigslist work just fine during the day before 5pm. After 5pm on a weekday and all day on the weekends you pretty much lose your internet as the speed is so slow.

 

[rick benjamin]

No. There is two way satellite internet and phone service. As mentioned, the latency is high and it actually does work better if you use a phone line for the uplink instead of the satellite link as the uplink is barely better than a old tech phone modem and not as good as DSL.

I had Starband about 10+ years ago and it mostly sucked.

As mentioned, most will not allow VPN, the download limits are low, it is expensive, both for the service and the hardware (mine cost about $700) and the hardware is specific to the vendor.

If possible, cellular is better if there is no DSL.

I use long distance WiFi; Upward Access - a local small provider who provides a WiFi link via antenna over a particular coverage area. The landline is Comcast. I get about 3.5 mbps, but that is often not enough to stream
without interruptions - I often get interruptions and warnings about bandwidth on my Firestick. It sucks, especially after having 10 gbps in town, but it is better than DSL which only gives me 1.5 mbps because I am at the extreme distance to my local CO.

I'm out-dated! thanks for the update

 

[The Heretic]

I'm out-dated! thanks for the update

I am probably outdated too - I think it has been maybe ten years since I had Starband.

 

[K7ZS]

Lots has changed with Satellite. Hughes launched their own billion dollar satellite called Echostar 19 which stabilized and was put into service in April 2018. It is capable of download speeds to 25 Mbps. The battle with ViaSat (Exceed) is heating up, and the competition is heating up, and download limits are growing and/or disappearing. With some planning, there is lots of FREE time. Netflix now allows DOWNLOADING movies, so plan those for the overnight free times and watch later... does NOT count any limit you may have. ALSO, VOIP works really well on it (I use one of these satellites systems on the southern tip of Baja). Latency has become very close to the physical limitation, real PING times of 1/2 second. (50,000 mile round trip to and from the satellite). Installation now easier than ever, with no longer a need for adjusting the 'skew', they went to a circularly polarized signal. ALSO, only a single piece of RG6 coax from receiver to dish. BIG improvement. I am not personally versed in the ViaSat (EXCEDE) offering, but I think they have a new bird up too.
THAT SAID, a better option is to go 'terrestrial wireless' if you can. Here in NW Oregon, private companies like Upward Access,COHO net, OnlineNW for example, called WISPS (Wireless Internset Service Providers) provide internet service, with speeds to perhaps 10 or 12 Mbps with 150GB limits .. about $80 a month, but you must be able to put an antenna outside your house that has a LINE OF SIGHT to the tower. This distance can be up to 20 miles, but you have NO obstructions in the path to their tower. It's not cheap, and has limits too, but generally supports all VOIP, VPN etc. so is better IF you can get it.
End Result: if you have no other options, Satellite has become MUCH better in the last year. Look for a WISP first.

Kevin K7ZS

 

[K7ZS]

EXEDE (not EXCEDE) is now VIASAT Viasat Internet | Official home of Viasat satellite internet service
Game On! Now offering unlimited service (but read the fine print!)
Hughes new service has them on the defensive! We Win!

 

[K7ZS]

Viasat launched their new Viasat-2 satellite in June 2017, and it went online February 2018. One big customer: Airlines! Many are now using the Viasat-2 service for in flight internet. So, 2 new birds have come online in the last year. No reason not to have decent internet ANYWHERE. Now, if only i had 1 Gigabit Internet ... but I won't move back into the city just for THAT!

K7ZS

 

[edzz]

Lots has changed with Satellite. Hughes launched their own billion dollar satellite called Echostar 19 which stabilized and was put into service in April 2018. It is capable of download speeds to 25 Mbps. The battle with ViaSat (Exceed) is heating up, and the competition is heating up, and download limits are growing and/or disappearing. With some planning, there is lots of FREE time. Netflix now allows DOWNLOADING movies, so plan those for the overnight free times and watch later... does NOT count any limit you may have. ALSO, VOIP works really well on it (I use one of these satellites systems on the southern tip of Baja). Latency has become very close to the physical limitation, real PING times of 1/2 second. (50,000 mile round trip to and from the satellite). Installation now easier than ever, with no longer a need for adjusting the 'skew', they went to a circularly polarized signal. ALSO, only a single piece of RG6 coax from receiver to dish. BIG improvement. I am not personally versed in the ViaSat (EXCEDE) offering, but I think they have a new bird up too.
THAT SAID, a better option is to go 'terrestrial wireless' if you can. Here in NW Oregon, private companies like Upward Access,COHO net, OnlineNW for example, called WISPS (Wireless Internset Service Providers) provide internet service, with speeds to perhaps 10 or 12 Mbps with 150GB limits .. about $80 a month, but you must be able to put an antenna outside your house that has a LINE OF SIGHT to the tower. This distance can be up to 20 miles, but you have NO obstructions in the path to their tower. It's not cheap, and has limits too, but generally supports all VOIP, VPN etc. so is better IF you can get it.
End Result: if you have no other options, Satellite has become MUCH better in the last year. Look for a WISP first.

Kevin K7ZS

Thanks for the update, when we had Hughes installed ~6 years ago I couldn't even view craigslist. I shipped their equipment back to them the next day. Used 4g for a bit till we got tired of the data caps and went to a microwave provider. About 8 months ago we found out our cell plan had changed and would provide better speed, with no cap and no additional fees. Canceled the microwave service and haven't looked back.

Curious, how long have you been a ham?

73 Ed

 

[K7ZS]

Hi Ed
There are indeed many choices for internet, and it's a rapidly changing market. Makes me sad that all the carriers have fiber optic lines running down the main road to my hilltop location to connect 1 valley to another. Too sparse up here for service to the home. Thankfully for MOST reasons, we're far enough from a good cell tower, that we don't get good cell coverage to consider going strictly LTE. Plus among other things, I now fully remote control my Ham Station over the internet when I am out of the country (almost half the year) so need full access to all ports, VPN etc. as I do a lot of 'hosting' activities which not all carriers support....

I was first licensed when I was 12 years old, let it lapse and 30 years went by before I got back into the hobby big time in 1994, and now I am extremely active on the HF bands... It's only because of my 90 foot tower that I can get microwave internet, the dish is @ 82 feet to see over a ridge to the tower.

I'll have to revisit Cellular, but I have been very satisfied with OnlineNW as a provider ... small company and very responsive ... 99.9% uptime for almost a decade now!

"73" Ed
Kevin