Anyone have satelite internet?

[steppingstonemomma]

We aren't THAT rural, but we are the very last house on our phone lines and about a miles past the next to the last house, so they won't do cable, or dsl.

Also bought a wireless card from At&t which was SUPPOSED to be great for our area, but didn't work at our house at all.

I am so frustrated by my dial up only connecting between 12 to 20 kpbs!!!Grrr. I can't do anything.

 

SOOOO, our only other option is satelite. Anyone have any recommendation? Pros, Cons? Do you lose signal often in bad weather? (we're on a hill and lose electricity frequently) Have you had any issues with the Fair Access Policy? I'm not sure how many MBs one would normally use visiting a few webpages and uploading or downloading photos...

Mainly just looking for other people's experiences before going that route.

Thanks,

Tiffany

[Tutor]

We have satellite internet through Wild Blue. We are pretty happy with it. It was our only option as well, and not having internet at home was not an option since I need it for work. My dh and I download and upload quite a few files every month. (Technically we have a data limit, but I have no idea what it is and we have apparently never hit it.) We will lose our signal during severe weather, but that doesn't bother us very much since we would probably turn off and unplug our computers then anyway. During light rains or overcast days, our signal is usually fine, but it can slow down under those conditions sometimes. Obviously, if you lose power, you lose satellite since the modem is electrically powered.

 

I would say that it is comparable in speed to DSL (we had dsl before we moved). There is a minor delay on satellite that takes getting used to. For instance, when you download a video, you can't play it immediately since there is about a 5 second (or less) delay from the time you make a request to the time the info starts downloading and is playable. You get used to it quite quickly, though. Also, this delay means that you cannot use internet-based phone systems like Vonage since the delay interferes with the transmission of data necessary to complete most transactions on those services.

 

I'm not sure what the Fair Access Policy is. Maybe I am familiar with it but not its title? If you can explain it, maybe I can help you there.

 

I hope that was helpful. If you do decide to go with satellite internet through Wild Blue, let me know. I think they have a referral program that would benefit us both if you use a referral through me. :)

 

ETA: When we looked at satellite internet prices, they ran about $80 per month, but when we arranged our internet through a cooperative agreement with DirecTV, the price dropped to $50 per month plus $25 per month for basic TV. We kept the TV for a year then dropped it, but our internet price stayed the same. You may want to look into that ordering option to save same money.

[steppingstonemomma]

I appreciate the info! Especially about the costs!

From the way I understand it, the FAP is where you can only use up a certain amount of Megabites??? in a 24 hour period or else they drop or slow your connection for a while (72 hours??)

Thanks!

We'll be checking in on it this week!

Tiff