Internet Connectivity via Satellite with DirecWAY or StarBand

If you're in an area where cable modem, DSL, or fixed wireless services don't exist, you might be able to use a satellite connection as a last resort. To see whether this is possible, take a look at the southern sky from your home, condo, or apartment building. If you have a good, clear 45° window view to the sky toward the equator and you want fast downloads of big files, a satellite-based service such as DirecWAY or StarBand might be the best (or only viable) high-speed choice for you.

Note

Geosynchronous satellites used for satellite Internet/TV service are visible in the southern sky for users in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe, and Asia); if you're in the Southern Hemisphere (South America, Australia, Africa), these satellites are located in the northern sky.

Depending on the product you choose for satellite Internet, you might be able to use a single dish for both satellite Internet and satellite TV.

Tip

If you want both high-speed Internet access and satellite TV with a single dish, you can add DirecTV to the DirecWAY dish at any time. The StarBand dish can work with both Dish Network (TV) and StarBand (Internet) services in the continental United States and Canada. However, if you decide to add DirecWAY to an existing DirecTV setup, you will need to replace your existing DirecTV dish unless you installed the larger DirecDUO dish (which works with DirecTV and DirecPC or DirecWAY).

DirecWAY

DirecWAY was originally called DirecPC, but Hughes Network Systems renamed it in mid-2001, shortly after rolling out a two-way version of the DirecPC service; this section discusses the two-way service. The original version of DirecPC/DirecWAY was a one-way service that used satellite for downloading and a conventional dialup modem for uploads. Starting in 2002, this was replaced with a two-way satellite connection.

Currently, DirecWAY Home is advertised at 700Kbps for downloads, although most people experience much higher speeds of 1000Kbps2000Kbps. Uploads are more limited in speed to about 60Mbps. This might be slower than cable modems or DSL, but satellite connections are often the only available broadband connection for people living away from urban areas. If you're willing to spend a little more, DirecWAY also sells a Professional package that offers download speeds at 1Mbps.

DirecWAY Requirements

The DirecWAY service requires you to purchase and install a small satellite dish as part of the necessary hardware. It's similar to and slightly larger than the dishes used for satellite TV services, such as DirecTV and DishNetwork. In fact, you can combine DirecTV and DirecWAY service on the same dish in many cases, although generally you are better off keeping them separate. DirecWAY uses a 35" wide DirecWAY satellite dish to send and receive data. The dish is connected to a DW6000 satellite modem, which provides a shareable Ethernet connection to which you can plug an individual PC or a router to share the access on your network for Windows PC, Mac, and other systems. The DW6000 is functionally identical to a cable modem as far as setup and operation is concerned. This means that no custom software is required on the PC end. Older modems connected via USB and required a PC for connection, but those have since been phased out.

Purchasing DirecWAY Service

DirecWAY can be purchased from DirecWAY (www.direcway.com) as well as from partners such as EarthLink (www.earthlink.com).

You can either purchase the equipment up front (installation is included) and then pay a lower monthly fee or pay a higher monthly fee and avoid the greater upfront costs. Either way, you have to accept a minimum 15-month contract with penalties for early termination.

DirecWAY's FAPBrakes on High-speed Downloading?

A big concern for those wanting to exploit the high-speed download feature continues to be DirecWAY's Fair Access Policy (FAP). FAP uses unpublished algorithms to determine who is "abusing" the service with large downloads. This has proven to be a controversial feature. For example, the current guidelines for residential customers state that you might experience the FAP if the cumulative requested downloads in a 1-hour to 4-hour time period exceeds 169MB. The restrictions are lifted within 812 hours of the original application of the FAP if the usage in that period stays below the FAP threshold. The limits are higher for those using the Professional service and for business customers. For a more detailed discussion of the real-world impact of FAP on both residential and business users and software you can use to track downloading, see the Fair Access Policy page at http://www.copperhead.cc/fap.html.

Note

Because different satellites are used by the different DirecWAY partners, it pays to research which DirecWAY versions perform best. In addition to the DirecPC/DirecWAY newsgroup, check out the DirecPC Uncensored! website at www.copperhead.cc as well as the forums on www.dslreports.com for speed tests and tweaks you can make to your system.

StarBand

In April 2000, StarBandthe first consumer-oriented two-way satellite networkwas introduced after being tested as Gilat-At-Home. After some initial teething pains, StarBand has achieved success but is not as popular as DirecWAY. Even so, the feature set of StarBand in its current two-way form is almost identical to DirecWAY.

StarBand provides download speeds ranging from 500Kbps to 1000Kbps and upload speeds ranging from 50Kbps to 100Kbps, depending on the satellite modem used. StarBand has partnered with several other companies, including SIA (satellite-internet-access.net) and US Online (www.usonline.com), to support its products. StarBand equipment pricing and monthly service fees are generally similar to DirecWAY's two-way price structure, although some vendors might offer special promotional packages and bundles.

Tip

You can find excellent tips, tricks, utility software, and user-provided help at the StarBand Users website (www.starbandusers.com) as well as www.dslreports.com.

DirecWAY and StarBand services work as shown in Figure 17.3.

Figure 17.3. The DirecWay and StarBand services can receive both TV programs (left) and Internet traffic (right) with a single 24"x36" satellite dish.

Real-world Satellite Performance

Benchmark addicts will find that satellite Internet access performs poorly on ping tests because the complex pathway your data must travel (ground to space and back again) results in pings taking at least 400ms600ms. Interactive benchmarks are also disappointing. The delays caused by communicating with a geosynchronous satellite over 22,500 miles in space make satellite a poor choice for these applications, although download speeds are significantly faster than dialup modems. Speeds vary widely, but speeds of 1000Kbps are common, and some can reach download speeds of more than 2000Kbps. To achieve results like this, use the tips available on the various forums and sites covering satellite connections to adjust your system's configuration.

Weather can be a problem for satellite connections, but not in the way you might think. Clouds and storms don't generally affect the signal, unless the storm is so severe you should probably be taking shelter anyway. What can be a problem, however, is snow and ice accumulation on the dish. If you live in an area where it snows, you can have signal problems even though the sky is clear; those problems are invariably caused by snow and ice accumulation on the dish. With that in mind, try to have the dish mounted in a location where you can periodically get to it to brush off any snow and ice accumulation.

Because of the higher latency, slower overall speeds, greater equipment costs, and sensitivity to snow and ice, few would recommend satellite service when alternatives are available. But when the only alternatives are dialup or having an expensive T1 line, satellite is certainly more attractive than the alternatives. Although the costs are higher than cable modem or DSL access, satellite might be the only even remotely cost-effective option for people outside urban areas. Many people have creatively adapted the dishes for use on a recreational vehicle (RV) when stationary or in various tripods and platforms for use while camping.