anyone try dish online yet

[cofi]

I'm sick of .century link and my 1mbs internet I'm curious if satellite internet is going to be any faster

[merl]

trouble with satellite is latency. If you can get any kind of ground based internet beyond 56k it'll be better than sat.

[CrufflerSteve]

I agree. Satellite is great if you're out in the middle of nowhere and there are no decent offering or if you're just downloading. The latency is very obvious compared to ground based systems. You'll get a big delay every time you click on something new.

[Ronin13]

Here's from the research I did- and this might not apply to you, depending on your area, but up here in Evergreen we have two ground based choices, Century Stink and Comcrap... They both aren't great, but in terms of speed, Comcast is a cable line, CL is DSL... DSL is old technology that is completely outdated. DSL is slow, IIRC, if you exclude dial up, it's the slowest option out there. I'd try Comcast before going the Satellite route.

[silentshooter]

Here's from the research I did- and this might not apply to you, depending on your area, but up here in Evergreen we have two ground based choices, Century Stink and Comcrap... They both aren't great, but in terms of speed, Comcast is a cable line, CL is DSL... DSL is old technology that is completely outdated. DSL is slow, IIRC, if you exclude dial up, it's the slowest option out there. I'd try Comcast before going the Satellite route.

As a Network Engineer, I think you need to do some more research. Cable & DSL both have new and old technology. Depending on the infrastructure one can be faster than the other. Both are using shared bandwidth in that while you might buy a package at 40mbps you are not getting a dedicated 40mbps connection. The latest DSL & Cable technologies can give you 100mbps or better speeds if the company has the infrastructure and bandwidth available. Biggest issue with DSL is how far you are located from the DSLAM. The further you are the lower the max speed they will be able to provide because of the signal loss.

Satellite for consumers pretty much sucks, the commercial options are better as far as speed (still have the latency issue) but will cost you a fortune if you move alot of data.

[BushMasterBoy]

I heard satellite has FAP. "Fair Access Policy" if you download too many movies or other high bandwidth data they "throttle" your connection, severely slowing it down. I have VOIP phone and if the DSL connection is really slow the voice sounds broken. I am 19,000 feet from the Central Office and the limit is usually 15,000 feet for practical purposes. I have had the techs from Century Link out here several times. They had to slow down the connection as the equipment can't handle the distance on a twisted pair of copper wires. Fastest internet I ever had was was a wireless system off of Cheyenne mountain in Colorado Springs & cable in Cocoa Beach, FL. I can't remember the name of the wireless company in Colorado Springs, but I still have the antenna and receiver. They discontinued taking any new subscribers about two years after I got it installed. Maybe somebody has taken them over. This was installed in 2000...

[20X11]

I have Century Link...I have a 40Mb/s DSL connection. It is stunningly fast. It outperforms the Comcast connection I had previously. The problem with Comcast is that your network speeds vary according to how many other subscribers in you area are online. Comcast is a "shared" ethernet topology...you and all of your neighbors on Comcast share a connection. With Comcast, I could always tell when school got out, when people got home from work, and when most of them went to bed just by the varying speeds. Comcast will quote you a connection speed...this number is theoretical...reduce by 40% for actual...THEN start reducing by the number of customers in your neighborhood sharing that connection.

[Ridge]

Try SpeedTest on your connection.

[Gman]

I've been very happy with my Comcast cable modem. I'm paying for 13Mb down, but I actually get closer to 23Mb+. Comcast pays attention to their network and balances their loads. I haven't been able to notice busy periods after work. I also have very few outages.

Satellite internet is great if you don't have another option, but it takes time for data to bounce off of a geosynchronous satellite 22.2K miles out and then back to a terrestrial based location to then ride the Internet.

I'm actually remotely connected to my home PC right now;
24.80 Mbps Down
4.05 Mbps Up
13ms Ping

[cofi]