Starband or Direcway?

Hope this question is okay in this forum

[Leva]

I've been using a dialup for years because I have no other option. I live in a very rural area and cel phone access is poor, there is no cable TV, and the phone system dates back to the 70's. I can't get a second phone line, much less high speed internet.

My dialup provider has recently started throttling back uploads for anything bigger than a short e-mail. The first 30 seconds will fly along at a proper speedd then they choke the pipeline down ...

Yesterday, my upload speed was intolerable. And they automatically disconnect you after an hour. And I was trying to upload a theme for Wordpress and it was taking more than an hour to do it for 1 css file and 4 php files.

So I'm stuck with satellite as an option as obviously, dialup no longer is! Which begs the question, DirecWay or Starband?

Money's not a big issue, but I've been dithering because I've heard vile things about both of them. WHich is the lesser of two evils?

Leva

[bcolflesh]

DirecWay or Starband

Do either offer two-way service? If not, your upload will still be over your phone lines.

[AmericanBulldog]

Satellite Sucks, it is by no means broadband and you are only allowed so much bandwidth a day, but dial up sucks so much more.

It will increase your download about 14x and upload about 6x, possibly more depending on your plan.

If money really isn't the issue I cannot understand why you are not already on satellite.

[digitalghost]

Direcway has two-way service, there's no need to connect to a phone line. Latency is an issue. Speed is better than dialup but you're dependent on the weather in two places, your home location and the NOC.

Download speed is okay, upload speed is terrible. You'll become tolerant of the latency issue but it will still annoy you even after a year of using the service.

It beats dialup and I was able to work with the service, from home, for well over a year.

[skipfactor]

I've had them both (both were 2-way modems), and DirecWay proved more reliable, though this was 2-years ago. Download speed and browsing make it worthwhile, but uploading multiple files/folders(what I do most) was worse than dial-up. A couple of files, fine, but I ended up using dial-up to upload sites, etc.

[Wlauzon]

Satellite is probably the best of not many good choices if you don't have high speed available, such as DSL.

Download speeds seem to be decent - 500 to 900k, but uploads speeds on the two systems that I have played with were much slower, seemed to be in the 100 to 200k range, still tons better than dial up, but not spectacular.

Notice that none of the sellers of this state what the upload speeds are (or at least it is very well hidden), and only brag about download speeds.

[jdMorgan]

I had StarBand for over two years, but got tired of it. It *was* much faster than dial-up, but not fast enough for a broadband world. Those having problems with upload speed should have their antenna alignment checked by someone other than the original installer -- it's *the* most critical element related to upload speed.

I replaced the satellite with "wireless broadband" also known as "radio broadband," "microwave broadband," or LMDS. One-half the cost of satellite, no latency-, weather-, or antena-alignment-related issues, and better reliability. Look hard for this option in your area -- It is *much* better.

Most companies that offer this service are small regional or even just local mom-n-pop companies. From my research, it appears that none of them have ever read any of the SEO or SEM forums here. By way of saying, they may be very hard to find, but many of them do specialize in rural areas. Check out some of the DSL or Broadband rating/directory sites for more info if a search turns up nothing.

Failing that, I have two-years-used StarBand modem in excellent condition for sale if anyone wants it cheap. ;)

Jim

[Wlauzon]

I replaced the satellite with "wireless broadband" ...

We just opened up a brand new B&M store, and it is a tad out in the boonies in a mostly undeveloped area. Phone lines were a very long run and cable was not available.

We ended up going with the wireless broadband, and so far it seems to be working quite well. Speeds seem about the same or even a bit higher than DSL, and prices are comparable to DSL.