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Review by dj928 
Posted: 5.4 years ago
member for 6 years, 3 visits, last login: 4.6 years ago
 Valley Center,San Diego,CA
 $60 per month
 "None"
 "Constant freezing, poor tech support, horrible upload speeds, no networking, no live gaming."
 "Avoid"
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I have had Starband for several years due to the high up front costs that have kept me from being able to switch to another company. I have had nothing but problems with the service and have tried everything from reinstalling my entire hard drive back to default (3 times) to intensive tech support, but they can never solve the problems of constant freezing when I surf the internet. It is very slow most of the time and often unusable. There are brief periods of fast service, but this is few and far between. Mail often does not work properly. Email tech support usually just refers me to the 800 number - which usually ends up with long hold times and no solutions.
I am in San Diego County - the best weather in the world - with a clear blue sky in front of my satellite dish. There is no excuse for the problems I've experienced. Starband also refuses to support networking - which is a major problem.
I have found that dial-up (28K is the best I get) has been often superior to the speeds I experience with Starband.
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Review by jaymer
Posted: 5.5 years ago
member for 6.5 years, 131 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Granville,Hampden,MA
$49 per month (36 month contract)
 about 24 days
"Fast, Works in the middle of nowhere, Doesn't use a phoneline, NO FAP!"
"Fairly high latency, slow upload, 360 doesn't allow for direct networking"
"If you can't get DSL, Cable, or Wireless... GET THIS!"
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I recently ordered Starband Satellite Internet services. I would like to start out by saying that this connection is for my lake house. I currently am a satisfied Comcast customer at my current residence, but I could not take 26.4kbits dialup. With this I started my search for the cheapest Satellite solution possible. After reading about the costs of the DirecWay service along with the trouble with the DW6000 modem, and the FAP, I decided that Starband would be a better solution for me. I ordered Starband direct on 5/14 and talked to a sales representative who knew his stuff. He even went as far as giving me his desk phone number, where he picked up immediately in order to answer the questions which I had pre-sale.
I ended up ordering a refurbished Starband system with a 360 modem for $399 + $25 shipping and signed up for the $49/month 500kbit package. I then grabbed the list of installers from the Starband website and started making calls. My choice of installer was “Digital Home Entertainment” out of Winsted, CT. They are a small family run retailer/installer business; they install every consumer satellite service under the sun. They also do home theater installs. I booked an appointment for Saturday the 5th of June, but this was rescheduled a week in advance to Monday the 7th due to the installer being out of town. Since this is a new house I also ordered Dish 500 from Digital Home Entertainment and arranged for it to be installed at the same time as the Starband, they gave me a great deal on equipment, please post if you want details.
Around May 24th the Starband equipment was delivered via FedEx and I stashed it the garage until the installer showed up right on time on Monday the 7th. Our installer, Kevin, was incredibly professional and answered all my questions, we showed him where we wanted it installed and helped him to mount it to the side of our wooden chimney (my father is a perfectionist, he built the house). We also installed the Dish 500 dish at this time. We then dropped cables down into our basement and plugged into and powered up the modem. I had a freshly reformatted machine running Windows XP Pro with ONLY the latest Windows Updates installed (no third party software) and the Starband software installed flawlessly onto the machine. After fixing a slight mix up due to the Starband dish being pointed at the wrong satellite and calling Starband’s CVACs commissioning system, we were up and running with a signal strength of 7.30. Running a blt.speakeasy.net speed test showed a result of 525dwn/35up and pinging google.com resulted in an average ping of 750ms. Kevin then went back up on the roof, tightened the bolts on the dish, installed the Dish Network receivers, made sure we were comfortable with the system, and then left. We were very impressed with his work and his knowledge of satellite technology. If you need an install in Northwest Connecticut or the Berkshires, give this guy a call.
While the speeds are not the best, they are solid. I have run several speed tests and gotten the same results over a 24 hour period. I am also now using my server to share the connection wirelessly via Windows XP ICS and it works flawlessly to both my Macs and PCs. While the high latency and slow upload speed are present this connection whoops dialup. Unlike regular broadband where you click and the page starts streaming down, you click, wait about two seconds, and the page appears. Starband has done a good job with their network enhancement technology. I have had no problems connecting to AOL for Broadband, my schools FirstClass server, RealPlayer video streams, MP3 Audio streams, or SSL web pages. I have even been able to use Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection to connect to my desktop at home (connected via Comcast Cable), it works, it just takes about a second and a half for you to see the response on the screen, it is fine for checking e-mail, but not much more.
While I understand that this connection will not work for gaming or heavy uploads, I still love it. It is so much less of a hassle than dealing with dialup. If you feel that you NEED to game online, DON’T BUY THIS. If you feel that you NEED Voice over IP DON’T BUY THIS. If anything else is available in your area either, Cable, DSL, or Wireless, DON’T BUY THIS. But if you can’t get a dialup connection faster than 26.4kbits, want something that WORKS, and don’t want to deal with the FAP then:
- Buy some refurbished equipment direct from Starband
- Review your installers, remember the quality of the install is the most important part of your overall satisfaction
- Get it!
Thank you to Kevin and Brenda at Digital Home Entertainment for such a professional install of both Starband and Dish Network. Also, thank you to my father for footing the tab for this great system. While it can’t replace a cable modem or DSL, it’s better than Dialup.
I will be posting reviews over the next few months in order to report the connection reliability and the quality of Tech Support (I hope I don’t need it). I will try to keep everyone updated. If you have any questions please feel free to respond to this review and I will try to answer them.
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Review by NbWY1
Posted: 5.5 years ago
member for 6.5 years, 681 visits, last login: 26 days ago
Ellicott City,Howard,MD
Contract price not specified.
"Download is nice for no wires."
"Upload is VERY VERY low."
"If you can't get a land line, this may be the best you'll be getting."
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Download's are nice, about 70-90KB/s on Starband Small Office. uploads are a bit weak though, 12-15KB/s. I average 10 days of uptime before a crash.. downtime is no more than 30sec (these are not IP cycles)
Installed by ABC satellite.. more painfull installation than, basically anything I can possibly think of.
Ping's 600 to first hop, and requires gateway pc running Starband Junk software (on 360 modem)
No land line? Want bandwidth? Have deep pockets? Get starband!
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Review by vernf
Posted: 5.5 years ago
member for 9.4 years, 86 visits, last login: 4.5 years ago
Napier,Braxton,WV
$114 per month (36 month contract)
about 10 days
"Fast, no FAP, and did I mention no FAP?"
"Expensive, Latency, rain fade."
"I would recommend it to my friends."
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New 481 modem telecommuter system.
Rated 750 Kbps down and 100 Kbps up.
Actual throughput on Netscape's FTP server:
Received 25,998,480 bytes in 208.2 seconds, ( 1.20 Mbps )
Transmitted 25,998,480 bytes in 2,165.7 seconds, ( 117.69 Kbps ) (Sent to my Host via FTP.)
Of course I will only average a fraction of that, but that is what the system is capable of.
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Review by oakenshld
UPDATED: 6.3 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 139 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
Glen Allen,Henrico,VA
$69 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Much faster than my old dial-up"
"Uploads are on-par with dial-up"
"Loving it so far..."
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I had my system installed 2 weeks ago and so far so good. The installer was excellent. I, like most of you reading this, am very famiiliar with computers. The 3 I have, I built myself, so when I asked the installer to let me do the PC work, it was no problem.
I am using ethernet and not USB, for anyone using USB for internet connectivity, just think of all of the problems you had installing benign USB devices (dont plug it up before installing software, turn it on, then install, etc..etc.). I have had constant connectivity between 500 and 700 down and 35 to 70 up. My expectations were set early through this site and others, so I knew what I was getting into.
Update: 7/7/03. Well it has been 3 weeks now been through 3 bad storms and haven't lost connectivity once. Still at around 600 down with bursting speeds to 900-1200. Uploads are testing here around 100kb/s, but my real up-loads (FTP) are really only around 25-30. Still fine for me and still happy...will keep updating.
Update 7/24/03. All is well so far.. I have had outages twice due to bad storms (I mean whoopers) for about 10 minutes and 25 minutes respectively. I turned everything off anyway, so no big deal. Downloads still huming around 500-700 uploads still around 35 average. Browsing is still great, and streaming media is very fast (can watch 500k stream without a hiccup). Have downloaded plenty and no throttling of service. Email has not been a problem once (I heard this was an issue in earlier years). All in all still very satisfied. This solution is however for folks who do not mind tweaking and playing around with settings to get the best possible outcome. I still have not had to call tech support, so no info on that yet. Will keep updating.
8/7/03
O.K. Its been almost 2 months now and still doing great. Lost signal a couple times due to bad storms here in the mid-atlantic, but light/medium rain posed no issues at all. Unlike some of the D-Way posts I have read, my daughters machine that is networked to mine (mine is connected to the 360 modem) is actually a little faster than mine for browsing/downloading etc.??? No idea why, but its true. My machine is plenty fast for me though. Streaming media and news still without a hitch and I upgraded mail and news services because they have been flawless so far. Will keep updating..
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Review by Woogy_Jiz
Posted: 6.4 years ago
member for 6.4 years, 26 visits, last login: 5.9 years ago
Blackfoot,Bingham,ID
$59 per month (6 month contract)
about 14 days
"Good Pings, Fast Install, Good Upload\Download"
"Faster would be nice........"
"Pretty darn good for wireless"
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I live in Idaho and can't get much in the way
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Review by mikehd
UPDATED: 6.4 years ago
member for 9.4 years, 2179 visits, last login: 8 days ago
Lebanon,Linn,OR
Contract price not specified. (6 month contract)
about 10 days
"beats my 44kbps modem for download speed"
"no faster than my 44kbps modem for upload speed"
"If you have cable or dsl access, DEFINITELY not for you"
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The biggest problem has been the extremely long hold times for tech support should you ever need it. I have found that the Starband/Dell pc combo obtained with the Pilot program to be fairly reliable. One major gripe is the lack of full support for all protocols in the Nettgain accelerator proxy. Getting streaming media at lan clients is difficult or inconsistent without a 3rd party proxy software such as WinProxy. I think that for $60-$70/month Starband should provide a complete solution.
Again, I am a Starband Pilot participant with the Dell PC and PCI satellite cards (one Tx, one Rx). The Starband 180 USB customers are reporting vastly different experiences.
July 6, 2003 - dropped Starbad about 2 years ago like the proverbial hot potato when ADSL was made available. Good riddance...
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 Review by aztecnology
UPDATED: 6.4 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 3012 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Murrieta,Riverside,CA
$49 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Great if it's your only option"
"None - I knew exactly what I was getting into"
"If it's your only broadband option - go for it"
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Starband has been terrific for me. Satellite is my only broadband option, it has it's quirks - but for what I need it for, it suits me perfectly. Email, surfing, and downloading. I've only experienced downtime just a couple times, for minutes really. Other than that it has been rock solid for me.
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Review by jhassan
Posted: 6.5 years ago
member for 6.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 6.5 years ago
Stilwell,Johnson,KS
Contract price not specified.
"Provides Broadband Services to Isolated Areas"
"Subject to interferences from climatic changes."
"Excellent Alternative Product"
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In an age where homes and businesses are moving more towards independence form wires. Starband offers a solution, that already half way there! Let's get the two way communication going!
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Review by jpaley
Posted: 6.6 years ago
member for 6.8 years, 157 visits, last login: 5.4 years ago
Princeton,Bureau,IL
Contract price not specified.
"Suitable if you can't get a good dial-up connection"
"No reliability, sub-par tech support, goes down in good and bad weather"
"Please don't do it."
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I have seen a few good reviews, and a bunch of either mixed or poor reviews of Starband in my time on this site. Here's my "real deal".
First of all, I was using Starband for about a year, and finally cut the cord when my connection continually dropped on a nice sunny, bright day. That's right - no rain, snow, or sleet. Nice and sunny. Yet, I had no connection. Starband told me they were up and running. I cancelled my account that day.
I am now using a wireless service and I am averaging 900 down and 600 up. It stayed up last night during a tornadic-type storm for crying out loud! It rocks!
Now, Starband does have an advantage if you are out in the middle of nowhere. But I will tell you what - if you can get a 56k modem connection, I personally would recommend that. I mean, weather won't effect your connectivity, and you will almost certainly have higher upload speeds, and quite possibly higher download at times too.
I am not a Starband basher. I just think that they aren't providing what they are advertising. I mean, to go Starband.com and look at the way that guy is jumping. I never felt like that during MY time with Starband....
I am open to disagreements...
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StarBand Communications Inc.
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