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Review by nitropc6 
Posted: 7.7 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 60 visits, last login: 6.3 years ago
 Eldridge,Walker,AL
 $70 per month (12 month contract)
 about 21 days
 "I wish I could say!"
 "Poor excuse for Broadband service!"
 "Stay with a dial-up if that's your only option!"
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Heed the Warning!
I don't mean to use Starband as a punching bag as many have and will do, but Starband does not qualify as being a broadband service. On an average I get about 300 down and always 32-40 up. This thing was adevertise to me being 500 down and 150 up. Let me get a point across! I realize that wireless technologies will always suffer the latencey and element factors. Regardless whoever supplies it. That should be ones understanding when making a decision to going to this type of Internet (Satellite). I would say that since my 6 month stay I've had about 55% uptime out of the 100% anyone would expect. I must report that when this contract is over, I'm going to go back to my old dial-up, because it's not worth paying $70.00 for Internet that doesn't even rivial dial-up. For crying out loud, atleast I was doing some pretty decent gaming with that! If this was your only option to getting into broadband I would highly recommend that either wait till you can get cable or dsl. Of course, you could always move! Just my 2 cents!
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Review by TravisH
Posted: 7.7 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 59 visits, last login: 3.2 years ago
Goodhue,Goodhue,MN
$69 per month
"Modem looks nice"
"Behind times, Just recently XP compatible"
"Cannot wait for DSL"
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I've had Starband for little over a year now. Only good thing I have to say is that they sent me a free upgrade to their new 360 modem. I leave the modem on all the time and shut my PC down each day. When I boot my PC up I will have to wait about 5 minutes to browse the internet. ICQ and other programs will work right away after initial boot-up, but not IE. I have to wait til I see the "this page cannot be displayed" dialog. Then all I have to do is hit refresh and surf away. Tech support is just stumped also. It's nothing major, but it's very annoying having to wait about 5 minutes just to use IE. I have formatted my computer and installed Starband software fresh and still have the same problems. Windows XP is just now compatible with Starband also. Wasn't XP's consumer launch in October? Only 4 months of waiting and if you want to upgrade to XP you need to buy the latest mission control software from Starband for $20 and tech support says it's in high demand and I will have to wait 3-4 MORE weeks to get the CD. What I don't understand is why cannot I just download the newest software? By the time I will get the latest sofware on CD Micorsoft will have another OS out already. *S* I am just sick and tired of the BS Starband puts you through. Many people have asked me about my ISP and I won't recommend Starband to anyone. It's also a real pain in the butt to network also. You cannot run a router with Starband whatsoever, strickly forbidden. It's not recommended for P2P programs either they say. I'm not paying $70/month just to surf the internet. Morpheus/Kazaa don't work like they used to with Starband. So why does anyone even need high speed then? There are just too many bad qualities about this service that outweigh the good.
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Review by csroberson
Posted: 7.7 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 41 visits, last login: 138 days ago
Sonoma,Sonoma,CA
$60 per month (12 month contract)
about 90 days
"Connection reliability has improved"
"Customer service seems very weak"
"Better than dialup"
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I pay $60/month but that is part of a Dish Network Dish 150 package which costs $99/month.
My only other alternative is dialup or IDSL or another satellite provider. I had to scrap my Linux box when it came and setup a Win2000 machine so I could support my wife's laptop and my daughter's laptop on the same network. It really annoyed me that the service is so tightly coupled to a Microsoft platform.
Initially, I had several periods of lost connectivity but that seems to have abated.
I occassionally have trouble retrieving my mail but it's not too bad. The web-based mail interface is pretty weak and is actually annoying if you get a lot of mail. If you have more than 10 messages and are trying to read 11-12-13 the mailreader will return you to 1-10 after viewing 11, and after 12, and after 13.
I tried to upload my Outlook contacts to their online address book and it failed. I submitted a bug report and was later informed the problem was fixed. I tried import the contacts again and the same problem occured. I tried to re-open the bug and even gave them the file I was trying to import. This was months ago and I have yet to hear anything more.
Just this past weekend I sent in a problem I had with trying to retrieve mail via Entourage using my wife's PowerBook over a non-starband connection. I described what steps I had taken in my submission and promptly got back a pat answer telling me to do what I had already described doing. It seemed obvious that the person responding to the problem didn't bother to read my message or couldn't bother trying to craft a real response.
I'm also using WinProxy on my firewall/NAT/DHCP machine. The software seems to work well and customer support was acceptable the one time I called them. However, I recently had a case where my throughput dropped to about or below modem speeds (56Kbps). I improved 6 fold by restarting the WinProxy software which had been running for several weeks.
Basically, I get connectivity at better than dialup speeds and it essentially works. However, unless the overall service improves I will jump to the first viable alternative as soon as it appears. I would say they are successful (if they are successful) only because they are almost the only game in town. I wish I could compare this to Return DirecPC but that seems really hard to find.
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Review by gatorguy9021
Posted: 7.7 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 5 visits, last login: 7.7 years ago
Albany,Dougherty,GA
$70 per month (12 month contract)
about 11 days
"somewhat better than dialup"
"caching may deliver content out of date and sometimes does not load graphics"
"Not recommended as viable broadband connection."
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No in-house email servers, service may be subcontracted resulting in less than reliable service.
Wildly variable access, averaging somewhat less than advertised.
Although the company appears to be making an effort, competition may overtake them on quality and speed of service.
FTP and P2P applications may not work correctly or may run at such low speeds as to be ineffectual.
Upload capabilities are not reliable enough for constant use.
HTTP pages may be cached with a proxy server along with a network that may be overloaded.
SSL connections may run very slowly at times.
If you have no other alternative Sattelite will work, However for the money ISDN would have been a better choice for me.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 7.7 years ago
(review was emailed from domain unanov.una.edu)
Russellville,Franklin,AL
$60 per month (12 month contract)
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I have had Starband since August, 2001. I must say that I am well
pleased with it. Very rarely have downtime, usually only during periods
of very heavy rain. Downloads at 500 - 900kbps, uploads at 75 to
125kbps. Couldn't be happier!
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Review by chuckpa6
Posted: 7.7 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 44 visits, last login: 5.7 years ago
Granville Summit,Bradford,PA
$70 per month (month by month)
about 21 days
"I don't have any for starband"
"there down more that there up,ther dns servers are medded up most of the time"
"stay away from it"
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I orderd it right from starband and when the dish came there was no software with it and you need the software to us it, then after a lot of phone calls to there tech dep.(and when you call most of the time its a 45 min to 2 hours hold time) they keep saying that they would sent it to me well after about a 2 weeks I got it, I should have know right then and there that it was a bad thing to get it but I keep it anyway.
Soon after that it really started going down hill from them being down more then there where up,scanning your ports all the time(more that 5x a day there speed ) there up/down load was never what there ad said it was ( I never got it anyway).
For 600 for there dish and there modem and 70 a month I would stay away from it.
also you are locked into it for a year so even after you have had it for a bit and you dont like it your stuck with it for a year unless you pay them 499 to get out of it.
Also everytime you turn around there are changing what they will allow you to do and not to do.Also if you do voip ( voice over ip ) forget it the same with on line gamming and other things as there is a very high lag time with it.I could go on and on about how bad it is but I won't just stay away from it is all I can say
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Review by dchamb9
UPDATED: 7.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 32 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
Brighton,Macoupin,IL
$74 per month
about 7 days
"Installation good;service is up majority of time; speeds satisfactory"
"satmodem buggy; downloads sometimes hang; tech support clueless; pricey"
"In rural areas where DSL and cable are not/never avail, this is a good choice"
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Sure, $399 is a bit much for the satmodem; $199 for installation; $74.99 per month for service is pricey (yes they advertise $69.95 but forgot to tell you about DISH network's $5 access fee). If you live in the country, and DSL will never be there, and cable is years away at best, your choices are dial-up and Starband. Dial-up sucked rocks, and Starband at least gives good performance the majority of the time. I have routinely experienced 350-450 kbps download, and 50-60kbps upload. The worst I've seen is around 200kbps download. Strangely, the upload times are more constant than the download.
The satmodem (Model 180) is buggy. It has been known to lock up on me, requiring a power down before I could get back online. Definately loose the USB port! You won't notice a difference in speed, but stablity is much better. I have 4 PC's networked wirelessly to it and they all operate just fine using the "hidden" Ethernet port.
Also, a big problem is that Starband routinely pushes down updates to the satmodem OS, without notifying tech support. I also see problems I've experienced posted on newsgroups, and tech support claims they have not been reported. (Hard to believe).
Give it more time to work out the bugs. So far they have improved things, which is a good sign. And the emerging competition will certainly light a fire under Starband.
Update:
At this time, Starband has discontinued support for the model 180 satmodem, and disconnected service for any user who has not upgraded to the model 360. I upgraded to the 360 in July 2001.
The 360 Satmodem is an improvement over the previous 180. This unit is smaller in size, provides for both USB and Ethernet connectivity without breaking and entering. For anyone who prefers router based networking in a peer-to-peer setting, there is a glitch. The 360 satmodem utilizes BST/IP (Boosted Session Protocol) between the satellite and the host. This protocol is designed to improve throughput for wireless devices, such as satellite. Todays routers are not designed to deal with this protocol and will choke on it. Therefore, you need to have a dedicated PC configured as a gateway running Netgain 2000 (which comes with the 360). Netgain 2000 handles the BST/IP traffic and conversion to TCP/IP so that the rest of your network can function.
I have a Win2K Pro PC configured as a gateway, with 2 NIC cards. One NIC connects to the 360 satellite modem and the other connects to my Linksys router. Win2K Pro is a better choice because its ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) implementation is far better than what you will find on WinME or 98. You need to have ICS configured to allow other client PCs in the network to share the Internet.
I also have this machine configured as a firewall, running Zone Alarm Pro.
All in all, performance has been better than the 180 satmodem setup.
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Review by GrahamCalTEG
UPDATED: 7.8 years ago
member for 8.2 years, 67 visits, last login: 7.6 years ago
Santa Cruz,Santa Cruz,CA
$85 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
"Respectable speeds for large file downloads; good if you have no other options"
"REQUIRES certain versions of Windows; unstable connection; terrible customer support; closed system & proprietary technology=bad"
"Use it only if you have no other viable options; keep a backup dial-up for when the service goes down"
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We get good download speeds (~500K) on large files when the service works.
UPDATE (January 2002): Download speeds have dropped noticeably. Max is about 300KB/s, but usually does not exceed 150KB/s. In fact, artificial rate-limiting appears to be at work, because only the first 10MB or so of a large file is transferred at the higher speed. After this initial burst of high speed, the transfer rate drops down to about 60KB/s.
Upload speeds are terrible - it's painful even to send e-mail
We have a single IP which is supposedly static, but I've seen reports of StarBand customers whose IP addressses have changed without any notice or explanation.
Service is very unreliable - poor weather on your end or on their end can (and often will) mean your service goes down.
UPDATE (January 2002): A moderately high wind blew our satellite dish out of alignment such that the service stopped working for two days. Starband charged an excessive fee to re-align the dish, even though it wouldn't have moved if they had installed it properly to begin with.
Their support telephone number has recorded messages that claim the service has no known problems even when coverage is out in large service areas - don't trust it.
Support techs try to be helpful, but the nature of the service is so complicated and unreliable that they get swamped and grumpy because of all the grumpy customers. If you call support, expect long hold times and clueless support techs - but please remember that they're human beings just like you, and they didn't cause the problem. They just work there.
The service _REQUIRES_ proprietary Windows-only software in order to work any faster than a dial-up modem. You MUST run Windows with StarBand, which means you're up a creek if you're a MacOS or Linux user. On top of that, only certain versions of Windows are supported! Talk about technical incompetance.
The required Windows-only software crashed our machine (Windows 2000 Server) many times daily until we moved it to a Windows 2000 Professional machine. StarBand's explanation: "Well, we warned you that the software doesn't work on Windows 2000 Server." No, they didn't - in fact, they're the ones who installed it on our Windows 2000 Server. Further investigation revealed that the installer admitted that he didn't bother to check what version of Windows we were running.
Update: The software has also decreased the stability of the Windows 2000 Pro machine we run it on. We now experience crashes daily, whereas this never occurred prior to using the Starband software.
UPDATE (January 2002): Even with a recent update, the Starband software still makes our Windows 2000 Professional machine very unreliable.
Update: The software has a cute "feature": It always reports that Starband's connection from their main facility to the internet is up, regardless of the truth. So, if you're trying to troubleshoot a problem, you can't trust any information they give you.
StarBand apparently contracts out their SMTP services to another company, which means you must configure your e-mail software to use authentication to connect to send mail. You use your StarBand username and password to do this, which means that you send your StarBand username and password over the network unencrypted every single time you send an e-mail. Not a good thing.
All in all, I'm unimpressed. We're looking forward to the end of the contract.
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Review by rural5
Posted: 7.9 years ago
member for 8.3 years, 18 visits, last login: 7.4 years ago
Brownstown,Jackson,IN
$117 per month
about 14 days
"Starband, Networking, WinProxy, AOL – it all works!"
"No local TV programming via Starband in my area"
"I would recommend Starband"
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Starband, Networking, WinProxy, and AOL -- it all works!
I have been a Starband customer for eleven months, and am very satisfied with both the installation and the ongoing service.
Prior to moving to Indiana, I had lived outside of Boston and used cable as my ISP. After settling in my new location, I investigated DSL, cable and satellite, and learned that satellite was my only option. This significantly shortened my decision process. I contacted Pro-Com Plus (formerly Lightning Fast Systems) to handle the installation. They agreed to install the Starband dish for both TV and internet, AND to wire my house for a home LAN. It was a very professional job in all respects. The wiring is completely hidden passing through attic, basement, and walls as necessary. The wire emerges through wall outlets (not through a hole in the floor as the cable installer had done to my previous home.)
Installation was completed within two days. This included: installation of the dish, wiring for two television receivers, and (under separate contract) wiring the house to support five computer locations. When the installer left on the second day, both TV's were working, four computers were using the LAN, two computers were simultaneously using the internet connection, AND the remote computer was using AOL over Starband! It was pure bliss! On any typical day, I have three computers at a given time congenially sharing the Starband connection.
Over time I have tweaked the network somewhat. Initially, any computer except the one directly connected to the Starband modem could use AOL to its fullest. For the primary computer, we retrieved email using Explorer from aol.com. With the advent of AOL 7.0, even this primary computer can now use the AOL interface. (Note that AOL itself restricts usage to only one screen name per account at any given moment.) I started out using Windows' ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) with the network dynamically assigning addresses to each computer as it signed on. This worked, but only if I brought the network up in the following sequence: modem, Primary computer, remote computers. If my primary computer rebooted, I had to repeat. After I changed to static addresses, and installed Winproxy, the LAN is completely stable.
I initially was given a Starband 180 modem with the promise of a 360 within a month. It was actually 4 months before the 360 arrived. However, during this time I successfully used three or four computers simultaneously on a 180 modem, so did not suffer greatly.
My speeds have increased with the 360. Using the 180, my download/upload speeds averaged 250/40. Using the 360 I now get 660/50. I have been using the 360 only three weeks and hope to tweak my performance and possibly see these speeds increase.
Any disappointments? Only one. In my area, local programming is not available with Starband, and internet is not available with cable, so I am forced to use both. Satellite does have a latency. This is generally not noticeable to me, but it does preclude some of the shooting games my teenagers are fond of. As a parent, this turns out to be an advantage. I will note that Lightning Fast was very upfront about the latency right from the start. Count me as a satisified Starband user.
Note that the monthly fee includes internet, plus the Starband 150 TV programming for 2 receivers.
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Review by keys2heaven
Posted: 7.9 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 8 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
Niantic,Macon,IL
Contract price not specified.
"None Yet"
"Retailer was rude!"
"Too many problems and not enough answers"
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This is what I call a scathing pre-purchase review. I live in a small town outside a moderately sized city in Central Illinois. Of course, neither broadband or DSL is available in my area. Not wanting to have to live with dial-up, I started to investigate the other options available to me in my area.
I quickly learned that satellite is just about the only thing I could go to. I started reviewing the providers, starting with DirecPC. However, the reviews for them seemed worse that those of StarBand. Plus, the costs were higher. So, I went to StarBand's site and became interested in the DISH Network + StarBand bundle for $78/mo. According to the offer. it seemed like the installation fee for both systems would be free. And, I have written Starband to inquire about this.
My frustration arose when I called the local retailer for pricing. I told him about the web site offer and basically got silence from them. When I mentioned that the installation was free (at least that's the way I read it) the rep. was a little more forthcoming. Incidentally, the prices they had for equipment were different than what StarBand quoted on their site. Here's what I asked the retailer:
1. Q. I have read many reviews (mostly from this site) about StarBand and I am curious as to how many customers in our area have this service and, more importanly, are happy with it.
A. The rep. couldn't answer this. He gave me a couple of big name businesses that have had the system installed recently, but didn't have exact numbers.
2. Q. You would be the installer, correct?
A. Yes. We install all systems we sell.
3. Q. What is your price?
A. $499 for StarBand. $199 for installation. $149 for DISH Network.
4. Q. Have you seen the web offer?
A. Silence
5. Q. Their prices are higher, but supposedly you get installation for free.
A. Silence. Maybe the guy was eating lunch. It was after 12.
6. Q. Let me take you to the web page where I saw the ad.
A. Reluctantly the rep. goes there.
7. Q. Do you see the promo?
A. Yes.
8. Q. What do you think?
A. Well.....that's THEIR promotion. We don't have to honor that. Since we are a
retailer, we can charge anything we want. You will have to contact them
directly and have one of THEIR installers come out.
9. Q. So you are saying that you won't honor the company's, whom you are a
retailer for, price?
A. No. Installation will be $199. At this point he admits that he doesn't know
that much about pricing and get the manager "Bob". He doesn't put Bob on
the phone, and shows him the promo from StarBand's web site. I could hear
Bob shouting saying "It all comes out in the wash. We don't give anything for
free. Installation would be $199."
So, "Scott" gets back on the phone and I tell him that he did realize that he has a potential customer on the line and that I could hear every word that his manager was speaking. I told him that I have never heard such an outburst from a manager towards a potential customer. I went on to say, "If this is the kind of treatment that I can expect to recieve before the sale, what is it going to be like if I have a problem??"
So, I ended the phone call and am waiting for a response (I'm sure i'll never get one) from StarBand about this phone call and what is the proper interpretation of their offer. Anyway, I won't do business with that retailer. From all of the horror stories that I have read from StarBand customers, I don't think that I want to even try to talk with a StarBand customer Service rep. It's too bad that customer service has become little more than a joke in this country. If we were to manufacture cars with the same attitude that most customer service folks have, cars rolling off the assembly line wouldn't make it 2 blocks before falling apart. It's that bad.
So, I have resolved myself to not having internet access at this time. I'm writing this from work which has a T1. Maybe someday I will be back in the land of broadband or DSL, but for now i'll keep my thoughts about satellite where they should be. Thousands of miles away.
Mike Keys
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StarBand Communications Inc.
False advertising