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Review by guidotti 
Posted: 8.6 years ago
member for 8.6 years, 405 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Crete,Will,IL
 $64 per month (month by month)
 about 5 days
 Ameritech
CLEC party: Ameritech
 "Speeds passing 1 mbit/second sometimes."
 "One-way service and ISP needed."
 "Great for me, where you can get nothing else."
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I live in Crete, IL. It is about 30 miles south of Chicago. I can get nothing here. For some reason my town seems to have been excluded from all plans for cable by @home, and the Ameritech CO in my town does not even support ISDN, let alone ADSL  So a few years ago my Dad and I went with DirecPC. After finding the dish equipment for $50 dollars online (that site is out of business now, wonder why), we proceeded to install the dish and all the wiring ourselves. We have the PCI card version FYI. I currently pay $34.95 for a hundred hours a month; now you can get unlimited for $39.95 a month but I never go over 100 hours anyway. We also pay for the second phoneline from Ameritech which is about $20.00 and we pay $9.95 a month for our ISP, Corecomm. Last year we had to reorient the dish to move to a new satellite. Everything was easy, and the service is overall what was promised. I used to get speeds around 30-40 kilobytes a second which was OK, and what they had promised. Now lately, something has happened and my speed is up to average 55 kilobytes/sec and bursts up to over 1 megabit/second! It is great to be downloading at over 100 kilobytes/second. The downside is that with a 26.4 kilobit/sec modem connection for upstream, I lag sometimes Two way came out now, but I will not pay $300 to upgrade my equipment and then pay $60 a month. One way is fine for me. I was thinking about changing to Sprint Broadband Direct since they started offering a faster service and two way, but the complaints for the other states that are overloaded caused me to rethink my decision. So bottom line: if you are out where there is no other service and you still are chugging with a sub 33.6 connection, go for it, it is worth it.
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Review by llhaas
Posted: 8.7 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 152 visits, last login: 3 days ago
New Caney,Montgomery,TX
$40 per month
about 1 days
"faster than dialup"
"slower than cable (sometimes)"
"If you have nothing else availiable, good broadband."
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Advertised 400kpbs. I get it, sometimes, but sometimes slow as dialup. Been improving lately. Since it is a satellite system, upload is dialup speeds only. Big problem with latency- making interactive gaming and phone calls impossible.
I installed the antenna, easy- almost needed two people. Then I used a cell phone to call the telephone next to the speaker and was able to aim the antenna using sound.
All in all an good value & product if there is no DSL or cable service available.
Larry
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Review by speco
Posted: 8.7 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 21 visits, last login: 5.2 years ago
Thousand Palms,Riverside,CA
$49 per month
"Fast"
"Slow"
"Not stable but maybe its me"
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This system flies sometimes but at others it sucks. I have never been a heavy downloader so I know they dont slow me down, meaning Direcpc. But one time its great sign on 20 mins later and its modem speed. I live in Sunny So Cal with a direct shot to the sky so thats not the issue. And customer support has never been real helpful.
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Review by jschaaf
Posted: 8.7 years ago
member for 9 years, 55 visits, last login: 6.3 years ago
Silver Spring,Montgomery,MD
$49 per month (month by month)
about 2 days
"rocks between 1:am and 7:00 am est- although i'm not up to use it"
"slower than a dialup from 5:00 pm - 111:59 pm"
"not worth it. dialup is faster when i use the internet (time of day/night)"
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called tech support to say that i wasn't getting their minimum stated speed 200 kbps. i am getting 56k at night. if i want to change my life style and have my waking hours between 12:00 am and 7:00 am i can get 483 kbps. not likely that i'm gpoing to do that. direcpc tech said well due to the congestion on the internet that it will be slow. i explained that i'm an it director and i know all about congestion and slow time on the internet. i explained that the problem is that the bbroadband industry doesn't know the meaning of truth in advertisement. i explained that direcpc says that users will get at least 200kbps all the time. i indicated that i understand that this is a target and that if one gets 80% of that speed your're doing good. i indicated that 56k is no where near the 80% mark. direcpc tech continued the conjestion mantra and i indicated that i will be voting with my pocket book and as soon as my teleco comes in with dsl the disk is going to be thrown into the potomac.
i've been with covad (covadsucks.com) covad is no better. they are crooks. so my last shot at broadband is with the teleco
if you go with direcpc- question them about the minimum
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Review by zk333
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 9 years, 1218 visits, last login: 4.3 years ago
Pacific Palisades,Los Angeles,CA
$39 per month
about 7 days
"Good if no other possibilities"
"Slow at peak times"
"Basically a good serive, if DSL or Cable is not avaliable"
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Ordered Direpc, a month ago and it's been a decent experience. At peak times it can get really slow but that last about an hour. Then speeds pick up around 200 kb/s and faster as the night progresses. This is just a temporary solution until DSl become avaliable in my area. Verizon say by the end of April. I would recommend this service, to people with no other broadband possiblites!
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 Review by crazyc0ol
UPDATED: 8.8 years ago
member for 9.4 years, 897 visits, last login: 77 days ago
San Francisco,San Francisco,CA
$42 per month
about 60 days
"Runs with AOL and no FAPs"
"Poor speeds lately"
"Still a great alternative for broadband access"
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update blow dash marks
I have had AOL Plus Powered By DirecPC for sevent months now. As for speed, it is the same as DirecPC, which is a promised up to 400k but generally the speed is much greater than that as it hovers from anywhere from 200k (promised) to 900k for me
What I got for equipment is a brand new DirecPC satellite dish as well as the accompanying USB Satellite Modem. Installation instructions were streamlined. AOL also sweetened the deal by making it FAPless, so now the service is trueless unlimited. Like DirecPC, however, there is still a need to dial in to establish the connection but that hassle is worth it.
Anyways, overall I am very satisfied with AOL Plus Powered by DirecPC, and I do recommend it to anyone who wants broadband and 1) does not have access to DSL or cable or 2) wants the ISP to be AOL and still want broadband
Here's some extra tidbit of info:
My speeds are generally in between 600-800k (which is greater than some dsl)
Pings range from HIGH 400s to even higher 900s.. Timeouts are common (not recommended for gaming)
AOL costs $21.95 on a month-to-month basis.. $19.95 if one chooses the annual plan
AOL Plus Powered by DirecPC is $19.95 a month in ADDITION to the AOL fee
For those worried about weather, I never have any problems with rain or anything.
Also, my signal is always hovering in the 105-112 section which is very good to combat weather problems
Unlike Starband, AOL Plus is web friendly and allows downloading from the web, FTP, Napster, etc.
One last note: using a download accelerator such as Download Accelerator Pro increases speeds even MORE seeing how DirecPC (satellite in general) is able to handle multithreading.
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Comments on update (February 5, 2001):
Thought I should update this post. Lately, I have been rethinking about satellite access in general. The speed "was" great but it is no longer present. AOL message boards are flooded with "where's the speed?" and "anyone else have no speed". Even though it is an on going process to perfect the product, I personally feel it is no longer the "right" product for me. The speeds have been absent for nearly a month now (in surfing the web.. Napster works decently) and the high latencies are getting to me. As of now, I do not recommend the DirecPC system to those who have yet to purchase one as AOL/Hughes are probably going through a transitioning (a long one at that) and it should be worked out before "newbies" to broadband decide on Satellite. However, if you DO want satellite access, I highly suggest going with AOL as it has better services and no restrictions as the Hughes DirecPC.
If you are wondering, I do no regret giving AOL the high praise above. Like all technology, there are problems yet to work out. I have personally done my part to ensure the kinks are mostly out of the system and reported it to AOL. I have decided to move on to other broadband alternatives and I hope this review shed some light about AOL Plus powered by DirecPC as the information is accurate as far as I can tell (but every user has his own results).
I still give everything fives stars as the experience has been excellent for me. Other than the current speeds, the system is usually fast and stable.
Any questions regarding the system itself, setup, software installation, hardware, etc., feel free to contact me!
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Review by Direcpc12
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 29 visits, last login: 8 years ago
Brooklyn,Kings,NY
$39 per month
about 6 days
Verizon
"Came very fast, good download speeds."
"Uploads are extremely slow, phone is busy."
"For people who can't get cable or dsl."
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I have the AOL Plus/ Powered by DirecPC.
I have placed my order on december 20th, I was up and running in 6 days. First they sent me the equipment(DireDuo dish, for both internet and DirecTV). The equipment was 200 and the installation was free. The two installers came when they promised and put the dish up. The whole process took about 2 hours. Once they put the dish on the roof, they then put the wire through to the USB satellite modem. My download speeds are good, 500-700kb. However my upload is terrible, about 30kb. Since I only have one phoneline, it makes impossible to talk on the phone while online. My ping rates are about 600. I would not recommend this service to gamers(It works worse than dial up). They say that they are gonna make both upload and download through the dish in the 1st quarter of 2001. I have had a couple of days with bad speeds however everything went back to normal. I have had service pauses during snow storms for about 2 hours.
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Review by Larz7
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.9 years, 8 visits, last login: 8.8 years ago
Fowler,Fresno,CA
$59 per month
about 29 days
"RMA warranty service is fast !"
"Tech support is terrible !"
"NOT WORTH THE MONEY ! 56K MODEM WAS FASTER"
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This is not for starband ! This is for Direcpc sat service I have had the service up for 29 day's. I have been on the phone with tech support for 28 day's everyday for up to and Hour and a half ! First the tech support, I new more about the Direcpc system after installing it than most of the tech support I had talked to, they could not fix any of the problems I was having with the email or slow connection problems. I lerned that the type of connection you get is based off what gateway they put you on, and for them to change your gateway is like pulling teeth. I had one tech guy tell me that my USB modem for the sat was bad so they RMA me a new one and that did not fix any problems instead it cost me shipping to send the old one back. One day it was fast, and when I say fast I'm only talking 200KB but I do not get DSL of cable modem out in the country. and the next day downloading at 33.6 modem speed 2.56 KB sec for 60 bucks a month HA !!! I would not recomend Direcpc to anyone They clame that the speeds are up 400KB. The fastest download once was 200KB for a 2 MB file. I installed all of the hardware it was easy point the dish till you here a beep then check for signal. The siganl should be over 100 and I was up in the 160, so the signal I had should have not been the problem for the slow speed ! It has been a BAD EXPERIENCE !
At one point Tech support told me to cancel my service because he could not fix it !
STAY AWAY FROM DIRECPC !
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