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Comments on news posted 2013-08-21 18:13:25: Our user reviews for satellite broadband have traditionally been rather dismal, with users complaining of high prices, low usage caps, and inconsistent connection quality. ..

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vpoko
Premium Member
join:2003-07-03
Boston, MA

vpoko

Premium Member

How can they tell?

How can they tell an HTTP file transfer from a web page view, which is just a series of HTTP file transfers?

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

I think a "pokey", rate limiting server could make you seem to be repeatedly refreshing a large page.
I understand their goal, and think it will block/ discourge the really large Satellite hog downloaders.
but the description/definition leaves a lot to the imagination as to limits and that often leads to lawsuits.

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

Smith6612

MVM

It's a start

I'd say this is a start towards getting Satellite to be a bit more reasonable in terms of the caps. The question is, what defines a file transfer? In reality, a file transfer is performed when surfing, and on top of that, many transfers are done to load up dynamic page content (Images, Stylesheets). The question is, will "Surfing" be classified as simply HTML docs or will it include things such as pictures required for a web page? I'm assuming the latter in this one.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

said by Smith6612:

I'd say this is a start towards getting Satellite to be a bit more reasonable in terms of the caps.

How? The cap is 5 GB? Oh 2 hours of Netflix per month. Sounds awesome. Unlimited "normal browsing" which is actually likely to be less than 5 GB per month. The 10 GB plan for $50 is a better deal. There is no cap between 12 AM and 5 AM so you can schedule your uploads then.

skeechan
Ai Otsukaholic
Premium Member
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170

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Re: How can they tell?

Seems to me what will happen is you are at full speed until 5GB but then you are throttled to 1-2X dial up speed, effectively eliminating your ability to do anything other than surfing and email by virtue of throughput simply being so slow.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband to 88615298

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Re: It's a start

This plan is NOT targeted to those who want to use Netflix. its for BROWSING and EMAIL. Not streaming.
TheRogueX
join:2003-03-26
Springfield, MO

TheRogueX

Member

Curious...

...but music and video sorta stream on most websites now. During "normal browsing" I'll end up seeing videos AS ADS (or would if not for AdBlock) quite a bit.. how can their service know the difference between video you choose to watch and video that is fed to you? Do news sites count?

It's just silly.
78204168 (banned)
join:2013-02-28

78204168 (banned)

Member

Less is More!!!

Talk about Orwellian New Speak.. If I didn't know better, I'd swear their goal is to discourage people all together from using their service altogether..

I had Viasat for 6 months starting in April of 2012. It was great until they starting enforcing their datacaps. 25GB for $150 a month, (yes $150) because after the $130 + $10 hardware leasing fee and taxes and fees it was $150 for me. 25GB is a complete ridiculously amount of data when you have a firehose and a 5 gallon bucket to fill it up with.

Oh and let's not forget that this 5GB plan that they now are so proud to announce is combined from both uploading and downloading.

Hell the $50 10GB a month plan after the $10 leasing fee and taxes would be cheaper. This Evolution plan is $65, then add the leasing fee of $10 and taxes.. You would be at the $80 mark...

I'm done with satellite.. I found a Sprint MVNO that gives Unlimited LTE for $80 a month with no contract.. I get 20Mbits down and 5Mbits up.. and latency is under 100ms.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Decent Except Overage Fee

For those with no other choice, I could stomach everything except the overage fee.

Come on -- $10/GB? I think $1/GB would generate more revenue. You can either take a low-volume, five-star restaurant path to success or be a high-volume McDonalds.

I can appreciate the limited bandwidth environment of satellite tech but until they figure out a way to lower that overage fee, it'll still just be a service for those who have no other choice.

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

1 recommendation

Smith6612 to 88615298

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to 88615298

Re: It's a start

Right. But, unlimited browsing and e-mail, and from the sounds of things without being throttled to dial-up speeds or overbilled because you ran across your cap accidentally. That's the way I'm taking this, but I suppose there's always the chance I'm glossing over something, or not looking at the bigger picture.
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

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Re: Curious...

the video would probably be included since its in the browser, this is talking about downloading, streaming, etc.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Sounds like a nightmare

How on earth are they going to tell? And with all the embedded crap, the system is going to be wrong some of the time. This just sounds like a mess waiting to happen. Or they're figuring that the people who would get this are such light users anyways that they won't be tech saavy enough to figure it out, or use enough data for it to matter anyways.
grabacon9
join:2013-08-21
Newark, OH

grabacon9

Member

Not Any Better than the other Plans.

I don't think it sounds any better than the other plans. Oh btw, the bird can handle the unlimited Internet. It was fine without the caps. To me, it's just a way to get money. The only reason why they charge so much is because they have no competition. Hughes? That's not really competition.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

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Re: It's a start

said by TBBroadband:

This plan is NOT targeted to those who want to use Netflix. its for BROWSING and EMAIL. Not streaming.

And if you're just browsing an e-mail you can get by on the 10 GB plan that's $50. So why pay $65?
88615298

88615298 (banned) to TBBroadband

Member

to TBBroadband

Re: Curious...

said by TBBroadband:

the video would probably be included since its in the browser, this is talking about downloading, streaming, etc.

Video IS streaming and will NOT be included.
ardri6
join:2009-06-19
Olney, MD

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Member

to vpoko

Re: How can they tell?

They'll just call their buddies at the NSA. Hah!

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
Premium Member
join:2000-11-09
14225-2105
ARRIS ONT1000GJ4
EnGenius EAP1250

rchandra

Premium Member

encrypt, encrypt, encrypt

HTTPS Everywhere.

If they are to hold to their policy, how is it they're supposed to know what streaming is, or "Web surfing?" The first thing that happens during HTTPS is an encryption handshake. After that, arbitrary content is passed back and forth, which could be pipelined requests (thus the connection is not torn down). So unless they have the server's private key (to do even deeper packet inspection) or they're going to make their surfing/streaming/other classification based on IP address, they're system is quite flawed. Unless some other metric would be used, such as connection duration, I could just set up a Linode with OpenVPN (or whatever) listening on TCP port 443, and they SHOULD be none the wiser. I mean, it's just stupid silly.

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

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Re: It's a start

said by 88615298:

said by TBBroadband:

This plan is NOT targeted to those who want to use Netflix. its for BROWSING and EMAIL. Not streaming.

And if you're just browsing an e-mail you can get by on the 10 GB plan that's $50. So why pay $65?

Gotta wonder if youtube is included in the "video streaming" portion or not.

linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium Member
join:2002-12-03
United State

linicx

Premium Member

Which is it, A or B?

The subject line (title) reads as if a new 5GB Excede plan EXCLUDES browsing and email. Story content seems to contradict the title. Which is it?

The whole idea is as dumb as a box of rocks, anyway. Almost every website has some type of large, graphic intense eye candy, and Youtube bs to download before the website content is available to read.

Meh...
ExSatUser
join:2012-05-10
Fresno, OH

ExSatUser

Member

Cap does exclude "static" browsing and email

Basically the title is stating yes there is a cap for multimedia (video and streaming music). The browsing of static webpages and the reading and downloading of email (with attachments less than 25Mb) does not count towards the cap.

I agree with others. Very stupid plan. And I read how one of their moderators was pushing how this would be a "perfect" plan for a lot of people that don't do a lot of video or music. Of course as has been stated here, most popular websites are filled with streaming video now.

But I can see how the uninformed consumer would fall for this. I already read a comment on another board that he thought this would be the plan for has parents because they of their usage habits. Of course, if there usages habits are already low, he could save money and just buy the 10GB plan which would be okay for a low end internet user.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco to Nightfall

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to Nightfall

Re: It's a start

Youtube will count against the 5GB cap.
silbaco

silbaco to rchandra

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to rchandra

Re: encrypt, encrypt, encrypt

They actually mention that they prohibit the use of VPNs on this plan.

rchandra
Stargate Universe fan
Premium Member
join:2000-11-09
14225-2105
ARRIS ONT1000GJ4
EnGenius EAP1250

rchandra

Premium Member

...and how exactly are they supposed to tell the difference with an SSL or TLS VPN run on TCP port 443? From outside the tunnel, that's going to look like pipelined HTTPS Web surfing. It's folly. For good measure, It's certainly possible the "far" endpoint could even have an HTTP server which must have a specific HTTP request sent to it to complete the tunnel handshake, should they choose to make some sort of test connection. ViaSat wouldn't know what the contents of that HTTP request needs to be because, again, the first thing which happens is the SSL or TLS handshake, and then inside that would be any HTTP request or VPN. What ViaSat sees is in essence digital noise, unless somehow they manage to gain access to the private key. They're essentially running on the honor system to say "VPNs are off."

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

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Re: It's a start

said by silbaco:

Youtube will count against the 5GB cap.

Link? Source?
sava700
join:2005-03-08
united state

sava700

Member

caps

usage caps and high latency are the main issues keeping it from really taking off. Had they provided low latency for online gaming and such not to mention have at least 100Gigs/month caps vs what the highest is available on any sat service then you would be getting some where. We are in 2013 not 2000, why hasn't this service caught up with demand is beyond me.
Dru2u
join:2013-03-06
united state

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Re: It's a start

said by Nightfall:

Gotta wonder if youtube is included in the "video streaming" portion or not"

Hey, if you wanted to ask an easy question to find the answer for, but not seek the answer yourself, then you don't have much of a foot to stand on when asking someone else to cite their sources. Don't be surprised when you ask a simple, easy question to figure out on your own, and people give you a simple answer without showing their work.
talz13
join:2006-03-15
Avon, OH

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I bet the youtube page itself will load, but have fun without streaming any videos

Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI

Nightfall to Dru2u

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said by Dru2u:

said by Nightfall:

Gotta wonder if youtube is included in the "video streaming" portion or not"

Hey, if you wanted to ask an easy question to find the answer for, but not seek the answer yourself, then you don't have much of a foot to stand on when asking someone else to cite their sources. Don't be surprised when you ask a simple, easy question to figure out on your own, and people give you a simple answer without showing their work.

I looked for the answer, and didn't find it. I asked if someone knew. If someone states an answer, then I would like to see where they found it. After all, we have our sources that we check. The internet is a big place. Nothing wrong with asking for a source.
Spice300
Premium Member
join:2006-01-10

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to rradina

Re: Decent Except Overage Fee

The 10 GB / month plan costs $55 / month including the lease of the equipment, so customers are already paying $5.50 / GB. The price for extra usage has to be higher, or the higher priced packages would be obsolete.
Spice300

Spice300 to rchandra

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to rchandra

Re: encrypt, encrypt, encrypt

Secure HTTP will count against the 5 GB/month limit for precisely the reason you mention: Exede will not be able to distinguish one packet from another.
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