DrewC
@bellsouth.net
| Skyway USA or WildBlue?
I'm dumping HughesNet, which is just awful, awful, AWFUL, and am going to get either Skyway USA or WildBlue, but I'm not sure which, so help!
My problem with Hughes is the fact it's down/crashed far more than it works. It crashes all the time and I want a satellite provider that stays on most of the time. I don't download THAT much. I visit YouTube, yeah, download stuff on iTunes occassionally, but that's all really. I rarely download large multi-hundred MB files. I don't care that much about download speeds, I just want one that'll be on most of the time as I surf websites and talk to people on AIM or whatev instead of going down when there's a perfectly clear sky out like Hughes does. So of WB and Skyway, which crashes less?
For WildBlue, someone told me this would be my beam, 133, info.
Is Service Available YES
Service Date 2008-03-27
Available Speed 1500.0
Latitude 33.2135
Longitude -88.4927
Azimuth 218.2
Elevation 44.4
Skew 59.6
Boom Arm Angle 26.7
Antenna Pointing Aid 4
Satellite WildBlue-1
Beam 0133
Polarization Right
Override Status Open
Gateway ID 27
Gateway Name DULUTH
Frequency 1294750000
I'm really not sure which one to switch to. I like the sound of Skyway's Midnight Madness thing, but I'm not sure. Help? |
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18
 ·TDS
 ·WildBlue
| If your local dialup/phone line is reliable and you don't need any upload speed to speak of, skyway might be a good deal for you.
I had wildblue for 2.5 years and could count on it being online any time I needed to use the system except during the (unannounced) 1-4 a.m. maintenance window every couple of or few months. Overall I'd consider the wildblue system stability very good to excellent. The latency was always bothersome but the raw speeds were very close to advertised for downloading or uploading files, sending large emails, etc.
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Very happy TDS DSL user | Wildblue in Lake Michigan |
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mrpepsi
join:2006-05-22
| reply to DrewC
I have both Skyway and Wildblue. The skyway was so horrible I ended up giving it to a relative to serve out the term of the contract. Without question, Wildblue is the clear choice.
Skyway suffers from horrible performance during peak time, often times actually slower than dialup. (Not quite sure how that is accomplished.)
Wildblue's biggest problem has been poor equipment. (I've been through 3 trias and 2 modems) But I always get my 1500kbps, latency is always high at 1400ish ms...
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Cheyenne : Beam 34 |
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fritzie
join:2008-04-27
Ravenna, MI | reply to DrewC
is there a daily download limit like hughes? (fap) |
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18
·TDS
·WildBlue
| On wildblue there is no daily or weekly limit; there is a 30-day rolling total limit. Today, what you use today is added and what you used 30 days ago is subtracted. If you exceed the 30-day rolling FAP your speeds are slowed to dailup speeds and you don't want to do this.
Personally, I prefer the wildblue approach because it leaves me free to do what I want when I want it as long as I don't exceed the total. It also means that if I'm at work a lot a particular week or on vacation or for other reasons don't use the wildblue connection a lot, I get to use more bandwidth the week before or after, etc. with it "evening" out over a longer period of time.
The hughesnet FAP is more forgiving in that if kids or guests exceed your fap you only have to wait until the next day for it to recover, but it would really get in the way for me.
The skyway FAP is a bit more complex as outlined here: »How to upgrade Skyway account. and in other posts in this forum
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Very happy TDS DSL user | Wildblue in Lake Michigan |
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