Emiya
join:2006-03-30
Southington, OH | In defense of the service I work for a small, business class VSAT ISP. I will agree that packing too many customers on a transponder is a huge issue, we have a hard time maintaining that balance ourselves. However, one of the biggest issues we see is improperly installed/maintained equipment.
Crappy cabling is a major issue. Copper clad steel instead of solid copper and/or dual-shield instead of quad-shield RG6 is a huge mistake, especially CCS cable. The dish also needs to be better pointed than a TV dish. It doesn't matter so much with receiving but when your trying to transmit a signal to a bird that far out in space with these systems the smallest bit off on Earth translates to a huge amount up in space and then you have a problem. An improperly pointed dish can cause errors and screw everyone on the transponder. This goes for polarization (skew) as well.
Making sure everything is in good condition makes a huge difference. Periodically checking cable ends for corrosion, making sure the grounding is OK and having the dish peaked every once in a while will reduce a lot of these problems. Satellite broadband isn't for everyone but it's not as worthless as people make it out to be and unless your in need of low latency it's not a bad option if you can afford it.
Oh, and that speed of light issue. We are trying to work around that with things like TCP packet spoofing. |
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kjpwv
join:2006-10-24
Fairmont, WV | And that is where it should stay. Its fine running CC numbers, I see rural places with it for that purpose all the time. For residential, it is beyond terrible for anything beyond the most basic web browsing and e-mail. Even making transactions can be a pain as SSL tends to at least double the ping. Glad I escaped to 3g a year ago. |
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 BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by Emiya:Oh, and that speed of light issue. We are trying to work around that with things like TCP packet spoofing. If I'm playing a game online how is that going to help? If I push the button to fire a weapon it's still going to take over 1/2 second to respond. Which is way too long. You can't "spoof" me pressing X for FIRE since you have no clue what I want to do.
Only way to fix latency with satellites is to use low earth orbit ones which means LOTS of satellites which would be VERY expensive to launch and even more expensive to maintain and control.
said by kjpwv: Glad I escaped to 3g a year ago. Not any faster and even worse caps. Worse yet $50 per GB overages. At least with satellite all they do is throttle down your speed. |
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 cline3621Mr. Yuk is MEAN Mr. Yuk is GREENPremium
join:2006-06-14
Clarksville, TN
 ·CDE
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As a Dish Network and Wild Blue installer, I can attest what you say about installs and maintenance is correct. It drives me crazy when I have to do a trouble call on a Wild Blue system, that has been improperly installed with Cu-clad wiring, by someone who supposedly is 'certified' to do the job correctly. I've also noticed that when the dish is pointed correctly, and you got to be just about dead on balls accurate, to get reasonably low ping times. The best I could average was between 600-1000ms. However when it comes to real time video, voip, or gaming, satellite can't overcome the physics involved to make it worthwhile. |
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kjpwv
join:2006-10-24
Fairmont, WV
2 edits | reply to BF69
the speed is about the same (unless you count sat's daytime throttle), but 150ms as opposed to 1000+ makes it way better for about everything. And the FAP was less slow you down and more choke you to death til you give up trying to use it.
I have no cap and its 20 bucks less than I ever paid for sat.
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HN7000S G16 970Mhz |
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Tige
join:2010-03-09
Greenville, SC | reply to Emiya
I'm sure installations are a part of the equation however installation and satellite distance are all too often made the scapegoat.
Much of what satellite customers deal with was inflicted by the provider.
Starting with the decision made to shape traffic which lead to doubling or tripling the latency and all the issues that brought with it had nothing to do with any installation. Additionally, loading the satellites to a point where users' up/down speed and latency change minute by minute are not due to installation or equipment.
I'm only familiar with wildblue so can't speak to hughes service and performance but if wildblue would have taken a different road a couple years ago things could have been different. At one time satellite was a viable alternative however due to their decisions which directly led magnifying satellites weaknesses they find themselves in the position they are in now. |
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