BlessPat
join:2003-07-07
Baxley, GA
 ·Verizon Wireless B..
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
| [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway Not sure if it's on the newstand yet but the September issue of Consumer Reports has an article on ISPs (I read it online as a CR subscriber). The article slams Direcway, see quote below.
"There's no question as to the worst provider in our survey. It's DirecWay, the satellite-TV broadband provider, which offers relatively low satisfaction at a very high price--"
Oh well, what's new? | |
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 MIXZ1
join:2001-01-02
Mexico
 ·Prodigy Infinitum
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway-Long It will be interesting to read the entire report, but I have a question: How many of us here in this forum are using Direcway (or any other satellite service) as a matter of choice rather than a last resort?
I retired to Mexico from New York City, where I used Verizon ADSL ($39.00 per month) at home and had a T1 connection at work. I'm not paying these rates because I want to. If TelMex ever gets a reliable ADSL link to my neighborhood I'll be off that satellite dish in a heartbeat.
IMHO, Direcway gets away with their shoddy service because they are a last resort solution to a problem. For me, it's still faster than the 33.6 dialup and it's been up 24/7 (including through the hurricane) since it was installed, which is more than I can say for the wireless link I was using that had 90 days of downtime in the 6 months I suffered with it. | |
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randyvsatus
Premium
join:2005-03-03
Monument, CO
·Qwest.net
1 edit | Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway-Long said by MIXZ1  :IMHO, Direcway gets away with their shoddy service because they are a last resort solution to a problem. The arrogance days are over for Dway...there is valid competition out there now and more coming. They know they are fighting for their lives now and changes must occur or they will go bye-bye.
I believe they will make significant changes over the next few months and compete...we'll see | |
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stanley_qaz
Premium
join:2003-03-17
Gilbert, AZ | Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway For mobile users with limited budgets DirecWay and StarBand are the only choices and I just don't see SB as enough of an improvement to make it worth switching.
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DirecWay 6000 CE, G4R/1230H, Linux, WiFi LAN, Vonage phone | |
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MalaSuerte
join:2004-08-07
Clovis, CA
| Indeed Dway's service is overpriced and their support is a nighmare-ish jungle of non-english speaking people.
Randy's comment about Dway upgrading their product is true but you must remember that Dway's bread and butter come from corporate accounts and not the individual users - like us.
It's beats the heck out of dialup if you're mobile or just SOL out in the boon docks somewhere.
I don't think their new product and pricing are going to radically change anbody's mind about their service. FAP, speed & latency are always issues and if you want more bandwidth you will be dropping some major cash to get it. For example if I want to upgrade to the new 7700 or 7000 I need to pay approx. $2500 (US). All that for a dish that is roughly .2 meters larger and a 2watt BUC. Way too expensive for this day and age of technology. I feel sorry for the VARs who are rying to make a living installing this 'new' stuff. They will have to endure the ire of a lot of current customers.
Good for CR to call a spade a spade - ITHO. There's still hope - somewhere..............
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DW6000 CE | XP Pro/SP2 | WRT54G Router | SatMex5 117W 970mhz - Sig ~92 | AMD Althon 64 3.2GHz | |
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randyvsatus
Premium
join:2005-03-03
Monument, CO
·Qwest.net
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by MalaSuerte : I feel sorry for the VARs who are rying to make a living installing this 'new' stuff. They will have to endure the ire of a lot of current customers. As long as consumers (or commercial accounts for that matter) have expectations that satellite internet should be the same as terrestrial service, there will be plenty of "ire" to go around; however, when VAR's set realistic expectations to customers you will have much happier campers. Let's all sing it together again "Satellite bandwidth is expensive and slower than DSL, Cable and T1's"  | |
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stanley_qaz
Premium
join:2003-03-17
Gilbert, AZ | Considering that home accounts don't make DW money it is hard to claim they are overpriced.
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DirecWay 6000 CE, G4R/1230H, Linux, WiFi LAN, Vonage phone | |
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MalaSuerte
join:2004-08-07
Clovis, CA
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by stanley_qaz :Considering that home accounts don't make DW money it is hard to claim they are overpriced. Never said consumer accounts don't generate revenue for Dway just that Dway makes most of it's profit from corporate accounts. Ask any VAR on the forum. I don't see any contradiction in that statement. Their service is overpriced compared to cable or DSL - but as we beat this drum again... it still beats dialup or the higher monthly costs of say a T1 or T3.
Most people don't read the Dway contract fine print like diragono did. And..... most people have had to deal with Dway's support. If you haven't had this experience yet consider yourself either a genius or very blessed
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DW6000 CE | XP Pro/SP2 | WRT54G Router | SatMex5 117W 970mhz - Sig ~92 | AMD Althon 64 3.2GHz | |
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stanley_qaz
Premium
join:2003-03-17
Gilbert, AZ
·HughesNet Satellit..
 ·Cox HSI
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway I just don't see DW as a competitor to cable or DSL, if you have either available and sign up for any consumer satellite service you are probably making a big mistake. Even a decent WISP is a better choice than a satellite service.
For a decent service/price comparison you'd have to look at other "anytime anywhere" connection options that work for folks in remote areas and I'm not aware of any.
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DirecWay 6000 CE, G4R/1230H, Linux, WiFi LAN, Vonage phone | |
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MalaSuerte
join:2004-08-07
Clovis, CA
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by stanley_qaz :I just don't see DW as a competitor to cable or DSL.... connection options that work for folks in remote areas and I'm not aware of any. Agree with you 100% stan. As mentioned above by guthrieboi and randyvsatus none of us would be on Dway if we had convetional choices.
WISPs seem to be the 'new best thing' with their technology growing quickly. I have a guy offering me a WISP deal that sounds too good to be true - and probably is.
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DW6000 CE | XP Pro/SP2 | WRT54G Router | SatMex5 117W 970mhz - Sig ~92 | AMD Althon 64 3.2GHz | |
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randyvsatus
Premium
join:2005-03-03
Monument, CO
·Qwest.net
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by MalaSuerte :WISPs seem to be the 'new best thing' with their technology growing quickly. I have a guy offering me a WISP deal that sounds too good to be true - and probably is. They haven't been able to make any money...I see more WISP's going than coming. The business model stinks for the most part...by the time a WISP is in a profitable mode, they have the contention ratios so high everyone is complaining and cancelling. | |
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| | | | grecord
join:2002-01-06
Germantown, MD
 ·Verizon FIOS
| The opinion that speed is the only factor and urban areas would only use wired services overlooks the security and uptime factors satellite provides. We are residential and enterprise satellite broadband installers and find many customers switching from cable\wisp services to get greater reliability. In the corporate world the capability to have lan connectivity to remote sites is unsurpassed. | |
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Rfsjr2
Shop on Top
Premium
join:2001-08-11
Ferndale, WA
clubs:
| said by stanley_qaz :I just don't see DW as a competitor to cable or DSL, They tried that angle and it didn't work. Last time I watched the redhead, the keywords were "dialup" and "second phone line."
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*Frank* Startouch Wireless Internet. Waverider EUM3003, TRENDnet TEW-411BRP+, 900MHz NLOS. | |
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| | | | guthrieboi
join:2005-02-05
Guthrie, OK
1 edit | Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway It's interesting that you mention the two buzzwords being dialup and second phone line. When I had dialup I was spending almost $40 a month for the two. I tried the WISP route and got burned badly by a local operator who was...well let's just say less than honest with his customers. I bumped up to the 59.95 package and it still didn't help so I switched over to DWay for the same price and it's been awesome. For about 15 bucks a month more I get broadband and don't have to worry about a second phone line.
DSL is going to continue to get cheaper and cheaper. I think right now here they're advertising it for as little as $16 a month if you take it for a year. That's cheaper than most dial up accounts, but it could be free and it wouldn't do me any good out here. Sure, $60 a month is expensive, but when you consider all that goes into launcing one of those things and all of the maintenance that's involved it's not that bad. I would think corporate accounts would be more desirable because they pay thousands of dollars a month and we only pay a fraction of what they do. All things considered we're the only ones to blame for having DWay. If DSL is that important then we should pack up and move to town rather than sit around and complain.
I agree that many who answered the survey probably didn't read into what they were getting. I too did my research for almost six months before I decided to go with DWay and worried myself sick at night with the FAP, but now that I've been using it I've not had a lick of problems. I was only FAP'd once and I'm a heavy user - actually there's two of us that are heavy users and never knew it until it showed up on my usage report. My only regret was that I didn't get DWay a year ago.
By the way, how come when they take these surveys I never get asked? It's always someone so far away I doubt that they even live on the same continent and never anyone I know.
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Direcway 6000 Consumer Windows XP and Mac OSX with Linksys Router set up to function as switch | |
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Rfsjr2
Shop on Top
Premium
join:2001-08-11
Ferndale, WA
clubs:
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by guthrieboi :It's interesting that you mention the two buzzwords being dialup and second phone line. Yup, that's it. When I originally got satellite internet back in 2001, I signed up with *Pegasus Express* Why? because I loved their mantra of helping out rural America.
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*Frank* Startouch Wireless Internet. Waverider EUM3003, TRENDnet TEW-411BRP+, 900MHz NLOS. | |
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eibborg
join:2004-09-29
Sardis, TN | I have to say I agree with CR. If I had a choice I certainly would not be a DW subscriber | |
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Starbummed
@theriver.com | Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway I can't believe DirecWay is worse than Starband! Did CR rate the latter satellite ISP?
I have Starband and was considering changing to DirecWay or WildBlue.
Ron | |
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kjanx
join:2004-08-01
Cookson, OK
| i've had dway 18 months now.
no problems, very satisfied. my area will never have dsl.
i could get t-3 line, buts its 550.00 per month. don't need it.
high level tech support was excellent, the one time i need them. i won't talk to foreigners.
dw 6000
990 down
60 up | |
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waltham41
My ISP can beat up your ISP
Premium
join:2003-11-26
Fort Gibson, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by kjanx :high level tech support was excellent, the one time i need them. i won't talk to foreigners. I am curious, how did you get bumped up to high level tech support without talking to foreigners first?
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DirecWay | DW6000 | SatMex5 970mhz |HP a620n 2.2G | Win XP SP2 | 2 XP PC's on the internet via D-Link DSS 5+ switch | |
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powerhog
Stinkin' up the joint
Premium
join:2000-12-14
Owasso, OK
·AtlasOK
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by waltham41 :I am curious, how did you get bumped up to high level tech support without talking to foreigners first? Get your service through a VAR 
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Agristar 200/DW6000/G4R-1250H/99W/XP Pro on 3 systems (behind a router). | |
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| diragono
join:2005-07-21
| Probably 80% of the consumers that took the survey were people that didn't read into d-way to learn that you'll suffer high latency, have a fap, share bandwith with 50,000 other people so you'll slow down during peak hours. These people that say d-way sucks because they got it and couldn't download pirated movies or play that latest First Person Shooters make me laugh. I've had d-way for a month now, had two outages(both during storms) that lasted no more than 2 minutes. All I can get is dial-up which connected at 24.4kbps or a T-3 line that would cost me $1,000 to have installed $500 a month. I read into D-way before I got it, I understood about the latency, fap, peak hour slow downs and all that. I made sure my system was grounded the correct way before the installer left(who did a great job and knew what he was doing). I give d-way a 8/10
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Xp Pro/DW 6000 Consumer/AMC 9/1410/Netgear Switch hosting 2 computers off d-way | |
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| | BlessPat
join:2003-07-07
Baxley, GA
·Verizon Wireless B..
·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway To provide some background on CR survey base, quoted from article, "In a survey of nearly 26,000 Consumer Reports subscribers--our largest-ever survey on Internet service providers (ISPs) and the first to rate broadband--we found differences in satisfaction with broadband service." The previously posted quote re Direcway was in a subsequent paragraph in the ratings summary. Direcway was the only satellitte company in the survey. IMHO that would be because it may have been the only one with a large market base at the time of the survey.
Direcway IS the only game in town for me, and appears to be that way for awhile yet. But I will switch as soon as anything as good comes along, that is one reason I've avoided the upgrade to commit to a contract.
I did get one of the survey's and I was fair, but honest. The CR report is a good article on broadband in general. They should be on the newstand now or you can subscribe to consumerreports.org for less than $3.00 monthly.
PSS: One of the advantages of having switched from DirecTV to Dish is that I don't have to hear the helmet-hair redhead gush about Direcway service. Meow! | |
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| Beretta619
join:2005-08-19
Jamul, CA | A T-3 for $550 a month? I think you mean a T-1. A T-3 generally runs about $15,000 a month, as it is a 45 megabit per second line. A T-1 is a 1.5 megabit line. | |
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guthrieboi
join:2005-02-05
Guthrie, OK
| We'd all be on DSL or cable if we had the choice, but given that we don't then DWay isn't a bad option compared to our other choices. I was averaging 28-36k because all I could get was dialup and when a WISP opened up here he made DWay look like a Godsend because he'd just flat screw you over on your bandwidth (38K instead of the 448/448 promised) then charge you the same price that DWay charges.
I haven't had any problems with them either. Every time I had a question they had an answer and I'm yet to have any problems with them. My bandwidth also jumped from 38k to well over a meg down and I don't hardly ever use my upload. If they'd do something about that $600 install they wouldn't be half bad.
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Direcway 6000 Consumer Windows XP and Mac OSX with Linksys Router set up to function as switch | |
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kjanx
join:2004-08-01
Cookson, OK | just present a problem to the initial tech, they can't handle,
then, holler real loud for next level tech.
only had to do that 2 times tho | |
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enrolk
join:2002-04-23
Murrells Inlet, SC
| No company sells things at a loss. Break even maybe for awhile.
The Perky Redhead does a very good job for Dway and she doesn't work for free.
As far as VAR's explaining more fully about the limitations, many people wouldn't buy then. You don't have to lie, but don't volenteer to loose a sale.
Many people [RV'ers especially]have their hopes with Wild Blue. We,ll have to wait and see if Beam hopping will be offered. As far as downloading movies and streaming video, come on guys,leave some bandwidth for the rest of us. | |
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stanley_qaz
Premium
join:2003-03-17
Gilbert, AZ
·HughesNet Satellit..
·Cox HSI
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway I don't know very many RV or seasonal folks that expect to be able to use WildBlue since it is a spot-beam system with very restricted mobility.
In the affordable class the only two options in the USA are DirecWay and StarBand if you are considering moving the system.
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DirecWay 6000 CE, G4R/1230H, Linux, WiFi LAN, Vonage phone | |
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dbirdman
Premium,MVM
join:2003-07-07
Eureka, CA
| said by enrolk :Many people [RV'ers especially]have their hopes with Wild Blue. Misplaced hopes. There is enough trickling out now about how the internals of the system work to make what looked unlikely before look very unlikely now.
The WB modem is not like the modem/routers we've learned how to move with Direcway and Starband. There is no interface, no way to communicate with it. Even if allowed by WB (unlikely for a whole bunch of reasons), beam hopping will require the complete decommissioning and re-provisioning of the modem with a new account.
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W2K Server | G11 | 1350 | 6000 SO |.98 meter fixed plus Datastorm Mobile Dish on Motor Home | |
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randyvsatus
Premium
join:2005-03-03
Monument, CO
·Qwest.net
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by dbirdman : Misplaced hopes. There is enough trickling out now about how the internals of the system work to make what looked unlikely before look very unlikely now. We are also learning more about what the WB system can and can't do related to voip and vpn, the upload speeds on packages other than Pro Pak and the speed degradation with rain. Too early to tell, but what many thought was Mecca is starting to get the veneer taken off and reality might be a bit different. The competition for consumer customers has only started.
Consumer RV'ers should at least see continued improvement in the reliability of the pointing equipment, if not in the service options and speed at affordable prices. | |
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JefferyH
join:2002-06-12
Carmi, IL
| RE: WB modem interface and router setup
While it's correct, the WB modem itself has no interface to log into, there really is no big deal at this time. All you need to do is interface it with your router and you are good to go. Just plug the ethernet from the WB modem into the "WAN" port of your router. Log into your router and make sure DHCP, firewalls, connections, etc. are all correct. Reboot your router, modem and PC and you should be good to go. Mines setup that way right now.
Also, the user does have an "admin" web based interface to access. It allows you to setup your email accounts, view your account details, MAC address, ODU serial number, etc. It will also give you the amount of usage for up/down and show a graph chart of your service so you can tell how much you've used and how much is max allowed for your account. Works great for that use.
As far as getting on another beam should it be required for some reason, tech support can do that for you, but requires an installer to come out. WB will simply transmit the necessary details and reset the account to your modem for re-provisioning. Then once the modem has received it and reset, you just re-comission the modem. No need to uninstall anything.
This is what I've been told and unless another tech from WB themself says different, I would say that's how it works. | |
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JefferyH
join:2002-06-12
Carmi, IL
| RE: WB and moving systems like on an RV
It's correct that as of now there is no way to use WB on a vehicle like an RV. Right now there are no plans to support a moving system as everything is going into getting their system out and working for everyone. Then, I think you will start to maybe see other things like backbones, perhaps other packages, etc. but it will be some time yet.
For now and at least some time to come, the only choice for satellite ISP will be DirecWay or StarBand systems. I don't know, but there may be other commercial systems out there that aren't main stream but for business use, etc. If RV or travel is what you want then I would say DirecWay would be the way to go there. | |
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dbirdman
Premium,MVM
join:2003-07-07
Eureka, CA
| Re: [General] Consumer Report Nails Direcway said by JefferyH :I don't know, but there may be other commercial systems out there that aren't main stream but for business use, etc. If RV or travel is what you want then I would say DirecWay would be the way to go there. It is what most of us mobile types use, although Starband now sanctions both tripod and automatic mobile units.
There are, in fact, many providers of mobile service besides Direcway and Starband, we just don't talk about them much. Lots of iDirect resellers supply to mobile accounts. My Direcway VAR has 19 mobile iDirect plans starting at 64K up/down for $179 per month, all the way up to 4096K down, 512K up for $3899 per month. You can see why we don't talk about that kind of service much in these typically consumer and small business forums! 
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W2K Server | G11 | 1350 | 6000 SO |.98 meter fixed plus Datastorm Mobile Dish on Motor Home | |
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AJ023
join:2001-12-25
Forest Hills, NY
4 edits | I think you missed the point as well as the FORUM MODERATORS! Satellite is very latent.
Nice job Broadband reports! | |
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