Wireless / Mobile > Wireless Users Chat > WISP vs. Satellite

WISP vs. Satellite

You may want to post your satellite questions to the Direcway fourm. I can tell you that when I had Direcway, I tried using Vonage, and it did not work well at all, but it did work at times with a second or more delay, much like a two way radio conversation.
I have not used a WISP, but I would imagine, VOIP would work better.
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Cabling Technician,SuSe Linux,Using Dial-up,Private Pilot

reply to ITcowboy

Can't get to neigbor's tonight, but did the ping test on my Direcway connection. Here are the results:

Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 656ms, Maximum = 1664ms, Average = 955ms

Thanks,

CR

reply to ITcowboy
I'm in Michigan and have wireless.. I ping extremely low considering the # of hops and distance away from me that googles server(s) are. Definitely look into the wireless.. You may luck out and get a great provider like I did. VOIP is rock solid BTW. I hold a constant 4.3 - 4.7 on »www.testmyvoip.com tests. Which is awesome..

Pinging www.l.google.com [72.14.203.104] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 72.14.203.104: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=240
Reply from 72.14.203.104: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=240
Reply from 72.14.203.104: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=240
Reply from 72.14.203.104: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=240

Ping statistics for 72.14.203.104:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 21ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 22ms

Nice pings there That's the real difference in Sat v about any other form of broadband and why sat service remains at the bottom of the pile in choices for many people. Latency is extremly important to me and the reason why I'd rather stay on dial up and wait for a WISP to cover my area versus getting satellite service even though I'm paying $40 monthly just for an extra phone line and dial up service.

For casual surfing and those that just want to download files I can't see how satellite service would be all that bad. If you want to do any gaming, voip, web cam, voice chat, etc etc you don't want to be on a satellite connection. The other issues for satellite service is weather related problems that do not seem to effect wireless as bad.

reply to ITcowboy
Satellite SUCKS!

In addition to the reasons mentioned above, the other thing to consider is the stupid dreaded FAP bucket that comes with Satellite...169 MB per day is stupid! And taking up to 12 hours to empty and get back to "normal" (for Satellite) download speeds.

I was a DEADWAY (Direcway) customer for 10 months, most of it working from home as a contractor, which was painful! As soon as I found out that there was a WISP service offered in my neck of the woods, I switched! It has been well worth it! I get around 950 kbps download and 360 kbps upload on a regular basis, ping rates range from 20 - 100 ms depending on the server I ping.

In my opinion, based on price and service (technical and customer, and reliability) I rank the following ISP services from best to worst...

1) Cable
2) DSL
3) WISP
4) ISDN
5) Satellite
6) Dialup
7) Cups and String

In terms of ping rates, I'd put Satellite dead last even behind Cups and String.
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ionSKY Wireless ISP - 2.4GHz - 802.11b - 1.0MB/384kbps | Dell Dimension 4550/WinXP Pro/SP2/768MB Ram -- Dell Inspiron 5150/WinXP Pro/SP2/1024MB Ram |Kerio Personal Firewall 2.1.5 | NAT Router/Firewall | D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router/Firewall |MSAS Sucks!

reply to ITcowboy
The WISP's relatively low download speed may be a result of a service plan setting - what's your friend Paying for? Wireless has the capability of delivering huge amounts of bandwidth, but again it's what the provider can afford to supply for a fixed service fee. The benefits of WISP over Sat are the latency (ping time) and when it comes to snappy browsing, Secure web (HTTPS), VOIP, gaming, VPN, etc, it really is no contest. When I was with Direcway my pings were ~900-1200 ms and packet loss ran near 10%. On WISP my pings are 50-70ms and packets loss is less than 1%... oh BTW fair disclosure: I own and operate a WISP; which I built after suffering 18 months of pain on satellite.

I'm not sure what bandwidth he is supposed to be getting. Here is the situation: I live in a small town in southeastern Oklahoma, in a relatively flat area. The "access point" is on a water tower which is on a small hill in another town 3 miles to the west. The company operating the WISP is in another town about 30 miles away. I'm not sure what type of connection the WISP has to the tower, whether it is a T-1 or what. Anyway, some in my town, including myself, have LOS to the tower, while others don't. I have talked with the operator of the WISP, but only about cost of installation and monthly service cost. I would appreciate input on some of the questions I should ask him regarding the service. Also, I am considering asking him about possibly putting an "access point" in my town, as I live almost in the center of town and have property available where some type of tower or antenna could be placed. Any input for questions regarding this would also be appreciated.

Thanks,

CR

3 miles isn't that far if the Line of Sight is reasonable. If they have a 30 mile backhual to their NOC then they are most likely not using 'cheap' gear; that isn't to say one way or the other how they are running it.
Read the sticky post that Superdog made at the top of the forum regarding things to know or questions to ask etc... although I think the first one you want answered is what you friend is paying for, vs. what he's getting, that may give you a good idea right up front.