Calling all fellow Satellte Internet users

[republic]

I've had Wildblue for about 3 years now.  When I got it I had around 600ms latency, today after much overcrowding I tend to have 1800-2000ms latency.  I'm planning to jump ship, but I need some ideas where to go.  I don't want to jump from the Titanic to the Lusitania.

If any of you have Hughesnet, Starband, Linkstar, iDirect, or any of the others I probably don't know about, would you mind pinging google and posting your results?

Thanks in advance!

(I play over dialup btw, not looking to game on it, I need it for work stuff)

[falcon23]

About 3 years ago when I HAD it..I got pings about the same as you got..around 600-700ms..they throttled it down and the pings you are now getting were about what I was getting..finally got WIRELESS,but now having trouble getting into LW arenas..

 My ISP has opened the ports for LW arenas the last few days,but dont think it will last long..Skuzzy told me he would look into the problem.

I dont think your pings will get any better with any other satellite system,but I could be wrong..


                                                   Falcon23

[fudgums]

I play on Dialup and no problems most of the time.

My .2 cents

[drdeathx]

I play on Dialup and no problems most of the time.

My .2 cents

Who is cable provider in your area?????

[bj229r]

If sat is the only thing available in your area, get a 10$ a month dialup with which account to play this game....ya might have to try a few cheap modem cards to find one with good numbers--as Skuzzy stated elsewhere, the variance is a bigger deal than the baud rate (steady ping at 200-ish works fine in AH)

<edit: What sort of upload/download speed do you get with those guys? Wife's job entails sending a 50 meg file every afternoon, which she usually does from a public library parking lot. Neighbor has Hughes, and upload speed is like 26k >

[1701E]

Highesnet and Wildblue are currently the biggest names I know of, and are both about the same.  Pings will average 600-1300, bad weather/high usage pending.  Pings will be effected by; Weather, cable lengths, usage, time of day and equipment.

The main points for the two Companies: (Note, both have other options, these are simply the most common)

Wilblue:
$80
1.5MB DL / 512KB Upload  (250/300 True)
12GB Download limit / 3GB Upload limit  Monthly
30-day usage with 30-day recovery time

Hughesnet
$80
1.6MB Download / 600KB Upload (Unknown true, should be about same or better)
500MB Download / Unknown upload  Daily
Daily recover speeds, usage pending

This mean, if you use the Internet alot in a short amount of time, but less over time it is best to go with Wildblue.  If you use it alot over time, and spread the amount of data send out over time Hughesnet would be best.
I have used both, and Hughesnet was better for us, and seemed better overall.  ---Be sure to keep the FAP under close watch---

[republic]

Ya I AH via dialup as I said.  Wildblue was great for about 2 years, but they've oversold the beam I'm on so my downloads during evenings or when school is on break is about 30KBps rather than the 160KBps I'm used to.  Uploads are around 20KBps, satellite upload's are always horrendous, has been since I've got it.

My neighbor has Hughesnet, his is consistently beating mine...I just hate to sign another contract. 

[1701E]

My neighbor has Hughesnet, his is consistently beating mine...I just hate to sign another contract. 

If I remember correctly, Hughesnet claims to have no contracts.

Also, those speeds sound very wrong, mine averages 190KB/s DL and 120+KB/s Upload on Wildblue.  You sure it is not a hardware issue?  Possibly cord length, router, modem, Dish are off.  Or possibly weather related issues, or Bandwidth overuse (You keep track of your use, right?).

[republic]

If I remember correctly, Hughesnet claims to have no contracts.

Also, those speeds sound very wrong, mine averages 190KB/s DL and 120+KB/s Upload on Wildblue.  You sure it is not a hardware issue?  Possibly cord length, router, modem, Dish are off.  Or possibly weather related issues, or Bandwidth overuse (You keep track of your use, right?).

My beam is heavily oversold.  I've been following it via http://www.wildblue.cc/wbforums/index.php  Uploads and downloads are fine until "peak" usage, which is when I'm home.  During Thanksgiving break, I had 3000+ms latency and 35KBps downloads.  I almost shot the satellite...  I have the pro pack and I rarely go over 40% on my fap.  I'm a light user since I have 6mbps at work to do all the software updates etc I might need.

All the sat providers I've found (so far) have contracts unless you pay full price for the equipment, which I don't really want to do since I'll most likely need the dish for over a year.  I really don't trust the phone or cable companies to spread broadband until the govment makes them.