High speed by satellite.
Written: Mar 15 '03
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Pros: Great download speeds, can surf and talk on the phone at the same time
Cons: Cost
The Bottom Line: Best solution for broadband if no other services are available. Only requires a phoneline for initial installation.
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| scottsw1's Full Review: Direc PC |
Being a military member in the Air Force, I move around the country now and then. My last duty station was in Aurora, Colorado and I had AT&T broadband (Cablemodem). I loved my high-speed internet connection (see review) and could never go back to dial-up.
September 2003 everything changed. I had received military orders to go to Edwards AFB in California. I checked the web and found out that Adelphia provided cable service to the base and had high speed internet, so I thought that this move would be a piece of cake. When I finally arrived and moved into base housing I called and found out that Adelphia wasn't offering internet service to the base, just cable T.V.! I was in a panic until I learned about DirecWay, which is the new name of Direc PC.
I went to my local dealer and found out the details.
COST
Cost basically was $450 for the equipment and a $200 installation fee, and then $59 a month for service. A second option was just pay $99 a month for the first year and then the price would drop to $59 a month.
EQUIPMENT
The equipment needed for DirecWay is basically a big dish and the hardware to mount it to your roof or side of your house, a transmit and receive modems. The DirecWay dish has an oval shape and is double the size of my satellite T.V. dish. Also the transmit and receive modems connect via USB to your computer through a single cable and then to the dish by a coaxial cable.
INSTALLATION
I had the equipment installed and I won’t go into detail because every installation will be different depending on who installs it.
SETUP
Once all of the hardware is installed, its time to load the software. Software installation was pretty smooth and trouble free because it all came on a CD-Rom. Next it was time to run what is called websetup and load the “keys” for the modems. Websetup is basically 2 parts and registration and key download is the first part. The registration and key download requires a phone line, and a modem in your computer. This is the only time a phone line is required. The registration process and key download takes about 5 minutes to complete and this is where you can add to 5-email addresses for your account. After the registration and key download are complete, it is time for the 2nd part of websetup: antenna pointing. During antenna pointing, the installer tries to get the strongest download and transmit signals. The antenna point process took the longest part of the whole process, but after it was complete, I was ready to surf.
SERVICE
The service is pretty good. DirecWay claims download speeds of 400k downlink, and it is a lot faster than that most of the time. Upload speeds vary but I normally get 75-90K. I have had a couple of outages, but most of the time it is for an hour or two. I once was down for 4 days and that was because they moved me from one satellite to another. I kept calling Tech Support and they all try the same procedure over and over. Finally on day 4 someone really helped me and all of my problems were over. Since the 4 day outage which was about 3 months ago, I haven’t had any problems.
FAP
Fair Access Policy! FAP limits your downloading capability to 169 MB in and 8 hour period. If you go over the limit they cut your bandwidth to a 56K speed. I have been FAPED a couple of times and it stinks, I also feel that this is the worst part of the service. FAP is there to ensure that a few users don’t take all of the bandwidth of the satellite and make the service unusable to the rest of the subscribers.
Latency
Latency or long ping times is just a fact of life using satellite internet. The latency makes the service not very good for playing games online against other opponents. Satellite latency is due to the fact that the internet packets go from your computer to the satellite and then to Direcway and to the internet address you are trying to surf or download from. Next once the information is found, it has to go to Direcway, then it is sent to the satellite, and then to your dish/computer. As you can see, satellite is great for surfing and downloading but not high-speed gaming.
Bottom Line
If you can get cable or DSL in your area do it, but if you can satellite is a great way to go. The service isn’t perfect but it is better than dial-up.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 650
Version Number or Year: 2003
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Epinions.com ID:
scottsw1
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Location: Colorado
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 2 members
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