Satellite broadband

[hut49]

Currently enjoying 8 Mb/s but moving to a rural area where BT reckon although the line is ADSL enabled the line speed will be 0.5-1 Mb/s due to distance from the exchange. So investigating alternative solutions via satellite. Anyone got any guidance/advice, what to look out for etc? TIA

[Plotloss]

Its exceptionally expensive (in comparison) and only downstream (obvious) so if you want to access your machines remotely its a non-starter.

[bigdods]

BT were playing with bi-directional satellite b/band a while back. I remember looking into it before wired b/b came to my area. IIRC it was about £800 to setup including the narrow band satellite reciever/transmitter and the decoder box. I think download speeds were ok (about 2MB IIRC) but upload wasnt very clever and there were lag issues.

[Scraggles]

download is ok, but unless u have a satellite transmitter system, u use dialup and so gaming out of the question unless turn based strategy

then there is the very, very large cost

have u looked at a leased line or wireless

[Balmoral Green]

Can I ask a daft question?

If download is alright, how on earth [pun] does it know what to send you, if you cant communicate your request to send it?

[hut49]

Balmoral Green said:

Can I ask a daft question?

If download is alright, how on earth [pun] does it know what to send you, if you cant communicate your request to send it?

Presumably by the phone line? I've been to a few satellite websites and clearly the long distance between user and the satellite makes VOIP impossible so since I use this all the time for business the satellite link is out.

That leaves Scraggles' leased line or wireless. Leased line looks like crazy prices for a home office and a quick search of Vodafone puts the new house in one of their standard service (not 3G) cells - so that's not going to do it either. Hopefully one of the other service providers might be better?

[MooSchmoo]

Balmoral Green said:

Can I ask a daft question?

If download is alright, how on earth [pun] does it know what to send you, if you cant communicate your request to send it?

Usually dial return path.. nice and slow!

We had a nntp peering feed via satellite until a few years back (when Cidera stopped pimping their European coverage), nice speeds when you're getting mainly one-way traffic.

Not sure I'd be convinced for a residential service though, 'orrible 28k upstream max.. that's not nice!

Any power-line/leased line/wireless/dia providers in your area?

[hut49]

It looks like I'm going to have to live with 1 Mbit/s service - a bit of a come down after the last few months with 8 Mbit/s (although the download speed is typically 6.5-6.6).

It looks like I'm right on the edge of a 3G cell (I can get a GPRS signal on my Vodafone Blackberry but very little signal evident on either O2, Orange or T-Mobile cell phones) and was wondering if I could get a roof mounted aerial (? with amplifier) to pick up a 3G signal and feed it into a wireless router? I don't think HSPDA is anywhre near us.

Anyone getting their home office broadband via cellular and have a view on whether this approach is worth pursuing?