Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Apollo who wrote (26084)	6/9/2000 12:59:00 PM
From: alankeister	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

I live in the Northeast; wasn't clear from your post whether having the satellite "higher in the sky" is a good or bad thing. Also, what about internet access for Direct v. Dish. I think I can answer your questions. I did a lot of research on the two services recently. Higher in the sky is generally better if you have trees or buildings around you. Unlike an antenna, the satellite dish needs "line of sight" to the satellite. Regarding Internet access, Echostar (Dish) has teamed with Gilat. Gilat has patented two-way (upload and download) communication with the VSAT (very small) dish. Hughes offers DirectPC which requires a phone line for uploads. I don't know how costs compare but DirectPC is widely available now where Gilat's service won't be widely available until late this year at the earliest. I haven't tried either service to know how they work but they both are constrained by the altitude of the satellite and the speed of light. I believe it takes about 1/4 second for the data to travel from satellite to dish. My guess is it is fine for email and web but may not be good for interactive sessions like Telnet. Finally, Consumer Reports has an article about Dish and DirectTV in the latest issue. I haven't read it yet. - Alan

To: Apollo who wrote (26084)	6/10/2000 8:51:00 AM
From: erickerickson	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 54805

OT DirecPC internet connection experience. Apollo: Direct for Internet Access: I've had it here for the last several months and here's my take... 1> It has performed just fine for me. Perhaps I'm happy only because I can't get over 28.8 given the phone connections where I am <G>. 2> Snow stops it from receiving. You can switch on the fly to "terrestrial line only" and keep going at your old pace. Unsatisfying, but it keeps you going. 3> Service has been quick and competent when I've called. 4> Ya gotta understand the system. It is an asymmetric system, meaning that the outbound requests travel out your phone line to your ISP and the response comes back via the satellite. Depending on the page being displayed, this is more or less painful. The structure of HTML is such that there can be many round-trips to display a page. Many of the icons etc. are actually a separate request. So, loading a page can either be really snappy or not much different from your old ISP line, depending on the structure of the page. Displaying large graphics files or downloading programs is where the speed of the download from the satellite shows to its best advantage. I'll download program updates that I wouldn't have dreamed of doing before. 5> "Fairness of use" rules. Direct will slow you way down if you use excessive bandwidth. This is to prevent folks from reselling the service. I've never been hit with this, even when I download a ton of programs earlier this year when bringing up my new computer. Hasn't been an issue for me. 6> Since the plan I use is time-based, there is a 15 minute time-out. That is, if you haven't transmitted data for 15 minutes, a screen pops up and asks you if you want to stay connected. If you aren't around, it hangs you up 30 seconds later. This is probably configurable, but I prefer to keep it. Overall, I'm very pleased with the performance and service. It's expensive ($35/mo for the service I use, PLUS the $20/mo ISP). Since it's my only choice, I decided it's worth it. That said, I will very seriously consider a two-way satellite connection whenever it becomes available. However, as already pointed out, the transmission delay will form a limit to the user experience. Again, whether you notice it or not depends on whether what you are doing requires a lot of back-and-forth. BTW, the fairness of use clause really inflames some folks as evidenced by one of the message boards I looked at... Hope this helps Erick