Joyce, I have used both DirecWay (now renamed Hughes Net) and WildBlue.

DW was provided to me through my local REC.  WildBlue has some 
connection to the REC's, who I believe participated in the start-up 
funding and are part owners, but I am not sure of the details. 
Originally the REC provided DW service until WB finally came on line. 
In both cases, my contract has been with the REC, not with DW nor WB, so 
that I may have avoided some of the problems that people associate with 
DW which concerned billing.

Many of the complaints that people had with DW had to do with their 
"Fair Access Policy."  The policy was clearly explained somewhere on 
their web site, so that people should have understood.  When you 
downloaded a large amount of material during a busy time, after a 
certain amount (I think that it was about 50 Megabytes), the system 
slowed you WAY down.  This permitted fair access to others who were not 
using so much bandwidth.  I tended to do my major upgrades later at 
night (the later the better!) in order to avoid this problem.  One 
should note in passing that such upgrades were previously almost 
impossible on dialup.  I rarely had difficulty with DW.  Since I did 
most of my account work with the local REC, that was relatively simple, 
too.  I don't recall if I ever had to have service with DW.  However, 
one thing left a somewhat bad taste!  The REC was limited to installing 
a DW4000 modem, which permitted only one connection to a computer, which 
served as the gateway to the lan.  I tried to talk to DW to purchase a 
new DW6000 server, which provided an ethernet connection (which could go 
to a router), but never got any luck.  All the sales people would ever 
do is try to sell me a DW subscription.  I talked to a few tech people, 
but they could only refer me to the sales people.  My billing and 
account work was with the REC.

Many of the complaints on the web sites, such as those you get when you 
Google "DirecWay sucks," seemed to come from people who had problems 
with the Fair Access Policy, FAP.  They were ones who were sharing music 
and video with their friends (legally or otherwise) and quickly ran into 
the FAP, because the contents of one CD exceed 600 Megabytes.  They were 
not happy with their service.  Many then tried to cancel their contracts 
and could not.  They did not understand the absolute necessity of the 
FAP, nor did they understand that the contracts were like those of a 
cell phone, where the price of the equipment was included in the cost of 
the service, pro-rated over three years.  To be fair, some of them may 
have run into trouble when they tried to return their equipment under 
the 30 day warranty that existed at that time.  Like, when they called, 
they probably got a salesman who wanted to sell them a subscription.  :) 
I don't know the details.  However, I was more or less delighted to have 
the DW service after having to endure dialup.  It opened many doors. 
The FAP seemed a reasonable problem that I could overcome with patience. 
But I did not share music.

Eventually, my REC gave me a free upgrade to WildBlue.  I have had 
several technical problems with WB and have had to have equipment 
replaced twice.  One of the independent contractors seemed to think that 
people were having more trouble with WB than DW, but that was some time 
ago.  The technical support staff have been friendly, and one helped me 
through fifteen minutes of setting my NAV correctly.  I don't really 
understand what kind of FAP WB uses, but it does have problems with 
people who transfer too much data, and I guess that I have never come 
close to that point.  Of course, there is a limited amount of bandwidth, 
so the network can slow down, particularly between 6pm and 8pm CST.  You 
just don't seem to get the full download speed.  I am not sure of the 
algorithm that they use to assign bandwidth.  I have never had any 
billing problems, but, then again, I pay my REC on my regular monthly 
electric bills.

My recommendation is that if your REC provides WB service, you should go 
with that.  You work on billing and account setup with the local people. 
If, however, you have to deal directly with one of the companies, my 
bias might be toward DW.  The problem is that DW provided full download 
speed when it had it available, but I think that now it has levels like 
WB.  WB limits the download speed, even if the satellite is not fully 
used.  You only get what you pay for and not always that.  And, of 
course, who knows how Hughes Net is run compared to DirecWay.  I suspect 
that the only change was the name, but don't know.

I want to add that I pay eighty dollars a month for a 1.5 megabit 
download speed, which is only a maximum.  Actual download speeds are 
rarely that high, perhaps in part because the download servers of the 
companies I deal with (NewEgg, for example, or, of course, M$) are not 
capable of delivering data that fast except at 2am in the morning.  My 
friend in the city has a Cox Cable contract in which he gets phone, 
cable TV, and internet service.  He pays about forty dollars a month for 
the internet part - half of what I pay! - and has a download speed at 
least EIGHT TIMES what I get!!!

HTH

Dean Kukral


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joyce E" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 3:19 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] High speed internet via satellite


I am looking forward to replies to Paul's question, and asking one of my
own in relation to it:  What is the best satellite uplink? (The phone
company promised that *maybe* some time in the next ten to 15 years we
will get broadband out here but I'm not inclined to wait that long.  I
had to go to the library last week to look at a certain video on YouTube
after trying to view it here at home -- ten minutes after I started,
only 33 seconds of that clip had downloaded!) I have heard some
positives and some negatives about Hughes Net, but haven't heard much at
all about Wild Blue or any others.

TIA!

Joyce in SE Ohio

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