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The internet dishes that RVs use cost ~ $10k for hardware and installation with a monthly service cost starting at $100. See this page about the Internet Archive's bookmobile for details. Here's a photo (small, large)of their network connection.

The vendor, Motosat, claims download speeds of 400kb/s and up, with upload speeds of 30-90 kb/s. So you would have enough bandwidth to serve a single high latency low bitrate shoutcast stream, maybe, but it's primarily for download. --Pat

Satellite on the road? Here ya go. I thought I had previously seen one that was autotracking and in a randome, much like the TV only versions which can be used while in motion and I've installed in the past. I couldn't find that link though. Pricey stuff. I'll stick with my GSM/GPRS phone, thankyou very much.

Actually, that's not true. There's a dish made for RV's and SemiTrucks thats self-tracking. It's called the Motosat AutoTrac In-Motion System It's inside of a 'dome' and tries to track the satellite as much as possible. In fact, when I was a truck driver, we had (like most carriers) 2way satellite communication and email and that dish too tracked the satellite in real time. I didn't have to stop the truck to send a message to my dispatcher.
And as for How are you supposed to watch TV...
Well, in RV's there's usually more then 1 person, and as a truckdriver my wife teamed with me, so she could of watched TV while I was driving, and vice-versa.

Why do you think that direcpc is high power? This link indicates it is 3W max, thats not what I'd call a lot of power

Normally, I'm a big fan of Sprint's wireless services ("clever" commercials notwithstanding), but there's an alternative here with a decent review of the unit here.

Basically, it's the two-way DirecWay satellite system from Hughes/DirecTV designed for mobile (read: vehicular) use. Obviously, you can't keep this kind of connection alive while in motion due to the satellite aiming requirements, but it does make sense for those with high-bandwidth needs and are on the road for most of their lives or for people who have the cash and the money to spend on this. Those with fifth-wheel campers or RVs, a DirecTV account for their home, and need/want broadband internet speeds when they're out-and-about will probably find this the most useful. The unit will also receive DirecTV signals for those with the ultimate need in mobile entertainment.

It's obviously not as inexpensive as Sprint's offering, and it's far less mobile (you can't carry it with you into a restaurant, for example), but it should be less expensive per unit of bandwidth. If you're wanting this to work on a Honda, it's going to look awefully goofy. But it won't look terribly out of place on a larger vehicle like a pickup truck, camper, RV, or semi cab.

And before anyone gets the idea that I work for these people: I don't. I'm just a bandwidth junkie that has the "occasional" craving to get online when on the road over my annual 2-week-long driving vacations.

Or you could just get a Motosat Datastorm. I have one on my RV--it works very well.

I don't have the Dish system but I do have a Hughes DIRECWAY system on my motorhome with a MotoSat Datastorm mount.

It works very well, but you have to keep in mind there is some latency as the signal has to travel up to the satellite in the Clarke belt and back down both ways in addition to the latency in the ground network. I have the business service with a static IP address and have seen as much as 2 Mbit/sec download. But the upload is slow--usually around 64 kbit/sec and sometimes as high as 100 kbit/sec but never any higher. It would suck for gaming.

The "modems" require a USB connection and a PC running Windows--you have to use the DIRECWAY software/drivers and it only works on Windows. I run Windows 2000 on the satellite access machine and it works well. Other folks are on XP and 98 but a variety of problems do crop up on the "consumer" versions of Windows I hear.

To let other operating systems access the satellite network you can use Windows' Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). I'm using this and share the connection via Ethernet to an Apple Airport base station and allow my Macs and Linux machines access the network via the wireless connection. It works very well.

BTW, last I heard, EchoStar (the parent of Dish and Starband) were getting out of the Internet access business and leaving DIRECWAY as the sole comsumer satellite Internet provider as part of their yet-to-be-approved takeover of Hughes Electronics (parent of DIRECTV and DIRECWAY).

YMMV.

I don't have the Dish system but I do have a Hughes DIRECWAY system on my motorhome with a MotoSat Datastorm mount.

It works very well, but you have to keep in mind there is some latency as the signal has to travel up to the satellite in the Clarke belt and back down both ways in addition to the latency in the ground network. I have the business service with a static IP address and have seen as much as 2 Mbit/sec download. But the upload is slow--usually around 64 kbit/sec and sometimes as high as 100 kbit/sec but never any higher. It would suck for gaming.

The "modems" require a USB connection and a PC running Windows--you have to use the DIRECWAY software/drivers and it only works on Windows. I run Windows 2000 on the satellite access machine and it works well. Other folks are on XP and 98 but a variety of problems do crop up on the "consumer" versions of Windows I hear.

To let other operating systems access the satellite network you can use Windows' Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). I'm using this and share the connection via Ethernet to an Apple Airport base station and allow my Macs and Linux machines access the network via the wireless connection. It works very well.

BTW, last I heard, EchoStar (the parent of Dish and Starband) were getting out of the Internet access business and leaving DIRECWAY as the sole comsumer satellite Internet provider as part of their yet-to-be-approved takeover of Hughes Electronics (parent of DIRECTV and DIRECWAY).

YMMV.

I don't have the Dish system but I do have a Hughes DIRECWAY system on my motorhome with a MotoSat Datastorm mount.

It works very well, but you have to keep in mind there is some latency as the signal has to travel up to the satellite in the Clarke belt and back down both ways in addition to the latency in the ground network. I have the business service with a static IP address and have seen as much as 2 Mbit/sec download. But the upload is slow--usually around 64 kbit/sec and sometimes as high as 100 kbit/sec but never any higher. It would suck for gaming.

The "modems" require a USB connection and a PC running Windows--you have to use the DIRECWAY software/drivers and it only works on Windows. I run Windows 2000 on the satellite access machine and it works well. Other folks are on XP and 98 but a variety of problems do crop up on the "consumer" versions of Windows I hear.

To let other operating systems access the satellite network you can use Windows' Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). I'm using this and share the connection via Ethernet to an Apple Airport base station and allow my Macs and Linux machines access the network via the wireless connection. It works very well.

BTW, last I heard, EchoStar (the parent of Dish and Starband) were getting out of the Internet access business and leaving DIRECWAY as the sole comsumer satellite Internet provider as part of their yet-to-be-approved takeover of Hughes Electronics (parent of DIRECTV and DIRECWAY).

YMMV.

I just bought next month's issue of Popular Mechanics, and in one of the articles under Technology titled "RVs Get Wired" they had a little speil about a TracNet Sattlite Internet by KVH industries. The article states the downlink is by sat and the uplink is by cell modem at 14.4Kbps or satellite modem at 9600 bps. Cost is $5995 not including the sat which is another $2999. Base usage fee is $75/mo plus 99 cents/min while conneted. After 900 min charge drops to 79 cents. This sat can also tune into tv broadcasts, but you cant watch tv and surf at the same time.. sats are too far apart. The setup requires having a server which while the sat is locked in on the internet satt, it will download certain websites as a local cache which can be viewed while watching tv.

Not the prefect deal, but the system is good for on the move.

Another system mentioned was stationary only. It was MotoSat. 400kbps down 128kbps up. Designed with gps to find it's own sats by itself and lock in. Raises to 42in high for sat lock.. folds down to 10 inches for ride.. This sat can tune into the internet sat and the tv sat at the same time, allowing you to watch your favorite scifi's using direct tv or dish sattlite network's gear (bring your own reciver deal tho). Cost? $4995 for the hardware. $79/mo unlimited usage.

Sattlite as little lag, but who would notice if they havent ever surfed broadband? They wont be able to frag, but who said you couldnt schedule local lan frags?

I remember waaaaaaaay back when windows 95 was already out and 98 was in the works, Microsoft set up a little bus with about 8 desks, monitors and tower computers and networked them all together and seemed to have a main server in the back with a generator running. The system wasnt internet connected, just had advertizements and demos of games and other software they were proporting. The bus came to houston during one of the Hal-pc general meetings. I probably spent an hour or two playing around with those pcs. They altered the registry to disable access to everything but the programs folder under start menu.

I would say the mini school bus does have a certain appeal as they are a wider vehicle, but they are also a higher platform and are usually hard to get on for the elderly or very young. I would suggest building it out of a 5th wheel trailer or camper. They can be very well stablized and with a 5th wheel you can store the gear in the over bed area. Some campers have electric flyouts that might afford more room while in use, but require leveling of the trailer before use (drive on blocks, jacking up). Another thought about a 5th wheel is, you have engine failover, if the truck you are using is troubled, you could easily get another one rather than taking the whole damned rig to the shop, putting it into the hands of mechanics who might just play with those computers sitting the back if it was a motorhome.

DRACO-

I'm not sure where hillsborough fl. is but I'm sure there must be some huge R.V. dealers in fla., and any one of them can sell you disk aiming hardware and install it for you too. I believe these generally use G.P.S. to aim the dish, hold on let me see if I can google up a link. Hmm this looks interesting The satel-bag, but you would probable need one of these Staellite finder, but this isn't what I had in mind,ahhhere we go. These guys have the equipment. From reading just now it seems that starband and direct tv 2 way dont work over a hundred miles from home but I sure there wust be some wway around this.