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Is Starband's Satellite Internet Service Palatable?

Posted by Cliff on from the dishing-out-the-satellite-packets dept.

George Thomas asks: "Since Centurytel bought out my local teleco, my internet access has been limited to about 14k compared to the 48k I previously enjoyed. I am interested in reader experiences and/or comments about internet access by satelite dish, specifically Dish Networks, because they offer 128k up and 350k down. I live in a rural area and cable is not a viable option. I am currently running Red Hat 7.2 on an old Supermicro LX series dual PII MB. I have USB ports native to the board, but don't have a clue whether they will work with the USB modem supplied with the hardware package. Also I can boot to Windows95 with LiLo, but my copy of Windows doesn't support USB. I can replace the MB if necessary, but would rather not if I can avoid doing that. Any help will be gratefully appreciated." Of course, Dish Network used to be a reseller for Starband. Now, it appears that things have flip-flopped and Starband is now offering 'upgrades' for Dish Network service. So are any of you Slashdot readers current Starband customers? If so, please share your thoughts on the service.

8 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. tech support by MJArrison · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Hello, and welcome to Slashdot's Technical Support line. Please hold...

    1. Re:Tech Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Why not? There may be thousands of people who want to know the answer to this question.

  2. UK residents, vote Liberal Democrat today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    • To choose Conservative or Labour is to choose to go the current way of America. Do you really want no public services but taxes as high as today? If so, show your affinity for the Tories. Do you want a lapdog for G. W. Bush for your leader? If so, show your affinity for Labour.
    • To not vote at all is to play on the apathy which has made Labour so strong. And we must take a warning from France as to what else abstainment will do!
    These are not general elections, so you may have individual causes that are important to you, and override the candidates' party affiliation. This is OK. But remember, the spirit of the nation is reflected in the sum of the attitudes of its individual people, which begins with local democracy. Yes, democracy is a mess, but think how much worse it is in countries where there is no opportunity at all to have a voice. Let's not lose what we have.
    1. Re:UK residents, vote Liberal Democrat today by cmdr_beeftaco · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Who are you kidding! You have been and always will be the laptop of the world's most dominate super power, get over yourself. We throw you a couple of crumbs and don't laugh at you when you talk funny but to think that who you elect is going to change your lot in life is naive. You should have never messed with Mel Gibson, that was your downfall. Cheers.

    2. Re:UK residents, vote Liberal Democrat today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Total attempts to troll: 1.
      Number which were successful: 0.
      HAND.

  3. Re:USB Compatibility by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    If you don't know Shit, Shut the Hell Up

  4. centurytel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You might want to bother them for DSL which is much better than their dialup.

  5. Split phone line by MountainLogic · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Most likely they "split" your phone line. I know as this happened at my house. Splitting is used to provide more phone lines with no additional copper to the neighborhood. With so many people wanting second lines and the telecos not wanting to invest in digging in more lines they multiplex two logical lines over one copper pair at some point. This, of course, cuts the bandwidth in half (slightly less then half because of overhead). A dead giveaway to splitting is that you NEVER get over 28K BPS with ANY of several different name brand modems (try Lucent).

    Now you may scream to them that's not fair, but in most states you are buying "voice" lines not "data" lines. In point of fact "toll quality" only requires about 8K BPS. Good voice quality is fine at 14 K BPS.

    There are several tricks you can use to try and get better service. First do NOT call and yell at your teleco, you'll just tip your hand. Call up and order a second line then be sure and be there the first time when the installer shows up. Be very nice to the installer and explain the problem, offer him/her cookies and milk, beer and pizza, or what ever. Rinse and repeat until you get a full line. Then cancel the other lines.