Learned a valuable lesson about the difference between wireless and line internet

[eborg9]

Had to go from satellite high speed to dial up two moves back. Hardest year ever! Didn't want to go back, but had to because there was no other option that we could afford (getting another satellite deal just wasn't feasible)

So how does the satellite connection work ? Is it like..Dish->Up to a Satellite->Down to a Receiver-> ?
Kind of like a relay thing?

How good is it?

[billbenson]

About 2 years ago, someone on a forum had one. It was slow and weather dependent, but the only option in her area. Thats all I know on the subject.

[nealrm]

I've know a few people that did satellite, none liked it. Uploading is done via phone wire and download via a satellite feed. If works on the premise that you download much more than you upload.

[eborg9]

I just did a speed test just to see where I'm at:



It's not great, but it's not horrible either.
Ran it again and got a little better:



Can't wait until they roll out this 50G plan. That has to be insanely fast.

[vangogh]

Why are you complaining about that speed? It's about 3 times as fast as what I get and I'm pretty much at the high end of what I can buy here. I think my only choice to upgrade at the moment is to have a T1 line installed, but I can't justify the price yet.

[eborg9]

I'm not complaining, but they have faster. I just really hate the way they tier everything.
Maybe I'm spoiled...or just impatient, but I could definitely see me upgrading when I can.

If you look at the test site, compared to other countries we are actually pretty slow.
I think the U.S. ranks 30th for broadband speed.

[vangogh]

I'm kidding. I wish I could get a faster connection here. Right now I'm waiting on someone to install FIOS in town. I'm hoping that's what's going on with all the roads being worked on. For now I think my only option is a T1. It's a little more money than I want to pay at the moment, though it would be tax deductible for me.

I know we lag behind other countries, which is crazy when you think about it. No reason the U.S. would have to be #1 in terms of speed, but you'd think we could manage better than #30.

[billbenson]

Still, when I went from 5M to 20M to currently 33M I saw no visible difference.

Case in point. I just started a large download. It's giving me 900kbs. If I have 50M download speed from my ISP, I'm still going to be downloading at 900kbs.

Take your Ferrari out in LA rush hour traffic and you are still going to be going 30 mph most of the time.

[vangogh]

That happens to me too and it's frustrating. We can buy all the bandwidth we want from out ISPs, but if the site we want to download from or upload to has imposed their own limits the slower speed will always prevail.

[nealrm]

I know we lag behind other countries, which is crazy when you think about it. No reason the U.S. would have to be #1 in terms of speed, but you'd think we could manage better than #30.

I don't think it is so much that we lag behind other countries, it's that many of the countries are mostly providing to the high end customer. Korea is #2 on the average bandwidth. Yet I can't believe that the average person in Korea has better access to high bandwidth than I do.