A few years ago a friend of mine, who skippers ships around to various places so their owners can fly down and sit on deck with their fishing poles, blonds and margaritas, etc., was in the Caribbean on this shooner. He told me I could email him, as they had a direct satellite connection. He also told me not to send any graphics, as they were "charged by the byte"

Now, years later, I'm wondering if there is not some kind of direct satellite for us land lubbers. For a reasonable cost. Everything else is cheaper; why not?

Anyone know about this?

-- joj (jump@off.c), December 23, 2001

Answers

Take a look at www.starband.net ---I've had it since '99 and like it.

-- Wayne Thompson (wtap@starband.net), December 23, 2001.

There are several different companies offering that service, make sure that you look for one with two-way service. Set up for satellite service can cost well over $500 and monthly fees are usually in the $70/month range.

You also might consider wireless service, depending on exactly where you are located. (A wireless service provider is supposedly going to be putting a tower up on Mt. Sexton after the first of the year - that might be able to reach you, its a line of sight thing rather than just having a clear view of the southern sky like it is for satellite service)

Good Luck, Jane

-- Jane (jwagman@mail.com), December 23, 2001.

I have satellite T.V. which is great...but, when the weather is bad, reception does suffer for awhile. You might have the same problem with satellite internet service. But I'm not sure. Might want to check on it!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), December 23, 2001.

Thanks everyone, for your help. Wayne, I vistied starband, and it looks promising, except I have a mac, and it won't do macs. Also, the suggested retail price of 69.95 per month is more than I want to spend (and the rate can be changed without prior notice, which concerns me, after such a large start up cost. Glad it's working for you. It sounds perfect for some friends of mine who live in Costa Rica for three months each year. Last year they connected through their isp here in southern Oregon, and had to pay sixty cents per minute for the long distance charges whenever they checked their email, which took a LOONG time. Apparently starband is not offered there yet, but may be in the future.

Jane, thanks for the info; your numbers were spot on with starband's. Good to hear about the Mt Sexton tower (I guess, though I'm not thrilled to have one in my view). Some friends in town have the wireless service for about forty bucks a month, utlizing the tower on Beacon Hill, and they love it; very fast, they say.

Wayne, what do you experience in the way of interference a la Marcia's suggestion? If we had reception when the weather was bad, we'd have problems in October, November, December, and January. And February. And March. And part of April. Sigh.

Jane, will you be able to see the new tower on Sexy?

-- joj (jump@off.c), December 23, 2001.

In response to your question joj ---- Wayne, what do you experience in the way of interference a la Marcia's suggestion?

The only time I have a problem with "starband" is while we are having a torrential downpour. Normal rain and clouds present no problem.

-- Wayne Thompson (wtap@starband.net), December 23, 2001.

I was about to move to a two-way satellite access rig when DSL finally arrived in my area, but before that I was using one-way satellite access. Upstream (your clicks and keystrokes, outgoing e- mail, etc.) goes out over phone line via your existing regular ISP, and downstream (all incoming data, which is where the vast majority of the wait time occurs) comes in over the dish. Costs $200-300 to get set up, the birds are often a REAL pain to tune in, and service will run you around $40-55 per month IN ADDITION to your standard ISP charges. This will put you near or at the price of a two-way rig like Starband so it may be more than you want to spend but I thought I'd mention it as an option.

-- Jerry Hatchett (temp@jerryhatchett.com), December 23, 2001.

Both directTV and dishnet have a 2 way via internet service. Direct TV had a one way system, with back channel via telephone. This was not to practical for most.

Both the 2 way services are expensive (60-80/month) with a high equipment cost. They do work and if you need internet and have no other services they may be worth the cost.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), December 24, 2001.

AOL has a shared agreement with DirectTV. However, you have to have a second dish put in. Cost might be offset by stopping other services, such as a second phone line and local area calling. I'll just chug along on 28K modem speed.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 24, 2001.

Joe - nope the new tower on Sexy won't help me a bit. I'm in the shadow of Beacon and just about everything else. Which means most of the local TV stations don't come in very well... we have direct TV, but can't get them to give us the networks, which I really wouldn't care about except during football season - though I suppose we could shell out the money for a DirectTV NFL subscription.

However, even with dropping the 2nd phone line for the 'puter it still doesn't offset the cost of the 2 way satellite isp. We can't get DSL or Cable service (although at the increasing costs of cable, well the satellite isp cost doesn't look so bad) Our phone lines are so bad I actually get excited if I connect at anything higher than 24k.

-- Jane (jwagman@mail.com), December 24, 2001.

I need satellite phone diect

-- Cyril Iwuchukwu (secomtel@yahoo.com), February 01, 2002.