OT: DSL without a Home Phone Acct?, is it possible???? Options

[Pnambic]

can you hear me now?
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Andy

HAHAHA!!!

Some cell companies offer wireless Internet connections too. I know Sprint does. I think you get download speeds comparable to ISDN or around 128Kb.

My DSL gets me around 1200Kb/s download speeds.

DSL is awesome, but only if you're close enough to the company or one of their fibre optic stations to get good speeds. Cable has a longer range, but can be a shared bandwidth meaning your speed depends on how many other people in your neighborhood are using it at the same time. Around here, some of the Cable providers are advertising speeds in the 2Megabit range. (Thats 2000Kb/s as compared to a 56Kb/s dialup modem for you not quite geeks out there.)

In my experience, my DSL has had a total of 2 days downtime over 3 years as compared to about 2 weeks of downtime for my father's Roadrunner Cable connection over the same period of time. SBC-Yahoo! DSL's tech support was a billion times more helpful by the way.

[Pnambic]

Regarding satellite, while it is a digital signal, the information you are sending and receiving has been broken down into little bitty packets for more efficient transfer over the Internet. The more interference between your dish and the satellite up in space, the more packets you drop and have to get resent. (slows the rate at which the page will load) Any situations where there are large quantities of moisture (rain, snow) or trees being blown to the point that they block the signal, or smoke from CA forest fires, or big stupid bird sitting on the dang receiver, etc, will affect the signal strength and therefore your download speed.

Still better than dialup though! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[aircooledboy]

I have lost internet signal 3x since May for a total of probably 2 hours. Each was during a hella -thunderstorm, and I had no business having my computer on anyway. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

[Pnambic]

....forgot to finish my post....duh!

...so as long as you position your dish so that there are no trees or other fixed objects that may stand or get blown in the way, and you're not near a forest fire, etc, your satellite connection should be fine. Only in extreme storms (supercells generally or during a major deluge) will you completely lose signal. In Indiana, we get those storms on a relatively regular basis, but that's not the case in most of the country. My dad has DSS for TV at his house and loses his signal for 10 to 30 minutes or sowhenever a really really big storm blows through, about 10-12 times a year. I don't have DSS for TV at my house as that money would be better spent on my teener... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[anthony]

If you live in such a super rainy area you can also upgrade to a larger sized dish. That will allow you to maintain a stronger signal even with interference. I've seen up 30" dishes for DirecTV.

[campbellcj]

Where I live...which really ISN'T the boonies but not the concrete jungle either, we can't get cable internet, or DSL, or cell phone reception (it's a canyon). So our only options were running a dedicated pipe (Frame Relay or T1) $$$$$ or since we don't work at home all that much, DirecPC/DirecWay which is the Hughes DirecTV internet service.

It actually has been quite reliable and throughput is comparable with DSL -- I typically see 800-1500Kbps down and slower uplink but still several X dialup -- however, the equipment and cost are more substantial. The biggest issue is the latency. Think of talking via radio to an astronaut in orbit w/ that little time lag, and that's exactly what you're doing with satellite internet. So the "ping times" suck for online gaming or interactive VPN stuff, but for basic email, web and file transfer it is pretty solid.

If you rely on VPN (PPTP or LTP) then a dedicated pipe or DSL is probably your best bet. Dial-up is way too slow, cable is highly variable and satellite has that nasty latency.

Weather has affected the internet a few times but nothing major; right now it is pouring rain and no probs. TV has never gone down or been seriously degraded IIRC.

Bottom line is that satellite beats dial-up 10X over, but if you have other options they are likely to be cheaper and perform at least as well if not better.

[skline]

I live in Costa Mesa, DSL is available here but the fastest speed they can offer me is 144k bi-directional. The cable here is from comcast and it is 5mb down and 384k up. It works ok but I am looking into the setup Datapace mentioned, that would be awesome especially for what I do.

[vortrex]

you will get a lot of latency with satellite, keep that in mind.