Topic: Satellite Broadband

[Mikuss]

Does anyone know much about this, and the availiability of it in the UK?
I'm tired of the poor service i get through the phoneline i get here, my exchange only allows upto 1mb speeds, and the ISP's i've tried are inconsistent alot of the time.

I don't mind paying a fair amount a month if the service is worth it. If not satellite broadband, what other alternatives is there out there that i could use as an alternative to my phoneline at decent speeds?

edit: Forgot to say too, Cable isn't availiable in my area either.

[The Gulleysucker]

I investigated this about 5-6 years ago when we were waiting for our area to get broadband.
It not be cheap, is the simple answer.
I think it was in the order of about £1000 for the dish and gear etc, and then £60 per month.
The service wasn't that much to write home about either, you have to factor in transit delays etc and it was very asymetric so it was ok for browsing and downloads but useless for publishing stuff.
There used to be Government grants available to part cover the installation cost, certainly for remote places, but it was still too expensive so I decided I'd wait.
There may well be better offerings now though.
It might be cheaper to get another land line installed and see if you can get a device to aggregate both connections to up your connection speed. Can't remember what they are called, some variant of a mux but quite specialised, but they used to exist years ago for combining multiple analog leased lines with modems together to up the rate.

[King Tay]

I used to work for a satellite broadband company, i would really say only get it if you have no other option for broadband.

Where abouts in the country do you live?

[Mikuss]

I investigated this about 5-6 years ago when we were waiting for our area to get broadband.
It not be cheap, is the simple answer.
I think it was in the order of about £1000 for the dish and gear etc, and then £60 per month.
The service wasn't that much to write home about either, you have to factor in transit delays etc and it was very asymetric so it was ok for browsing and downloads but useless for publishing stuff.
There used to be Government grants available to part cover the installation cost, certainly for remote places, but it was still too expensive so I decided I'd wait.
There may well be better offerings now though.
It might be cheaper to get another land line installed and see if you can get a device to aggregate both connections to up your connection speed. Can't remember what they are called, some variant of a mux but quite specialised, but they used to exist years ago for combining multiple analog leased lines with modems together to up the rate.

Yeah, i had a quick gander. Seems to be about £500 for the hardware, and depending on usage can be around £50~ a month. Out of the question really, was hoping someone might know of it being cheaper anywhere else, plus using it would put online gaming out of the way as well which would be rubbish for what i want.
I'll look into getting an aggregator, would that mean paying extra for the package though? even though top speeds would still be limited to the same? as you can tell, networking isn't my strongest point.

I used to work for a satellite broadband company, i would really say only get it if you have no other option for broadband.

Where abouts in the country do you live?

I live in Chester, quite a big area surrounded by private/council owned houses. A few of my friends have had problems with their connections too, especially over recent weeks. In the daytime when it's not suffering heavy usage it's not too much of a problem, but it tends to drop off often come the evenings and weekends.

I'll have a look at what i have in house and see if it's any of the wiring or devices that are slowing it down dramatically before doing anything, but i fear it maybe a bigger problem.

[The Gulleysucker]

....... A few of my friends have had problems with their connections too, especially over recent weeks. In the daytime when it's not suffering heavy usage it's not too much of a problem, but it tends to drop off often come the evenings and weekends.

Are you all using the same provider? Just a thought that it may be the ISP that's choking the rate rather than the connection per se.
Usually if you are within about 3km of your exchange, and if you are in a built up area that's quite possibly, you should be getting good rates. Generally, if over 3km the tails to your premises tend to need digital repeaters otherwise the signal degrades too much, which can slow things down a tad irrespective of what ISP service you have signed up for and also depending on the quality of the lines. It should be good though as you don't live in a rural area which is when these sort of things tend to happen. Who are you with? Maybe some others on here can comment then on if they are any good.

[Mikuss]

Are you all using the same provider? Just a thought that it may be the ISP that's choking the rate rather than the connection per se.
Usually if you are within about 3km of your exchange, and if you are in a built up area that's quite possibly, you should be getting good rates. Generally, if over 3km the tails to your premises tend to need digital repeaters otherwise the signal degrades too much, which can slow things down a tad irrespective of what ISP service you have signed up for and also depending on the quality of the lines. It should be good though as you don't live in a rural area which is when these sort of things tend to happen. Who are you with? Maybe some others on here can comment then on if they are any good.

I'm with TalkTalk now, was with Sky but then we got rid, moved onto Tiscali, and now on TalkTalk. Mates use Tiscali/TalkTalk i think, which is now the same provider. The ISP i'm on does have a fair usage policy, so it may be that they're choking the rate during peak times (likely actually), but it shouldn't be so bad that i actually lose connection almost completely (sometimes as low as a few Kb).
http://www.dslzoneuk.net seems to be the best place to go for reviewing quality of ISP's. Was looking into migrating elsewhere as an alternative option, but don't want to do so if it ain't worth it, and i'm just going to get choked out again.
Beats the whole idea of Satellite broadband anyway.

[timiano]

You could always trial a MiFi from "Three".

[King Tay]

I live in Chester, quite a big area surrounded by private/council owned houses. A few of my friends have had problems with their connections too, especially over recent weeks.

I lived in Chester until about 2 years ago, where abouts are you living?

I cant think of any reason why you wouldnt be able to get a decent BB connection through you phone line though?

[SP]

How far from the phone exchange are you. The length and quality of the wire between your house and the exchange should be the limiting factor. In Chester it is not likely to be that far, and it sounds like your ISP shaping traffic rather than problems with the quality of the connection.

[griffic]

Are you using cables connected to router, or just wireless?

If it's just wireless could just be a lot of wireless networks in your area causing congestion, and changing the wireless channel on your router should sort that out.

[RJH]

I live in Chester and Broadband speeds aren't too great around where I am either.
The area where I live is fairly close to the limits of the exchange.


It seems as though all three of the Chester exchanges are due to be upgraded in the near future:
http://www.webuser.co.uk/broadband/advice/448730/bt-exchanges-to-be-upgraded-full-list

Going by dates on the Bt Infinity webpage, seems as though Chester South will have it from 30th September, and Central and North end of March 2011.



Mikuss - if you want to see how far you are from your exchange, etc. go here:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

If you stick in your postcode/phone number, and go to "Locality" it'll you give you a map of the area served by your exchange (so you can see whether you're close to the edge).

[Ginamos]

If you're still thinking about Satellite, make sure you check the data cap on your plan. The expensive part, for the ISP is downloading/uploading data, so more than likely they'll put a tight cap on your usage. Even though the bandwidth will be better, the data cap will probably closer to what you get with a mobile plan, so downloading movies will be out of the question.

Also, there's high latency (delay between sending and receiving) with Satellite Internet, so using Skype  VOIP or online gaming isn't practical.

[Mikuss]

I live in Chester and Broadband speeds aren't too great around where I am either.
The area where I live is fairly close to the limits of the exchange.


It seems as though all three of the Chester exchanges are due to be upgraded in the near future:
http://www.webuser.co.uk/broadband/advice/448730/bt-exchanges-to-be-upgraded-full-list

Going by dates on the Bt Infinity webpage, seems as though Chester South will have it from 30th September, and Central and North end of March 2011.



Mikuss - if you want to see how far you are from your exchange, etc. go here:
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker

If you stick in your postcode/phone number, and go to "Locality" it'll you give you a map of the area served by your exchange (so you can see whether you're close to the edge).

yeah cheers, i'm aware about sam knows, handy website. I'm apparently;
"approximately 2.36km from the exchange. Note that this is the straight line distance - the actual cable length will be longer!"
On the Chester north exchange, coming from Blacon, just on the edge of the "green" connections. Just out of curiosity, what boradband service do you use?
Hopefully the BT upgrade list is accurate, i'd be happy even if i could get 2 or 3mb broadband. Anything has to be better than what i'm using now.

Are you using cables connected to router, or just wireless?

If it's just wireless could just be a lot of wireless networks in your area causing congestion, and changing the wireless channel on your router should sort that out.

Cheers for the tip, i'll try that and see how it goes, there are about a dozen networks that i pick up wirelessly around my house (live near a high rise) so it could be a problem.

Also, there's high latency (delay between sending and receiving) with Satellite Internet, so using Skype  VOIP or online gaming isn't practical.

Aye, cheers for that mate. Sattelite broadband seems to be way too much hassle and money, and the lack of online gaming would be infuriating for me.