[Eug-lug] OT: Looking for suggestions for broadband (in Eugene)

[silver]

For some satellite is the only "broadband" option known to be available.

An associate of mine has Starband satellite service (model 360). Account
owner uses Starband for basic email and web surfing. Service has been horrid
and has recently become worse. Service is always giving out, not just when
it rains. The Gilat software and some of the network protocols are
proprietary (not standard TCP/IP). The number of services required to be
running by the Starband driver software is just wacko. Appx fifteen
proprietary services required to be started-up on a Windows box
(MissionControl, NettGain, RPA, etc). And issues running your own firewall.
Upload speed is same with 33K dial-up. The Starband NOC is always having
issues (e.g. thunderstorms in Atlanta) so no matter if your link to the bird
is fine.

About a month ago he downloaded a backup of his webhosting account (appx
30MB). Day later received notice from Starband stating his account has been
throttled and will remain that way for the next week since he went over his
peak bandwidth/transfer limit. For a week (until his transfer "average" went
down) his account was basically unusable, always losing connectivity (more
than normal ongoing issues). And tech support has narrowed down support
hours, closing at 5pm EST. No email support (if you want to contact
electronically have to go through a purposely hard to find and convoluted
contact form).

Portion of the Starband bird which serves the western US burned up over a
year ago, so I suspect that has had major impact on service and profits. I
suspect Starband is just cash cowing it, since taken over by SpaceNet/Gilat
and the service is now on it's last legs and they are just hoping their last
remaining accounts supposedly locked into three year agreements continue to
hold on. My thought is with the reduced quality of service now provided by
Starband the terms of the original agreement are no longer being met and the
three year "contract" is therefore no longer valid.

At the same time Starband has been pestering to "upgrade" again (he went
from 180 to 360 already, costing an additional $300 plus for the modem) to
either their 480 model or their new Nova service (of course, which requires
a different new modem and another three year contract). I've been
recommending ditching them.

But what are the other alternatives?

In hills west of Fern Ridge there are limited options.

CountryVision, cable provider in Cheshire, wants to charge $5000+ to run a
trench/cable 1000 feet so can tap into cable broadband. ugh.

Unwired Online has a microwave antenna on hill behind Fern Ridge Dam, but
that requires line of sight. Due to neighboring trees, this option is not
happening.

Qwest continues to reports DSL service is not available in his area (checked
Qwest website and called customer support).

Out of range for ClearWire.

WildBlue satellite website and states they are no longer accepting new
accounts in our area. And Peak, which previously marketed/supported
WildBlue, is apparently is not any longer.

So is HughesNet the only other satellite service in this area ? Anyone have
info on them as to quality of service in this area. Basically just email
(pop/smtp) and web surfing is needed. But if HughesNet is anywhere near as
bad as Starband, will stay with dial-up.

After reading this thread will contact Speakeasy/Covad and Integra to ask
about extended DSL service but I don't hold out hope as the phone lines in
the area are crusty and only obtain a 22K dial-up connection. His fax
service is bad, always dropping connects. (PUC where are you?).

How to motivate Qwest to support DSL in his neck of the woods?

What are the other ISP options?

If Intel, Sprint, Motorola, or McCaw need WiMax testers send me email ;-)

Woody

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mr O" <notanatheist at yahoo.com>
To: "Eugene Unix and Gnu/Linux User Group" <euglug at euglug.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 10:41 AM
Subject: Re: [Eug-lug] OT: Looking for suggestions for broadband (in Eugene)


Don't go with any satellite provider if you plan to move stuff *through*
your connection. They typically block EVERYTHING
unless you upgrade to the business package.