Satellite Internet Service for Data

I use VPN tunnels. The satellite Inet latency time is to high for VPN connections. The effective data transfer rate is very slow for VPN.....

doublev wrote:


It is easy to justify because the young kids burn up my data plan using the cell phone (they consume maybe 100gb in a month and so $500 cell phone data bills are now $400 satellite bills).

We travel about 6-8 weeks out of a year in the coach.

Amazing!

$400 satellite bills.....obviously you have very deep pockets!

Money aside - How did "young kids" ever have any fun camping/traveling before the digital age?...:R

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was_butnotnow wrote:
Sorry to tell you I still use DataStorm Sat Internet. Love it when off road and no cell service. I get 1.2 Meg down. It is right now working better than when new. See www.datastormusers.com for more info. Now I also have Verizon 4g unlimited on my Samsung 5 smartphone. So have the best of both worlds.

Thanks for the input was_butnotnow. Would you mind sharing a bit more about your setup? I did some reading on the link you provided but it leaves some questions unanswered.

Equipment cost appears to vary between $1k and $5k. What did your equipment cost (for an RV type setup)?

It appears that setup/aiming is very simple/automatic. Is this true of your equipment?

Does VPN connectivity work?

How large is the antenna when stowed (does it collapse/fold)?

Thanks much for the additional info!

JD

sdianel wrote:
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/elon-musk-space-x-satellite-internet/
is an article looking at the future of satellite internet.
Don't know anyone who is still using satellite for internet since Hughes Net pulled out of the market. Even if you could find a provider I think it would be cost prohibitive and not fast enough.
We also use Verizon Hotspot. They have many plans although no unlimited plans anymore. You can check the plans on www.verizonwireless.com

Sorry to tell you I still use DataStorm Sat Internet. Love it when off road and no cell service. I get 1.2 Meg down. It is right now working better than when new. See www.datastormusers.com for more info. Now I also have Verizon 4g unlimited on my Samsung 5 smartphone. So have the best of both worlds.

With the iDirect I do run a VPN client and it works very well. VPN over satellite is much better than over spotty campground wifi. The key to a VPN is reliability not speed. Of course bandwidth is not ideal but the xf3 is a lifesaver when travelling. VOIP even works but obviously if you have cell coverage you are not going to use satellite voip. Same holds true with internet. I wont take the three minutes to deploy the dish if I have internet already.

Second Chance wrote:
These folks seem to be the main (and perhaps only) player in the market at this time. Some friends of mine who live in rural Georgia have it... not cheap!

WildBlue

Rob

No, not only is WildBlue not the only player in the game but they don't have any kind of a game plan for the mobile user. The Wild Blue service is spot beamed so it cannot be moved from one location to another without an expensive service call from a local provider. I can't imagine how you even consider then to be a player for the mobile user.

Second Chance wrote:
These folks seem to be the main (and perhaps only) player in the market at this time. Some friends of mine who live in rural Georgia have it... not cheap!

WildBlue

Rob

Wild Blue's service is spot beamed and not suitable for mobile RV'ers. The RTC link that Techwriter posted uses the same Hughes Gen4 spot beam service, but they provide an automated relocation setup that allows their service to used anywhere in the continental US even with frequent changes. The manual setup routine is pretty time consuming though, compared to setting up a DBS TV manual dish.

I think it's been posted, wild blue is spot beam
Good for fixed location, not very good for mobile use Changing location

These folks seem to be the main (and perhaps only) player in the market at this time. Some friends of mine who live in rural Georgia have it... not cheap!

WildBlue

Rob

Mobile satellite internet was my business for about 10 years. I got out of the business due to the fact that cellular was 100's of times faster and at least 1/2 as expensive. The Hughes service is still available but not the new Gen4 service so you have to go with the older 7000 service (type of modem). Upload speeds are around 100K (no, that's not a misprint) and download speeds around 1000-1500K (1-1.5MB). The service will not work with a VPN as you seem to indicate you need.
iDirect does have service that will work with a VPN but the hardware is quite expensive and the service is pretty pricey. Additionally, you are going to have to assemble and point this hardware (which has a very large antenna) each time you move and then have somewhere to disassemble and store it when you travel.
If you can arrange your travel so that you will be in a service area where cellular is available you will be miles and many dollars ahead. Verizon has the best Nationwide service without argument but if you plan to only travel to a few specific locations you need to research what service works best in that area.
An excellent resource for information related to satellite internet is www.datastormusers.com . The Datastorm was a fully auto-pointed satellite internet system which still exists but just barely these days. However, the forum has expanded to offer information about many different satellite internet options and most any question you have can be answered by experts in the field.