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

Well, I know that there is Wireless internet, for Palm Pilots, and soforth, but I know not of sattelite internet.

-- Davey Rootbeer (yankeefans2@juno.com), December 23, 2001.

there is but its expensive but very fast NO IP EITHER!

-- Rensokuken of hell (squal4lyfe@yahoo.com), December 23, 2001.

Direct TV has one called Direct PC. But it mounts to your house like a satalite.

-- Tator (you@cant.resist), December 24, 2001.

I aint a technical person.

-- (apples@ny.com), December 24, 2001.

I am like Cyan in Final Fantasy 6 (Machines?? Why did it have to be Machines! I HATE MACHINES!), completely computer illiterate.

-- Davey Rootbeer (yankeefans2@juno.com), December 24, 2001.

Direct tv has a system call Directway. Its a sattelite dish that mounts to your home. They quoted me download speeds of 400kps and upload speeds of 128kps. Prices as of 2-1-02 were about $650 for the equipment and $60.00 a month.

-- Michael Tiano (michaeljt@ameritech.net), February 01, 2002.

sir i have a sattelite net connection for a early time in state mp. my town

-- laxman soni (jagat_mama@rediffmail.com), May 25, 2002.

NO answer, i have heard about lots of different sattelite isps, all fairly expensive, but im also looking for one which would be good and affordable

-- Kevin Visser (k3vin_v@hotmail.com), February 24, 2003.

I have 2-way satellite Internet, it Costs about 570 for the equipment and 59/mo. I am extremely pleased with the service, however I did have to tweak the system a little to receive acceptable up speeds, 112Kbps. Down loads, will blow your SOCKS OFF, Compressed text = 2.8 seconds /mb (1,000,000 bytes) which translates into 2857k’s. A simple 340,646 bytes of non-compressed text file will come down at 1919k or 1.2 sec, Pictures are a little slower, I down loaded 414,028 bytes in 3.3 seconds this equals 1004k. SATELLITE IS WORTH EVERY PENNY! I have yet to see DSL or Cable even rival theses speeds.

-- Bill M (BDNWC@direcway.com), May 28, 2003.

Nice advertisement, Bill. A little misleading, though - you neglected to mention that you are employed by Directv.

-- John Previsich (pacificpropertygroup@yahoo.com), July 22, 2003.

I'm searching for the exact same thing, every time I think I find one I also find little hidden charges buried in there... $599.99 for the hardware (pretty steep startup but ok), $59.99 a month for service, (3 times what I pay now, but supposedly worth it).... THEN, the small print... a 3 year contract with a service charge (on top of monthly service "fee" of $69.99 for the 1st 12 months, $59.99 for the next 12 months, and so on.... ($729.97 for a first months bill, $129.98 for the rest of the year... and they probably still have hidden charges on top of that...) must be solid gold dishes for these price... So... If anyone discovers a service that isn't a load... let me know...

-- Kevin McMaster (kmac_photo@yahoo.com), September 06, 2003.

If you have money, Direcway is the way. Otherwise just buy a cell phone with InfraRed and Install a RedHat Linux box. Configure Irda Dial with some of the scripts found at www.kengeeks.co.ke and you can access the Internet FAST for LIFE!!

-- Programmer / Hacker Salim (iddsalim@iddsalim.co.ke), November 18, 2003.