I currently have qwest dsl and it is beginning to make me mad with the constant down time and frequent disconnects. The speed is good and i get great pings on most servers. But my dad proposed to me the idea of satellite internet.... I have heard a little about it but not too much. My questions are:

• Is it fast?
• If it is what company should i go with?
• I heard about a slow upload via modem or something is this true?
• any other complaints or comments?

thanks

as stated here

400kbps isn't very fast for a download speed, and as you heard 128kbps is very slow for an upload speed

No matter how fast the satellite downlink is, the uplink is still as fast (or as slow) as your modem gets.

Perhaps the satellite service is different in your country. In mine, you'd still have to dial up to the ISP for the uplink which kinda defeats the purpose.

that's correct. You can expect download speeds up to 500 kbps w/ satellite and upload speeds via modem up to 150 kbps.

If you are in a rural area w/o DSL or cable & want broadband access, satellite may be an option. But oh the expense!

If I was only able to get Satellite internet I would no matter the price. I couldnt go back to dialup.

The only way I would get satellite link to the net is if I lived out in the woods somewhere (which I do come from originally ). As posted earlier the upload speeds are pathetically slow and the download speeds aren't exactly impressive either. But if you live in an area without cable or dsl or something better then this is definitely an option.

My hometown has nothing better than dialup which is pretty pathetic I know, but I don't live there anymore and I'm rolling with a cable modem thank goodness

Just my thoughts though...

so basically yer all saying to keep my dsl its better then it seems? fine with me i can deal until we are able to get cable, reason why we cant get cable is because our house lines are too old and if you try and run cable modem and tv it wont work... so a new line is an option but not for my family lol dsl it is then thanks for the help

Another thing to remember is the latency you'll experience when using satelite connections....

The signal has to travel up to the satelite, down to the connection senter, to the server, back to the connection senter, back to the satelite, and finally back to you...

Thus it is impossible to play any games (with the possible exception of chess and suchlike) over the net with a satelite connection...

But for regular surfing/downloading it's a much better alternative than dial up and certain xDSL types...

Check out the discussion Rick (jellobones) started in the old forum about this subject since he is out of DSL/Cable range where he resides...

Out of range for DSL - The epic saga of 44.0kbps connections continue

DSL or Cable

yep. DSL or Cable.
Unless you're rich & can afford a commercial T3 line!

I have Satellite via AOL, and it work very well for what it is supposed to do.
I average 650-750 kbps DL over 250-300 hours a month for $43.90
upload is around 28-30kbps via phoneline (since it's oneway on the phone line compression makes it around 60-70kbps) Don't like AOL? just minmize it and run whatever browser you choose.
avoid regular DPC (direcway) the FAP (speed limiter) billing problems, third party "support" makes it almost worthless. Repackaged DPC (AOL,Earthlink, etc. ) works pretty well with no FAP, or usage limits
Now the bad stuff
Ping time is 5-700ms. No good for gaming
2 way sat. (no phone line is still in the PAY FOR BETA TESTING stage (still a lot of problems) and too expensive ($700+60/70 amonth)and doubles ping time.
some weather related outages (heavy rain or slush on the dish may cause a brief loss of signal)
some slowdowns at busy times of day (this is not an AOL problem, but a problem at DPC. ~the Satellite can only handle 12MBPS per channel/per transponder/per Satellite) not really a problem for me
Given a choice I would first go with a good cable system (fastest, cheapest), or DSL (twice satellite speed, midprice)
then Sat.
Any of these choices, relies on a quality provider to make it work well. If you only have qwest (dsl) or AT&T (cable) get Sat. (or just shoot yourself) if you get say roadrunner of hawaii. YOU are the MAN! (really good service there )