satellite internet? Opinions/ experience needed

[iheartdisney]

We recently moved, and now are on the outskirts of town, thorugh some oilfields, so DSL is out of the question. And the only cable company out here was pretty rude when I called. So I was looking at the satellite internet providers, and wondering if anyone uses one, and are you happy with it. The cost is actually cheaper than DSL.
My only concerns are
A. the delay- it says not good for playing games, but is that just role playing type games, or can you play kid stuff, say Webkinz or playhouse disney?
B. The "fair use" policies. The kids play webkinz, and I surf, and don't want to pay for internet if I can't use it.
Any experience would be helpful.

 

[Minnie]

We live in the "sticks" with no access to DSL or cable internet.

I looked into sattelite internet and spoke to friends that went with the solution and none of them are happy with it - slow and expensive.

I went with a Verizon aircard and it works very well though not nearly as fast as DSL or cable

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

We live in the "sticks" with no access to DSL or cable internet.

I looked into sattelite internet and spoke to friends that went with the solution and none of them are happy with it - slow and expensive.

I went with a Verizon aircard and it works very well though not nearly as fast as DSL or cable

We're in the same boat. From all my research on satellite internet, I know I would not have been happy with it. Our only choice besides dial up was an AT&T air card. It's not as fast as DSL by a long shot, but it's so much better than the dial up we had. We're happy with it.

I think you need to have good cell phone reception for the air cards to work though.

 

[STLDisney_Freak]

We used to have Dish for our internet at our old house. It worked fairly good for it being the only option for "high" speed internet. There were many times we were subject to the fair act policy when I would be using napster and putting songs on my mp3 player. Then the "high" speed we had basically slowed to dial up crawl. We paid about $70 dollars a month because the lesser options didn't have enough speed to them for us to notice a difference. Every time we called Customer service we were redirected to India or somewhere overseas. I'm so happy I don't have it anymore, but if it is an only choice then I guess it does its job. We needed it for hubby and mine online schooling.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Expensive! We did not buy a house when we were looking because of this issue.
We looked into it of course and we were looking at 120/month.

 

[Minnie]

Expensive! We did not buy a house when we were looking because of this issue.
We looked into it of course and we were looking at 120/month.

Locally price depends on equipment and package choice. If you rent the equipment - the rate for satellite internet can be close to what you show. If you buy the equipment - closer to 50-70/month.

The Verizon aircard runs $60/month. The main negative is that I can only use it one one computer - no wireless connection in our house. The positive is that I have internet access wherever I go

If I lived in town - no question cable or DSL

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Reliability of the service was probably our biggest factor to be honest. This house was in the woods and we need to support 4 desktops and 1 laptop.
Alot of storms and being in the bluffs just too iffy.

 

[browneyes106]

My parents have WildBlue satellite internet. They monitor their usage through a meter provide by WB. There are tweaks to avoid to fair access policies. Watching videos online a lot will eat up the FAP bandwidth pretty quickly. Streaming audio and downloading music don't bandwidth quickly. There are several websites online where WB and Hughesnet users chat about how they deal with services and avoid FAP.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Locally price depends on equipment and package choice. If you rent the equipment - the rate for satellite internet can be close to what you show. If you buy the equipment - closer to 50-70/month.

The Verizon aircard runs $60/month. The main negative is that I can only use it one one computer - no wireless connection in our house. The positive is that I have internet access wherever I go

If I lived in town - no question cable or DSL

Actually Minnie you can share that card with everyone in the house:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=524

 

[Inigo]

I've got Hughesnet satellite internet at our house, and at our farmhouse, and we're pretty happy with it most of the time. The speed is not as fast as DSL, but it's still pretty fast. All 4 of us can be on-line at the same time, with no major slowing (unless DD is downloading things.)

There is a cap on usage, after which you get restricted to very very slow service for approximately 24 hours. There is also an unmetered period in the middle of the night, which is when we try to schedule downloads. Well, all but DD try to schedule downloads,although she's getting better at that.

We pay $70 a month at our house, and then $50 at the farm. Expensive, but for us, it's one of those necessary expenses. Our only other option is dial-up, which would tie up the phone line or require a second line. Plus only one person on at a time, and slooooowwww service.