Curious

Rural area, nothing better than satellite service. My neighbors on either
side of my home and I share a satellite connection and a wireless network.
Have maintained this for about 5 years w/o problem. Costs us about $23 per
month each. Any one else utilize satellite in this manner?

"Thomas Avery" <nospam@lido.com> hath wroth:

>Rural area, nothing better than satellite service. My neighbors on either
>side of my home and I share a satellite connection and a wireless network.
>Have maintained this for about 5 years w/o problem. Costs us about $23 per
>month each. Any one else utilize satellite in this manner?

Sorta. I help with a shared DirecWay/HughesNet system for a local
isolated community. No cableTV, too far for DSL, bottom of a canyon,
and middle of a forest eliminates wireless. About 20 computers shared
which is seriously overloaded. It only works because everyone mostly
cooperates. The LAN side connections are mostly CAT5 run and not
wireless. Wire is far more reliable than wireless, especially through
the trees. The trick is to keep the critters from chewing on it.

I've only actually used the system once or twice, mostly to get
software updates. It's painfully slow when more than 3 users are on
at a time. The DirecWay Fair Access Policy causes constant slowdowns.
If someone runs a big download overnight, then the system is running
at a snails pace the next day.

I wouldn't recommend this system unless you were desperate. The
neighborhood association has been looking into alternatives, which
include a wireless link to the nearest cableTV termination. I guess
I've been volunteered to engineer the replacement. Yet another
project.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558