Cheap Broadband by satellite

colin300

If people are looking for cheap broadband unmetered check out www.silvermead.net/satellite

I am going to take this up when I get IOL Anytime cause then I will have broadband for much cheaper than the rip off it is here in Ireland.

I think this is the best offer I've ever seen next to Digiweb which is even more then broadband from eircom (it is possible someone dearer than eircom).

tman

mmm, seems pretty decent, i keep getting a 404 error when i try to check what kind of dish i'd need tho...

BArra

looks pretty good, has no download cap either, do they block p2p ports and what not?

im gonna think about this with a "fricao" package, does anybody more wiser to these know if this is reasonable or is their anything better for my money?

setup costs for satellite i know is highly expensive, what are setup costs for Silvermead?

parasite

mmm seems to work on a standard sky minidish ..depends where you live i guess...it does look good though ...bit of googling found these ...
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/forumdisplay.php?&forumid=192 http://www.silvermead.net/support/live/

/ponders/

colin300

I have asked that question on their support forums www.silvermead.co.uk/forums/frontpage.php
The answer is yes p2p applications work. When it comes to setup costs all you really need to do is get a sky installer preferrably independent to put on a quad on to the front of your minidish and then you can use it as long as you have a PCI card able to recieve data the best one is Technisat SkyStar2. That is what I have just waiting to IOL Anytime then setup everything and I'll be downloading at 256kfor 6 hours a day.

Ruu_Old

where does it say anything about the republic of Ireland?

Shamo

Just did a search for "Ireland" in the forums and came up with some results.

http://www.silvermead.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=928&highlight=ireland

It is available but they "can't do installations" here yet.

SkepticOne

They might be willing to work with a reseller or independent installer however. Worth getting in touch with one if it is your only option.

Nuphor

They might be willing to work with a reseller or independent installer however. Worth getting in touch with one if it is your only option.

Or ya could just get the equipment yourself and get a friend or your local satellite to install it. All that really needs to be done by an engineer would be aligning the LNB, and even that will become much easier in a week or two when they change transponder's to a much more powerful one. I seen this thread today and thought "screw it, I'll never have ADSL, I'm gonna get this".

Just got a new DVB card on ebay for £45 and a Quad-LNB for £33. Bit of a saving over buying their own starter pack at £159.

It's off to broadband land I go.

andrew163

http://www.europeonline.com

Their intro package is cheaper then that (i think) but it's capped with a very small cap............... worth considering if you're low on funds though.

colin300

yeah when i was trying to find a cheap place to get it and I asked about Europe online their service seems to be getting worse by the day and so is netsystem's. Europe Online have a cap and Silvermead don't. you have to look at it like that cause you can download 10 gb in a month on silvermead and if you got Europe online you could only download about 3 maybe 4 gb depending on what you get.

Shamo

I had EuropeOnline last year, still have the dish up and all so I may just order the starter kit again.

Didn't use the fast surf or anything though, just used a 3rd party program called FileFetch that constantly has files coming down at up to 10MB/s (Although when its going at full wack, the hard drive can be under heavy load). All the latest <stuff> is usually "pushed" down in it, along with some useless ****e too.

I think theres a new program now though.

colin300

Shamo you probably won't need the starter pack cause the old pc card from Europe online may still work and all you would have to do is get the dish beamed to 28.5east which is the satellite it is right beside Sky's one so all you have to ask an installer is to beam the dish to sky's satellite and you can have bbc's aswell as broadband.

Shamo

The PCI card would work but I don't think I can just get a subscription without buying the pack which comes with a PCI card anyway.

Not really interested in getting the satellite bb service since dsl is available here. Not really interested in getting broadband at the moment for a number of reasons either

Out of interest, are you going ahead and getting the satellite bb service? Are you getting some local satellite guy to install it or what?

colin300

yeah i am going to get it as soon as I get IOL Anytime (account is pending).

I am an installer so I don't need to get anyone to do it.

You don't need to get the starter pack once you have a pci card and plus they don't force you to buy it either.

Shamo

Well thats pretty handy.

How do I go about getting a subscription without the PCI Card?
I was looking on the site, couldn't find an option like that.

colin300

you just go to http://www.silvermead.net/satellite/register.html
and then as it says up the top create an account then it asks you after if you want any starter packs.

This is what it says:

1. Create a Silvermead Account - Complete your details below and choose your login name and password. All fields marked * are required.

2. Add subscriptions, starter kits and installations - You need to add your payment details and choose the services plus any hardware and installations you require to your account. Then you will be ready to connect.

And it is as simple as that.

Shamo

Ah sorry, I meant the pack with EuropeOnline

Its €69 for the pack and it comes with a DVB Card and you get 1 years subscription, just didn't see anywhere to get it without the DVB Card.
Be so much easier if they just sent me my registration details in an email or something, as I have all the software already.

colin300

oh right!!!

You could probably go for their skybooster service that is €9.90 and then the one up from that is €29.90 I think. So that is all you have to do. They even say themselves that it has been tested with various other dvb cards such as the technotrend, one of haupagge's

Shamo

All I need is the pack which has a username and password, then I put those details into the FileFetch program and let it send <stuff> down at speed

The standard service, without the satellite dsl offerings would be useless without that program.

colin300

Ok i get now sorry about that its a bit complicated. Or maybe I'm just a bit slow on the uptake.

Shamo

Yeah I was lost when I heard about it first.
Sure post back when you get the satellite up and running, see what kinda speeds you're getting

popinfresh

Lads, dont forget it's sterling... BUt hmmm, 1 meg uncapped for €57 a month. Not bad, not bad at all... Tis a shame satelite connections are useless for computer gaming

Shamo

It sounds very nice saying it like that but with the added factor of it being one way, it's going to cost an extra €30 a month (not sure on friaco prices) along with the satellite cost.

But yeah, if dsl isn't available its not a bad option to have. Better than any other satellite service for that price anyway.

popinfresh

Sorry, posted twice by accident..

spongebob

check Satdrive , website Here . I have not heard any bad stories....yet.

colin300

I checked the site their and if you look there lowest subscription and then you have to pay per mb for what you download. The next package up from that is £35 then there are other charges like the levels that different gigabytes cost.

spongebob

no, £14.99 gives you priority 1

This means that large downloads are queued, they may arrive hours later.

Smaller downloads are instant.

£35 increases your priority level , they arrive sooner

colin300

sorry bout that.

Yeah i looked at the costs its a £149 activation fee. Well for this and you need it.


Software only package: (for customers who already have a dish and a DVB PCI card)

£149 inc VAT includes SatDrive CD and first months service fee with unlimited use of priority level 1 for fast browsing and light downloading.


Only an activation fee of £15 on Silvermead. then completely unmetered service for as little as £20 a month. All round cheaper for Silvermead.

spongebob

cool

these are all one way sats that will require FRIACO type products to to the úpstream leg .

Netsystem is reputedly unusable nowadays

Watty in the sat forum recently mentioned Casablanca
Satatonce which is FREE but with catches........naturally.

You may need a multi LNB dish pointing in all sorts of directions to use all of these, it could be a big 1 - 1.2m dish if it has to cover a large arc to scoop them all up, say from 10 west to 30 east.

Hopefully the choice will widen over the next year or two.

colin300

yeah i was going to get sat@once but then IOL Anytime came and then I was talking to someone who recommended Silvermead and I said for a free service that pushes mainly German sites down why not get a cheaper broadband service than eircom.

Fair enough it works out about the same but you aren't capped to 4 or 5 gigs.

jmcc

Originally posted by Muck
cool

these are all one way sats that will require FRIACO type products to to the úpstream leg .

Netsystem is reputedly unusable nowadays

Not surprising. There seems to be a muppet migration pattern with these services over the past few years. Initially they start out with loads of spare capacity and then the word gets around and the troughers sign up and the bandwidth goes to hell. Basically it is a bunch of muppets all running multiple ftp sessions that does in a service. If the service survives this onslaught, it will introduce a per mb or a timed service. A lot of services do not get a second chance.

You may need a multi LNB dish pointing in all sorts of directions to use all of these, it could be a big 1 - 1.2m dish if it has to cover a large arc to scoop them all up, say from 10 west to 30 east.

It really depends on where the sweet spot is (the point on the arc that you get the best reception from a few satellites). You may end up with one dish for Sky/Astra, another for Astra at 19.2 E and another for the ones closer to 1 Degree West. For people outside the cities, a few extra dishes may not matter but inside the cities, planning permission may be required.

Hopefully the choice will widen over the next year or two.

I am not so sure of this. (I'd like to see satellite making inroads but the uplink section is the problem and most satellite services rely on phonelines. The ones that don't have ripoff charges for their services.)The buy-in cost is high and it is competing against an ever growing hardline business that is slowly upgrading. The big surprises will be in the WiFi/FWA areas because the business model is a bit more controllable and understandable for the VCs.

Regards...jmcc

colin300

they have already told people about this if it starts to happen they will bring in the fair use policy. Pity the companies don't do something to the muppets that cause everyone else to lose out on the service. But anyway Silvermead are going on to a main transponder on 28.5east with a good bit more capcity then the one they were on. They seem to have done alot of research cause they seem to be doing everything the right way. Waiting till alot of people have the service then change transponders and allow for more capcity and are ready with the fair use policy to kill off the people that ruin it.

Dr. Dre

Originally posted by Muck

Netsystem is reputedly unusable nowadays

Indeed it is, for browsing anyway, downloading is still 30-40KBps.

...bunch of muppets all running multiple ftp sessions that does in a service.

Agreed.

Saruman

How about Netsystem I had them for a year and it was nice... i did not renew as i will get broadband at some stage so did not see the point. I hope i get it soon.. im waiting till people who ordered UTV start getting results.

Netsystem seem to have changed their service. when i had it, i had 350kbs no cap for €35 a month. Its different now though.

colin300

Their system has run to a complete hault from what I have heard. People have run it down by downloading massive files in the last year. I know their offers look good but for getting a bad service it should be. And now i believe it is capped. Or it isn't and they paid the price by not bringing in a cap.

nd

I'm acctually with netsystem at the moment. Speeds are usually about 25 kps and there is a 6gb cap per month.

Saruman

When i had the service i rarely got below 35kbs downloads. Latency is very high being that its Sat so no good for games but its fast for downloads.

John R

I am currently with netsystem, it was great for the first 6 months but then went quickly downhill, they oversubscribed the service and then blamed the users for the crap service that resulted. currently it is useable, far better than 56k alone for graphics heavy web pages, downloading and p2p. I have no confidence that this will be so in a few months time. Their customer service is atrocious and they are completely untrustworthy I reccomend they be avoided at all costs.

Capt'n Midnight

a) cos then others will join up and up goes the contention ratio..

b) seriously - wait till they open a second transponder..

colin300

just to let you know that the second transponder seems to be up and running on silvermead even though it doesn't say cause people signing up are getting the new transponder frequencies. People are saying this on their forums. Also if anyone is looking for a PCI card to use this service www.dvb-shop.tv are selling one for euro50 and its euro19 shipping not bad considering if you were to buy off ebay it would be about 60 to 70 pounds to get one then plus shipping. It may be an older version of software and it may not have pvr but you can still watch tv and if you download the dvb viewer software that enables pvr you would be flying. www.dvbviewer.com



Just another question how many are thinking of taking this up???
And who thinks its good value for money cause you are not metered?

Nuphor

Well, I for one definately will be. The stuff I ordered is gradually coming in as of today when I got a nice new Cambridge Quad LNB. The card should be here on monday. Incidentally, is coaxial cable pretty cheap? I'll need about, oh, 30-40m maybe.

I'll sign up just as soon as I know the new transponder is online for sure. I know it's being tested alright...

I'll only go for the 256k package as of yet though. 512 is a little out of my price range. Did I hear they were upping 512k users to 1 mbit?

Let's hope they up their 256k package too

colin300

you could probably get a role of coax cable from a DIY shop but remeber that it needs to be ct100. Price really depends on where you buy it. you can get 100 metre rolls of it for about eur20 so that will leave you enough cable tochange where your computer is in the future if you need to.

Nuphor

Sounds good. I was wondering whether digital used different coaxial cable than normal TV stuff.

The connectors seem to be different on the end going into the LNB too. Gonna be a fun weekend

colin300

no it uses the same stuff. the name of the connectors on the end of the cable is 'F' connectors all they are is you wind them on to the lnb.

Nuphor

Just to let you all now, I'm now connected with silvermead. While signal strength will be poor for Irish users until the 11th of August, it rocks.

It seriously does. I'm delighted with the service. I'd definately recommended to any rural peeps.

spongebob

giz more stats

BArra

i posted my stats in broadband ping and download speed sticky thread, ive got silvermead 512, and im delighted with it

Nuphor

Well, atm I'm getting a solid 40-45kbytes per second on pretty much all downloads (kazaa, http, ftp). Not bad for the 256k package!

I'll moving on up to 512 next month, just wanted to stay on 256k until the new UK transponder comes online. I get a 67% quality signal with the new transponder as opposed to 17-20% with the current one. They were having a few troubles with bandwidth over the week apparently, but everything has now been sorted.

God I love broadband.

BArra

nuphor,

what are the settings for the new transponder? or when u click the leaf is it the Silvermead UK/IRE, im on the Silvermead Europe one and on a 8% signal, cos the dish installer didnt align it properly and my modem was delayed so i couldnt test the signal, its still working though

getting him back out to fix it

Nuphor

what are the settings for the new transponder? or when u click the leaf is it the Silvermead UK/IRE, im on the Silvermead Europe one and on a 8% signal, cos the dish installer didnt align it properly and my modem was delayed so i couldnt test the signal, its still working though getting him back out to fix it

The settings for the new TP are:



However, it won't be online until Monday, at the latest. I get around 17% on a 60cm dish. It drops heavily after 9pm for some reason though, even if the weather stays constant. Odd. But, the new TP'll fix this.