Best VSAT Provider

dahamsta

I have a client in West Cork that I've advised to get a VSAT connection, however I'm not sure which would be most suited to him. His current outlay on dialup is €200+/month so cost isn't a major priority, we're looking for a quality service with a relatively good usage limit. Any recommendations?

Thanks,
adam

bminish

I have been on an Orbitlink system for about 18 months now and it's been pretty ok most of the time. It's good for downloads and ok for browsing ever Since Hughes Network Systems Europe got the streaming http proxy stuff working.

Hughes Network Systems Europe are the actual provider for Orbitlink, the other provider I am aware of is Gilat, Digiweb are agents for Gilat systems in Ireland. I have never tried a Gilat Setup so I can't compare the two systems for you.

Ping times as we all know with VSAT Stink and upload speeds are no better than Single channel ISDN most of the time.

It's not perfect by any means but is far better (for my needs anyway) than ISDN

Orbitlink (AKA Educom ) have always been good to deal with and are straight up about explaining the limitations of VSAT. Systems are available in various configurations for various sizes of network.

All computers sharing the VSAT system need quite a bit of tweaking to make best advantage of a LONG FAT pipe instead of the a Short narrow one rural users are used to.
There is lots of good information on getting the most out of VSAT setups on dsl reports
http://www.dslreports.com/

There are no actual usage limits per-se, bandwidth is controlled by the FAP which uses a leaky bucket method of bandwidth restriction, Download too much at once and your speed will be progressively throttled, I think the limit on the lowest service level is around 500 Mb in one go, Higher service levels have bigger buckets. It's explained here
http://www.orbitlink.ie/fap.htm

In practice I very rarely get throttled even when downloading things like ISO images
Hope this is helpful

Brendan

dahamsta

Ye gods there's a lot of traffic in here, I was wondering what had happened to my thread! Thanks for that bminish, most helpful. Anyone else got any feedback for me?

adam

spongebob

given that they are VSAT Adam , the QoS is the same all over pretty much.

Google for Cork company Armstrong Electronics and Aramiska but they are pricey.

M

bminish

given that they are VSAT Adam , the QoS is the same all over pretty much.

Actually this isn't so, with the Hughes system contention, FAP etc is defined by the contract between the Service provider (Orbit link in my case) and Hughes.

The Gilat and the Hughes systems use different technology and satellites so I would expect quite a few differences in how the Long fat pipe issue is handled and how best to tweak for top performance.

However the laws of physics correctly predict atrocious ping times no matter which VSAT provider you use!

I don't know much about Aramiska

dahamsta

Pings don't matter a sh1te, this guy wouldn't know ssh if it came up and bit him on the arse. Brendan, that Orbitlink's a bit saucy isn't it? I know I said price wasn't a major priority and he'd prolly go for it anyway but I'm still surprised. I guess the cheaper providers are tat?

adam

dahamsta

Hupya!

Sorry for pulling this back up but I need to make a final decision on this this week. I've been looking at Mediasat, Orbitlink, Aramiska and Armstrong and Ildana. I wouldn't touch Ildana with a barge pole and I don't know anything about Armstrong. Aramiska seems very expensive but I'd nearly recommend it if it was worth it. Mediasat have a very bad repution in my circles and Orbitlink is a toss-up. So I need /recommendations/ from people who've actually used these products, like Brendan above. Anyone?

adam

bminish

One thing that just might be worth considering is buying a higher grade of service than you need for yourself (uncapped even?) and flogging it to your neighbors. There are a few good looking solutions for this at the moment

One that seems to have a lot going for it is open source and addresses the back end management side of things pretty well along with the security / firewall issues is the locustworld mesh software since it also works nicely as a stand alone access point
Management is done via the WIANA

If you decide to use the mesh network it's self (i.e use more than 1 meshbox to extend coverage (& connect users at the same time) expect a throughput of 1.5 to 2 Mbs after a few hops, you can do much better than this if there is only one hop or you use some network planning and meshboxes with more than one radio card where you have bottlenecks. You can either build your own meshboxes out of obsolete PC's etc or you can buy ready made ones with no moving parts

.Brendan