one way sat via sky question

jwt

I have read a few threads concerning using a sky digital dish to receive broadband while still using friaco on the uplink.

How exactly does this physically operate?
The following are the ideas that occured to me about how this might work. I appreciate that the telephone line looks after the upload.

Do I Tee off the coax to the dish and feed my PCI card from this? (essentially splitting the signal from the dish)

Do I feed directly from the dish to the card and the card repeats via a second coax to the sky receiver?

Do I loose SKY in favour of Internet access

Are there routers available that handle satellite comms?

My PC is at one side of the house and the SKY box is at the other with the coax punching straight out behind the box , up the external wall to the dish mounted on the chimney.

How far can I run coax before I run into problems?
Can I get boosters?

Sorry if this is the incorrect forum but I read the relevant threads here and Satellite forum appears to be more relevant to TV stuff than data.

Regards

JWT

ps is this smilie for the cookery classes? :f33r:

Capt'n Midnight

You may need a separate LNB (which means a dual or quad lnb or another dish)

If you don't mind being restricted in the channels you watch while using the internet and you have a very strong signal you could get a splitter and let the sky box chose the band Hi/Lo and Polarization H/V. You could then use the internet while watching any channels on the same band and polarization. (pity you can't see which is which on the menu ....)

from the splitter you would take co-ax to the sat card in your PC. - the PC would do the IP sharing. Since most card come with windows drivers, this is messy...

you can get boosters but they degrade the signal so may not be worth the hassle.

So overall your best bet might be to get a spearate dish and try to have it as close to the PC as you can.

After all that it will still be OK for downloading / web browsing - but useless for gaming and the contention ratio is crazy high...

Consider it as a last resourt only, and look at the CAPs - you can get hit with up to €1 per MB if you go over !!!!

Nuphor

Nah, one dish will do fine. You can pick up a quad LNB and a SkyStar2 DVB card off of eBay quite cheaply:

Quad LNB:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3050842021&category=29783

or

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3050851571&category=29784

SkyStar2:

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?query=skystar+2&saavailabletocountry=99&maxrecordsreturned=300&y=0&sosortproperty=1&x=0&from=R10&sorecordsperpage=50&BasicSearch=


Splitting the cable isn't necessary with a quad LNB, since there will be two feeds, so as to enable you to use Sky and the net at the same time. Besides, you'll reduce your signal strength significantly if you were to do this anyway. Distance to the Dish using CT100 cable won't matter a great deal (unless we're talking 50meters+). I'm in a pretty long bungalow, with PC and dish at opposite ends. About 40m between them, and alls well.

You won't get hit with €1 if you go over unless you specifically request them to give you more bandwidth. You'll simply get cut off until your next billing period if you exceed priority 2. The caps are ample for my needs, and I'm a pretty heavy user. If you can't get DSL, and ISDN is too slow for downloading, it's a good option. I'm more than happy with it.

Hope this helps

jwt

Ok the dual/quad LNB solution makes sense.

I guess a total investment of 150 euro for LNB, card, cable and installation.

I'm aware of the lag issue re gaming etc but this isn't an issue for me as my online gaming days are long since over.

What I don't know is how does this "feel" for browsing versus ISDN or Broadband. Do you percieve a lag when clicking a link or refreshing a page and is the contention ratio an issue for browsing.

I checked out those links and think I will try this out. 150 all in and if it doesn't work out.............well I've spent more for less return

Many Thanks

JWT

Nuphor

What I don't know is how does this "feel" for browsing versus ISDN or Broadband. Do you percieve a lag when clicking a link or refreshing a page and is the contention ratio an issue for browsing.

Lag is in the 600ms-800ms region. To me, lag appears similar to dialup, but with everything coming about 20 times faster. Put it this way; there's no way in hell I'm going back to dialup without a fight.

If you're not a gamer, then you'll like it a lot.

jwt

Fair enough....I will post my own impressions of the service once I am up and running just to offer another opinion.

I am in the process of organising payment methods for the LNB and the PCI card.

If no one has any objections, I may post my experiences with the install, setup and resulting experiences of one way sat using friaco.

Regards

JWT

PS thanks for the links to the ebay sites, I would have been messing around for a few hours on google ensuring that I was looking at the right equipment.

Nuphor

I think that'd be really helpful to other users. I doubt the mod's would think badly of it. And, no problem. If you have any problems or need advice, just PM me. Or keep it out here, so as to share it with others.

Paddy20

Very interesting. As I have a Skydish & digibox. This possibility is of great interest to me.

Even though I have cancelled my Sky sub, the gear is mine. So, can I use it for web-surfing etc. As well as watching the Free to Air [FTA] digital TV channels that I now receive?..

Although, I find the whole thing a bit mind boggling. Me not being a techie. The possibilities seem very attractive. Is there a website where people in my position can get a bit of education in relation to using this method of Internet usage and possible telephony.

P.

Nuphor

CPSat have an excellent FAQ and "how it works" explanation here. Yep, you'll be able to watch FTA TV on your comp. And record it.

http://www.cpsat.co.uk/how.htm

Paddy20

Nuphor,

Many thanks. I will click on that link straight away.

P.:)