Broadband through satellite?

scoobynutta22b

I'm going to be spending much more time over in ireland, and therefore will need internet access in my property over there. The house in question is in a rural area in the Comeraghs and circa 5k from the nearest big town. I've tried for an Eircom broadband connection but am outside their area for broadband.

Assuming that broadband and cable and radio waved internet connections are unavailable for broadband, I'd say satellite are my only option. Over here in the UK I know SKY do a satellite broadband service, at a very reasonable price too. But I notice that SKY do not offer this service to Eire subscribers, or am I missing something. the only other satellite service for braodband that i have seen comes in at around $100 a month, and I don't want to be paying that!

Any remote rural dwellers have any advice?

Gregor Samsa

AFAIK, Sky don't offer broadband in Ireland.

You'd probably get a better response over in the Broadband board:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=259

There's definitly people over there using satellite internet access (from what I've read, most wouldn't classify it as 'broadband', though), so they'll tell you the pros, cons and cost.

There might be a Broadband Group Scheme ot Fixed Wireless provider in the area if you can't get DSL. Again, the broadband board will have the answers.

byte

Satellite "broadband" really would be a last resort.

Thread moved to Broadband, where you may get better help on the matter.

uncle_sam_ie

If you don't want to game,file share, use VOIP, host a web site, run a VPN, stream video and don't mind spending loads of money then satellite is for you. Just go over to Noel Dempsey's website http://www.broadband.gov.ie/ He's a big fan of "Satellite broadband".

netwhizkid

Check out www.teles-skydsl.com, am in the same situation as yourself and am using Skydsl for the last 18months, averages at 800kbps download on the 1MB package and my dial-up of 44kbps for upload.

I am hoping for Exchange enablement before the General Election though, as I gave my local councillers a savage chewing at their last local meeting and am bombarding John O'Donoghue Fianna Fail TD with letters regulary and have made a huge issue of it so much that it will affect their local vote unless they do something.

godskitchen

http://www.teles-skydsl.com/ have changed their system, you can now only get a MAX of 2Mb down, and up to 24Mbps if you wish to pay 1.5c/Mb, and if you did that you would be crazy!!!!


One thing you might want to look into is Vaodfone's 3G data card, close to broadband speeds and unlimited data for Euro50 a month, plus it can move around with you, i cant reccomned it enough, i came from england too (10 MB NTL line) so i know how it can annoy!

If your not in a 3G area it will work on GPRS, using this with ONSPEED is really quite fast! I heard of a story of a man with the 3G data card who could only get GPRS in his house, he would bring the laptop to his Chruch in a town with 3G on sunday and leave it in the car downloading larger files.

Oh almost forgot, Vodafone will have speeds of up to 1.8Mb very soon, for the same price Euro50

mayhem#

Lots of people are quick to conndem Satellite broadband but for some people it is the only option...
If you are interested do a Google for Avanti Broadband, they are a new operator but seem to have their act together..

E.

godskitchen

mayhem# wrote:

Lots of people are quick to conndem Satellite broadband but for some people it is the only option...
If you are interested do a Google for Avanti Broadband, they are a new operator but seem to have their act together..

E.

Great if you can get the entire village involved.................

watty

If your dialup charges are high, two way satellite can be cheaper than one way, which needs phone connected the whole time.

Go for an ESTABLISHED operator so as not to be like Ouranous customers

thebman

godskitchen wrote:

http://www.teles-skydsl.com/ have changed their system, you can now only get a MAX of 2Mb down, and up to 24Mbps if you wish to pay 1.5c/Mb, and if you did that you would be crazy!!!!


One thing you might want to look into is Vaodfone's 3G data card, close to broadband speeds and unlimited data for Euro50 a month, plus it can move around with you, i cant reccomned it enough, i came from england too (10 MB NTL line) so i know how it can annoy!

If your not in a 3G area it will work on GPRS, using this with ONSPEED is really quite fast! I heard of a story of a man with the 3G data card who could only get GPRS in his house, he would bring the laptop to his Chruch in a town with 3G on sunday and leave it in the car downloading larger files.

Oh almost forgot, Vodafone will have speeds of up to 1.8Mb very soon, for the same price Euro50

I'd definetely look at Vodafone and check out how happy those users are.

We have SkyDSL broadband and have found that sometimes it is just unavailable due to maintenance or whatever and it's not on our side as we have it all setup correctly and are pointing toward the correct satellite and have all the gear for aligning satellites. Satellite service just seems patchy but is up most of the time and is decent when up.

One thing about SkyDSL is the proxy server can be used to cache the images if you increase the size of your cache so that even when browsing on 56K you can get a speed increase out of the service (if it accidently loads the cached version of something when you know there is another version then just click refresh in browser to load newest version).

I found it decent and would recommend it if you have no other choice as it is faster than dial-up but for business it might not be as good as you'd like it to be. I'd rate them 3/5.

1huge1

would you consider isdn? it aint all that bad and its a lot better than normal dial up

uncle_sam_ie

mayhem# wrote:

Lots of people are quick to conndem Satellite broadband but for some people it is the only option...
If you are interested do a Google for Avanti Broadband, they are a new operator but seem to have their act together..

E.

Your right of course but, It's a real national disgrace that it has come down to satellite as being the only option for a lot of people living in this country. Their really is a digital divide happening and it sucks.

mayhem#

godskitchen wrote:

Great if you can get the entire village involved.................

Nope, they also do individual connections...

E.

watty

I think after possibly expensive install you can get 2 way satellite (no dialup charges) may as little as 90 Eur a month for always on.

Skydsk is not true Satellite Internet as you have to use the phone. It's a Satellite download accelerator.

godskitchen

mayhem# wrote:

Nope, they also do individual connections...

E.

At what sort of cost? i could not find any info on their site?

pm.

godskitchen wrote:

Oh almost forgot, Vodafone will have speeds of up to 1.8Mb very soon, for the same price Euro50

is that outside the 3g area? and will it work on a pc?

watty

Only in 3G areas. Else you might get 28k

scoobynutta22b

For ISDN do you also need a compatible exchange? I currently have an AOL Gold broadband connection and a 3g T-mobile datacard for when I'm on the move.

What's the 3g coverage like in Ireland? Go out of main rural locations in the Uk and it's on gprs. Given that I cannot even get a mobile signal in the house in Ireland, I assume that even gprs is going to be an issue with a datacard!

I've had a look at the roaming fees from T-mobile and let's just say it would be much cheaper to get a Vodafone Ireland card.

jor el

Check out the vodafone website for coverage but if you can't get a decent signal on your phone in the house then it doesn't look good.

3G in Ireland is fairly sparse, though most large towns are covered so population coverage is probably quite high.

I think ISDN will work off any exchange, there is an associated cost with changing the line though and if you want dual channel (128k) you need to pay twice for the call.

watty

All exchanges are ISDN natively, but on many the module slots/ shelves are full of "POTS" interface, so you can't actually order an ISDN line on the "natively" ISDN exchange.

Compared with througput of a 56k modem with typical (or untypical!) 42K and significant errors, the error free 128k is really equvalent to 200k with typical compression, especially if you get an uncontented connection. Which used to be the case.

I've run 50 browsing PCs off one 2 ch ISDN connection with each user having a better browsing experience than dialup.

The lack of true flat rate internet access which we supposed to get 5 years ago is stupid and gives eircom little incentive to get people off dialup onto broadband. All this "minutes" stuff is NOT flatrate access.

Cash

Hey guys!
From what I'm reading here in this thread it seems my own needs for coverage while travelling around west of Ireland; Clare, Galway, Mayo and Sligo (from May to September), will be to try the vodaphone 3g card and with onspeed on the laptop.
I'm going around in a campervan that could install a satellite onto but it seems more expensive option from what people are saying. I will be in remote areas much of the time.
Any specific advice for me would be very helpful but as is I'm thinking about the 3g card and onspeed on my Mac. Will let you know how I get on when I do get on.
Cheers all! Barra