Satellite Broadband and VPN

PigeonPie

Hi all, hopefully someone can help me. I am not technically minded at all.

We are moving house in a few weeks and I am trying to sort out a broadband connection. We live in rural area. Other half needs VPN connection for work. Currently we get our broadband service from Digiweb from a mast. Works perfectly. We are moving to a new house only a mile down the road but cannot get a good connection from the mast. Our only option is satellite broadband.

Is it possible to use VPN with satellite broadband? Digiweb said that it's not recommended. Is this just because it might be slower or is it a complete no no?

Thanks in advance.

mass_debater

PigeonPie wrote: »

Hi all, hopefully someone can help me. I am not technically minded at all.

We are moving house in a few weeks and I am trying to sort out a broadband connection. We live in rural area. Other half needs VPN connection for work. Currently we get our broadband service from Digiweb from a mast. Works perfectly. We are moving to a new house only a mile down the road but cannot get a good connection from the mast. Our only option is satellite broadband.

Is it possible to use VPN with satellite broadband? Digiweb said that it's not recommended. Is this just because it might be slower or is it a complete no no?

Thanks in advance.

It's not possible, satellite uses IP Spoofing which is a smoke and mirrors tricks to speed up TCP transfer that will break VPN.

In all current-generation satellite data networks IP acceleration (IP spoofing) compensates for the space-link transit time. Spoofing is accomplished by special equipment at the carrier’s main satellite hub site. This equipment masquerades itself so as to appear as if it were the remote location, while acting as a relay or forwarder for data packets going to and from the remote satellite location. When the spoofing equipment receives Internet traffic destined for a remote satellite location, it acknowledges receipt of the packet so more data packets will follow immediately. In this manner, the latency is “hidden” because the acknowledgments are returned rapidly. As a result, TCP moves out of slow-start mode quickly and builds to the highest possible speed.
The acceleration equipment watches for real acknowledgements coming back from the remote site and suppresses them. If the acknowledgement is not received from the remote site, the system automatically re-sends the packet from its buffer. Thus, satellite-connected sites communicate seamlessly with servers on the terrestrial Internet.
In a VPN-over-satellite session, the packets are encrypted and, therefore, can only be acknowledged by the VPN client software at the remote site – not by the spoofing equipment. Spoofing is bypassed. Consequently, acknowledgments are delayed and the slow-start data rate remains in place during the entire session. This results in substantial performance degradation. VPN over satellite may be approximately as fast dial-up, but is not the robust multi-user broadband experienced when web browsing or using email over the same satellite link.

http://www.skycasters.com/broadband-satellite-vpn/

ItHurtsWhenIP

PigeonPie wrote: »

Hi all, hopefully someone can help me. I am not technically minded at all.

We are moving house in a few weeks and I am trying to sort out a broadband connection. We live in rural area. Other half needs VPN connection for work. Currently we get our broadband service from Digiweb from a mast. Works perfectly. We are moving to a new house only a mile down the road but cannot get a good connection from the mast. Our only option is satellite broadband.

Is it possible to use VPN with satellite broadband? Digiweb said that it's not recommended. Is this just because it might be slower or is it a complete no no?

Thanks in advance.

+1 on what @mass_debater said. Satellite is worse than Mobile (and only a step up from dial-up). Their data limits are ludicrous.

Are Digiweb the only wireless provider in your area?

If your not certain, use this map and drop the marker on your new house and tick the Wireless ISPs option. This will show you all the providers covering the area. They will need to do a signal survey to be certain they can hit your house, but that shouldn't cost you anything.

If there's none, then it may be worth checking the Mobile providers in the area - if there's a good 3G or even 4G:eek: that may suit.

But don't go the satellite route.

PigeonPie

MMFITWGDV wrote: »

+1 on what @mass_debater said. Satellite is worse than Mobile (and only a step up from dial-up). Their data limits are ludicrous.

Are Digiweb the only wireless provider in your area?

If your not certain, use this map and drop the marker on your new house and tick the Wireless ISPs option. This will show you all the providers covering the area. They will need to do a signal survey to be certain they can hit your house, but that shouldn't cost you anything.

If there's none, then it may be worth checking the Mobile providers in the area - if there's a good 3G or even 4G:eek: that may suit.

But don't go the satellite route.

Thanks. I'll check that out. Stupidly just assumed we would be able to get broadband as new house is just a mile down the road. Makes other half's work impossible now.