Snow killed the Web

[enfield]

I found another good reason to not mount your satellite internet dish on the roof. I had to brush wet snow off of mine this morning so I could get on TGO and annoy the other members. I'm glad snow was the 2nd thing I thought of, after resetting the router.

Also very glad I had mine mounted on a post in the yard.

[Alpha7]

I found another good reason to not mount your satellite internet dish on the roof. I had to brush wet snow off of mine this morning so I could get on TGO and annoy the other members. I'm glad snow was the 2nd thing I thought of, after resetting the router.

Also very glad I had mine mounted on a post in the yard.

Exactly why here in dayton we have charter cable and in Oak Ridge I had comcast. Never had to worry about snow or rain taking it out. We had direct tv at one time and at&T phone service. Every time it rained the phone was fubard as was the sattelite. So we switched to charter for cable, telephone, and internet and have never been as happy. No service interruptions for weather to date. Only trouble we have had was the cat got in the rafters down in the basement and was playing around with the wires plugged into the phone adapter. I simply went down there and hooked the wires back up and reset everything and we were back up in nothing flat. Best of all with the phone, internet, and cable through charter it is about 50 dollars cheaper per month than what we were paying with at&t and direct tv.

Edited January 30, 2010 by Alpha7

[dralarms]

If you got dish like I do then it was not your snow. Their whole system crashed around 11pm last night, dang I had to watch cable:drama: just to get the news.

[oldogy]

Sometime around 22:00, 10 pm last night we lost the Direct TV and the WildBlue about the same time due to ice and snow. I decided I would just throw another couple logs on the fire, watch fire and let you guys solve all our problems here. When I went to bed we had 4" of snow and the sleet was starting.

Got up this am, kicked the fire back to life, drank a pot of coffee in the company of my lovely wife and decided it was time to get the ice from both dishes. I hooked the hose up to the outdoor faucet and sprayed water onto both dishes till the ice came off. Walla, both systems came alive with signals.

oldogy

[enfield]

I didn't lose TV - the Dish Network dish worked fine at least until I crashed and I had internet until about 9 pm when I shut down. But this morning the Hughes modem had only 2 of the 5 blue lights - power and LAN.

If cable TV was available at my house I might have chosen it. Same with DSL.

Edited January 31, 2010 by enfield

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I've thought about changing to satellite many times.

Charter in my house is mediocre at best, but last night

was OK. Is sat Internet competitive nowadays? I like

the better choice of HD channels on sat. I may be

looking again. I am calling Charter every couple of

weeks as it is.

[mikegideon]

We use something like this in commercial service, especially on uplink dishes. Didn't drill down to look at pricing.

Satellite Dish Covers

[oldogy]

I've thought about changing to satellite many times.

Is sat Internet competitive nowadays? .

I have been paying WildBlue $70./mo for satellite internet that is supposed to give me 1,000 kbs download speeds and 120 kbs upload speeds. I've had it for a little over three years. I consider this as a bare minimum for internet speeds but still not good. On a good day early in the am I usually get the speeds I am paying for. Late in the day, into the evening and till around midnight speed falls off drastically. It is not uncommon for me to get 250 kbs download. WB refers me to the contract that says the speeds provided are "up to". IMO, they are committing fraud, plane and simple.

But living way back in the woods, I have no other choice.

To answer your question: No, sat internet is not competitive. Avoid it at all costs if you have any other choice. Read the contract very carefully.

Run a speed test such as www.testmy.net at various times of the day to see what you are actually getting.

So far as Direct TV I have zero complaints with them or their service. I fully realize weather will knock out the signal but that is very seldom for me.

oldogy

[jeremy155rr]

i have wireless service and had to get about half an inch of ice off of my radio rec. to get a signal...its on the roof, but accessible with a stepstool from the front porch

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I was considering getting sat and keeping cable internet only. Appreciate it, oldogy.

As to the feeling of fraudulence, cable says the same thing quietly. Mine has been

fast and slow like yours, but usually in the 3-5 mBits/sec, except when I need it,aargh!