Considering Satellite Internet As Back-Up

[royrdsjr]

I'm considering getting satellite internet as back-up to my cable broadband internet. I have Charter Broadband internet & I'm supposed to have 20kbs(I guess that's right,I know it's 20 something). I say "supposed to" because it fluctuates wildly. Anyway,I wanted to get satellite internet for those times that Charter goes down. I wouldn't be doing any downloads on it,mainly just surfing the web & reading email. I'd be using charter for any downloads(like movies & such). The only two companies I know in my area from checking is Hughes Net & Wild Blue. I live in the Augusta,GA/CSRA metro area & i was curious what company most would recommend?

[HCI]

how often does your cable go down?

[royrdsjr]

This past summer,I lost cable,internet,& phone service about 4 times per month. That was a major reason why I got DIRECTV. Right now,for whatever reason,our internet fluctuates wildly from fast to slow. I have SkyAngel hooked up to 2 TV's. That's possibly the only really big use of internet bandwith we have. I don't do frequent movie downloads,maybe 1-2 per month with Amazon VOD. My sister uses Skype. It's just hard to say. But having Charter Cable being inconsistent with its service for as long as we had it,& fully remembering the many times the service completely went down this past summer,I just want a back up.

[pro96]

Have you seen how much they charge for internet via Satellite? Averages to Double the rates of DSL with lesser speeds then basic DSL

[Cold Irons]

Just got off of 2 years on Hughesnet. You'll find this a very expensive & not very fast (or reliable) backup. I know that I would lose Satellite signal a couple times a month due to weather/storms. Speed is only around 1Mbps.

If you have good Verizon 3G signal where you are, a Mobile Broadband connection is a much better backup. If you use the Cradlepoint MBR1000 wireless router, it will automatically switch from Cable modem to the Mobile broadband card/usb/etc.

[bradleys]

royrdsjr,

I've had Verizon DSL, Covad DSL, cable internet, Clearwire, Verizon 3G, Xplornet satellite, Hughesnet satellite, ISDN, and POTS dial up.

I'd put satellite just barely above ISDN, subjectively speaking regarding the whole experience- the latency is just terrible.

I have satellite because I do occasionally need to do some large downloads and rsync's.

If I was getting an alternate internet provider just to do some surfing and email when cable was down, I'd just put in dial up POTS.

YMMV, $0.02, etc

[royrdsjr]

Verizon Wireless looks like the best deal for me. I'll just get one of those Mobile Wi-Fi Hot Spot whatjamathingies(I'm too lazy right now to look up what it's really called,you know,that box shaped thing?).

[tonyp56]

Shucks, I was hoping you'd have went with satellite... Bet you wouldn't complain about Charter cable internet if you had satellite for a month or two. Funny, satellite has been my only choice (maybe maybe 3G finally in the last few months) and I have been stuck with it. Now someone who has much better internet options wants it for back up. That is funny.

[royrdsjr]

Shucks, I was hoping you'd have went with satellite... Bet you wouldn't complain about Charter cable internet if you had satellite for a month or two. Funny, satellite has been my only choice (maybe maybe 3G finally in the last few months) and I have been stuck with it. Now someone who has much better internet options wants it for back up. That is funny.

Come on,it's like having a standby generator in case the electricity goes out. Wouldn't you want something to fall back on or stay in the dark? It most likely wouldn't be used for more than 3-4hrs before the primary [Charter] internet comes back up. Besides,Verizon doesn't seem to have the headache of putting up a new dish(I already have D*),& I might have to clear out more trees to get line of sight. Going back to the generator analogy,you know the generator won't give you as much power as the electric company(depending on how much money you are willing to spend for power with a generator),but it will keep your groceries from going bad during a power out,especially during a natural disaster like a hurricane,snow or ice blizzard,&/or tornado. The Satellite Internet would operate for me on the same principle.Oh yeah,getting a standby generator is also on my to do list,but I need to install natural gas or LP also for it to work. I sure hope I win the Publisher's Clearing House,or maybe I should go out & play the Powerball.....