DishNet - via Exede - Heavy user experiance discussion

[uponthemountain]

I'm having the DishNet ( Exede ) Service installed on the 24th, and intend to try to use it heavily.

I'm looking for any and all comments about this service so that I can get a better feel for what I can and can not do.

I'm going to install it on a second wan port , and do testing with it as primary, secondary, load balancing, round robin ... in an attempt to see:
- how quickly the data consumption goes
- how badly the latency comes in to play

With the hopes of ending up using it as my primary full time connection.

The other ( and current ) service is Verizon DSL 3mb ... but I'm a touch past normal service distance and am having frequent noise problems resulting in slow downs and having to manually hard reboot the modem. So far I've avoided the recommendation to reduce my throughput to 1.5mb to allow for a "smother ride".

Note: This is all in my home office, and we are pretty much way out in the country with zero options outside of our very lucky to have copper from verizon. Cell/mobile isnt even really an option since service is spotty and inconsistent. So ... here I looking at sat internet after many years away from it. ( was a beta tester of the *band service, before that had isdn, and before that dial up )

Anyways ... on the exede ...

I regularly do the following:
1) voip on a polycom
2) gotomeeting ( 1 to 3 hrs a day )
3) logmein ( mostly incoming to a xen vm from a remote subcontractor )
4) vpn in a at least two vm's at any given time.
5) ftp and telnet sessions
6) dishnetwork cnn ipad app live streaming.
7) remote access to ms sql and mysql servers
8) regular browsing and email

all with an active AT&T microcell/femtocell

I know this may not be extreme power user stuff to a few of you ... but its not casual user stuff by any means and is a non trivial use of my ( current ) little 3mb problematic pipe.

So ... anyone have experience using exede with any of the above list of activities?

Comments or suggestions on what to do or not to do before, during and once it is installed?

 

[harshness]

With many of those features you're going to have to specify one route or the other. Latency is going to be a major issue with most of the screen scraping activities (seems to be mostly what you're trying to do). I tried to RDP to my workplace early on (the day after it became available) with Exede and the result was pretty awful.

With the exception of FTP and e-mail, I don't think you're going to like Exede very much as most of your tasks are going to have issues with variable latency. I'm quite suspicious about the claims that VOIP works via Exede. Exede has a MUCH, MUCH lower latency than old school Hughesnet or Starband, but it is still over 1/2 second and you simply cannot "accelerate" (cache preload?) activities like screen scraping and VOIP.

 

[uponthemountain]

bummer, to hear about the remote desktop stuf not working well.

I've read many mixed reviews on the screen mirroring type stuff ... some say it works wonderful-ish, some say it sucks.

But a few mentioned that it might depend on where you live, and whether or not you are within a "good" sweet spot of the newer beams.

Do you know if you are in a good footprint ?

I'm in central VA, which I think should get very good service?

 

[grohgreg]

But a few mentioned that it might depend on where you live, and whether or not you are within a "good" sweet spot of the newer beams.

Water cooler rubbish, this is a 100% digital signal. Either it's there, or it isn't.
.
The satellite is ~22,300 miles away, which makes it nearly a 45,000 mile round trip for the signal. So latency (lag) is going to be your main issue. Double that if your connected party is so unfortunate to be on satellite as well. The farthest a terrestrial broadband signal would ever have to travel would be less than an 8000 mile round trip. VoIP works, but the delays are quite aggravating. Talking over each other on VoIP and video conferencing is par. VPN works, but - because each and every packet needs an ACK - it's gonna be dead slow. You not only have the 45k mile lag, but you have also to wait for distant end to send an ACK - before your computer will send the next packet. I've also done a little remote screen stuff, and it too suffers from the 45k mile round trip.

It works. But it's far FAR from "wonderful". On the up side, you've got 30 days to get out of your 24 month commitment without penalty.

//greg//

 

[uponthemountain]

Water cooler rubbish, this is a 100% digital signal. Either it's there, or it isn't.
...
It works. But it's far FAR from "wonderful". On the up side, you've got 30 days to get out of your 24 month commitment without penalty.

//greg//

Thanks for the feedback.

I considered the references to location as possibly ( but not definitely ) worth considering ... my thoughts were that maybe some installs have a greater noise to signal ratio, so that correction/re-sends would make the latency issue an even bigger one. And also related ... maybe some beams were more problematic that others?

up to 30 days and I can say "come get this thing out of here" without any penalty other that use during that period? Excellent!

I was told that I could only reject without penalty while the technician was still on site ?

 

[grohgreg]

When one speaks of problem beams, the actual "problem" is most commonly one of overloading. That's when the provider sells more subscriptions than the servers assigned to that beam can handle. It's too early in the game for that to happen to Exede (or Hughes Gen4). But that's a terrestrial problem, independent of satellite/beam performance.

And signal-to-noise in digital media is commonly a terrestrial problem too. Most of the time it's due to a less than stellar installation; inaccurate pointing, substandard cable/connectors, poor/nonexistent grounding, defective hardware. Less common but still possible, local RFI. You are correct in thinking that this causes slowdowns, but it's transmission errors that are at fault. You have a finite transmission speed, but a variable amount of data. This is a rather simplistic portrayal, but - when the same data has to travel twice - it all travels at the same speed. But since you get it twice - but can only use it once - it cuts your "perceived" speed in half.

If you'll forgive me for saying so, you scheduled installation for a service that you haven't really researched. I strongly suggest you digest the Customer Agreement between now and 24th. Yes, you can cancel in the first 30 days, but shipping the stuff back is at your expense. If you don't like what you read, it would be simpler to just cancel the install.

I'm not trying to talk you out of this. But your specific list of intended applications is - in my estimation - almost certainly going to lead to unrealized expectations.

//greg//

 

[uponthemountain]

Thanks for the link and feedback. All of which is welcomed and appreciated.

The agreement does not appear to be clear on the 30 day thing at all. way too many qualifications. And my eyes glaze over way too quickly when trying to read it. :-(

I have definitely researched, but not necessarily come away with a definitive view of what the service will really do. I was fully aware of the latency, but not so much its impact on real world results. Some people said real world results were usable, others not really usable. I suppose I'm like many, and subconsciously try to favor the optimistic comments.

Some have said that gotomypc or logmein works perfectly fine. And that they were very happy to find out that they could actually use the vpn's.

Some said the service was garbage for these type of things.

Anyways, on paper .. and your comments tend to support this ... I should not expect it to be really usable as a day to day thing.

So, my current primary plan is to use this as a fail-to pipe. So, when my dsl is down, I use this.

But my hopes are to do much more than this .. based on *some of the user comments.

Anyone know how to run something that would emulate the latency ?
... hows that for an odd thing to want to do?

Introduce a .2 second latency adder ( both ways) ?

Anyways, this may be too late to also ask ... but what if any are the options when cell is spotty, there is no cable, and only one copper path between you and the real world?