Satellite Internet

[morey]

I am looking for a satellite connect high-speed internet, Any idea's?
I wold like to be able to have the internet from where ever I am.
Thanks in advance!

morey

[markopolo]

It used to be very costly for the equipment for a automated mobile dish. $3,000 or more for a Motosat. Plus $50 or more monthly for service. I don't know current prices.

www.motosat.com

http://www.hughesnet.com/

Great forum here: www.datastormusers.com

I wonder if it can be done with a satellite phone now?

[morey]

Wow$$$$$$
I'll look into anyway and see if the costs have come down.

Thanks Markopolo!

[Mike]

Originally Posted by morey

I am looking for a satellite connect high-speed internet, Any idea's?
I wold like to be able to have the internet from where ever I am.
Thanks in advance!

morey

The Datastorm and Hughesnet systems seems OK, until you have obstacles blocking your dish, or you get to
such a high latitude that you're aiming your dish almost flat, and skimming the surface of the terrain to hit
your "birds".
There are USB antennas and/or other physical broadband systems plug directly into your laptop, and use cell
towers to connect to the internet. They might be just as reliable as satellite, providing you're in range of the
cell towers. Check the coverage maps of the major providers in the USA (I'm assuming that's where you live).
If you're in Canada, forget it - you'll go broke either way. Use free wifi hotspots when you can get it.
Here's some basic info that looks pretty accurate....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Web

[campskunk]

i have been using a Hughesnet dish for the past year. class Bs generally don't have room for the expensive automated Datastorm setups you see on big rigs, so what i did was get a tripod-mounted setup for around $1000. unfortunately, i bought it from a company who promptly went out of business, so it took me several months to figure out how to get it working. long story - the offset bracket was welded wrong and the mast wasn't plumb when the base was level. barb at http://www.mobileinternetsatellite.com/ finally helped me figure it out and get online. i would recommend barb's company for equipment and the more important support after the sale.

hughesnet won't support mobile users, so you're pretty much on your own as far as techincal assistance goes, but the good news is there's a large community of mobile satellite internet users, many of whom are highly knowledgeable and will help you. best resource i have found is don bradner's http://www.datastormusers.com/ forum.

the thing that makes it worthwhile is where i camp. i am a fulltimer and spend most of my time in extremely isolated locations - national forests, national seashores, places like that. many times there's no cellphone coverage, which means datacards won't work. at chaco canyon, i had the only internet access for 50 miles around. the park ranger asked to use my internet with a directv dish and the internet dish, i have high speed internet and 250 TV channels everywhere i go. all this is powered by my solar panel setup, so i don't need hookups. i usually go about a week before i have to go into town to get groceries and water.

here is a photo of my setup:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/81571751@N ... 9883460601

here's my location, which i keep updated - one of the features on don bradner's website is this location system for all the mobile internet people.

http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=13303

campskunk

[Davydd]

How fast is satellite internet? The couple of times I tried it, it seemed almost as slow as dial-up. I've gone to using a hotspot for my devices. Next year I will either hotspot my Apple iPhone 4S on the AT&T network or get a Verizon broadband 4G device to connect my iPads and laptop. On my trips this past year (26 states, 19,000 miles) I could have connected 80%+ of the time with either. I think I could have increased that with a Wilson Electronics MobilePro signal booster. The other important thing is I want coverage as I travel down the road, not when settled in. I'm finding that I can always stop in the morning and the time it takes to casually drink a cup of coffee I can pre-load all the news I can read for the day (USA Today, POLITICO, NYTimes, my hometown newspaper) off-line on my iPad and check my e-mail at a McDonalds free wifi hotspot. There are also libraries in just about every town plus Starbucks, Panera Bread, many restaurants, any mall, campgrounds, state parks (free in Louisiana) rest stops (Iowa for one) and other places, even whole cities. Here is an interesting coverage map with lights showing how widespread McDonalds is.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Davydd

The other important thing is I want coverage as I travel down the road, not when settled in.

DNT TXT N DRV.
Politico? I should have known........

[campskunk]

i have a Verizon data card as well as the Hughesnet satellite dish, and usually manage to use up almost all of my 5 GB a month. well, technically, mrs. campskunk manages to use it up - she's inordinately fond of video clips. the card is great for on-the-fly research about campgrounds, etc. because i can't very well set the dish up in a rest area just to check my email. we use the card when stealth camping, again to avoid the dead giveaway of a dish set up outside the van - VERY tacky. if you're a social butterfly like Davydd, you'll seldom be out of range of the cell network that supports data cards. i went all up and down the I-95 corridor from august to november of last year and was never out of range. however, for unsociable folks like me, the dish is the way to go if you're venturing out into the western wilderness. even along the pacific coast highway, where i just finished spending a couple of months, there are spots with no cell coverage.

the dish is about 1.2 mb/sec when it's working well, probably 800-900 kbps for a good working average, and occasionally slower than that during peak evening hours - about as fast as my data card. it's WAY faster than the data card when we're in a fringe area, because the data card slows down as you move away from the highly covered metro areas; that 4G coverage turns into .004G in a hurry as you move out of town.

the dish is not for everybody - it comes into its own when you're out where the milky way is clearly visible, and you can't see your nearest neighbor's campfire smoke. it's big to carry, a pain to set up, and troubleshooting the problems when the signal's wonky is a black art. but it's much better than no internet, which is what i would have most of the time where i do most of my camping. check out my photo sets on flickr to see my typical camping spots - padre island, national forest land up around silverton co, more national forest land up the gunnison canyon, still more national forest land in idaho, even more national forest land at mount hood... you get the idea.

campskunk

2003 Chevy 190 Popular - retired and fulltiming
we are here: http://map.datastormusers.com/user1.cfm?user=13303
our photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/81571751@N00/sets/

[Davydd]

Well... confirmed. Satellite internet is too slow for the cost as far as I am concerned if no better than a 3G cellular connection. This "social butterfly" when on the road only needs internet like I said for about as long as it takes to drink a cup of coffee. When I am off the grid I could care less and I was off the grid often this past year. The deeper I go into the woods the less I desire it. When on the road there always seems to be a connection and that is to check weather, research the next stop and see what's around. That can all be easily done on a smartphone with many very good apps.