Thursday 21 April 2011

Satellite Internet Value, And What It Means For You

By John Lenokon


Slow, frustrating dial-up services have been put up with in rural areas of the world because the only other option was going without service. DSL, fiber optics and cable are not available to these areas. As technology evolves and society changes having the information superhighway readily accessible has rapidly become a necessity for both business and personal applications. Satellite internet may be the solution some of these potential users have been waiting for.

It simply is not feasible to wire all the homes on the planet for service. Therefore large portions of the population have been dependent on their telephone line and dial-up. Many people in these living situations have never connected to the world wide web, where increasingly the world's communications and commercial activity is focused.

The main complaint with telephone based service has been the slowness of the signal reception, which frequently results in disconnects caused by timing out, and being booted off the system in the middle of something because other users want on. Satellite internet can be a big improvement over dial-up, depending on the users needs. It is available anywhere on earth that receives a line of sight access to the signal. Rain fade can sometimes be experienced when precipitation in the air degrades the signal, but this may be rare, or can be addressed with larger dishes.

Some factors that are inherent with the technology can cause some to think it's less of an internet connection. Signal latency is one such factor. It takes a certain amount of time for signals to move between your computer and earth orbit, even at the speed of light.

In fact about 1/4 second is needed for a two way round trip. A round trip is when a request for data is made and the response is received back. With packet double delays and other delays in networks, the time can become much longer. But this has not seemed to deter satellite internet users, many of whom had been experiencing agonizing slowness with dial-up prior to getting satellite, which can be hundreds of times faster.

While this may work fine for web searches and reading e-mail, it may not be appropriate for some interactive activities like video gaming, video conferencing, or Skype. Not only will the delays be long, but the applications will not easily interpret the latency and thus will not work properly. Not only that, but humans also seem to have the same trouble. Response delays can trigger subconscious doubts and mistrust between communicators, even when consciously aware of the latency issue.

satellite internet is obtainable for a reasonable cost and works fine for most common applications. A variety of plans are available based on options to lease or buy necessary equipment, and the signal speed needed. Several providers are competing for this business.




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