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Is Starband for me?
by Ken Knight
Because of the numerous emails that I receive
asking my opinion of the Starband and how it works, I decided it
might be best to just provide you with the information here.
The idea here is to clarify exactly what you can and can't do with a
Starband unit. Some of these things may change with the release
of the new model 360 modem, but this is how it stands right now.
First and foremost, most applications that work
with TCP/IP can be made to work with a Starband
connection, the key here is the definition of
"work". In some of these cases, "work"
means slower than dial-up and because of Latency,
much more aggravating.
Latency
"So what is this Latency I keep
hearing about?" Latency is the delay caused by the
distance between your computer and the computer you're trying to talk
to. Using wired technologies, you might have a couple thousand
miles to travel to reach your destination computer. However,
with Starband, because you're going up to a Satellite and then back
down to their Network operations, the distance is more like 46,000
miles. Because of this a packet traveling over to them and then
back to you will average around a second. This may not seem
like much, but when you compare this to regular wired technology
seeing that same back travel to and back in under 200 milliseconds
with most dial-ups and 60 milliseconds with DSL and Cable modems,
that's quite a contrast.
Some protocols are slow
Starband plainly states on their site that they
don't work with "real-time" technologies such as Telnet,
VPN, on-line
gaming and voice
/ video over IP, but people clearly
overlook this and jump right in anyway and then start complaining
because it's so slow.
Uploads and Downloads
At the time of this writing, Starband has
modified their web site to reflect these items, however, when myself
and many others bought into this they were touting 500 down and 150
up. They've also changed this to reflect the actual numbers on
the upload side that some are seeing, which is 40 to 60 upload.
As you can see the 40 to 60 is around a third of what was originally
advertised. And the people who see the 60 are like finding 7
foot tall people, while they do exist, they're few and far
between. I would have to say that from the emails I've received
and the posts in the forums and newsgroups that between 25 and 40 are
closer to actual numbers on the upload side. I personally never
see anything above around 38.
Web developers pay attention!
Another item worth mentioning is that of
maintaining websites like this one. If you spend a lot of your
time performing this type of function, especially via FTP, then you
might want to re-evaluate Starband or consider maintaining a dialup
account for this purpose. I develop websites for my clients
along with this site, and because of the current issues with FTPing
through Starband, I quite frequently drop back to dial-up to maintain
these sites. I currently connect through dial-up at 50,666 and
no less then 48,000. So, for myself, it's ten times faster to
utilize FTP through dial-up then through Starband for
uploading and site maintenance. This also holds true for Telnet.
What about support?
This subject could spark a
wildfire in the forums and experiences vary widely. Starband
uses a "Level" system of support. There's "Level
1" support which is what you get when you first call them on the
phone and then if Level 1 can't solve the problem it gets escalated
to a Level 2 technician. I can honestly say that I've been very
impressed with their Level 2 technical support people. They're
knowledgeable, courteous and show desire to help correct whatever
problems may arise. For the most part, my experience with Level
1 techs has been pretty good. I have had a couple that just
acted like they didn't care, however, I don't won't tag the whole
crew as being like this. The big concern that I have is that
they are not very informed. It's like there is a loss of
communications between what's actually happening on their networks
and what they're being told.
This also holds true between
Starband the company and it's customers. They could do a MUCH
better job of keeping their customers informed of problems, updates
to the system and new product information. From a few of the
beta testers that I've spoken with, they were at one point in time
receiving weekly updates on what Starband was up to as far as the
network was concerned. They have made some improvements in this
are but could honestly take a lesson from themselves and provide this
communication to their paying customers also.
Well, I think this about sums it
up. I hope that you've learned something about the product
you're considering investing in. For those of us who don't have
any other options, Starband is better than sliced bread! • |
