skyDSL, meh?

imadthemad

what are your thoughts on this site: http://www.sateline.com/index.php?action=services

available in lebanon, so my first thoughts were: wow, injaz. Even though i've seen skyDSL packages available to europe and they are way cheaper and faster, still i was impressed that this has reached lebanon at this not THAT monopolized price (previously lunasat was selling up to 4mbps skydsl for 150$ a month and limited to 5gb or something)

however after asking some friends who know about this stuff they told me that:
A) the setup will be costly and annoying
B) not to trust satellite internet because it has downtime and more importantly satellites have a lifespan
C) i should wait it out because DSL connections are gonna be faster. One of my friends in IT who attended some big conference about this with reps from lebanese isps had it on good authority that lebanon is gonna increase its DSL lines and therefore its bandwidth gonna get alot bigger and greater speeds and packages will be available in the near future (this was promised at the end of the conference, but we all know the meaning of a lebanese promise. its not that they wont come through, eventually progress is gonna happen, but its more about WHEN this progress will occur)

i was still excited about this skydsl connection though despite what my friends said and was almost gonna buy into it, but i googled abit about it and found more stuff like:
D) p2p is REALLY slow as their fair use policy is basically a "we have a right to cut off your connection" policy
E) pings SUCK (and i am an online gamer)
F) sometimes you see awesome speeds, but there are alot of disconnects, and that wont cut it if you plan on downloading overnight as you have to keep restarting your skydsl connection manually even if your downloads are resumable.

I guess im just confused because at first im like "wow, so 12mbps is possible in lebanon?" but then the sad reality is its possible, but not at all practical...

i just thought i'd share this and see your thoghts and comments or opinions on the matter...has some1 else on this forum studied or even tried skyDSL before?

elchebib

Internet connection through a satellite is crap. High ping times and high disconnection rates make it useless especially to online gamers.

I just hope that the promise of increased bandwidth and connection speed will happen late this year or at the very earliest early next year.

samer

Another deal breaker would be that it is illegal to use a satellite as an uplink in Lebanon. You're going to have to use another service for uploads, which probably adds overhead.

XhacK

samer wroteAnother deal breaker would be that it is illegal to use a satellite as an uplink in Lebanon. You're going to have to use another service for uploads, which probably adds overhead.

+1
You will most likely get a 256KB ADSL and use it for the uplink.

Forget about all this man, just stick with the options we came up with in this forum:
For Gaming:
1- Ogero (but with no unlimited night traffic)
2- Sodetel Gaming package (512 + fixed ip = 66$ would be more than enough)
For Downloading:
Any ISP with unlimited night traffic offer AND reasonable FUP

nuclearcat

SkyDSL not best choice. But actually the good one i know - all of them mostly on russian language.

nuclearcat

Another question, who of critics TRIED satellite internet? :-)

imadthemad

ofcourse i know with skyDSL we're talking one way and another connection is needed
it would have been worth it if the connection was stable.

by the way i dont want to jinx myself here but i have 512k Terranet dsl and i get good pings most of the time (except after 8, when its supposed to be double speed. 8pm to 1am gaming and p2p is out of the question however http downloads at speeds of 102KB\s. I think they cap my ports after 8 because of the pressure)

But yeah the rest of the day i get pings of 140 even 90 sometimes on german servers.

nuclearcat

Satellite ping is +300ms. So usually with Lebanese upload it gives 350-450ms, so it is correct - realtime games unplayable.
Regarding downloads amount - they are not unlimited, and impossible to do unlimited. If someone claim they are unlimited - they or lie or will have serious problem with capacity soon. If you want stability - you need to check users feedback, and make sure ISP have clear FUP policy. And best thing is motorized dish, then you can switch from one to another SatISP just by clicking few buttons :-)

rolf

nuclearcat wroteAnother question, who of critics TRIED satellite internet? :-)

I tried skyDsl once. It was very fast !! (1mbps and more) but only like 1 GB quota so it ended in less then a week. It is like being hungry and having a huge table of food, but being only allowed to eat one little plate.

PS: I'm not a gamer. I use internet for watching movies, and downloading some stuff, and lots of research.