BajaNomad - Internet in a Truck Camper

Internet in a Truck Camper

Capt. George - 5-25-2007 at 01:58 PM

Is there some form of dish made for a slide in that will give us internet access, Baja and the states??? TV not important, internet a must.......

I could write a book on what I "don't" know about this.

HELP NOMADS, HELP!

cap'n g

bajabound2005 - 5-25-2007 at 02:13 PM

satellite internet will be your only choice -- search SATELLITE INTERNET on this site; you'll see it all!

Al G - 5-25-2007 at 02:38 PM

Capt. George
I recently inquired about auto-lock satillite...If I remember correctlly...$55-5900 setup/install...$16-1800 you setup and lock-in like satellite TV.
Monthly charge...$50 mas y mise for a slow upload $90 for next step up..
I am waiting for a cell service like I have now (runs as fast as DSL) only in Baja too.

Capt. George - 5-25-2007 at 03:05 PM

will hunt down losfrailes..........pls check U2U cap'n g

Pescador - 5-25-2007 at 03:34 PM

You're on the right track with Los Frailes. You can learn how to do it with Hughes Net. He should be able to help you do it. When you get signed up with Hughes net then you will use that as your primary internet source all year.

Capt. George - 5-25-2007 at 05:28 PM

Pescador

have you seen Tony Shanley? he was down your neck of the woods..a 20 ft Parker, he's from San Diego.....

thanks, got a U2U to Losfrailes, awaiting a reply.....

hope to see you...come up to Ojos for some good linguado in July.........

cap'n g

Hook - 5-25-2007 at 05:28 PM

I am wondering about the long term feasibility of sat given the incredible proliferation of wireless for very reasonable (or nothing, in some cases) cost. It's growing fast even in Mexico. Seems like every little hamlet is getting it or has it. Dont know about Abreojos, of course. Faster than sat, too, as I understand it.

Of course, for the addict like me, sat may make sense.

But if all you need to do is browse every couple days, pay bills, an occasional VOIP call, etc., the cost of a sat system and the monthly fees will buy alot of internet cafe time. You avoid maintenance, repairs, storage, too.

Any opinions???

BigWooo - 5-25-2007 at 05:58 PM

Check this site.

http://orbitalenterprises.net/store.html#mobility_kits

Pescador - 5-26-2007 at 06:22 AM

Hook, it all depends. I use Sat (Hughes) year around. In Mexico, the smaller hamlets will probably not get the fiberoptic lines that the bigger cities get. I will never live in a larger city either in Mexico or in the US so for us it works very well and the cost is less than when I needed an internet provider and an extra phone line. So, it lets us stay in touch, use voip, and keep me sharp as a tack with the daily crossword puzzles. But, hey if you go to the big metropolitan areas like San Carlos or Loreto, then it probably makes less sense.

Pescador - 5-26-2007 at 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Capt. George
Pescador

have you seen Tony Shanley? he was down your neck of the woods..a 20 ft Parker, he's from San Diego.....

thanks, got a U2U to Losfrailes, awaiting a reply.....

hope to see you...come up to Ojos for some good linguado in July.........

cap'n g

I think he was pictured in the report of San Marcos Mike's tournament. Check out www.islasanmarcos.com go to enter and then click on the special events section. We left in March and will be back in Sept., although we bought a house in San Bruno which is just south of San Lucas. I spend a lot of time in La Bocana with Juanchy and his brother in Oct. or Nov. We stopped at Abreojos but it looked like the launching and everything is easier at La Bocana. We are presently enjoying the great weather of Colorado and will stay here till Sept.

Capt. George - 5-26-2007 at 08:00 AM

Launching much better at Bocana....You can launch at Campo Renee or a bit further up the estero, and then deal with the inlet...much better then it's talked about. Just use your head...Also you can usually fish out of there (in comfort) some protection from the west wind...

Mi bueno amigo Juanchy y Javier. just mention Vikingo. Hope to see you in the fall, we'll be in Abreojos...Road heading out of town towards Bocana, can't miss us, just ask for Vikingo y Deborah...see you then.

will check out Tony, a good friend.

losfrailes - 5-26-2007 at 09:52 AM

Hook,

It is certainly a better deal to use the local internet cafes that are connected to Mexican DSL. Cheaper and all that. However, most of the small hamlets that have only dialup connections leave a lot to be desired, except that here you do have nothing but time on your hands to wait while something downloads, that is when you can get on the system.

DirecWay is far superior to dialup. And it is the ONLY solution in all of Baja when you are off the grid. Starband does not work very well here. Many prior users have gone over to DWay.

Bajabus - 5-26-2007 at 12:42 PM

Starband down to GN on a .75 is good.
Starband on a 1 meter dish works very well in the area discussed in this thread and down to Agua Verde, below there you should be on a 1.2 meter. Now that DW has imposed it's new FAP rules it is even more attractive and less per month. Plus it's the only company that offers a free online certification course so you can install your own system.
Of course with HN you also have to get a dealer that will get you on satmex 5 or 6 in order to work with the standard dish in that area and further south and depending on where new accounts are going at any given moment with HN, it can be very difficult to get on a sat with good Mexico coverage.

Starband VS HN:

12 month contract VS 15 month

$49 a month vs $59 per month

TS in the USA vs New Delhi

10 e-mail accounts with 10MB storage each vs 5 (not sure what kind of storage you would have with HN e-mail accounts)

10MB additional personal web space which can be used for file storage VS none.

newsgroup access included free vs none included

10 hours of back up dial up service free VS $15 per month ( does not mean anthing in terms of mexico, just USA)

Free customer installer certification on-line so you don't have to hide the fact you are moving it and can install it yourself VS $150 to $250 to get certified as an installer at a training seminar so you are authorized to move it.

Direct 24VDC input to the modem if you don't have AC VS multiple DC voltages at the input if you want to run on batteries or solar without an inverter or genetrator.

Rust proof fiberglass antenna VS stamped metal (they may have changed back I am not sure)

Static IP available for an extra $4.99 per month vs not available if you want it.

Service on IA-7 which covers all the USA, a lot of Mexico, and Southern Canada. Your elevation angles in the NE will be very low so trees and other obstacles will be more of an issue but if you have LOS you have service. No need for Sat changes.

500Kbps X 128 vs 750 X 128 up to... LOL

1 GB in a 7 day rolling period ( *B Fap )Note this is not currently being enforced on the Nova network but I am sure it will be implemented at a future time especially if you are a large user VS about 200MB in a 24 hour period before FAP kicks in after which you are throttled down to about 24Kbps for 24 hours ( HN FAP ).

I think most here would agree that customer satisfaction with both companies by actual users is similar....it's a love hate relationship and a bit of a roller coaster at times. look at threads on various forums regarding slow speeds and mysterious disconnects that happen with both companies. I think it would be folly to imply one was better than the other in this respect.

Any way thats my sell.

losfrailes - 5-26-2007 at 01:05 PM

OK, here we go. The DirecWay system works fine up and down the entire peninsula. No need for larger than the .74 dishes for the entire length of Baja and Mainland Mexico.

The FAP concern is hardly important unless you are downloading a ton of music or movies or something of that nature. Seldom will you exceed what the account limit is, and recovery rate is very good should you go over.

Getting the system commissioned to SM6 (you should stay away from SM5 with the HN7000S) is no problem. Just take the system you purchased from a dealer that does not necessarily want to install it and have your certified installer (one with an installer ID) get the system commissioned onto SM6. You will get superior service from that satellite.

The reason to avoid SM5 is a very heavy load of people on that bird. The HN7000S (which is what you will get if you buy a new system) performs very well on SM6.

With the HOME plan, you can expect to get fairly good download speeds and upload speeds about the same as a fair dialup. Cost 60/month

Withe the PRO plan, you will get download speeds of up to 1000Kbs, and up to 200 Kbps upload. Cost 70/month.

The PRO plus plan gives you a bit faster download speeds but essentially the same upload speed. No real reason to go there. Cost about 80 a month.

If you want you can go to a much larger dish, the .98 meter dish, and a 2 watt radio and get even faster, but for what reason. Unless you are doing business that requires that type of service, why pay upwards of 150 a month.

You might want to run a search on this site for the pros and cons of DirecWay versus Starband. There are many who feel that DWay is far superior, even tho a bit more expensive.

Those two systems are the only options you have here, as the Blue system is now a spot beam system and does not work down here.

Good luck!

Al G - 5-26-2007 at 02:04 PM

Very good information...but I still hope Carlos Slims(?) wakes up soon and offers the very best DSL on cell soon :bounce:

Bajabus - 5-26-2007 at 02:29 PM

losfrailes, you are aware that HN just changed their Fap policy in the past few weeks and that the recovery rate is not what it used to be? A search on datastormusers will tell you the whole story, basically The bandwidth allotment has been reduced drastically and not to many people are happy about it. It used to be 175 MB in a 4-6 hour period, now it's 200MB in a 24 hour period. The recovery also used to be not to onerous but that has also changed drastically now.

You can find similar stories on broadband reports and dslreports along with the usual sat internet forums

Ancedotal testing is showing that on the home plan which allows you about 200MB in a day the fap penalty is 24 hours at about 34Kbps with a bucket refill rate of anywhere from 18Kbps to 34Kbps. Here is just one of a series of good threads discussing the new rules and how folks are reacting and trying to figure them out.

Fap thread on datastormusers

here is a story about the new changes from broadband reports:

HughesNet Users Revolt Against 24-Hour Caps

I personally think folks need to think about how they are going to use satellite internet and make their purchasing decisions knowing the most current and up to date info.

I also have had a significant number of HN customers come to me and change their service because they were having trouble with the HN Fap policy, especially lately. In this day and age when doing a software update or watching an hour or two of video it is not hard to exceed a 200MB per day cap. The converts to *B that I saw wanted the ability to download more than 200MB occassionally, as in 3-4 times per month without beigh hit with a virtually unusable connection for 24 hours. If you are doing security updates, downloading new software, performing PC maint that requires you to download software, watching the latesest news videos from Utube or whatever, it will not be hard to exceed. If the connection is just for light surfing and e-mail then perhaps you can live with the limitation and it will work out fine for you. To each his own.

Plus like I said buy the stuff in the states, bring it down and install it yourself, no need to get a certified installer to request a satellite change and install it for you. The current commissioning satellite for new HN accounts is not sat mex 6 and am I not correct in noticing that most HN dealer/installers will want anywhere from $100 to $200 for a sat change if you did not buy the equipment from them? Just curious because thats what all the HN dealers I know do.

Most baja types like to be independent and value being their own installer/troubleshooter. Not everyone does however.

I am not saying either system is better...just that they are different and what would suite one consumer well may not suite another as well.

Competition and diversity are what make the US economy great and the more choices a consumer has, the better off they are. An educated consumer is my best customer and being the #3 Starband sat internet dealer in the nation last year, I can't be too wrong.

Dave - 5-26-2007 at 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajabus
1 GB in a 7 day rolling period ( *B Fap )Note this is not currently being enforced on the Nova network but I am sure it will be implemented at a future time especially if you are a large user VS about 200MB in a 24 hour period before FAP kicks in after which you are throttled down to about 24Kbps for 24 hours ( HN FAP ).

I've been a Starband customer for almost five years. It has only been recently that my usage has been monitored. IT SUCKS! I used to listen to streaming jazz...NOT ANYMORE. If I had a viable alternative I would switch.

And what's up with the rolling BS? The only way to get ahead is to stay offline for 7 days. :fire:

Also...What's the best way to fine tune the sat signal? Tune dishnet to the best signal? (That's what I do now. I'm getting a 6.9 signal and would like to bump that a bit but I'm off the scale with sat tv... 110+.) I wish that Starband had a signal meter like dishnet.

oladulce - 5-26-2007 at 05:01 PM

The BigWooo is in the living room right now doing a dry-run setting up the new Starband equip we got to take to Baja Sur in a couple weeks.

After several months of comparing the two sat. internet options for our area , Starband seemed like a better fit for us.

- BigWooo took the Starband online installation course (and passed the test, thank goodness) so he can set it up himself when we get there.

- We can put the dish away to preserve the equipment for the months we're not there since we're only part-timers right now, and will be able to set it back up again when we return. With HughesNet, we'd have to either leave the equip. up or pay for Los Frailles to come all the way across the peninsula to set us up each time.

- We can "hibernate" the service during the months we're not in BCS and won't have to pay for all the time we're not there.

- I don't understand all the bandwidth stuff, but didn't like the sound of limitations on the HughesNet basic plan.

We'll be the first in our "neighborhood" to have Starband. Everybody else has had Los Frailles install them a HughesNet system. Of the neighbors whom we're personally acquainted, all have been more than happy to hand over the installation to Wayne , the thought of setting up a system themselves being too daunting. Wayne generously answered all our questions about his system when we were evaluating the 2.

The Starband dish for our area is the 1.2 meter which is too big to mount on the roof of the casita unfortunately but the other benefits outweighed this slight bummer for us.

We got the Starband system from Bajabus who has been great to work with. If I'm able to post from Pta. Pequeña in a couple of weeks, then everything went smoothly.

Bajabus - 5-26-2007 at 06:13 PM

Dave are you still using the 360? thats pretty old technology at this point but you can use the sig meter in the mission control software to peak the dish. you are going to have to have someone look at the meter while you go out to the dish and do a push pull test. Simply stand behind the dish and very lightly pull on the dish at the 3 O'Clock position. Hold for about 10 sec or until the wife yells out if it went up or down. repeat at the 6, 9 and 12 O'clock position. the dish is peaked when the signal always goes down no matter where you push or pull and then bounces back to it's highest when you let go. the New Nova modems have everything on board now so it is possible to connect a wireless router directly to the modem and then go out to the dish with a wife enabled PDA or laptop and peak like that. If you want one of the new Nova modems I'll cut you a good deal since I still owe you a bottle of Cazadores.....LOL. If you want a meter I can send you a loaner to SD as long as you get it back to me in a month or so. Also what is the noise figure printed on the LNB ( the smaller of the boxes that the coax runs to). The lower the noise figure the more sensitive the RX with a .8 or a .9 being the worst and a .6 or a .5 making a measurable difference. In addition if the LNB is a model NJR2544HWN you can remove the transmit reject filter that was used on many of the older systems for another gain in sig quality. let me know and I will send you instuctions on how to do that.

Yes the days of no bandwidth monitoring were great but they are long gone....it was a great selling point for a long time.

Oladulce.....great to hear you are getting ready to do a test run in the states. It's really not rocket science and there is no reason someone with an independent spirit, a few tools, good set of instructions, a dealer willing to talk them through it/support them and some patience can't install one of these systems themselves and save quite a bit. Doing a dry run in the States is a good idea.

I know losfrailes does a great job because I have heard good things about him from many folks and for a lot of people you can't beat the convenience of having someone else install the whole set up for you. The only point I wanted to make is that the two systems are different, both have their warts and shining spots so folks really need to evaluate what they are going to do before deciding on a purchase.

Bajabus - 5-26-2007 at 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dave

And what's up with the rolling BS? The only way to get ahead is to stay offline for 7 days. :fire:

Dave I forgot to add that you do not have to wait 7 days to exit the FAP, You have to drop to an exit threshold of about 645MB in the 7 day average. The way it's calculated the new day gets added and the first of the 7 gets dropped then the new average is calculated. Hence why it's called a rolling average

Or call and beg forgiveness and they will lift it right away although you can't do that very often.

Also keep in mind that with *band only the download counts towards the FAP. With HN it's both up and down added together.

Anyone considering sat INTERNET or with sat INTERNET should load a bandwidth monitor on their PC for 2 primary reasons
1) you can contest what they say you are using
2) it gives you a good idea of what service and service level you will realistically need to purchase.

I like this one but it does cost $19.99 after the 30 day free trial period

OK, but...

Dave - 5-26-2007 at 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajabus
you are going to have to have someone look at the meter while you go out to the dish and do a push pull test. Hold for about 10 sec or until the wife yells out if it went up or down. repeat at the 6, 9 and 12 O'clock position.

I think I might get arrested. Can I do this at night?

Capt. George - 5-27-2007 at 01:04 AM

I have a headache............it's like outa space cap'n g

Bajabus - 5-27-2007 at 06:18 AM

Dave, remeber to hoot out loud and then exclaim "ok I'm letting it go" after each pull and then "OK I'm ready to pull again baby"........LOL

Pescador - 5-27-2007 at 06:43 AM

Thread hijacked as a paid advertisement for Bajabus. :fire:

DianaT - 5-27-2007 at 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Capt. George
I have a headache............it's like outa space cap'n g

I so hoped to see some simple answers in simple English.

Diane

Diver - 5-27-2007 at 09:50 AM

Check in with Mike. He uses a Datastorm system and always seems to be connected rom his RV. If this link doesn;t come up live, check one of his old posts. Also, check out his website for some Baja and Mexico adventures.

www.turtleandtoad.com
I am here

.

Bajabus - 5-27-2007 at 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pescador
Thread hijacked as a paid advertisement for Bajabus. :fire:

How is answering the question and presenting an alternative to HN hijacking the thread?

4 posts out of 22

Bob and Susan - 5-27-2007 at 10:58 AM

no hijack!!!
this was good info

com'on if we found a better service we'd all change :light:

AmoPescar - 5-28-2007 at 01:57 AM

Hi George,

You might look into the MotoSat system.

http://www.motosat.com

It's the system that Tioga George uses to post his daily blog from his Tioga motorhome as he travels in Baja and in the U.S.

http://vagabonders-supreme.net/Mr.DataStorm.htm

Fellow Nomad Desertbull also has one installed on his 5th wheel and uses it to post SCORE Baja off-road race information, as well as other posts from races around the country.

Miguelamo

mexibob - 5-28-2007 at 12:58 PM

For those thinking about he StarBand service,

http://www.antennaman.tv/starband.htm

Information from another source. Pay attention to the part about having the modem needing to be hooked to a PC/server.

losfrailes - 5-28-2007 at 01:07 PM

Isn't that interesting. You must be hooked up to a PC for the system to work. Sounds like a warmup of the old, really old, DW4000 from DirecWay that has been copied.

That technology has been replaced about three times over. The current technology with DirecWay requires nothing more than the modem being turned on.

Also note the last paragraph in the description of services. If you choose to not continue with the 'contractual commitment' in the first year, a fee of $499 applies, unless its the residential plan, then the fee is $599. Second year $299.

Quote:

Originally posted by mexibob
For those thinking about he StarBand service,

http://www.antennaman.tv/starband.htm

Information from another source. Pay attention to the part about having the modem needing to be hooked to a PC/server.

Roberto - 5-28-2007 at 01:29 PM

1. That's old info. The 48x modems aren't even available anymore. You can't even commission one if you buy it used. All new systems are based off the Nova modem.

2. That information is incorrect. The 48x modem had all software in firmware - and was perfectly capable of going on-line by itself, at which point you could plug it into a hub/router and get service to multiple PCs.

3. A PC was only needed with the 360 series modems, and they have not been available for a LONG time. This is also stated pretty clearly in the link. Could there be a reason neither of you saw it?

[Edited on 5-28-2007 by Roberto]

Roberto - 5-28-2007 at 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pescador
Thread hijacked as a paid advertisement for Bajabus. :fire:

Huh?

losfrailes - 5-28-2007 at 01:35 PM

Yep, was looking at outdated information. I stand corrected.

losfrailes - 5-28-2007 at 01:36 PM

Now lets take a look at a comparison between what is provided by HN, the largest supplier of this technology, and Wild Blue, the second largest provider of this technology.

I confess I could not find any direct comparison to HN vs Starband.

http://www.getdsltoo.com/HughesNet-vs-WildeBlue.asp?gclid=CM...

Bajabus - 5-28-2007 at 07:35 PM

You can't get WB in Baja even if you wanted it so I am not sure how informative a comparison is but yes in terms of FAP and experience it is not as good in my opinion.

The nice thing about both *B and HN is they can both be taken mobile and will work anywhere in the Satellites footprint.

Another thing to consider is that if you like the thought of an Auto-pointing unit and have the bucks for it, the new D3 controller used on Motosat platforms (AKA Datastorm) is compatible with the *B Nova modems.

I posted a pretty good comparison of *B VS HN up thread. If any of it is wrong or something could be added please do so so this thread remains current and a good source of info

The link above has the old HN FAP policy info. It has changed significantly as noted previously in this thread so keep that in mind when looking at the info on that link.

bajameerkat - 5-28-2007 at 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajabus
losfrailes, you are aware that HN just changed their Fap policy in the past few weeks and that the recovery rate is not what it used to be? [...] It used to be 175 MB in a 4-6 hour period, now it's 200MB in a 24 hour period.

Here's the HughesNet article on the "Fair Access Policy":

[url=http://legal.hughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?pageid=fairaccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity[OID[BD8BE0839F414B4 FB7CDDCA10EFA5369]]]http://legal.hughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/...[/url]

For Home it's 200 MB, for Pro it's 375 MB and for Pro Plus it's 425 MB/day. We have the Pro Plus plan and this FAP hasn't kicked in once since we started using HughesNet a month ago. We don't watch videos (on purpose) but do lots of browsing, email and even talk on the phone through Vonage (www.vonage.com, $24.99/month unlimited calls to/from the US).

I posted an article with pictures of a HughesNet dish if anyone is interested:

http://loreto.ehuna.org/archives/000228.html

My setup is not mobile, but is fixed in our house in Loreto. I did call Los Frailles and he did a great job in making it work for our friend T.

[Edited on 5-29-2007 by bajameerkat]

Roberto - 5-28-2007 at 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajameerkat
We have the Pro Plus plan and this FAP hasn't kicked in once since we started using HughesNet a month ago. We don't watch videos (on purpose) but do lots of browsing, email and even talk on the phone through Vonage (www.vonage.com, $24.99/month unlimited calls to/from the US).
http://loreto.ehuna.org/archives/000228.html

Could you provide more info re: Vonage? Specifically, what kind of a delay do you get? Is this comparable to a land-line phone call? If not, what's the difference?

Thanks.

DianaT - 5-28-2007 at 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajameerkat

Quote:

Between my phone conversation and U2U with Las Frailles, and your article really make a few more things clear in my ever foggy mind.

A question if you are anyone else can answer. It is looking more and more like the way to go as soon as we are spending more time in Baja---

1. How can one judge how many MB they use in an average day?

BTW, when I spoke with Las Frailles on the phone I was in San Diego and he was in Baja. With his VOIP (sp) , there did not appear to be any delay at all.

Thanks
Diane

Bajabus - 5-28-2007 at 09:13 PM

Look up thread, I posted a link to a bandwidth monitor. it's 30 days free and does a good job telling you what you use per day, week and month.

bajameerkat - 5-28-2007 at 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jdtrotter
Between my phone conversation and U2U with Las Frailles, and your article really make a few more things clear in my ever foggy mind.

A question if you are anyone else can answer. It is looking more and more like the way to go as soon as we are spending more time in Baja---

1. How can one judge how many MB they use in an average day?

BTW, when I spoke with Las Frailles on the phone I was in San Diego and he was in Baja. With his VOIP (sp) , there did not appear to be any delay at all.

Thanks
Diane

You can use an application like bajabus mentioned - if you are technical enough, that's a good way to go. Here's one that I used a long time ago: http://www.netlimiter.com/ - I think the "monitoring only"version is free.

HughesNet also provides a website you can use (https://www.myhughesnet.com/) once you're signed up. Once you login you go to Site Care > HughesNet Remote > View Usage Info and you get a table that lists how many MB you've downloaded every hour. Here's an example (table formatting was lost):

Date Time From Time To Min Used Download In MB Subject To FAP* Upload In MB
05/09/2007 16:00 17:00 60 37.82 No 2.54
05/09/2007 17:00 18:00 60 21.32 No 10.93
05/09/2007 18:00 19:00 60 9.62 No 0.38
05/09/2007 19:00 20:00 60 8.81 No 0.42
05/09/2007 20:00 21:00 60 2.15 No 0.26
05/09/2007 21:00 22:00 59 17.19 No 0.60
05/09/2007 22:00 23:00 60 12.62 No 0.50

"Check my usage" provides the following information:

· Date - The date usage data was recorded.
· Time From / Time To - Usage data is recorded in one hour increments by the system.
· Minutes - Number of minutes connected to the HughesNet network.
· Volume in Megabytes - Amount of data downloaded in Megabytes.
· Subject to FAP - Indicates whether usage was subjected to FAP during the period monitored.

>BTW, when I spoke with Las Frailles on the phone I was in
>San Diego and he was in Baja. With his VOIP (sp) , there
>did not appear to be any delay at all.

If I had to guess, I'd probably say he was using VOIP over a DSL/land line connection. To answer Roberto's question:

>Could you provide more info re: Vonage? Specifically, what
>kind of a delay do you get? Is this comparable to a land-
>line phone call? If not, what's the difference?

The answer will depend on your Internet connection:

1) I use Vonage as my main line in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a cable modem connection with high download/upload speeds and low latency. So the call quality is extremely good - we don't see any difference comparing it to a land-line or cell phone call.

2) For the Vonage service using the HughesNet internet satellite, that's another story. There's plenty of bandwidth for Vonage (Hughesnet has 1.5 Mbps down/700 Kbps up, while Vonage only needs 90 Kbps). But the latency, or the time it takes for a "network packet" to go from point A to point B is very high (due to the Satellite connection).

So there will be 3-4 seconds of delay between the time I stop talking and my buddy hears me (or vice-versa). We now use the word "over" after we end a sentence, similar to hald-duplex radio protocols.

In addition the call will be clear to the person on the Loreto side (with the HN satellite connection), but can easily break up on the other side. This is due to the low upload speed which peaks at 200 Kbps, but sometimes can be much lower.

Hope this helps.

losfrailes - 5-29-2007 at 07:02 AM

jdtrotter (Diane)

When we spoke on the phone I was using VOIP with a land line. Not DSL as is suggested but a normal land line. Therefore no appreciable latency lag.

If you are using VOIP via satellite there WILL be a latency lag. No way around it with a 1 or 2 watt radio and 22,000 miles distance to and from the satellite.

Bajabus - 5-29-2007 at 08:08 AM

The other important thing to point out regarding VOIP over a sat connection is that it's not just the latency/high ping times over the connection but the degree of jitter in the ping times. All VOIP services use proprietary compression algorithms to over come delay and smooth out the conversation so to speak. BUT that delay has to be consistent in order for the algorithm to work well. What happens on sat connections, especially the lower tier services is that network congestion at any given time can cause ping times to vary from 700 millisec to as high as 3 sec in very unpredictable ways. Thats called a connection with a lot of jitter.

Your upload data packets are transmitted in very precise slots of time and frequency. Imagine a train with a long chain of cars traveling from earth to the satellite at the speed of light. It's moving fast enough but space on each car (or slot) is limited. When it comes time for your data packet to get on-board, the next car may already be full. In fact during rush hour your packet may have to wait for several cars to go by before it can get on-board. This unpredictability wreaks havoc with VOIP compression algorithms.

Download capacity on the train is much greater and that is why when placing a call from a VSAT you can hear the other party perfectly well but depending on network traffic at any given moment your voice will appear garbled and broken up at times.

A land line it is not but if you have no other alternative it is better than sliced bread. In fact late in the evenings or early AM when very few are using the network, the conversation is actually quite good once you get past the initial hello are you there moments.

The only way to over come jitter on a consistent basis is to go with the higher priced commercial enterprise services that set aside a dedicated amount of your bandwidth specifically for your VOIP packets. Reserving seats on a train to continue the analogy.

Expect to spend $250 to as high as $1200 per month depending on your other bandwidth requirements

Hughes, Spacenet and Idirect are some of the more popular companies offering such services.

Other wise you get what you can and make the best of it always keeping in mind that what is working well this hour, day, week or month many not work as well the following hour, day, week or month depending on how your transponder or gateway is loaded at that particular instant in time.

[Edited on 29-5-2007 by Bajabus]

DianaT - 5-29-2007 at 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by losfrailes
jdtrotter (Diane)

When we spoke on the phone I was using VOIP with a land line. Not DSL as is suggested but a normal land line. Therefore no appreciable latency lag.

If you are using VOIP via satellite there WILL be a latency lag. No way around it with a 1 or 2 watt radio and 22,000 miles distance to and from the satellite.

Thanks---still learning. I thought you were on your computer.

Diane

DianaT - 5-29-2007 at 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bajabus
Look up thread, I posted a link to a bandwidth monitor. it's 30 days free and does a good job telling you what you use per day, week and month.

Thanks---I downloaded it and it is really interesting and informative, now that I am beginning to understand more of this. :yes:

Thanks again
Diane