I use a voip phone on the satellite internet connection when I'm in Baja. I have noticed that link quality is poor in the afternoon. Does anyone else
have this experience? What times of day are best and worst for you?cabobaja - 7-28-2007 at 06:54 PM
My internet connection is via Starband. Last six years have not had a problem. But, in the past month at about 1,2,3pm I get so sluggish it is like
sitting here watching paint drying until I get back to speed. I reboot and all is fine. I think it must be global warminglandyacht318 - 7-28-2007 at 07:00 PM
Don't know why Your connection would be slow at those times, but I am curious about your provider, legalities, and necessary equipment to get online
by sattellite, aside from the PC. Could you please enlighten me.
ThanksRuss - 7-28-2007 at 08:37 PM
My direcway/HuggesNet some times in the mid afternoon really slows down. My guess is that one of several things are going on. High humidity, High
traffic time or needs to be rebooted.joel - 7-28-2007 at 08:50 PM
It seems pretty common among folks I know to have the afternoon slow-down, but that's just in one town. I didn't know if it was a wider pattern. Does
it come back in the evening for folks? Wondering if it's tied to heat, dust/wind or something else that occurs during a specific part of the day. I
don't really buy the traffic explanation.Bob and Susan - 7-29-2007 at 08:21 AM
we have the same problem...
connections are much better in the morning
the connection is ALWAYS better when the connection orginates in the states and not from our location
but when you live in an area with NO services we feel very lucky to be "connected" to the entire world
thanks losfrailes..
we also use vonage so we have a telephone number in the states people can call and the phone rings here in mulege
so...
vonage may be part of the problem...
also i understand if you "eat up" too much bandwith direcway slows you down for 24 hours...punishment i guessoladulce - 7-29-2007 at 08:24 AM
Which system do you have joel?
We just set up a new Starband system and were told that peak traffic time was between 3pm and 6 pm Eastern time.
We had some modem problems after installation and didn't have consistent enough of a connection to verify any afternoon slow down. Will be able to
check it out again upon return to BCS in a couple of weeks.joel - 7-29-2007 at 08:27 AM
It's in the house that we rent. It's a Directway, which is what everyone I have asked seems to have in San Juanico.Bob and Susan - 7-29-2007 at 08:45 AM
we had to have losfrailes replace the "feed horn" (radio) on the dish because of condensation and metal damage inside...
ours works much better since it's been replaced...
oladulce check yours when you have time...
the pacific has more "salt air"losfrailes - 7-29-2007 at 11:35 AM
VOIP, i.e., Voice Over Internet Protocol, is designed for use over the Internet, altho it will work over a normal telephone line.
Typically, the upload speeds are what controls the connection, once again the delay. Faster upload speed, less latency lag (delay).
Most Internet Service Providers have various levels of service you can subscribe to, once again, pay more get faster upload and download speeds.
Simple matter of economics.
That beins said, there are times of the year when Solar activity really slows down the service, no fault of the ISP's. Chide mother nature for that.
DirecWay has established a Fair Access Policy (FAP) that, fair or not, will slow you down to a real crawl if you download/upload too much over a
period of time. This slowdown will last for 24 hours. Solution, if you are downloading movies or too much music, you will get slowed down, don't do
it!
DirecWay is the most widely used system here in Baja because of having the most consistent service. By and large, it satisfies the majority of needs
for connection to the internet with the fewest problems.Bajabus - 7-29-2007 at 01:49 PM
peak time is indeed between 3 to about 8PM EST when folks start to get home and kids and such go online for a few hours. If you look at NOC (network
operations center ) graphs you will see blips at 6:30AM to 8AM and then again in the late afternoon.
New transponders typically will not show these slowdowns since they are not loaded to capacity yet.
Right now on Starband on T-7 ( AKA as IA-7 or G-27) transponder 080 is an older cluster and fairly well loaded.
The newer one, 051 which came into service on 4/30/07 is already starting to show this pattern also.
Los frailes said:
"DirecWay is the most widely used system here in Baja because of having the most consistent service. By and large, it satisfies the majority of needs
for connection to the internet with the fewest problems. "
I strongly disagree with this statement and respectfully wonder how you come to this conclusion?
A search on past threads will turn up the differences of both systems. Bottom line, educate yourself on each systems pluses and limitations and
decide which is best for you....there is no cookie cutter solution.
[Edited on 29-7-2007 by Bajabus]losfrailes - 7-29-2007 at 04:56 PM
BajaBus, disagree or no, the majority of systems found here in Baja are DirecWay systems. This is based on my limited experience here.
VOIP
2ps - 7-29-2007 at 07:24 PM
Hi Folks-We live 10 mi. W. of Cd. Constitucion & have a Direcway 6K modem. We are on 95 west (G3C). We lose the signal completely at random times,
morning, mid day or evening. Sometimes it's for several minutes other times it's for 20 minutes or so. For 2 days we had only intermittent
connectivity. We use Skype & Vonage both. My wife calls her family, with webcam, in BC several times a month and I call my family in the USA as
much too. Both services seem to be equal as far as latency & broken transmission on outbound voice. Just today I called to a landline in Denver.
On the first call I was breaking up badly so I told my daughter I'd hang up & call right back. She said it was much better on the second call. We
had the same experience with Skype no matter if the call is inbound or outbound. I believe that there is sometimes a glitch in the connections due to
the many switching/transfer points in satellite VOIP. Of course the traffic on the transponder has so much to do with governing the data speed. I run
speed tests every so often & find that the variance, especially w/upload speed, can be tremendous.
Sometimes the upload is actually faster than the download speeds. So go figger.-Good luck-Phillip
Wayne fixed my problem...
Juan del Rio - 7-30-2007 at 11:06 AM
I too had the exact problem:
OK speed in the early morning, but by early afternoon, it slowed to a crawl. I think you can understand why from this photo. I had my original DW4000
installed in 2003. I then switched to a DW6000 modem last year, but was still experiencing slow speeds in the afternoon as well.
Juan del Rio - 7-30-2007 at 11:12 AM
Wayne was able to find me a used DW6000 system on Ebay for $90 plus $60 shipping to my office in Long Beach. I drove down the new/used Feed horn and
arm to our place in B.C.S., then Wayne came out and installed and calibrated the system for me.
Now Works Great!
Juan del Rio - 7-30-2007 at 11:22 AM
Here is a photo of the new Feed horn installed. I'd like to thank Wayne Davy for getting this figured out for me. You can now order replacement covers
http://www.maxwellsatelliteaccessories.com/ for the newer Feed horns. It has made all the difference in the world. My VOIP works great now. I use
Net2Phone for my VOIP service.
Which VOIP is Best ?
Roasty - 7-30-2007 at 02:39 PM
I was using "Lingo" VOIP over my Starband system, but the delay was terrible. I got rid of the "Lingo" VOIP and have been biding my time waiting for
something better to turn up.
Whats the feeling here on the best VOIP solution ?Bajabus - 7-30-2007 at 03:45 PM
It's always going to be a challenge on these DW and SB systems to maintain consistent, reliable VOIP. do a search on INTERNET satellite voip and you
will see lots of technical discussion of ping times, jitter and delay and a whole host of other related info.
If you truly want exceptional VOIP and can afford it you should go with a commercial enterprise data solution with dedicated VOIP channels.
They run about $300 per month for 512Kbps X 1024KBps with guaranteed service levels ( not a "best effort, up to" type service). $399 for 512 X 2048.
The phone line adds $99 per month and calls are 5 cents per min. This is for bullet proof exceptional toll quality calls, you will not be able to
tell you are on a sat link, no delay, no echo, extremely low jitter. It even comes with e911 services contracted through a 3rd party. Give them your
long/lat and they will dispatch an air ambulance.
You can add up to 4 tel lines per modem with that data plan.
It uses a cisco IP phone with a programmable sip that we configure to work with the network.
The service is through Spacenet with Gilat equipment.
A great service for 3-5 houses in proximity to each other. Get the base data plan to share and then each person can add a phone line if they want.
It's the Rolls Royce of data and voice services over satellite.
Gilat has over 90% of the worlds telephony over satellite business and are the undisputed champs at satellite telephony.Bajabus - 7-30-2007 at 03:53 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by losfrailes
BajaBus, disagree or no, the majority of systems found here in Baja are DirecWay systems. This is based on my limited experience here.
I would disagree as far as BCS is concerned, maybe up around you that is the case.
DW is the most heavily advertised...that I would agree with but an educated customer is our best consumer.
Anyone contemplating a system would do well to do their homework and investigate which system is best for their particular needs and pocketbook
