[Ham-Mac] Satellite broadband for Mac?

[David Kelly]

On Monday 24 February 2003 01:45 pm, Chuck Sherman wrote:
> Does anyone know or have experience using a satellite dish for
> internet access by a Macintosh.  Earthlink is telling me their system
> only works with Windows.

Do you have reason to equate "satellite internet" with "good"? I have no 
doubt its better than so-called 56k dial up. I have plenty of doubt it 
is as good as my cablemodem.

OTOH I wouldn't trade my DishNetwork satellite dish for cable. No way.

The issue with satellite internet is the propagation delay between here 
and there is so great that IP (internet protocol) grinds to a crawl. A 
web page may setup and tear down 100 connections before it is drawn. 
Figure in the propagation delay and you may not be as well off as with 
a ground based 33.6k modem.

So the reason there isn't "Macintosh support" for this service is they 
use a hacked version of IP running thru a proxy server. When this proxy 
server sees you visit a web page it immediately sucks all the "hits" on 
the page and stuffs it down your throat before it sees the individual 
requests. If the requests pass the data on the dish, then the proxy 
knows it can ignore the requests. Meanwhile the special software on the 
PC is caching data waiting for the web browser to ask for it.

All this makes web browsing appear fast enough. But any other 
application has to live with the propagation delay. Gaming, internet 
telephony, even IRC and email, can be slow.

I have heard of Mac users who installed a PC on satellite internet, 
enabled "share internet connection", and were able to use the PC as an 
internet gateway. But if the provider doesn't like this then they have 
enough control over your PC to prevent it.

So the reason there isn't "Macintosh support" for this service is they 
have an idea which sounds good initially but isn't terribly great. They 
are losing their shirts selling service to PC's and can't afford to 
lose more by developing software for Macintosh.

> I'm hoping to move to a rural section of VT or NH (where they haven't
> heard of DSL), and, along with indoor plumbing and electricity, I
> want good internet access.

If it is important, then shop harder for a place to move. Every shrap of 
evidence I've seen, BellSouth Still Doesn't Have A Clue(tm) as to how 
to meet their customer's data needs. The independent ISP's do much 
better. Even Knology, my cable company, does better. Don't limit your 
search to DSL.

If you look you might be surprised at what broadband internet service 
you can find in rural areas. Might even find wireless broadband; 
"satellite-on-earth" without the propagation delays. Or maybe startup a 
business providing that service.

-- 
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net
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