RE: Rural Outsourcing -- MIDRANGE-L

Shannon:
Thanks for posting this info about DirectWay.  I looked at it quite a while
ago, and the latency issue made me back away.  The pricing is reasonable for
a static IP service.  Do you get any discount with a DirecTV subscriptions?
Can you get more than one static IP address?
You've got a great set up.  Enjoy the peace.
cjg 


Carl J. Galgano
EDI Consulting Services, Inc.
770-422-2995
www.ediconsulting.com
 
600 Kennesaw Avenue
Suite 400 
Marietta, GA  30060

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Shannon ODonnell
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 5:57 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Rural Outsourcing

I use Direcway Professional edition with the static IP address option.
Wwww.direcway.com  It's about $89 a month for service.  Speeds with their
newest modem the DW7000,is like 1MB down and 750 up. However, once you put
your pc behind a router for some reason the download speed drops way down.
The upload speeds stay the same, which is good.  It could just be a problem
with my cheapo wireless router or it might be a problem with my
configuration on the router. If I was to spring for a quality router, that
issue would probably go away.  When I connect my Pc directly to the Direcway
modem, my speeds are lightning fast. 

The older satellite modems (4xxxx and DW6000) had terrible latency problems.
The new one (minus the cheapo router...) doesn't. 

Another issue I had that most people won't is that my satellite dish is
about 350 feet away from the modem.  I put it out there on the barn rather
than on my house because there were too many trees around my house to clear
to get a straight shot to the southern sky where the satellite is. Also, my
house is a log home and there is no attic, only a 20 foot ceiling. I wasn't
sure that the roof, which is about 7 inches thick, would be able to tolerate
the satellite dish as it's fairly heavy. Much heavier than those little
DirecTV dishes.  

I could have put the dish about 150 feet out into the yard on a concrete
pylon (which I'd have had to pour myself) but I didn't want to have to mow
around it, so I opted for the barn. Because the dish is so far away from the
modem now, I had to change the standard RG-6 cable to an RG-11  (...it's
about as big around as your thumb) which can carry the signal about 750 feet
as opposed to the RG-6 which can only carry a signal about 75 to 100 feet.
The receive cable is RG-6 because apparently receiving is easier than
sending.  

Anyway...it's about $650 for the satellite to purchase it and that includes
installation. You can also lease it for $99 a month but that seems insane to
me to go that route. 

If you buy the system, make sure you get the professional version with a
static IP. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1. If you don't get a static IP, then you cannot turn off Network Address
Translation, which may or may not be a problem for you but it's nice to have
the option to turn it off. Pro version with static IP does not use NAT. You
have to have your own router to handle that for you if you want/need that
level of security.

2. The other very important reason is that the consumer version of the
service has the absolute worse support line in the world. Your calls are
automatically routed to India where the support "technicians" (and I use
that word loosely) barely speak English, are entirely unintelligible, are
absolutely useless and are as annoying as heck when you're trying to solve a
problem. I've tried to use them for assistance at least half a dozen times
over the last few years and it's an exercise in futility. Each time I ended
up solving my own problem after hanging up on them in frustration and just
searching the web on my own for the answers. The professional version gets
you Americans who a) use English as their first language  b) are not simply
reading from a prepared script.  

Hope this is enough info for you! :-)

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave Odom
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 4:37 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Rural Outsourcing

Shannon,

You wrote:

>>Irish-Studios can be found at 40 and Plumb- 40 miles out and plumb
back in
the sticks. :-) 

This actually is a picture of my house (where my office is):
http://www.irish-studios.com/Cabin.jpg 


And this is my high-speed internet connection-the satellite dish on my
barn:
http://www.irish-studios.com/Barn.jpg <<

Very funny first line.   Reminds me of my days in Texas and the sayings
there.

Burrrrrrrr, on the house picture.   The only time I want to see that is
when I go snow skiing or the like.   They have that stuff in Northern
Arizona for a few month at the ski resorts. 

I need a high-speed satellite connection because I live in a rural part
of Arizona where there is NO cable nor even DSL.   What's kind of info
can you give me on your set up, i.e., brand, model of dish, modem,
costs, etc.   Send email to dgodom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx if you like.

Thank,

Dave
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