On Tue, 19 Aug 2003 21:13:35 -0700, Peter Duniho wrote:

500ms ping time minimum... So count on lots of lag...

Unless you are playing online computer games, you would never notice the
lag. Most Internet access is of the form "brief request for data,
followed by large amount of data returned". It'll take an extra
half-second for the data to show up, but that will generally be swamped by
the time it takes to actually generate and send the data, even at
broadband speeds.

This depends on how big the data piece is relative to the
starting handshake. Consider that TCP start-up involves
so-called 3-way handshake, and that many protocols have
a setup phase when client and server exchange messages
strictly in simplex, before bulk data transmission can commence.

None will work when it rains hard or the sun is in transit
(summer / winter soltice)...

Why would you say that? The satellite data systems I've seen are based on
similar technology to that used for my digital broadcast satellite system.
At worst, data throughput drops *some*, and that's in the very worst
downpours.

I have no idea why the solstices would have any effect on data
transmission. Perhaps you could explain that one.

Your transmitter is nowhere as powerful as the one of the base station
or the one on the satellite.

The good news is that DirecWay's dish is about as big as the
old PrimeStar dish. I have one of those, modified to support
DirecTV's LNB with a bunch of duct tape and some pieces of wood.
My TV never goes off even in "worst downpours". So, your downlink
is virtually rain proof. The bad news is that the same cannot
be said about your uplink.

Solstices only knock communication off for several minutes a day,
when the Sun is directly behind the satellite. It is a well known
effect. I used to depend on an old Soviet satellite Raduga-7
for connectivity, and it was true back then.

-- Pete