I use Direcway (two way satellite broadband) at home and am quite pleased. Support has been good, outages few and short lived. Severe weather does affect signal, but only during large thunder storms, when you probably shouldn't be using the computer anyway. Speed on downloads is nearly always 100kBps, or 20 times the typical 5kBps of a 56k dial up. Some downloads approach 200KBPS, or T1 speed (which is 1.54Mbits/sec, or 190KBytes/Sec). Yes, pointing is critical, but I see no reason you couldn't install one (or have it installed by a licensed tech as required) on a dock or boat house. Downside? slow (relatively) ISDN (115kbit/sec) speed for uploads if you email large files and .5 sec latency which rules out some online gaming. You need a land line for configuration purposes, but after that you don't use the phone line unless you need to troubleshoot or reconfigure the system. Also, I believe the support for XP is much better than Win98, 2000 or ME. Frank Timpano At 10:00 AM 1/27/2003 -0800, Joe Engel wrote: >Hi Frank: > >In our computer business here we are often asked to connect folks to the >Internet. We are aware of two of our customers who (against our >recommendations) attempted to use the DirecWay system and both came back >to us to get rid of it and go with another solution. They reported >constant outages, disconnects, very slow speed and very poor customer >support. > >You will note that DirecWay will not give any type of speed estimate or >service guarantee. Note also the need for a rather large dish and >extremely precise orientation. > >We have no direct experience with this service ourselves so this is just >hearsay but I suspect this is still not ready for prime time. We are >further North up here in Oregon so maybe it works better in the South of >the US. A better angle and less distance to the satellite? Your >experience may vary. > >Joe Engel >Portland. OR > >-----Original Message----- >From: Frank & Carol Worden [mailto:fworden@isd.net] >Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 8:28 AM >To: trawler-world-list >Subject: TWL: DirecTV and DirecWAY > > >I am looking for anyone using DirecWay the two way satellite Internet >service supplied by Hughs. This capability may be quite new. I know that >a few years ago I looked into internet via satellite and the service >required a separate ISP for the up link. I understand that this new >system is two way and no phone line or separate ISP is needed. > >I can not spent the money for a stabilized system that will work when >underway. If I can place an antenna on the dock and use the system while >in port it would be good enough. > >We will be living aboard and cruising within the next 2 years and am >thinking ahead about TV and internet service. >_______________________________________________ >http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawler-world-list >_______________________________________________ >http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/trawler-world-list