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Motosat Datastorm Direcway Internet Feedback???

Yahoo Message Number: 2986
HI,

Rosemary Mancillas here, Magna 2000 fulltimer here.
I was wondering if anyone has Direcway Satellite service using the Motosat Datastorm dish on their Coach and how it is working for you??? I am seriously considering it, but not sure if it is reliable and consistent since it is rather new. Please give me honest feedback if you have it and for how long?

Thanks a bunch!
Rosemary

Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp

Motosat Datastorm Direcway Internet Feedback

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 2997
Rosemary,

I am sitting in our coach communicating to you all, with my feet up and a cup of coffee, via our Motosat Datastorm system. We are third year fulltimers and after two months of having this luxury we think it is one the best choices we have made.

It was a difficult decision for us to purchase for the same reason you mentioned plus the cost. We had a hard time justifying both initial cost ($6200.00) and monthly cost ($99.00) but, now that we have it we are glad we went ahead with it.

As far as the reliability, once it was working, we have not had a single problem. The initial installation was rocky because the sensing heads in the dish were bad and it took several days to diagnose and then order replacements. In the diagnostic process it was evident that this is a new product, because several other parts were replaced (modems, circut boards, cables, two sets of software) before we got to the sensing heads. Hours were spent on the phone with Motosat and Optistream with a lot of head scratching and "I don't know about that" answers. I have seen disparaging remarks about Cal Thorne, owner of Advanced Satellite who installed it, but he spent more than two full days (part of it over a weekend) and kept us well informed while trying to figure out the problem. We were very satisfied with his performance.

The only negative thing I have to say is, it is slower than I expected.
They advertise close to high speed transmission and it does not approach cable speeds I am used to. Still it is faster than dial up.

I will be glad to respond to any specific questions you may have.

Jim Case

Quote
>From: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com >Reply-To: Country-Coach-Owners@yahoogroups.com >Subject: Re: Hurricane 45XL/ '03 Allure >

Walt/David

I have had my Hurricane worked on three different times requiring 150 >mile round trip each time, and it still has problems. I have spent >hours on my cell phone with Jim Rixon trying to get my Hurricane to >work properly. It works better than it did when I left the CC >factory, but still not to my satisfaction.
I told Damon if CC still uses Hurricane with no other option for heat >and hot water, we will look for a different make of coach. I love my >Allure, but the hurricane without a hot water tank that can be heated >with electric/propane is not a viable option for me next time.

Tom Royer

Full timing in Colorado and running out of diesel >2003 Allure Cascade
30858

Re: Motosat Datastorm Direcway Internet Feedback

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 3005
Quote from: Case"
Rosemary,

The only negative thing I have to say is, it is slower than I

expected.

They advertise close to high speed transmission and it does not approach
Quote
cable speeds I am used to. Still it is faster than dial up.
I too am looking at a satelite internet options.

Going over a satelite (vs cable modem) will typically be slower in response time, as your request will have to travel 2 times the ~23,000 miles (to and from the satelite) and so does the reply. Thus the request/reply travels and extra 100,000 miles. With the speed of light being what it is, this will likely add close to 3/4 of a second to your round-trip-delay (or latency), over and above what the rest of the land-lined internet will give you.
Now if your reply is millions of bytes of info, you should see the data come fly in at 300 to 400 kbits/second (vs 40-50 kbps on todays modems) after that once initial delay.
Unfortunately, there is a little end-to-end protocol (between your PC and the server on the internet) called TCP that has a send window usually set at land-line latency. The server sending you the data has no idea you are satelite bound, and it will typically use a send window that is too small. Thus it has to wait for your PC to acknowledge reception of previous data before it sends more.
Therein lies the problem of not only longer round trip delays, but also not being able to get to that 400 kpbs transfer rate.

Both cable modem and satelite suffer from the same problem with regards to sharing the limitted bandwidth with many other subscribers.
If the ISP oversubscribes, and many users are active, you're data will be sitting in queues that much longer (like going to a DMV:-)
Still, pretty useful for e-mail, online trading, bill paying and such things. Forget it if you want to play interactive games with your homebound family, or worse yet with other satelite connected RVers (it increases the latency be a factor 2).

Probably more than you wanted to know...

Henk Bots, Magna 2000

Moving Internet and TV Equipment

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 3010
Hi Folks,

As the subject of satellite TV combination with internet service is being aired, I have a small input and questions.

I notice that motosat has a list price of $1500 for their antenna.

The 2 dish/receiver TV fixed base purveyors offer free equipment and a monthly charge.

Telephone is not mentioned as an addition but is talked about in the trade magazines as an add-on to internet service.

Has anyone out there put a do-it-yourself system together and at what cost? I want to do this with a coax cable to the house to use when I am at home.
Fred Kovol

HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/

Moving Internet and TV Equipment

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 3011
Hi Folks,

As the subject of satellite TV combination with internet service is being aired, I have a small input and questions.

I notice that motosat has a list price of $1500 for their antenna.

The 2 dish/receiver TV fixed base purveyors offer free equipment and a monthly charge.

Telephone is not mentioned as an addition but is talked about in the trade magazines as an add-on to internet service.

Has anyone out there put a do-it-yourself system together and at what cost? I want to do this with a coax cable to the house to use when I am at home.
Fred Kovol

HotJobs - Search new jobs daily now http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/

Re: Motosat Datastorm Direcway Internet Feedback

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 3047
Jim,

Have you done a real speed test of your connection? I would be interested in hearing what they are?

Dick May

2002 Intrigue, #11438
Dick May
2002 Intrigue, #11438, towing a
2014 Jeep Gr Cherokee ecoDiesel
 

Re: Motosat Datastorm Direcway Internet Feedback

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 3057
In order to maximize the download speed when using a satelite connection, you can set "TcpWindowSize" in the windows registry.
The maximum value you can set it to is 65,535 (64KB).
The default is around 8KB. The higher the setting the more throughput you may be able to obtain across large latency internet connections (such as satelite links).

A receive window of 50KB can fill a "pipe" with a latency of 1 second with around 400Kbps. If you use the windows default of 8KB, you can't get more than around 64Kbps of download, and maybe around 100Kbps if the only latency you experience is just the satelite link.
There is no guarantee that this works for all websites you visis, as the receive window size is negotiated with each and every website (server) you connect to, and each website will have the final say whether to use your larger window or bring it down.
Warning: for each version of windows there appears to be a different way of editing the registry. Doing it incorrectly may cause your system to not boot. If you really want to do this, have a pro do it for you, or search on the internet for how to do it for your specific version of windows (95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, .. all seem to have slightly different methods). Searching for TcpWindowSize gets you a batch of pages, some with reasonable explanations on how to do this. Also, some versions of windows appear to have a maximum value less than 64KB.

If you use an Apple system, you may be in luck, as they claim that everything is a lot easier (although I have no clue if that is really true:-).

I don't have a satelite system as of yet. Let me know if you managed to increase the download speed in a meaningful way with this increased window size setting..