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MotoSat set up

Yahoo Message Number: 9184
Can anyone provide first hand feedback on the MotoSat satellite internet set up? Does Hughes provide good ISP services? Thanks for any info.

Tony Ferrara
Inspire 40'

Re: MotoSat set up

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 9197
Go to www.datastormusers.com and join the forum. there are 1000 members, you can get all the info you could hope for.

Bill Harris

03 Allure 1st Ave 30912
Datastorm

Quote from: Tony Ferrara
Can anyone provide first hand feedback on the MotoSat satellite

internet set

Re: MotoSat set up

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 9200
Tony:

I've had a Motosat/Datastorm from November of 2001. We could not RV without it now. I have short rain outages at times (not as bad or as long as the TV is out). Once in while the proxy server goes out at the Hughes NOC (no big deal just turn off using the server until it comes back up, with

the server turned off in your browser your still able to surf, but not as fast,

still great)

I've had one part of the system fail. Motosat overnited the part to me at Motosat expense (I had to pay for shipping on the return). Two year warranty.

Software updates are easy to do. Tech support on the MotoSat equipment is good.

The catch is your ISP. You have a choice of ISP's to use with the datastorm equipment. Some provde great support, some provde almost none at all (not a big deal if know your way around windows and networking).

Datastorm uses the business grade of service from Hughes, it costs a bit more that the home vierison of DirePC/DirecWay but as it is pretty much the same service used to provide service to a number of point-of-sale systems. As such it's managed pretty well by Hughes.

Bottom line, it's worked a LOT better then my SBC ISDN line ever worked!!

It's REAL important to buy from a GOOD installer. You can run into issues if you purchase from an ISP that contracts out the installation.

E-mail me off the list if you need/want any more info.

Jim Cook

2002 Intrigue #11446

Re: MotoSat set up

Reply #4 –
Yahoo Message Number: 9208
Check out ---- Ground Control at http://www.groundcontrol.com/
They resell the Motosat hardware and provide good ISP services. They are located in Southern California (San Luis Obispo)

good luck.

bjc (soon to be CC owner)

At 03:43 AM 4/6/2004 +0000, JimC wrote:

Re: MotoSat set up

Reply #5 –
Yahoo Message Number: 9215
Hi Jim,

Thanks for the information...that's the kind of thing I was hoping to hear before I made the leap.

Tony Ferrara

Re: MotoSat set up

Reply #6 –
Yahoo Message Number: 9216
I have had my MotoSat for over a year.
Hughes owns the satellite and the up/downlink center connecting the satellite to the thing we know as the internet.

Hughes is not the ISP, they farm that out to companies like Ground Control and others. I suggest you go with Ground Control (San Luis Obispo, CA), as they have reliable customer support (all for $99/mo).

I'd say the system works good about 95% of the time. Hughes doesn't seem to be very customer oriented. When servers, routers, proxies malfunction, well it can take up to multiple days for them to get around fixing them.

Also, bad weather at your location and/or in Maryland (the up/downlink) can interfere.

Don't expect any good interactive performance (games, phone, etc.), as the speed of light is still limited, and the satellite is 22,500 miles up there. A typical internet interaction requires 2 round trips, thus travels close to 100,000 miles. This gives you a minimal latency of around half a second. Usually more though, as you'll be sharing the satellite channel with many other users (mobile as well as fixed users).
Another item is that the satellite dish accepts a second LNB that lets you receive Direct or Dish TV. I picked the data satellite at 99 degrees, and DirecTV at 101. Having the 2 satellites closely together helps finding both of them at a smaller angle on campgrounds with lots of trees.

The satellite you pick will tell you if you have good connection in Canada or Mexico, not both. You can change the satellite at a cost (and your TV LNB will no longer work either).

Overall, I wouldn't want to be without it.

Quote from: Tony Ferrara
> Can anyone provide first hand feedback on the MotoSat satellite

internet set