RE: Satellite latency

["Rowland, Alan D" <alan_r1 () corp earthlink net>]

IIRC, DirecWay is the new name (name change only) for DirecTV related to
it's new two way capability. Yes, local packets are up linked, no phone line
is involved in the connection. Original marketing material said things like
"400kbps down, 128kpbs up" but now only state "best effort." There are
various reasons for latency/bandwidth issues including the physical loop
distance. As stated by a previous poster, it's better than nothing.

IMHO it's yet another great product sullied by the tendency of marketing
departments to be highly optimistic. :)

Just my 2¢. The delete key is your friend.

-Al Rowland
Personal capacity

-----Original Message-----
From: Barb Dijker [mailto:barb () netrack net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2002 7:09 PM
To: Tim Devries
Cc: nanog () merit edu
Subject: Re: Satellite latency



I have a tachyon.net system.  600ms is typical with a good aim.
Higher latitudes are more error prone. They don't do tcp/ip over the
up/down link.  They effectively terminate the tcp/ip session on the
local lan (answering handshake and acks),  encapsulate, and
proxy for you on the other end. It makes a BIG difference in overall
performance for typical things like surfing and mail delivery.
Doesn't help much for interactive work.  Type ahead at
600ms is much better than 2x that.  vi is usable.

Our unit is available for demos and events.

DirecPC (Hughes) now has a business grade service called
DirecWay.  Haven't tried it.  One would expect it
would be better than the ones intended for residential only.
It claims to go to 1.5M down like Tachyon.

Barb Dijker
NeTrack