pman

I had Di recway for 18 months and struggled the whole time with their "tech" support and having the service go out every time the dish went in the shade (well not quite that bad). When I saw Wildblue it was a no brainer and if I was a first time user it would have been a double no brainer as I had $600 invested in Di recway HW. Wildblue HW was $300 and for about the same bandwidth $10 less per month (I'm on the ValuePack of Wildblue). What I like best about Wildblue is the consistency. When it rains it still works. With Di recway it went out every day and on rainy days could be down the whole time. With Wildblue it's on all the time and only when it rained so bad my directv went out did it go out. For work I have to use a VPN and Wildblues ping times (latency) are one third better and while not as fast as DSL or cable I can operate. I also have to laugh when people say just wait until Wildblue gets more customers things will get worse. I could have stayed with DW where things were worse or switched to Wildblue where things are definitely better and "may" get worse. If they do, I'll have enjoyed a year of better service, fulfilled my 1 year obligation and be ready to switch to the next technology such as WiMax, or Internet over Powerlines. Or maybe, just maybe my area will get DSL or Cable.

I wasn't sure what you meant that you were not a Wild Blue customer and had to go to your installer to set up email. Does that mean you do not get a website to manage and setup things (like Direway, but let's hope not as bad)?

You can get what your upload speed is by logining on to Mydirecway and there is a box in the lower part of the home screen which is called SPEED TEST. Select this and run a speed test on your link and it will give you the download and upload speed. This will vary depending on network traffic. If I have this correct you are going to try and use Vonage which is a voice over IP service on your direcway system? It may work but I guess the satelite turnaround time will make it unusable. The speed of light going up to a satelite 22,000 miles above the earth and back can't be changed meaning you will get a 1 to 2 second pause between you and the person you are talking to.

So I've come back to answer my own post on signal strength. After a new installer came out I discovered three things: the dish was never installed correctly as it was loose, I had a bad ODU (the little pod on the end of the dish) and wasps had built a nest in the plastic cover that went over the ODU. Because of the wasp problem my installer told me they don't include the plastic cover anymore (it was just for looks). When my dish was installed I was getting a signal of 48 to 50, with the replacement ODU and the tie down, I now get a signal in the 66 to 68 range. It appears the first installer was just lazy and gave me a bogus answer about signal strength being weaker on the west coast. I'm on freq. 990Hz and got even better signal strength on different frequencies. So I would recommend wiggling your dish to be sure it is anchored, if you have the plastic cover, remove it but watch out for what may come out. If these both check out they you probably have a bad component.

On the subject of signal strength I'm having a difficult time getting a straight answer on what is acceptable. My installer says that in the 50s is good for being on the west coast (Calif.) and 70s if I was on the east coast. When I ask direcway I get a range of answers. Is there anyone on the west coast getting a signal strength in the 70s?