vern

Doesn't the lease on that transponder expire on March 31? Things on T 7 are getting slower. I just downloaded Adobe Acrobat reader 7.0 and the throughput was in the 200 to 250 Kbps range. Not very good for after midnight downloading. Port 119 is now throttled on T 7 too. Are things getting shilly in here?

If you decided to stop paying the bill, I highly doubt SB would be able to enforce the contract.

You are on AMC 4. I am thinking that SB is going to be losing the last transponder on that bird on March 31. As for testing SB speeds here or on any other major speed testing site: I noticed that starting the first week of last December SB had started redirecting speed test site requests through a gi-mongus proxy server located in Ca. The IPs do not match. In other words, the IP that this server sees is not the SB IP for my box nor is it the IP for SBs web accelator proxy server. You may be able to get a clear line of sight to T 7 if the dish is moved to the top of your roof. You can tell whether or not you can see T 7 by using a cheap compass. From Lexington T 7 is at

:::.. Download Stats ..::: Connection is:: 1244 Kbps about 1.2 Mbps (tested with 579 KB) Download Speed is:: 152 KB/s Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net/ Test Time:: Sun Feb 13 11:43:31 EST 2005 Bottom Line:: 22X faster than 56K 1MB download in 6.74 sec Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/id-JSU5X1WPZ Things are still OK after the switch to T 7. I suppose having to use high priced high latency satellites for internet service is just the price I pay for peace and quiet. That, and living just 1 / 2 mile from scenery like this:

The installer came yesterday and re-pointed me to T 7. No cost to me. Results: :::.. Download Stats ..::: Connection is:: 2184 Kbps about 2.2 Mbps (tested with 579 KB) Download Speed is:: 267 KB/s Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net/ Test Time:: Sat Feb 5 15:29:36 EST 2005 Bottom Line:: 39X faster than 56K 1MB download in 3.84 sec Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/id-DEWJ2AH3O I'm happy again

Update: I have located an installer who only lives a couple of miles from me and I may be able to get the dish re-pointed to T 7 at NO cost to me. I've been told that the nntp server for those on T 7 isn't throttled and the transponders on it aren't severely overloaded so I am hopeful that i can get my performance back to what it was for roughly 2 months of this adventure in space communication with speeds of close to 1 meg down and 115k up. If it doesn't improve with the re-point I will consider it a lost cause and SB in breech of contract and change over to DirectWay.

I signed up for the new 481 modem and the 750 / 100 telecommuter service in May of last year. The installer mounted the dish with a tree partially blocking the LOS to the sat I was assigned to so my first 3 months of service was much time of no lights on the modem. It was so bad that a bee flying in front of the dish would cause a loss of signal. After I posted pics of the installation that an employee of starband saw, the installer came back and moved the dish to an unobstructed location and for the next two months I had decent service. After IntelSat lost T 7 for a few days