Comment No FPS, BS Rules (Score 1) 131
Like others here, I have had DirecWay in the recent past. It was basically a 'must have more than dialup' situation.
WoW, CoH and the like are playable since there is no aiming needed.
FPSes are not. You *might* get lucky once and a while and it is almost decent, but it will just frustrate you if you try.
The Fair Access Policy is a pathetic restriction because they will not invest to bring satellite users to the modern era, plus since there is no competition they can do whatever they feel like. I believe the cap is 160mb *buuuut* the killer is what happens after that 160mb. It was described to me as a bucket; what is in the bucket is tha available download amount, so the bucket is 'filled' at 160mb. You can empty it at your wonderful blazing speed (yeah right).
It refills, however, at a slower rate, only 50kbps (yes, kbps). That means if you want lengthy downloads, then maybe you should get a modem for those...it will be faster. Even if you shell out more money for a better service, they are all now refilled at 50kpbs.
Another killer (from the DirecWay days, not sure with Huges). If you hit the cap, you get thrown into the 50kpbs pile (eating as fast as they are willing to give it to you). If you exceed it for some secret amount of time, you get turned off. Yeah. For around a day. Oh, by the way, you have no way of being informed of your usage. Since machine is not so hard, but a real joy if you have multiple computers. Could they have invested in showing a 'usage' or 'free mb' on their machine's web interface? Yeah, but that would be useful. Their customer website (which among other things keeps track of the invoices to remind you how stupid you are for paying so much) does have a usage page, but it was always 4 hours behind. Kinda like driving a car forward only using a rear view mirror.
Did I mention the crappy service?
The DW6000 was a piece of crap. It could not go more than a day without locking up. I was temtped to put it on one of those outdoor timers just to power cycle it every night. Get a cloud in the sky? Time to read a book. Really, I am in upstate NY and the connectivity was utter crap. While it may not interfer too greatly with browsing, having an iso time out because a duck is in the air (coupled with FAP) was real annoying. A killer for WoW and CoH. It made, for me, ay kind of gaming unbearable long term.
For $60/mo (only 60, that is, after the huge setup fee and optional monthly extortion fees (you want it to work? gonna cost ya...))? Find a dialup ISP which supports coupling modems to double thruput. Get the phone lines. It will likely be around the same price, faster, and more reliable.
Oh also: keep poking at your local phone co. We finally got DSL here as they expanded service and dropped DirecWay without looking back. I am actually thinking of burning the DirecWay dish in a roaring bonfire.
WoW, CoH and the like are playable since there is no aiming needed.
FPSes are not. You *might* get lucky once and a while and it is almost decent, but it will just frustrate you if you try.
The Fair Access Policy is a pathetic restriction because they will not invest to bring satellite users to the modern era, plus since there is no competition they can do whatever they feel like. I believe the cap is 160mb *buuuut* the killer is what happens after that 160mb. It was described to me as a bucket; what is in the bucket is tha available download amount, so the bucket is 'filled' at 160mb. You can empty it at your wonderful blazing speed (yeah right).
It refills, however, at a slower rate, only 50kbps (yes, kbps). That means if you want lengthy downloads, then maybe you should get a modem for those...it will be faster. Even if you shell out more money for a better service, they are all now refilled at 50kpbs.
Another killer (from the DirecWay days, not sure with Huges). If you hit the cap, you get thrown into the 50kpbs pile (eating as fast as they are willing to give it to you). If you exceed it for some secret amount of time, you get turned off. Yeah. For around a day. Oh, by the way, you have no way of being informed of your usage. Since machine is not so hard, but a real joy if you have multiple computers. Could they have invested in showing a 'usage' or 'free mb' on their machine's web interface? Yeah, but that would be useful. Their customer website (which among other things keeps track of the invoices to remind you how stupid you are for paying so much) does have a usage page, but it was always 4 hours behind. Kinda like driving a car forward only using a rear view mirror.
Did I mention the crappy service?
The DW6000 was a piece of crap. It could not go more than a day without locking up. I was temtped to put it on one of those outdoor timers just to power cycle it every night. Get a cloud in the sky? Time to read a book. Really, I am in upstate NY and the connectivity was utter crap. While it may not interfer too greatly with browsing, having an iso time out because a duck is in the air (coupled with FAP) was real annoying. A killer for WoW and CoH. It made, for me, ay kind of gaming unbearable long term.
For $60/mo (only 60, that is, after the huge setup fee and optional monthly extortion fees (you want it to work? gonna cost ya...))? Find a dialup ISP which supports coupling modems to double thruput. Get the phone lines. It will likely be around the same price, faster, and more reliable.
Oh also: keep poking at your local phone co. We finally got DSL here as they expanded service and dropped DirecWay without looking back. I am actually thinking of burning the DirecWay dish in a roaring bonfire.
