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Review by ldimegli 
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 7 visits, last login: 4.6 years ago
 Ashburn,Loudoun,VA
 $70 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 "Download speeds"
 "Upload speeds, Tech support"
 "Perhaps not ready for primetime, should have spent more time in beta"
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The Starband 180 system should probably have been betaed better. Customers using the Radio Shack system based on the Dell system that was extensively beta tested seem to be having few problems. On the other hand, those of us paying for the Starband 180 system are having far from stellar success. Just yesterday (1/18) Starband acknowledged issues with the 180 and will be offering an additional 30-days on the return period as well as $50 credits for all 180 customers. Hopefully they'll get the kinks worked out before 2/28.
Overall, I'm still glad I got the system as it IS much better than my dial-up, but I hope they get the kinks worked out soon.
Memory Jog Info:
Minimum speeds promised: 150kbps down, 50kbps up
Target speeds: 500kbps down, 150kbps up
Monthly price: $69.95 ($10 off if you also buy DishNetwork AT150)
Order install was pretty smooth
1 dynamic IP address
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Review by cobra24
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 11 visits, last login: 8.7 years ago
Albany,Dougherty,GA
$70 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"Fast Downloads"
"Mail & News Servers erratic at times"
"System functioning as advertised, however as more users come onboard, adjustments will need to be made!"
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I have the Model 180 system and the Dish Network AT 150, which were installed together. The install itself lasted for about 5 days over the Christmas Holiday. The problem was not with the installer, but the software and Tech support provided by Starband.
The installer was sent the wrong parallel/usb cable ( a black one), the correct one is a clear model with a light on the parallel plug end! In this case,the installer had to get the correct cable the next day to complete the install.
Other problems that surfaced -
1. The Mission Control Software CD the installer was sent turned out to be bad, and another one had to be taken out of another system to get mine running.
2. The installer was given the wrong Tech ID # to download the parameters with. From what I understand, these numbers are location specific. The # he was given had already been issued to a system in Texas, and another location in the U.S. also. This prohibited the system from working even after a complete setup!
3. Too many different Tech people and different levels of Tech people to go through to find a solution to the problem. The installer probably talked to as many as 12 different "Techs" over the install period before the last one noticed the problem with the Tech ID # right off the bat!
Once the correct # was used, everything came online as it should.
Getting past the install problems, my overall rating of the service is good. I have been on almost a month now, and have only had maybe 1 or 2 periods of slow upload/download speed. I keep a running average of my speed checks (usually 3 per day from different servers, at different times of day & night) , and my current "Average" is 658/79 Kbps with speeds that have been as low as 120Kbps down, and as high as 911Kbps down. I don't do much uploading, so I'm not real concerned about the upload speeds.
Overall, I'm happy with the service, even with occasional Mail & News server problems, but a new E-Mail from Starband on 1/18 stated that they were working on the problems.
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Review by SCR1
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 252 visits, last login: 3.5 years ago
Lake In The Hills,Mchenry,IL
$69 per month (12 month contract)
about 30 days
"Only broadband available in my area."
"Still waiting for the broadband."
"Keeping it.......for now."
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Got it installed on Friday 1/12. Installation was overall easy. I am on the Telstar7 satellite. I also got the Dish Network at the same time on the same dish. Installer arrived at 9:30 and they finished at 2:00pm. My Windows 2000 server was ready for the install and that was simple plug the USB cable in and load the driver. The only snag is that Starband failed to setup my account prior to the installer arrival. (The installer made a habit of calling Starband night before to setup account to speed installs). This delayed install about 2 hours. It is supposed to be 500 down and 150 up with a MINIMUM of 150 down and 50 up during PEAK usage. The system was slow and erratic after install. Modem was showing normal but bandwidth was around 300 then it would go down to nothing. I found out that they were updating the USB modems over the network causing the slow down. The weekend wasn't much better I was getting frequent network failures causing browsing to stop completely.
Then Starband opened up a news group called Starband.general. Found out they are having system wide problems with the USB 180 modems. The Modems are assigned 2 IP address (unkown if it is DHCP, have had the same IPs since install) one is your GATEWAY and it assigns the other address by DHCP to the USB NIC. There is a 10Bt port but it is not used currently, have heard that it can be enabled, but this requires openening the case and removing the USB card. Windows 2000 Server is running a stable connection to the USB modem, however, other operating systems have not been doing as well.
Uploads are also extremely slow I have not seen more than 45 kbps but it is usually around 30kbps and as been much less at times. The word is that they are working on that. The Proxy Server, Mail server and News Servers are all in BETA still and go down frequently. On 1/16 the system ran as best as it has - atleast in the morning. I got as fast as 345 kbps down and around 40 up (Check zip 60156 in the Archive). Browsing was great as the proxy server was humming along. AT 6:30pm the wheels fell off again and news was unavailable and browsing was slow (latency had increase from around 800ms to god knows how high).
This morning the system was running great at about 320 kbps down and 35 up, still would like to see the uploads to a MINIMUM of 50kbps but nearer 100kbps. I will wait this out and I try to help them by posting my observations on the newsgroup, but be aware that the Starband USB 180 is for all intense purposes still in BETA test. Looks like they rushed to beat DirecPC and the Christmas rush, from what I can tell they sold a lot of systems!
Still hopeful,
Steve in IL
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Review by jjoe3
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 9.1 years, 154 visits, last login: 6.2 years ago
Torrington,Litchfield,CT
$69 per month (12 month contract)
about 10 days
"worth it if you can not get cable or dsl"
"not for online gameing"
"it is worth the money, if you dont mind a sat dish on your roof.."
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I first started out with DirectPC , With a self install kit, I looked at the contents and the directions and called for a installer to come over.. after 3 weeks the installer came installed the unit on the side of the house clear shot good rx lock but the system did not work getting timeouts.. called support said I was on the wrong sat??? Mind you the installer left with my $199.00.. so I tied to move the dish my self got the same RX LOCK.. called support again (said on wrong sat) well called the Installer back had to pay them for the service call.. AGAIN HE moved the dish Their was only one signal and he had it the first time.. called teck support with the installer on the outher line They TOLD the INSTALLER HE WAS ON THE WRONG BIRD!!!!!! He said he was on The right one .. He left after using special words.. SO I was STILL With a System That DID NOT WORK.. Called Support again.. Ans asked if the modem may be bad.. They said no and STILL said I was on the wrong SAT.. I said why dont you send one of your own people her to fix it It know has been 3 months of this circus And I am getting tiredof it .. They said OK .. Three days later I got A call from a installer he said he would be over so I gave my dirrections to my house.. Well he got here checked the system and said I was one the right satt. but you may have a bad modem.. NOW I WAS PISSED OFF.. I called support had a 3 way conference call the install said he was on the bird, support said that THEY would look into it ans I should call them Tomorrow.. So I called them they said that they would send me a new modem ground UPS.. Well I was not going to wait 5 to 10 days for something that should have been working from the start .. what if it was not the modem?? maybe it was the receiver?? see my point so I said forget it I want to get my $$$ back... Now I am waiting for a RMA ## it has been 6 days no word on that yet... SO to make a long story short I then called a local dealer who had STARBAND I asked Him TO INSTALL IT , HE said HE would be here in 10 days on the install day he say my Directpc system on the roof and ask How I liked IT? I wont say what I said here. Well he installed starband in about 2 hours ran the wires in to the house a real good job of that, after installed the softwear programed the modem, I restarted the system, and BOOM I WAS ON LINE AND IT DOES WORK!! I was a happy MAN, HE stayed so I could get my password in set up my email.. and answer any questions I had Then he said he was done I said Thanks for the good Work He also gave me his emaill address just incase I had any questions after he was gone.. Bottom line-- Get A local install to do the work.. and supply the system it may be 50 to 75 $$$ more then buying direct from the site but it was worth it also their are no self install kits with starband.. It is not a draw back,, their is alot involved in installing this system unlike the TOY Direct pc plastic piece of crap..also I had top pay the Install $199.00 It may be high but again it is worth it If you get the right person for the Job.. IN short STARBAND is GREAT When you cant get cable or dsl .. also I called teck support once to asked one question I was on hold for 18 mins the answer I got was good so I listed them a 4.. als I would like to say something about the speed.. i just downloaded a 63.5 meg file in 36.5 min not to shabby for a sat system..
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Review by spage
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 190 visits, last login: 128 days ago
Novato,Marin,CA
$70 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"Less expensive than ISDN and always connected"
"Much slower upload and ping times than ISDN"
"Is probably not an improvement over ISDN for me"
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I have been using ISDN for years. I have a 3Com LAN Modem and it has been incredibly reliable. I live about 3 miles from the office and we have SDSL there. I am just too far from the CO to get DSL at home and our provider is GTE so enough said on that! Our cable company which was probably the worst in the country was Chambers Cable and although it has been purchased by AT&T the system is in such a mess that it is expected to be 12 months before we can get cable modem in my area. So I was excited to hear about the 500Kbps down and 50Kbps up minimum projections for Starband and signed up via their website on 12/21/00. I received a couple of emails from the installation service and a sales rep tried to sell me DISH TV but I declined and they arranged for a local installer to set up the system. The box arrived on Boxing Day the day after Christmas in the middle of a party I was having and I had to hide the box quickly in the garage as I had read the dire warnings about letting no-one but the installer open the box.
1/4/01: The installation tech was a very nice guy with no PC experience but good satellite TV experience, so between us the install of the antenna went well. Next we unpacked the equipment (180 VSAT) that hooks up to the PC (which looks like a cross between a 1970s 9600 baud RACAL modem and the Jetson's set top cable TV control). When we tried to plug in the VSAT box the power supply disappeared inside the case when we inserted the power plug so we quickly opened the case and secured it properly. Then we noticed a power up error which we found was due to one of the front panel buttons being stuck in which we also fixed. The front panel by the way is so glossy that it is almost impossible to read the front panel display due to all the glare and reflections from it. Once we had overcome these minor trials the system worked first time after manual alignment and we were off surfing the net. All was well until the installer tried to officially commission the system which involves some automated acceptance testing. He spent 3 hours trying to use the crummy Starband automatic testing system, tweaking the antenna and listening to a synthesized voice read the cross-pol readings every two seconds. The reading would go from 12.5 to 2.4 to 25 to 6.5 - all over the map - several samples less than 3.5 are required to pass He eventually gave up and just tuned the antenna again with his regular signal strength meter that he uses for TV installations. After he had gone I managed to get back to the situation that we had before the fine tuning and was able to get downloads in the 350-750 Kbps range and uploads between 25-57Kbps. It did not take long however to notice the incredibly noisy fan that cuts in and out every few minutes. My office is in a spare bedroom and I can hear the fan cut in and out while in bed at night.
1/11/01:The installer came and finished off the commissioning and this time it only took 2 hours on the phone. I am still looking for the cordless phone that I leant him to use while he was here anyone need a spare AT&T base unit? Despite my hopes the performance was just as poor on upload after the final tweaking. I also noticed that my Win 2000 server hangs when on reboot when the USB connection to the VSAT 180 is in place on power-up. Emailed tech support about the noisy fan and the problem with the VSAT USB driver.
1/15/01: Spent an hour on the phone today waiting for technical support since they didn't respond to my email of several days ago. Eventually I was told that Win2000 Server was not a supported configuration which I told them was bogus and to think again so that issue is now being escalated (hopefully) and I ordered a new VSAT to hopefully cure the noisy fan problem and was told that the
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Review by rindeee
Posted: 8.8 years ago
(review was emailed from domain thinertia.com)
Imperial,Jefferson,MO
$70 per month (12 month contract)
| Pre Sales information:
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Had it installed today (1-8-01). It is advertised as "500kbps down, 150kbps
up with a minimum of 150down, 50 up during high congestion times". High
congestions should be non-existant right now as they just turned up service
to the general public. In fact, I was the 3rd user on the transponder that I
was on (that's a good thing). Wow again! In, up, on, away we go. First order
of business, establish a general latency model. A few thousand pings ought
to do the trick. Average response time on a ping to Yahoo, Connexion, and
several others including StarBands own sight....(anyone want to
guess)...1374ms! Aaarggghhhkkk! I feel cheap. Average ping time on my modem
for 1000 pings to same sights...157ms. Great. Well, there is after all a lot
of latency in satellite transmissions, lets try something else.
www.yahoo.com. .....hmmm hmmm hm hm hmmm la la la la hmmmm..... go to the
bathroom....doh! Timeout, what the? Refresh....refresh again.... ope, there
it is...who hoo. Okay, not so who hoo. DSL Reports has a very VERY accurate
speed rating service that loads a client on your machine and gives you true
up and downstream figures. Lets go there. Test speed..."Downstream...20kbps,
upstream, 4kbps". Wuhappa...where's my blazing speed to make even DSL users
slobber. 8 DSL Reports speed tests later confirmed these speeds. Downloaded
a 1 meg file from a local site to test large file download speeds, 23
minutes. StarBand's home site for subscribers has a speed test...ran
it...1.2Mb of throughput it tells me. Perhaps that is their backbone
connection. Give me a break. Use network analasys tools from Cisco and MS
(SMS), they confirm DSL Reports throughput readings. Okay...time to call
StarBand.
Hold Time: 33 minutes
SB: Hello StarBand
Me: Hi, I'd like to talk with someone about my connection speeds.
SB: Sigh. What do you need?
ME: (I explain my situation)
SB: Yeah.
ME: What do you mean "yeah", is that the way it should be?
SB: Well, there is a lot of congestion on our system this time of day, and
your uploads should average about 12kbps.
ME: (Turning several shades of red). You do have a 30 days money back
guarentee correct?
SB: Yes.
ME: Is it a more dependable guarentee than you throughput guarentee?
SB: Chuckle
ME: Please send someone out to get his behemoth off of my roof.
Interestingly when the installer (a contractor, not a StarBand employee) saw
my old DirecPC dish on the roof, he inquired as to how I liked it. After I
got done ranting about how horrible it is, he said "well then, your prepared
for StarBand. Needless to say, I became a bit uneasy at that point as .25"
lag bolts were being driven into my roof. Live and learn.
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at »mail.yahoo.com
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Review by moorek
Posted: 8.8 years ago
member for 8.8 years, 176 visits, last login: 1 year ago
Merrillville,Lake,IN
 Business customer
$69 per month (12 month contract)
"Pretty good download speeds."
"Very bad upload speeds."
"Not worth the money and effort if you can get at least a 128k Dual ISDN."
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I have had the system installed since 1/4/00. I removed a Dual ISDN line in prep. for the Starband install. That was a big mistake. For some reason I trusted that I was going to get 500k down and at least 110k up. I have been getting 200k - 500k down and around 20 - 25 up. I would only use Starband if you are somewhere you can not get anything else. I have had the system go down 2 -3 times in 3 days for about 20 -30 minutes each.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 8.9 years ago
(review was emailed from domain starband.net)
Sudbury,Middlesex,MA
$70 per month (12 month contract)
"Always on connection, no phone line, good download speeds"
"intermittant connectivity, slow upload speeds [avg. 50K]"
"Great if you cannot get DSL, Cable modem, or other wired high speed internet bandwidth"
| Pre Sales information:
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Hi,
I just had the Starband Service installed on Friday [12/29/00] with the
Model 180 USB Modem. I live in a location that is about 6,000 feet too far
for DSL and there is no cable modem service available. ALthough AT&T just
purchased my cable company, so I expect cable modem service in about 9-12
months.
The initial installation was uneventful and the dish is installed on the
backside of my roof. A great location to hide it from view unless you are in
the backyard. I am not yet sure if it is the best location from a
perspective of a potential "snow catcher". More on this below.
Once installed I was up and running with what is definately better
performance than my best dial up efforts [36.8 Earthlink]. Initially I can
say that I still miss my high speed cable modem through my old cable
provider in conjunction with the @home service [avail. before I moved to my
new home]. I have tested the download speeds at a number of web pages
[including the starband members area page] and I am ranging from about
286Kbps to 1235Kbps. The average does appear to be in the 500Kbps
[advertised range].
Upload speeds are certainly nothing to brag about at this point. I spend a
lot of time accessing remote computers via WIN2000 terminal, PC Anywhere and
Timbuktu and performance is lackluster. I find myself accessing functions on
the remote systems and then waiting a second [or a few] to see the results.
Web surfing, Napster downloads and general internet use are certianly
improved over my dial up connection.
Now onto connectivity issues. The service was installed on Friday the 29th,
and on early Saturday morning we were hit with the year ending Nor'easter.
We were located on the snow side of the snow/rain line for the storm and
received about 7 inches of snow. I had good performance through the storm up
until a quick [2 second] power outage. After this time, I did not have
connectivity again for about 26 hours.
After about an hour of downtime, I placed my first call to starband tech
support. One of the first things they asked about was the "Mission Control
Troubelshooter". This is a small program installed on the host computer that
reads various info from the USB modem [essentially connectivity]. This
program stated that the local networking interface was down, but the all
other systems were good]. Tech suport recommended that I check the computer.
Now I know that the network cards in the computer were fine. By trade I am a
Sys Admin for a web hosting company and monitor a network of 300+ computers
24/7/365 ... but I decided to run some standard tests to verify the
functioanality of my local server/network. After running some tests on my
local network [Starband USB Modem --> WIN2000 Server w/Winproxy--> Hub --> 5
internal PC's], I was able to verify that my local network was not
experiencing any issues.
A few hours later [after dinner too], I placed another call to tech support.
At this time, the display of the USB Modem no longer was reporting an IP
address and showed that the Satellite and Backbone were down. I informed of
the Modem conditions, guaranteed that my local network and server were fully
functional and was told that it may be an issue of snow on the dish. THere
was some snow present on the arm that connects the LNB/Feed Horn to the
dish, but the Feed Horn was clear of any snow. I was not able to verify
whether or not there was any snow collected on the surface of the dish. Tech
support suggested that I check the dish to be sure it is clear of any snow
and that this was probably the problem. Well without a 2 story ladder, I
could not access the dish. I was able to spray the snow off the arm with a
garden hose. This did not result in any resolution to the downed connection.
At about 2.30 am [12 hours after the outage], the modem began returning an
IP address on its display, but was still reporting that the Satellite was
down. A third and final call to tech support did not yield any additional
results. Connectivity returned on its own [no trip to the roof] at about
3.30pm on Sunday.
So where does this long story bring me to ? Make sure you have a tall
ladder. I am completely unsure of the snow was an issue, but without a
ladder, could not rule it out.
So back to performance, satisfaction, etc .....
My choice to go with Starband was essentially because there are no other
options for high speed for me at my location. Aside from a local T1 loop
from my office [we have an OC3 connection with our own fiber cabinet :~) ].
The local T1 loop was [and still is an alternative],although the setup and
monthly are much higher [~2,500 setup & 800/mo.]. This is versus the ~$650
setup [parts & install] and $70 monthly fee for starband. I am anxious to
see how StarBand continues to perform over the long haul. Will I test DSL or
Cable service if it becomes available to me .. certainly ! But am I better
off than with my earthlink dialup ? a big YES ! ... will I be cancelling my
earthlink dialup? Not for at least 30 days .. it came in handy saturday.
One thing to be wary of with the starband sevice, that I am formally
registering a complaint with, is that I was not notified of the one year
service committment [$500 early disconnection fee], until I received my
hardware and read the enclosed documentation. I immediately went to the
starband site and could not find mention of this anywhere. I am not
receiving any rebates on the service [like an MSN rebate etc,], I have
purchased the necessary hardware and paid for the installation. I do not see
where I should be obligated to a minimum of a year of service.
Wow .. a small chapter from a book :~) ... hopefully I did not bore anyone.
I hope this helps anyone in thier decision to go with StarBand or not. If
you have any questions, post them to the board [or email me at
starband@adgrafixnt.com], and I'll try to answer them for you.
Happy New Year,
Gene
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