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Review by chosenken 
Posted: 2.4 years ago
member for 7 years, 26 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
 Marquette,Marquette,MI
 Contract price not specified.
 "It can be better then dial up if not on probation"
 "Bandwidth restrictions your not told about, horrible tech support"
 "Go with some one else, PLEASE!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
|
We live on Drummond Island MI, right in the middle of a technology dead zone. Original 100 year old phone line, old outdated cable, no cell phone coverage. We had dial up, and on a good day could get 28.8.
So we got Starband. Ordered the basic plan, and got the 360 modem and dish for $300 and monthly payment of $59.99. Speeds should be 512 kbps down, 128 kpbs up. For the first few months all was good, just had little issues with the proxy and the web page and data accelerator crashing.
Then came their bandwidth monitor program, with out TELLING US till we got an e-mail saying we were on probation. Turns out they enacted a new system that allows only 1 gig of bandwidth over a 7 day period. Now if you surf the internet you know that you will use over 1 gig in a week. So this basically shut down youtub, Google Earth, all podcasts, internet radio, ect. If you used too much bandwidth, they would limit it to 100 kbps till your 7 day period went below 1 gig.
What really pissed me off is the fact we were not told about this when we purchased it and were not told about it till we were on probation. Not to mention there system is broken half the time. We will be on probation with them stating we have used 1.1 gigs, yet THERE real time bandwidth graph will only show 500 mb used. Yea, great system. Then you call to see what is up, and you have to wait upwards of half an hour to talk to some one.
We should have DSL this September 2007, and the moment we can get it, I will so take the $99 cancellation fee and switch over. I have had enough of this so called "service".
Here is a ping test while on probation:
Pinging www.l.google.com [209.85.165.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=605ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=621ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=614ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=608ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=602ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=596ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1264ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1282ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=608ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=619ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=613ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=607ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=601ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=2679ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1281ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1282ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1282ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=609ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1271ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=608ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=594ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=620ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=2698ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1986ms TTL=244
Reply from 209.85.165.99: bytes=32 time=1248ms TTL=244
Ping statistics for 209.85.165.99:
Packets: Sent = 25, Received = 25, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 594ms, Maximum = 2698ms, Average = 1015ms
And here is a speed test while on probation:
»www.speedtest.net/result/150723644.png
Followup comments:  
a333
A hot cup of integrals please
join:2007-06-12
Rego Park, NY | LOL Wow, kinda makes my slowish 500/160 DSL look lightning fast, LOL. | |
| | adolobe
join:2002-07-23
Jacksonville, NC | Re: LOL At least his Starbadn limits him to 100k vs Direcway when they fap you you get below dialup most speed tests when on fap on direcway hover between 14k-22k on my system at my moms house. | |
| 
ComputSoft
@starband.net | Bandwidth Restrictions I would like to know of a sat provider that does not have bandwidth restrictions. I personally prefer Starband over the others and I have used them all. | |
| DonPedro
join:2005-11-18
dominican re
| Good news. I use Starband for 2 years now and neve experienced a such problem.
The good news is : the problem is on your side, may be the FAP, may be your router (but no router with the old 360). There is something wrong in your own equipment for sure.
P. | |
| | liljimr
join:2007-02-10
Gilbert, LA | Re: Good news. Don Pedro, you obviously dont use your system very much. I've been with starband over a year with a skyedge modem on the nova pro plan and it sucks. 1 gig per 7 days is unrealistic. There is nothing wrong with his equipment. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of StarBand Communications Inc. |
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Review by glenfisher
Posted: 2.6 years ago
member for 2.7 years, 9 visits, last login: 2.3 years ago
De Witt,Arkansas,AR
Contract price not specified.
"Faster than dial-up and requires no phone line."
"Not as fast as most DSL connections"
"Good choice if there is no DSL or Cable"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
|
I am a StarBand seller/installer, when I order a system it takes about 3 business days to come in via FedEx.
The equipment costs are $299 for both the Nova Pro and Ultimate systems. I currently only have the pro which download is up to 512Kbs (best I have got running the test on dslreports.com was 479Kps average anytime of the day) and upload is 128Kbs (my best so far was 87) I can deal with slow uploads but if you plan to do much uploading I suggest to get the Ultimate system.
The pro plan is $49.99/month (12 month contract)
The ultimate plan is $129.99/month (12 month contract)
I currently run StarBand on a computer bought in the end of 1999 running Windows XP Pro (512 RAM and 1 GIG Intel Pentium processor). I figure that if I had a new computer my speed would be faster, many times I have to wait for my programs to even load but once the internet explorer loads speeds are as fast as a family members DSL located only 1 mile from the CO.
I only have this one computer now but do plan to buy a wireless router to use with my nova pro system.
The Nova systems connect to your PC (or router) via cat 5 cable. The problem many people may have with connecting the router to the satellite modem is that if they are using a Linksys router the routers default IP address is the same as the modem (192.168.1.1). To fix this problem you would need to connect to the router and change the routers IP to something like 192.168.1.5 (keep the subnet mask as 255.255.255.0 should be the default value) and enable the DHCP server on the router (you will want the IP addresses for your computers to be in the 192.168.1."your number" range DO NOT USE THE SAME AS THE MODEM ".1"). If asked for the default gateway enter 192.168.1.1 so the router will know to send the request to the modem.
I cannot comment on the install since I did the install myself. If you have the equipment you can install it yourself too, all you have to do is go to »www.starband.com/training and get certified for free. This could save you some money.
I have noticed some websites do pull up VERY fast but some are slow. One of the fastest I have found was E-bay but the slowest was Hotmail.com.
The only bad comment I have is that my computer isn't fast enough for my StarBand service.
Followup comments: 
Siryak
join:2005-11-26
 ·WildBlue
| Ping Times??? How are your ping times???
Just in case you don't already know the way you run a ping test is go Start>Run>Type: cmd>Enter>Type: ping yahoo.com -n 25>Enter>After the test runs right click and hit select all>Then push ctrl+C to copy>Then come back here and paste that.
--
Wildblue Pro Pack / Beam 40 / Laredo NOC / Windows MCE SP2 | |
| | glenfisher
join:2007-02-23
De Witt, AR
| Re: Ping Times??? C:\Documents and Settings>ping yahoo.com -n 25
Pinging yahoo.com [216.109.112.135] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=606ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=620ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=640ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1320ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1319ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=629ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=619ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=640ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1979ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=661ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=645ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=635ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1315ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1349ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=629ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=628ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=3498ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1290ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1319ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=660ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1309ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=2039ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=2009ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=629ms TTL=51
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=650ms TTL=51
Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 25, Received = 25, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 606ms, Maximum = 3498ms, Average = 1105ms
I plan to get a new meter and adjust my dish a little, currently I have an analog meter but plan on buying a birdog. I know my co and cross are off a little bit. I am new at installing satellite internet and I'm not sure if that will help my speed any but I doubt it will hurt.
Also the computer I am running is ancient from 1999, I plan to buy one with either 2 or 4 GIGs RAM with 2 duo processor. I doubt it will increase my speed on pinging but I will update the pinging speed once I get it hooked up. | |
| | |
Siryak
join:2005-11-26
·WildBlue
| Re: Ping Times??? Hmm. These results are different from what I saw. Although it doesn't really change anything because the high ping times are still in there. 
--
Wildblue Pro Pack / Beam 40 / Laredo NOC / Windows MCE SP2 | |
| | | | glenfisher
join:2007-02-23
De Witt, AR | Re: Ping Times??? The one thing I have noticed lately is the slower upload than what I had last week, my download has gone up though. I just ran another ping to yahoo.com and the average on it was 1195 with 0% loss. | |
| | | | | glenfisher
join:2007-02-23
De Witt, AR
| Re: Ping Times??? 
I just got this speed tonight, all I have is a Star Band Nova Pro system sharing with 2 computers networked into it.
Did another ping to yahoo.com
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\windows>ping yahoo.com -n 25
Pinging yahoo.com [216.109.112.135] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=626ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=616ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=636ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=1436ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=659ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=679ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=728ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=657ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=647ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=695ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=744ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=644ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=662ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=711ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=760ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=629ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=649ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=699ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=778ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=647ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=638ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=745ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=735ms TTL=50
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=635ms TTL=49
Reply from 216.109.112.135: bytes=32 time=653ms TTL=49
Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
Packets: Sent = 25, Received = 25, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 616ms, Maximum = 1436ms, Average = 708ms
C:\windows> | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of StarBand Communications Inc. |
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Review by starbandng
Posted: 2.8 years ago
member for 2.8 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.8 years ago
San Ysidro,San Diego,CA
Contract price not specified.
"none"
"Almost dial-up speed and thats download. No online support."
"Go with anyone but starband"
| |
Starband has got to be the worst isp ever. There is no online support except faq.
Their speed is just about what you would get with dial up.
You will spend your time whaiting for their system to respond.
At this moment their online payment system is not working. There is no way to get an answer as to what the problem is, and this is after you call because Starband NEVER sends an email to let it's customers know whats up when things go wrong!!
Once the sat went out, because their were hundreds of people calling their telephone system was overloaded. We were with out internet for weeks, NEVER, NEVER till this day did they send an email to let it's customers know what was happening.
Many found out from the news that a satilite had gone down and after researching what satilite Starband used we figured out what had happened.
Once they changed my config settings but till this day I had never gotten an email saying reconfigure your modem.
If you can don't go satilite because the money you pay is outragouse and never go starband.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of StarBand Communications Inc. |
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Review by kosmickuntry
Posted: 2.9 years ago
member for 7.7 years, 1596 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Toccoa,Stephens,GA
Contract price not specified.
"Monthly price,availability,new versatility"
"Advertised speeds listed as being"
"Excellent for satellite"
| |
I have been selling and installing Starband for many years and was one of their beta testers as well as an installer for the GTE Spacenet systems in national chain stores.When the Nova platform was introduced I got excited about Starband again as I have always liked the service and the fact that their customer service is not overseas.I ordered their Pro plan at $49 per month for a one year committment.Starband has a dealer showroom plan but we elected to get a more realistic experience by using the system we'll be selling more of, as they only have a reduced price plan for the Ultimate plan.So here goes on my humble evaluation:
The system installs very well with an extremely easy to find satellite signal.I commissioned the system through CVACS in record time with no problems whatsoever.This translates to an end-user as having a system that any "good" installer should have very few installation and commissioning issues with.Ping times averaged 600-700 with no time-outs.I fed my Nova modem into a cheap wireless router and use my laptops wireless card.No problems.I have a VOIP service with a company whose equipment uses only 19kbps versus 100 kbps. Works flawlessly in my opinion. No different than my cell phone provider. Its a digital conversation, remember.I have since become an agent for the Voip provider. Wonderful people to deal with.Get with me on this.Starband Nova has been very stable and reliable the 2 weeks we've been using the service.Downloads run 450 to 480 and uploads are rock solid at 112. Advertised speeds are 512/128 on the Pro plan. As you see, we are well within the parameters for QoS.Starband does not support networking on the Pro plan as the public would tie up customer service with networking issues.For a casual internet user with no gaming ambitions this sytem should be what it needs to be to them. A static ip is available for 4.99 extra per month.I feel very good about presenting this system to my customers and am enthusiastic for Starband.They are good people.
Followup comments:
Bajasat1111
@swbell.net
| VOIP It is irresponsible to say VOIP works with Starband. Starband is reliable for browsing the web and email. VOIP will work 1 out of 10 days. It worked for you, but likely will fail more often than not. The Starband Nova is not designed to be compatible with VOIP since the transmit frequency is constantly changing. | |
| | kosmickuntry
join:2002-03-06
Toccoa, GA | Re: VOIP email me at powersatserv at yahoo.I will be willing to call you on the voip phone and we will see how good or how bad the quality is. | |
| bbear55
join:2007-04-26
Anderson, MO
| bandwith yea I had the 360 from starband. and was great. went to get it hooked backup . and was told that it would take days to install to hit satellite. get the new nova it is better and the latest thing. yea right. if I go over 978megs I'm at below dialup. they don't tell you that face to face. you have to find that the hard way. been on the phone with tech every saturday to monday a week after it was installed. the need to buy this back and give the install charge back to. this is bs. to have 1gig for a week. you can use up 1gig in a few hours. and tech is only card readers they can't tell you much if it not on the card that they have. you can't dl and surf at the same time. | |
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Review by scott760
Posted: 3.7 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 8 visits, last login: 3 years ago
Phelan,San Bernardino,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Speed, Reliability, and broadband in the middle of nowhere!"
"Networking restriction, Price, and included documents/instructions"
"To my surprise, everything works fine."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
|
After months and months of reading reviews on this site and going through the forums, I decided to take a risk and give starband a try in October '05. I had read the horror stories about direcway and starband but I read more negative about direcway. I guess I'm very lucky because I have not had 1 problem at all, no calling customer service, the installer, anything. I have only had a couple hours one day were the connection was down but that's it. (KNOCK ON WOOD)
So when I ordered the system, I asked the sales rep how much and if there were any specials going on. I wanted the cheapest plan (360 modem, $99/month) She said "The equipment is $260 right now and installation is free." I was sold right there. I got the system a couple days after ordering it and the installer came out at the scheduled time. (to my amazment) The first thing I tried to do is hook it up to a wireless network. Found out you can't do that because the software installs a virtual proxy server on the system and you cannot share it unless you get another network card to share the incoming connection. So I put a wireless card in the starband computer and tried sharing the connection through windows. No avail. So after a little research, a program called winproxy did the trick.
The speeds were ok, downloading is great, I was prepaired for the upload speeds (average 16 K/B) But its great to be able to download music and video again at home.
I have had the system for almost 4 months and still no problems. Where I live it's very windy, sometimes up to 60 MPH. We had a BIG windstorm about 3 weeks ago and nothing happened to the dish. The clouds and thunderstorms that everyone has problems with has never affected me.
All in all, I'm very happy and would recommend starband to people in my area (Victorville/Phelan, CA)
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of StarBand Communications Inc. |
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Review by lopaca
Posted: 3.8 years ago
member for 3.8 years, 2 visits, last login: 3.7 years ago
Chandler,Maricopa,AZ
Contract price not specified.
"absolutly none"
"everything, customer service, instalation, follow up,etc., etc."
"They are the worst.....Avoid at all costs"
| |
We tried to purchase a satellite system for our motorhome from Starband. We were informed that we would have to go through a training program on set up and alignment with our installer before we could innitiate the service. We asked for a local installer and were provided two names, one in Phoenix AZ and one Hila Bend AZ. Because we are in Phoenix it was obvious that we would contact the fellow in Phoenix. Hila Bend is about 60 miles away and it was not very practical to spend a day down there. But after making numerous calls to the installer in Phoenix (which were never answered) we figured we would have to make the drive to Hila Bend. We made called to make arrangements and were assured that since we were going to use a tripod system we didn't need to take the motorhome all the way to Hila Bend. All we need to do was show up for the training. We headed down the following day.
Upon arrival the individual that was supose to train us tried to put a training disk into his computer and after several minutes of tring to get it to work he finally asked to use our computer. I told him that we did not bring a computer as we didn't know we needed to. We assumed that if we are paying for the training the training materials should be provided. At that point he went into a tirant about what a ----ing idiot I was and that I was waisting his time. Needless to say the conversation became rather lively at that point. I left outraged that I had been treated so rudely and was intent on contacting Starband to complain about the service.
As soon as I got to our office I called Starband and spoke with a manager who was very polite and apologetic. He assured me that he would contact their other installer in Phoenix and have him personally handle our needs to make up for the poor treatment. We were contacted by the Phoenix installer that day. We spoke about the bad treatment and he assured me that he would take care of us. He went over the prices and insited that before he would come out for the training and installation we would have to pay the total bill up front $1899.99. With reluctance we did so as we needed the system. We made an appointment for a couple days later. Here is where it gets crazy.
The guy never shows for the appointment. We waited all day ...No Show.. We made numerous calls again and his phone was disconnected. (Bad Sign) We called Starband.. They tell us that the installer supposedly got in an accident. So why no phone call from the installer??? Then we find out that he has moved to Salt Lake City. Probably with our money. I try to be very open and accept that maybe he did get in an accident an thankfully he wasn't hurt. So we set another appointment after the Hollidays. Guess what? No Show again!!! No phone calls. No emails. Not a word from the installer. Well, needless to say I am done with Starband and their band of flakes. I called Starband and told them that we were done and that I wanted my money refunded. They assured me that my money would be refunded with in twenty four hrs. Then the manager calls me the next day and says he couldn't refund the money because the payment was made to the installer and we would have to get it back from him. OK, we call the installer and email him as well requesting the refund. Do we hear back from him? Nooooooooo not a word. So, now because we made the purchase through PayPal we call them and dispute the payment. We provided our statement to which PayPal sent it to the installer and his reply was "I delivered the equipment personaly", a bold face lie!!!!! We are now presenting all this to our attorneys and they will party with both the installer and Starband.
Our advice is to stay clear of Starband and avoid doing business with a company that does not stand behind the services that their agent provide (or not). This has been a nightmare and we don't wish this on anyone.
Lopaca
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of StarBand Communications Inc. |
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 Review by ShredNine
UPDATED: 4.2 years ago
member for 7 years, 554 visits, last login: 1.3 years ago
Lone Oak,Hunt,TX
$69 per month (12 month contract)
 about 7 days
"Better than 14.4 dial-up, static IP address"
"Connection unreliable, 50-75% packet loss, winmodem, DNS problems"
"Last resort broadband options: you get what the name implies."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
|
The telephone lines out here in the boondocks can barely support a 14.4kbps dial-up connection, much less DSL. Cable lines are nonexistent, and the only WISP in the area (Argon Technologies' "Phantom Wave" service) is ridiculously unreasonable. So the only choice we have for broadband service is satellite. ISDN is also unavailable.
We entered into a contract with Starband perhaps one and a half years ago when the 180 modem was still in its prime. The thing was bulky and even somewhat noisy (it had an active cooling system) and was also the length and width of a CRT monitor. We were very glad when the more compact 360 modem came about. I don't remember much about the install process, but it seemed to have gone pretty smoothly.
For a while, everything was grand. Download speeds rarely, if ever, dropped below 60KB/s. Starband started throttling bandwidth some time ago, though, and now I consistently get speeds ranging from 20KB/s to 50KB/s down. Upload speeds are the rough equivalent of a dial-up connection.
Despite Starband's "always on" connection claim, we frequently lose connectivity even while the modem is locked onto the satellite. The outages last anywhere from one minute to five minutes, and are hitherto unexplained by Starband. Packet loss is around 50-75% at all times, and ping times are sometimes in excess of 1.5 seconds. Even browsing is sometimes unbearably slow.
The modem itself uses the PC it's connected to to do its processing (read: winmodem). The modem may connect via ethernet or USB, but both connection options require that Starband's mammoth software agent be installed and running on the system being connected to. Naturally, only Windows is supported. Other OS clients may use the connection by connecting through a network to the Windows machine, but direct connection from a non-Windows machine is out of the question. The software is buggy and slow, and the proxy server works somewhat sporadically.
Starband's tech support is moderately good, with techs ranging from inept to extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Hold times are (the last I called, anyway) almost nil.
Starband's mail service is pretty reliable and offers a good amount of space and POP accounts. I have never experienced either a POP or SMTP server downtime. Browsing Usenet is sometimes excruciatingly slow, since Starband seems to steal bandwidth from its news service to devote to HTTP.
All in all, Starband is bearable if dial-up is the only alternative. However, you would be utterly insane to go with any form of satellite Internet connectivity if you have another viable option available.
-----------------------------------
UPDATE: It's been a little over a year since I posted the above review, and the situation hasn't changed much. Starband promised us higher upload speeds and transfer to a different satellite cluster, but this promise turned out to be about as real as the Phantom gaming console.
As I watch cable and DSL speeds go higher and higher while mine never changes, I become more aware of how I'm being ripped off by Starband. We pay seventy bucks a month for a connection which never tops 500k down. That really stinks, to put it in polite terms.
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UPDATE #2: I have a new connection now, but my stepfather still uses Starband on one of his machines. The quality of the software required for the connection's functionality has drastically improved. It is far more responsive and stable than it was when it was first released. I still think it's ridiculous for such software to be required in the first place, but apparently Starband realizes this, too. The 480 series modem operates without the need of Starband's software, so that the modem may be used with just about any operating system. This is a step in the right direction.
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 Review by shawn744
UPDATED: 4.3 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 806 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Saddle River,Bergen,NJ
$89 per month (24 month contract)
about 2 days
 Verizon
CLEC party: Rhythms
"Goes Where DSL, Cable, and Wireless doesn't."
"Kinda bad for Gamers"
"Good for Non-Gaming Web surfers that don't mind sporadic hiccups and stops in service."
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Review by timdco
Posted: 4.3 years ago
member for 4.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 3.4 years ago
Wilder,Canyon,ID
$49 per month
about 5 days
"Fast reliable connection where nothing else will go"
"equal to dialup upload speeds"
"Don't hesitate as long as you don't have a landline based service available"
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I ordered my Starband system from A+ discount satellite systems on ebay. It was a refurbished system and came packed well with new mounts hardware etc. I took the Starband install course and installed the system myself. The install went ok, but had trouble getting the con light on. A+ sent me a new transmitter ODU and got me instantly online and it hasn't gone down since. I talked to several starband techs when i was trying to get things up and going and they were all helpful and seemed to know what they were doing. So far i am very happy with my starband system with downloads averageing from 450 - 550 K down and around 40 up. It sure beats the 26k dial up that i had. I would definately recommend the system to anyone that has no landline based options available.
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Review by jarodisroot
Posted: 4.4 years ago
member for 4.4 years, 15 visits, last login: 4.1 years ago
Rocky Mount,Edgecombe,NC
$69 per month
"Nothing"
"Upload Speed, Download Speed, Latency, Tech support"
"Only, and I mean ONLY, use this as a last resort."
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I have had Starband well over 4 years now. When we first got it, its downloads were fast and its uploads were ok. That was back when there were very few customers. Now lets fast forward to this year. Recently I have been having periodical times where the modem will just lose total connection with starband and stay like that for anywhere from 30min to 2hrs. We got the 360 modem in August of 2003. When I called tech support ( Which by the way isn't 24x7! ) they told me my modem is going bad. Not even a 2 year old modem and it is going bad?!?! Plus on top of that because of that stupid modem you can't have a nice, clean and secure network cause you have to have a pc connected to it! (oh yeah you can get that stupid 480 modem but that is over $100 and I am not going to give starband anymore money than I have to) Add in the latency issues and upload speeds you start asking yourself why you pay so much for so little.
Rule of thumb here, think long and hard about this before you order. If you plan to do general web browsing and LITE emailing, then it may be fine for you, but if you are power hungry, then might I suggest ISDN. Althought only 128kbps, it has low latency and 128kbps upload.
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