satellite

Reader Larry Bles vaulted over ISDN, ADSL and cable and got hooked up on line via satellite here in Northern Virginia. "I bought the Hughes DirectPC Satellite service. Since I have had DSS for several years, I was accustomed to their great service and nearly uninterrupted performance. On Tuesday, I went to Circuit City to check it out. After playing with it for 15 minutes, I decided that I would go for it. To make things even cooler, it was on sale for only $199. Plus, until March, Hughes is giving a $100 usage credit and waiving the $50 sign-up fee. So, I guess you could say the dish/receiver cost me about $50 :) I installed it that same night, in the dark, in about 4 hours. Performance is absolutely incredible. Last night I downloaded Netscape Navigator 4.04, an 8-9MB file, in less than 3 minutes! The transfer rate was 34.9KB/sec. During this time, I saw data thru-puts as high as 539kbps! the initial costs were negligible, but of course there are access charges. I pay $39.95 per month for unlimited 6pm-6am, all day weekends, all day holidays, 400k service. That is a bargain these days." The green lamps are lit.