RE: Router for satellite dish

["Paul Gale" <groups@xxxxxxx>]

I have the BT Satellite 500/1 service here.



I do share it with other computers on my network and it works well.
BEWARE though - it's not so simple to share as other broadband
solutions
:-(



I've spent probably a few weeks solid in all (many months ago), testing
different solutions (including using software such as winroute and
other
software routing progs).



You may want to look at www.starbandusers.com. This (US) system is
similar to the BT offering in that it is provided by Gillat. The
software is different though so most of the utilities found on this
(pay) website don't work :-(



The Satellite connection *REQUIRES* IPA (acceleration) software and a
protocol called 'Deterministic network enhancer' to work. If this is
not
installed, the system won't work. This is the main problem why 3rd
party
broadband sharing devices (routers combined with switches etc) DON'T
WORK! This includes PC based Linux firewalls/routers (although I have
heard tales of people who have got this kind of solution to work). 



The setup I now have is as follows:



*      Windows 2000 workstation connected to the
Satellite modem (360
modem) via it's own network card and configured to get it's settings
>from
*      Second NIC in this PC is connected to a 100
Mbit switch and the
network. This card has Microsoft's ICS software enabled. This also acts
as a DHCP and DNS server (so beware if you have a server or two on the
network - these will have to be configured appropriately). ICS works
well for me but it's VERY limited configuration wise. I had to re-build
my network nd Win2K server to fit around this so I could share the
connection. I went the ICS route as none of the other software
solutions
would work with the satellite software at the time (from my
experimentation).
*      PC's around the network get an IP address,
default gateway and
DNS settings from the satellite sharing PC



I've had the BT service since it was first available and have had a
number of problems with the service including complete failures. It's
working OK now (download speeds are really good - 50 to 60 KB per sec
sustained (depending on Internet conditions and server load etc etc
etc). Web page browsing is pretty slow - most times feels much slower
than a good 56K modem dial up!



BT Satellite support are absolutely useless (spoken to all of them
probably 30-40 times in all). Not once has one of them got back to me
when they've promised to (I've always had to ring back myself). I did
raise a formal complaint to the Business Satellite Service Manger and
got a small amount of compensation.



DON'T whatever you do, 'upgrade' to the 500/4 service. It uses a
router/modem called a 180 which is a lot older and slower than the 360
(info correct as of 2-3 months ago - so could have changed now?). You
still get the same uplink/downlink service but get charged a lot more
per month and pay more for the modem. This is a real rip-off! BT claim
sharing the 500/1 service isn't possible - it is.



You may be able to tell I have quite strong feelings about BT's service
;) ... well I do, but have stuck with it as it's the only option I have
here. I used to have 4 ISDN channels but that was very expensive.



Email me if you need more info or details on my setup.





Paul.



-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Bond [mailto:chris@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: 11 February 2003 13:36
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Router for satellite dish



Be warned not al satellite dishes will work like this.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Ewing" <scott.ewing@xxxxxxx>
To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 1:27 PM
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Router for satellite dish


> Just stick an ipcop (http://ipcop.org)
on the modem, and it'll do the
> rest, handles DHCP, NAT and static ips for the external world.
Works
on
> a p60, so for the money he's saved, more ha toys...
>
> Just ask ken for a slimp3
>
> Scott
>
>
>
> http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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