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**rbinck** · 08-27-2004, 03:20 PM

Here's the scoop on Direcway.

I have had several Direcway systems installed for clients in rural locations where there is no cable or DSL available. The earlier DW4000 system was not much better than dial up depending on the capabilities of your computer. The key marketing phrase for Direcway was "up to" as in "up to 500kbs" download speeds. To get that you need the traffic to be light on the satellite AND a very fast computer. The reason why the fast computer is needed for the DW4000 is the compression used by Direcway and the decompression that is required by the computer. With a P2 400mhz computer we could not get better than about 256kbps download.

We ended up with a Pentium 4 at 1.8ghz only running the Direcway software and internet connection sharing as the internet server in order to get any speed out of the system.

When we upgraded to the new DW6000 system, there was a big difference. With the new DW6000 the decompression is built into the modems and they point at a different bird that has better bandwidth apparently. It still is not as good as DSL, but it is much better than dialup and the issue of large downloads is still there as thorerik described, although they have upped the total download before going into the throttle mode somewhat from what it used to be.

In summary, I would say if there is any way possible to get DSL or cable internet, that's the way to go. But I'd take the new DW6000 over dialup given those two choices.

08-27-2004, 03:20 PM	#15
rbinck Administrator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Katy, Texas Posts: 12,335	Here's the scoop on Direcway. I have had several Direcway systems installed for clients in rural locations where there is no cable or DSL available. The earlier DW4000 system was not much better than dial up depending on the capabilities of your computer. The key marketing phrase for Direcway was "up to" as in "up to 500kbs" download speeds. To get that you need the traffic to be light on the satellite AND a very fast computer. The reason why the fast computer is needed for the DW4000 is the compression used by Direcway and the decompression that is required by the computer. With a P2 400mhz computer we could not get better than about 256kbps download. We ended up with a Pentium 4 at 1.8ghz only running the Direcway software and internet connection sharing as the internet server in order to get any speed out of the system. When we upgraded to the new DW6000 system, there was a big difference. With the new DW6000 the decompression is built into the modems and they point at a different bird that has better bandwidth apparently. It still is not as good as DSL, but it is much better than dialup and the issue of large downloads is still there as thorerik described, although they have upped the total download before going into the throttle mode somewhat from what it used to be. In summary, I would say if there is any way possible to get DSL or cable internet, that's the way to go. But I'd take the new DW6000 over dialup given those two choices.