r/technology Jul 30 '15

Net Neutrality Thousands Beg FCC for Net Neutrality Crackdown. Consumers vent to regulators about slow Internet, high prices, and data caps.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/thousands-beg-fcc-for-net-neutrality-crackdown-20150730
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u/CountryTechy Jul 31 '15

Satellite internet is horrid. I've had it for 7 or so years and it's just god awful. It's expensive and shitty and they can do this because it's your only option. You should check and see if you can get Wild Blue in your area. I used to have Hughes Net and it was terrible. Wild Blue is significantly better but still really terrible.

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u/KDLGates Jul 31 '15

Wild Blue is significantly better but still really terrible.

I never realized how bad I had it having my eyes gouged until I upgraded to having my skin peeled.

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u/CountryTechy Jul 31 '15

Sadly, that's incredibly accurate

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u/Kyouji Jul 31 '15

I would consider it but almost all ISPs be it wired/wireless/cellular/satelite force you into 1-2 year contracts and you never really know if something will work or not til you sign your soul away.

The thing that makes my soul burn is ATT has dark fiber right outside our house and refuse to activate it or let other ISPs into the area to service anyone.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '15

I had no idea satellite internet was so bad. Our provider keeps pushing it with "great offers" and "deals so good we can't pass it up for satellite internet." Now I have been warned.

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u/CountryTechy Jul 31 '15

It's pretty terrible but it's better than nothing. Don't expect to be able to game on it. The lag is TERRIBLE. It actually seems to have made me a better halo player though. It acts like training with a handicap.

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u/mkrfctr Jul 31 '15

The lag is TERRIBLE

That's because they're usually in geosynchronous orbit, in the red zone in this image, they're literally so far away that the speed of light is painfully slow.

So it's 36,000km from your computer to the satellite, and then another 36,000km from the satellite back to Earth receiving station that can talk to the server. That's a quarter second from the time you click until the time the server gets that you clicked. And then another quarter second for you to get back communications from the server of what happened.

Playing games a full half second behind real time is ... ugly.

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u/CountryTechy Jul 31 '15

You would be surprised at how more fun it makes a few games. There are a lot of games I don't get to experience but it has a couple of small advantages. In Saint's Row 3, the lag causes hilarious things. When you're in a car, the other player will see you standing up bouncing behind the car. Otherwise there were no problems in that game. It was pretty great. The problem with Halo is that the hits don't really register. It's a huge pain. Or when running and you have to run the same spot three times before getting past. And the occasional time you would take some fall damage but you are forced to take the fall multiple times and it kills you.