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I signed up for the new 481 modem and the 750 / 100 telecommuter service in May of last year.
The installer mounted the dish with a tree partially blocking the LOS to the sat I was assigned to so my first 3 months of service was much time of no lights on the modem. It was so bad that a bee flying in front of the dish would cause a loss of signal.
After I posted pics of the installation that an employee of starband saw, the installer came back and moved the dish to an unobstructed location and for the next two months I had decent service.
After IntelSat lost T 7 for a few days  in November service quality started going downhill.
On Dec 31, 2004 starband did not renew their lease on one of their transponders on AMC 4 and most of the users from that one were crammed onto the one I and most other high dollar 48x modem accounts are on.
Needless to say performance went to crap.
Since the first week of Dec. they have been throttling port 119 to 2.8k for all users unlucky enough to be on the overloaded transponder on AMC 4 and average throughput has been at or near 200 Kbps down. Upstream througput has still been close to the advertized 100 Kbps though.
Last week they sent me an e-mail letting me know how I am a high priority customer and as such they are willing to move me to T 7 where I will get better performance, however, they want me to help pay for the repoint.
I wish there were some way for me to recoup the $900.00 upfront cash I shelled out for the equipment that is now basicly just an ornament with pretty green lights on my desk.

Stay far away from starband.
It is like the broken vending machine where;  no matter how many quarters you put in;  you never get the candy bar from.

I dont know if its just ME or what...but everytime i read about a sat user.......they are upset and dissapointed.....

why cant they fix this? they have DOPPLER up in the sky, taking massive photos of the earth, they can read weather (sometimes hehe) and do all this other AMAZING stuff.......but cant get good internet service up there....

i really just dont understand.....if someone can explain it would be great


and sorry vern about your problems with starband :/

vern,sorry to hear of your poor experience with starband. i posted earlier this week of my experience with starband and their customer no-service department. i signed with starband in october '04 and got a lightning strike that fried my modem and transmitter, their response to my situation showed me just how valuable i, as a new customer, was to them. they offered to SELL me a rebuilt modem 484 ($350.00) and a rebuilt trans ($200.00) and return damaged equipment. i politely asked for a little assistance with the cost, since i've only used their service for less than 3 months. thier response was basically "tough S#!t, write us a check". i now have the almost same fancy little ornaments sitting on my desk, only my lights don't work. i now subscribe to Cox cable and their service and speed is uncomparable. they actually act as though i am important to their company.

again sorry to hear of you misfortune with starband, spread the word, i am!!!

Almost   

Update:

I have located an installer who only lives a couple of miles from me and I may be able to get the dish re-pointed to T 7 at NO cost to me.
I've been told that the nntp server for those on T 7 isn't throttled and the transponders on it aren't severely overloaded so I am hopeful that i can get my performance back to what it was for roughly 2 months of this adventure in space communication with speeds of close to 1 meg down and 115k up.
If it doesn't improve with the re-point I will consider it a lost cause and SB in breech of contract and change over to DirecWay.

The installer came yesterday and re-pointed me to T 7.
No cost to me.

Results:

::::::::::.. Download Stats ..::::::::::
Connection is:: 2184 Kbps about 2.2 Mbps (tested with 579 KB)
Download Speed is:: 267 kB/s
Tested From:: http://www.testmy.net/
Test Time:: Sat Feb 5 15:29:36 EST 2005
Bottom Line:: 39X faster than 56K 1MB download in 3.84 sec
Validation Link:: http://testmy.net/id-DEWJ2AH3O

I'm happy again

Where I live satellite is the only broadband option.
No cable and I can't even get my telco to install an ISDN line for me.
They were willing to install a fractional T 1 @ 256 up and 256 down for two thousand dollars plus a monthly fee of $450.00.

It's either high dollar satellite service or dial up @ 26.4 because the telco is still using asncient analog switches here.

  You must not live in the boonies, most people know that satellite internet is a last resort to dialup.