I have had a number of comments inquiring about my experience with Wildblue Broadband Satellite Internet access, so I thought I would write a post pertaining to my experiences with this service.  The original installation occurred in January of 2006, and the post regarding the installation and subsequent comments can be found here.

Wildblue Satellite Broadband is one of several satellite Internet service providers.  Wildblue has targeted the rural areas of the country in it’s marketing, and has teamed up with rural electric cooperatives and small telecommunications companies to provide installation and support.  Wildblue offers three levels of access to consumers as follows:

1. $49.95/month  -  512Kpbs/download, 128Kbps/upload
2. $69.95/month  -  1.0 Mbps/download, 200Kbps/upload
3. $79.95/month  -  1.5 Mpbs/download, 256Kpbs/upload

All subscribers will have to buy their equipment, which consists of the satellite dish, a dedicated satellite modem, and a surge suppressor for both the power and coaxial leads. The cost of the equipment package is currently $299.   Wildblue seems to have a perpetual promotion which offers free standard installation.  If a special type of installation is required, you will have to pay your local installer for the additional parts and labor.

Wildblue maintains a web based BBS type forum for the benefit of subscribers, which can be found here.

My background with Internet access is fairly limited.  For years I was saddled with dial-up access, which as you probably know, leaves much to be desired.  After moving to this rural property, we opted for ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) service, which was made available to us through Northern Arkansas Regional Telephone Company (NATCO).  ISDN is a dedicated telephone line to each subscribing household, and offers the convenience of always-on service with speeds up to 128Kbps.  The ISDN line can be used for telephone service simultaneous with web browsing or faxing.  Wanting faster download speed than ISDN could provide, I was quick to jump at the opportunity to move up to satellite broadband when it became available in my area.  Using NATCO as the agent for Wildblue, I subscribed to the fastest service available (1.5Mbps/256Kpbs) at $79.95 per month.

My experience with Wildblue has been varied.  In terms of speed, the advertised 1.5Mbps that I am paying for is usually achieved.  Using the on-line testing available at Testmy.net, my service has consistently fallen in the range of 1.5Mbps-1.6Mbps, just as I would expect.  Occasionally, download speeds will fall to 1.0Mbps, but this has only rarely occurred.   Although download speeds occur as expected, upload speed is a distressing 48Kbps, which is a far cry from the 256Kbps that I am paying for.  In reviewing the postings on the Wildblue Forums, I find that my experience in this regard is pretty wide spread. Complaints about slow upload speeds (relative to advertised upload speeds) are common in the forums.

The other aspect of Wildblue service that has to be examined is service reliability.  In this regard, Wildblue has fallen far short of my (and other subscribers) expectations.  Wildblue satellite Internet access is supposed to be an “always on” service, much like DSL or cable Internet access.  However, with Wildblue, you can expect to find that you have no service from time to time.  It is not unusual to have the modem lose contact with the satellite while you are in the middle of some computing activity.  If you happen to be in the middle of a banking transaction, or in the process of making an on-line purchase, this can be a disconcerting situation.  On some days, this might happen a dozen times throughout the day.  On other days, satellite contact is never lost.  Sometimes you may go for days at a time without loss of service, while at other times, service loss occurs day in and day out, for weeks at a time.

Unfortunately, Wildblue does not seem to be on the ball in providing accurate, timely information to it’s customer base.  Communications with the company, both through it’s website, and by telephone support, seems to be a one-way street.  The bulk of complaints that appear in the Wildblue forums do not seem to ever be addressed by the staff of Wildblue.  My impression is that there are many dissatisfied customers, who would appreciate better service and communication from Wildblue, but who are trapped in a one-sided contract with Wildblue, and have no practical alternatives to the poor service (short of switching back to dial-up service).

The following message from the Wildblue forums sums up one customer’s dissatisfaction:

http://www.wildblue.cc/wbforums/showthread.php?t=2769

It is a must read for anyone considering Wildblue service now, or in the future.

The other issue that must be raised with satellite Internet access, via Wildblue or any of the other vendors, is the issue of latency.  I am not knowledgeable about computer networking, network infrastructures, or any other aspect of the Internet’s inner workings.  I only know what I have come to expect when I “click” on a link on a web page. 

My experience with dial-up and ISDN service takes the following form:

Click on a link – wait a fraction of a second, and the page begins to load, albeit slowly.

Start a download of a large file – wait a fraction of a second, and the file begins to download, albeit slowly.

My experience with satellite Internet access takes the following form:

Click on a link – wait SEVERAL seconds, and the page loads instantly.

Start a download of a large file – wait SEVERAL seconds, and the file begins to download, albeit very rapidly.

The obvious question is, would I recommend Wildblue Satellite Broadband Internet access base upon my own experiences?  One indicator of my answer is that I do not plan to cancel my Wildblue service anytime soon.  Although the latency issue can be maddening at times, and the upload speeds are dreadful, and the inconsistency of reliable service can disrupt important on-line business activities, the alternatives are just too painful to bear.  Would I jump ship at the first opportunity to subscribe to DSL or cable Internet access?  You bet I would, and I would never look back to my days as a satellite subscriber.  Much like a passenger on a crowded bus, you get the feeling that, yes, it is uncomfortable, but it sure beats walking to your destination.

AFTERNOON UPDATE:

Wouldn’t you know it, but as I tried to publish this post today, the Wildblue system went into a tizzy.  Long load times for the pages, several attempts necessary to save pages to my server, etc.  I performed on-line broadband speed tests from testmy.net and cnet.com, and the results for download speed varied from .536Mbps to .640Mbps, which is about 1/3 the 1.5Mbps speed that I am paying for.

A worse problem occurs when I perform some ping tests.  Issuing the following command at the command prompt:

        C:>ping yahoo.com -n 20

results in some horrible statistics, notably latency in the range of 800ms-1200ms.  Worse yet, the timeouts and lost packets are horrendous.  Out of 20 packets sent, 5 packets were lost.

I have looked at some recent posts on the Wildblue forums, and it seems that I am not alone in these results.  It seems that beam 35 (which is the spot beam for my area) is experiencing a multitude of problems at this time.  I will post the results of further speed and ping tests as updates to this post over the next several days, just to see whether or not there is any improvement.

2nd AFTERNOON UPDATE:

As I went to save the first afternoon update, my Wildblue satellite modem lost connection with the satellite.  The connection was down for the past two hours, and I am hoping to finish this update before it goes out again.  This seems to be the type of service that is occuring throughout the Wildblue system, so if you can live within these constraints, the service is acceptable.

3rd AFTERNOON UPDATE:

After the Wildblue satellite modem automatically reconnected with the Wildblue satellite, I am now achieving download speeds of 1.55Mbps, which is the speed to which I am subscribed.  A C:>ping yahoo.com -n 20 command now results in an average latency of 670ms, with zero dropped packets.

So for the time being, it is all systems go!

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TUESDAY UPDATE

Noon Tuesday:

Download speed is .881Mbps, or roughly 1/2 of what it should be.

Ping test results in 1 lost packet out of 20 sent.

 

8:00pm Tuesday:

Download speed has dropped to .550Mbps, or 1/3 of what it should be.

Ping test results in 8 lost packets out of 20 sent.

Browsing web pages becomes painfully slow, with many retries required to load a page.

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WEDNESDAY UPDATE

 

7:30am Wednesday

Download speed is 1.57Mpbs, which is what I am subscribed for.

C:>ping yahoo.com -n 20 command results in zero packets lost in twenty attempts.

 

11:00am Wednesday

Download speed is down to .63Mbps from the 1.57Mbps of earlier this morning.

C:>ping yahoo.com -n 20 results in 5 out of 20 packets being lost.

C:>ping southshore.cc -n 20 results in 7 out of 20 packets being lost.

 

7:00pm Wednesday

Download speed is now down to .42Mbps, less than 1/3 of subscribed speed.

C:>ping southshore.cc -n 20 results in 10 out of 20 packets being lost.

 

8:30pm Wednesday

Download speed has dropped to .32Mbps, or approximately 1/5 of subscribed speed.

The performance of Wildblue satellite service has been totally unacceptable today.  Tomorrow I will contact NRTC (my local telephone company who is an agent for Wildblue) technical support to see if this can be resolved.  It is possible that there is a problem with the dish alignment, the TRIA (transmit/receive unit at dish), the satellite modem or the dish grounding that is the offending culprit.

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THURSDAY UPDATE

I did not have the time to deal with tech support today, so just a recap of Wildblue performance for the day.

Download speed I pay for is 1.5Mbps

9:00am – Download speed is 1.57Mbps – right where it’s supposed to be.

2:30pm – Dowload speed is .76Mbps – 1/2 of subscribed speed.

5:30pm – Download speed is 1.79Mbps – higher than subscribed for.

5:35pm – Modem lost connection with satellite.

8:00pm – Modem has finally reconnected with satellite, but speed is .74Mbps, or half of subscribed speed.

I found this curious looking creature nesting in the back recesses of a little used file cabinet in the basement.  I know what it is, but can you identify it?

(Hint: it never caught on, and is now extinct)

UPDATE WITH SOLUTION

The item above, as pointed out by David, is known as a :Cue:Cat.  This device was produced by a company called DigitalConvergence.:Com Inc.  The idea was to provide every computer with this modified bar code reader, and convince business partners to include special :Cue codes in various printed matter which would then lead to a specific web page on the internet.  The :Cue:Cat was distributed by Radio Shack stores for free, and in the year 2000, Radio Shack supplied their Master Catalog with the special :Cue barcodes, as shown here –

The entire installation and promotion kit that was distributed by Radio Shack stores is pictured below, which included various teaser promises of wonderful applications to come.

Three of the more noteworthy uses that DigitalConvergence was hoping to implement with this device were 1) a link between television and the computer using a special :CueTV cable.  This was an audio cable with a RCA type pass-through connector at the television end, and sound card connector at the other end.  When properly configured, the audio system on the TV was supposed to feed web-page links directly to a connected computer, via specially encoded transmissions contained in the audio signal.  So, while watching TV, one could theoretically view unlimited program information simultaneously on the computer screen.  Instead of the hard-wired connection, one could also opt to purchase a Wireless Audio-Link from Radio Shack.  2) a web-based, consumer accessible UPC code database linked directly to a unique web-page for each UPC code in existence.  The idea behind this was simple – by simply scanning the bar-code from any commonly available product, one would be instantly transported to a web-page relevant to the individual product.  3)  a personal :CueCode available to any consumer who wanted to register for one.  This would allow any individual the ability to direct someone to their personal web site by including the personal :CueCode on business cards, letterheads, invitions, etc.  The personal :CueCode was to be marketed exclusively by Office Depot stores.

For those people on the go, DigitalConvergence had two mobile solutions as well, one in the form of a keychain fob code reader and the other in the form of a Cross pen with a built in reader.  Each of these readers could store up to 300 :Cue:Codes, and by simply touching the reader to a device called an OptiLink (sold seperately), the information would be uploaded to the computer.

My own experience with the :Cue:Cat was not quit as rosy as DigialConvergence would have had me believe.  After installing the driver software and hardware, I took the Radio Shack catalog and tested some of the links I found within it.  Most of the links returned a 404 File not found) error message.  Of the links that worked, I found that most of them simply parroted the information I had before me on the printed page.  Similarly, when attempting to scan the UPC code of various products, I experienced mostly failure.  It might well be that this was a result of rushing the concept to market before all of the required pieces were in place.  Regardless as to the reasons, it left such a poor impression on me that I uninstalled the software, and all of the materials that you see here have sat dormant in the recesses of my file cabinet until now.

First, I thought of something like “Paranoia Run Amok”.  Why?  The purpose of this post originally was to serve to clarify what my opinions are (at the moment, anyhow) regarding the origin of spam and computer viruses.  In a previous post I raised the issue that possible blog comment spam might have originated from the “Word Cloud phenomena that propagated (memed?) through the blogosphere a few months ago.  In the comments that ensued from this post, I expressed a pretty strong opinion about the relationship between spam/viruses and the companies that profit from defeating the same.  Here is what I wrote:

 In my more paranoid moments, I can’t help but think that there is a connection between the growth of spamming, and the companies that profit from “defeating” it. If my paranoiac reasoning is correct, than there never has to be any sales closures for the product being hawked, as this is not the motive for the spam in the first place, but merely a pretext for the sale of anti-spam products.

Similarly, I sometimes feel the same paranoid suspicions regarding the source and motivations behind virus outbreaks. It seems that if one wanted to “follow the money trail” of these activities, one should not overlook the fact that many companies have built their entire business model on selling annual subscriptions to products and services designed to “defeat” these ever-growing threats.

Microsoft has built an empire on a simple premise: Provide a product that every computer owner perceives that they need (Windows), and then create a managed version update program to get these same owners to upgrade to the latest, greatest OS (witness Windows, Win95, Win98, WinMe, WinXP, and Vista, not to mention all the flavors of WinNT that have come down the pike). If companies such as Symantec, McAfee and others can persuade everyone that they must not only buy their products, but also constantly renew their subscriptions, than they will have effectively “one-upped” the Microsoft business model. I guess only time will tell if I am being paranoid, or if I am simply being prescient.

As I thought about this comment, I began to feel as if I might have been overreacting, even though I had so clearly peppered my remarks with words like paranoid, suspicious, and paranoiac.  And so my original intent was to somehow soften the tone of my opinion on this issue a little bit with this post.  And then something happened.

I read a computer magazine which referenced an article titled “The Antispyware Conspiracy“, which addressed a portion of this issue in a direct manner.  After reading this article, I began to feel that maybe I wasn’t being so paranoid after all.  But the author of the article began with the following statement:

“Since the release of the first antivirus products many people have believed in a conspiracy theory where antivirus companies generate their own market by paying virus writers to develop and release viruses. I don’t subscribe to that theory and trust the major security vendors, but recent trends show that there’s a fuzzy line between second-tier antispyware vendors and the malware they clean.”

This article seems to point a finger at some second-tier antispyware vendors, but is quick to absolve the major security vendors of any complicity.  And as I thought about this more, one thing kept popping to mind – maybe the major players ARE paying virus writers to develop and release viruses!  Not directly, of course.  I am not suggesting that executives within Symantec or McAfee direct any campaign to unleash viruses on the computing world.  In fact, I would be the first to suggest that the executives within these companies realize that any involvement in such schemes would be fatal to their own best interests, and I further believe that the intentions and motivations of these executives are pure.

This apparent contradiction on my part can be explained by considering the following simple observation.  Name any other industry that contains this unique dynamic – any individual employee within the “malware prevention industry” can guarantee his very own job security by propagating the malware they are hired to defeat.  Imagine this employee spending just 1 hour per week developing his malware, and you can imagine the havoc he/she could inflict.  Now multiply this dynamic by the number of employees in this industry (hundreds? thousands? tens-of-thousands?).

If you think I am too suspicious, let me tell you a true story.  Some years ago, I was called upon to render a professional opinion regarding a computer system and associated software programming for a client who owned a chain of glass companies.  The logo of this company was a little boy at play.  If you looked closely at the logo, you would see that the little boy had a slingshot hanging from his back pocket.  I asked my client about this, and he replied with the following tale.  He (I’ll call him Mr.X) began his career as an employee of a glass company.  In 1971 Southern California experienced a large earthquake, and there was more glass replacement business to go around than anyone could handle.  Mr.X decided to go into business for himself, and for a while, all was good.  Eventually, the earthquake damage in the area was repaired, and Mr.X found himself wanting for business.  Arming his son with a slingshot, ammunition, and instructions to shoot up windows in a neighborhood, Mr.X would than saturate the same neighborhood with fliers advertising his glass repair company.  No wonder I am now suspicious of business by nature!

So I now face three questions –

A) Are there any other industries that contain the same dynamics that are at play with the malware industry?

B) Am I being overly paranoid with respect to the malware industry?

C) What should I have entitled this post?