Patrick Murphy wrote:

> I just got off the phone with a Skycasters rep., a Satellite ISP. She
> told me their latency is 1/3 of the satellite industry average, 

Now that is strange :)  See, the satellite latency is limited by the time
the signal needs to get to the satellite and back. Since you want to be
able to point an antenna to the satellite, it has to be a stationary
satellite. The distance of a stationary satellite is pretty much fixed. So
the only way she can claim a shorter latency is when she compares a
satellite that's straight over your head with one that's just a bit above
the horizon... Don't know where their satellites are, and I don't know
where the "industry average" satellites are. But "1/3 of the industry
average" sounds like marketing speak :)  Ask for latency in milliseconds.

> and that VPN's, and VoIP are well supported. 

Ask which VPN protocol if you're interested in VPN at all. A common one is
PPTP (Microsoft), another common one is IPSec (not sure who came up with
this, but it seems wider supported). Which one to use depends mostly on the
router equipment that you're planning on using.

> I don't see how VoIP would work well with 700+ ms latency, 

Not well, but possible. Probably not very attractive in the USA, with the
possibilities you have through standard POTS lines. This can be different
in other locations where sometime international phone service is much more
expensive.

Gerhard

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