on Mon, Oct 01, 2001 at 06:21:04PM +0100, Hereward Cooper ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: > Hi there, > > Has anyone had _any_ experience with 'beam' satellite internet access. > It sounds pretty (very!) cool, and you can get it _anywhere_ in Europe. > I was wondering if it will work on linux, or you _have_ to use the devil > OS?
Something to consider on any satellite internet access is latency. Even if you bandwidth is high, the satellite link itself is going to add at least 0.25 seconds to outbound or inbound traffic -- that's a net latency of a half second. We've tried optimized payloads and more efficient fuels, but light only goes so fast. The above is for single-hop and neglects all other network effects. For a two-hop connection (e.g.: satellite EU to satellite US), you're looking at closer to a second. Figure another 100-300ms for the ground-based portion(s) of the link. This won't effect your file downloads, but remote interactive sessions and any interactive activities (games, etc.) will be effected. Protocols requiring negotiation will also take much longer to transact each negotiation sequence. Peace. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the brave http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the free Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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