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StarBand Service Plans |
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StarBand Service Plans |
| StarBand Service | Typical Install Location | Download Speeds | Upload Speeds | VPN Usage? | Static IP Offered? | Dialup Access? | # E-mail Accts |
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Nova 1000
Residential
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Residential
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Up to 1 mbps
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Up to 128 kbps
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No
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1 static IP address
available ($4.99/mo)
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10 free hours per month
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10 with 10 MB of storage
each
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Nova 1500 SOHO |
Small Office/ Home Office
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Up to 1.5 mbps
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Up to 256 kbps
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No
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1 static IP address
included. Blocks of five available.
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10 free hours per month
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15 with 500 MB of storage
in primary, 10 MB in secondaries
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Note: StarLAN CS strongly recommends that prospective StarBand Nova 1500 customers take a serious look at BroadSky Networks' comparable offerings. The bottom line: BroadSky Networks commercial-class offerings are a far better choice for business- and enterprise-class usage if VoIP and IPSec VPNs play a key role in your business operations.
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Truth in Advertising Statements
Caveat 1: StarLAN Consulting Services does not recommend StarBand or WildBlue for those who wish to make use of IPSec VPNs for remote connectivity solutions. IPSec VPN speeds over the either network are more than likely to be too slow for most users. Some VPN clients fare well, but a dialup speeds only.
Caveat 2: Remote connectivity solutions such as Citrix Metaframe / Presentation Server work very well over StarBand's lower-latency network.
Caveat 3: Voice over IP services such as Vonage, Skype and Nuvio will not work well or reliably over the StarBand network.
Caveat 4: StarBand has recently instituted a 'Fair Access' policy. Here's what this means: if your downloads exceed either 2 GB (Nova 1000) or 5GB (Nova 1500) within a 7 day period, they throttle the speeds to less then 128Kb, they limit the amount of connections such as web pages that can be open. While this is a very generous policy compared to other providers, it is something to consider. However, StarBand is unique in that they do not monitor network usage betwee nthe hours of 9:00 PM PST and 3:00 AM PST. This is what's known as 'The Happy Hour.' Bon appétit - all you can eat!
The Takeaway: StarBand is an excellent value for the money for convential small office / small business usage. If your Internet connectivity needs dictate the use of IPSec VPNs, VoIP service or enterprise-class remote connectivity products such as Citrix, the BroadSky Networks range of products and services will be a far better match because all of those services and solutions are explicitly supported at wire speeds over BroadSky Networks commercial-class offerings.