Local Terrestrial Wireless Broadband Services

StarLAN Consulting Services strongly recommends Air-Pipe of Spokane as your first choice for wireless broadband connectivity.  Air-Pipe's network is based upon Motorola's Canopy™ system.  Designed from the ground up to provide wireless networks from 1000 feet to 25 miles, Motorola Canopy™ is the leading edge technology for high-speed, wireless Internet access. It is a proprietary technology, making it one of the most robust and secure wireless technologies on the market. How secure is it? The US government uses Motorola Canopy™ equipment in military and disaster recovery deployments. It is both secure and reliable.

Motorola Canopy™ is not Wi-Fi, it does not succumb to interference from common consumer electronics and appliances. It is not 802.11 wireless. Motorola Canopy™ is designed for long distance high-speed Internet Access. 802.11, 2.4GHz, or Wi-Fi by any other name, is designed for 10 to 1000 feet only. Visit the Motorola Canopy™ website and learn more about it. Better still, Visit the Air-Pipe website for a complete rundown on their technology and availability in your area.

Satellite Broadband Services

Up until recently, VSAT systems and services capable of delivering true network connectivity and support for mature applications and communications protocols were very expensive. A typical ground station could cost in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $20,000 and service costs could run $2000 to $3000 per month or more. Now, this class of equipment can run as little as $2000 or less installed; monthly service fees can run as little as $100 or less. This puts enterprise-class satellite broadband gear, service and performance within the reach of small business owners, and at a very attractive initial price and low overall total cost of ownership.

Business and enterprise class satellite-based networking systems operate upon entirely different standards than those of the consumer-grade products. Bandwidth on demand (BOD), committed information rates (CIR), hardware-based TCP acceleration and Optimized Spectral Shaping on the return channels are just some of the areas in which enterprise-class systems such as LinkStar or iDirect trump consumer-grade VSAT systems. What all of this translates to is higher performance, much greater reliability and the ability to handle the advanced communications protocols that business requires. This means that remote-access packages such as Microsoft's RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and Citrix Metaframe work well enough to be usable, and VoIP becomes a practical and cost-saving reality.

Here's what dedicated, high-performance systems such as Air-Pipe, LinkStar and iDirect explicitly allow you to do:

• Voice over IP. This means that telephone-over-internet services such as Skype and Nuvio are clear and usable.
• VPN support. IPSec and SSL-based VPNs (virtual private networks) connections can operate reliably at near wire rate, but it is also worth your while to investigate some of the low-cost hardware-based VPN accelerator/termination systems that are now available.
• Network support. LinkStar, for example, clearly and explicitly states that their system is designed for multiple workstations and multiple TCP/IP connections.
• Remote access. Those of us who want to access our work environments or applications from home will have a great experience using the LinkStar or iDirect products. Remote access tools such as GoToMyPc, Windows Remote Desktop and Citrix Metaframe clients work much the way they do over conventional cable or DSL-based connections, and they operate at near wire rate.

The Takeaway:

If you want to do any of the things listed above, then you must purchase a product and service that treats your use and applications as if you were on a real network, and not some hack sitting on top of a system primarily meant for TV. If you even think that you even might want to do any of the things listed above, then look to a service such as Air-Pipe, EchoSat, LinkStar or iDirect for a solid and affordable solution - residential satellite services simply cannot support these things.