best isp

[jonic]

Can anybody enlighten me as to the best ISP provider to choose? We plan to join ARC 2002. Also any info on telephone adapters. Thinking of also installing an Iridium system.My partner is a writer so needs to be able to send fairly hefty e-mails.What would be the most cost effective method?

Thanks all.

 

[ccscott49]

The editor of YM or one of the mags, just did the ARC with an iridium phone, sending reports in, I think he was going to write a report about it in YM or YW, it may now be done, try asking Kim.

 

[jonic]

Thanks. Sorry but very new user......who is Kim?
Good luck for friday.

 

[ccscott49]

Sorry, Kim is the mopderator on the forum, if you ask him on the forum thing at the bottom of the page, he should get back to you, or put another thread on, with subject: question for Kim, that should make him rise from the depths. Somebody else should know!!!

 

[Giles]

Mailasail.com offer a great ISP specifically designed with Iriduim in mind.
Ed Wildgoose (the main man there) is very helpful. The servers at mailasail.com strip out all redundant information (like server hops, trailers, adverts and attachments) from the email. It can also auto-delete emails over a certain size. This makes your email as small as possible (and thus fast as possible to download so less $$$) You can even have emails sent to your Iridium handset as text messages. (Longer emails are split into several text messages)

He also stores a copy of the original email in a separate folder that you can access over the web. So you can get the original email with adverts/attachments from an internet cafe when it would be cheaper.

Ed also offers a great little Text web-browser that allows you to browse the internet through his servers. His servers then strip out all pictures and redundant info and sends a MUCH smaller web-page to you. Makes browsing the web through your Sat phone feasible.

Web site is www.mailasail.com

 

[chrisrixon]

Here are some links I was sent, probably no use but at least the links are free!
Chris

http://www.motosat.com/mate_001.htm slow speed / calm sea tracking dish
$1,595 upto $5000 for mil spec.

http://www.btopenworld.com/satellite/
BTs *two way* internet £70/month for 500Kbps (for residents of Scotland and
Northern Ireland only :-()

http://www.aramiska.com
*two way* £99/month for 2 Mbps (pan european)

http://www.satellite-adsl.co.uk/home/section1.asp
*two way* £159/month 4Mbps downstream / 128Kbps upstream

http://www.europeonline.com/offers.html
*one way* 150Euro/year for 2Mbps downstream only

http://www.xanticbroadband.com/
*one way* 40 Euro/month 1.5Mbps downstream only

http://www.ipviasat.net/
*one way* £20/month for 512kbs max 1GB month

 

[Guest]

Yachting Monthly had a very good cost comparison in the Sept 2000 edition which we reprinted in SUAS 4th edition. It may be a bit out of date already, but is a good first indicator.

For ISP, we use compuserve. We tried AOL, but were always running up huge bills for surcharges. Now that AOL has bought up Compuserve, their serivce has started to deteriorate, and I suspect they are downgrading. Also I cannot get compuserve 4.0.2 to work properly on windows XP.

William Cooper

 

[chrisrixon]

Re: best isp, AOL

I'm surprised the AOL charges wern't swamped by phone charges. Were you using a local chip and mobile phone provider?

 

[dk]

Hi

It was the Editor of YW, Andrew Bray, that did it last year. I set the Iridium handset up with the help of another programmer after many others' efforts had failed. During our crossing we emailed daily reports back to the YBW office and the ARC office using my fsmail.net account (Freeserve's webmail network which is similar to Microsoft's Hotmail - ie it can be used from any PC, anywhere).

Iridium is slow, at only 2.4Kbps (9.6K with compression), so it took around 3 minutes per page of text, but at 97p/min it won't break the bank.

Alternatively, you can use the new Inmarsat mini-C for email (it is faster, but more expensive and it doesn't have a voice link), or mini-M for both.

Since returning I have got a new Iridium handset (Motorola 9505) and installed it with my laptop without a hitch. The phone is not as cheap as the older 9500, but it works well and comes with an external antenna, 12V charger etc.

Duncan