Brian I use the directway commercial dish when the hurricaines hit. To be honest it is faster than dsl and slower than cable. A lot of it depends on the dish and the modem you are using. I get 2200 down and 400 up all day long. If it works for me as a website owner I am sure you will be happy with it. My provider of the equipment is right here in Gaithersburg.

Thanks a bunch Steve. The worst problem with Satellite for my line of work (computer and internet security and compliance) is VPN, SSL, SSH, and other secure means of communication. Satellite providers usually rewrite the entire TCP stack which means that they cut down on repeated transmissions, which totally sucks for secure communications.

In other words, if your secure link requires 100 of 100 packets, DSL, Cable Modem, and even dial-up repeats, repeats, repeats, repeats, the packets until you get all 100 of them. Satellite, since you pay by the bite, cuts down on the repeating of packets, meaning if you don't get what you need on the first or second pass, you are fooked. This is my main concern, but I will still probably go with a satellite provider.

Comcast actually called last night, and said they could provide a cable modem to the location, so we shall see. There is a large neighborhood just down the street, and I would love to just order my own T1 and provide my own line of sight broadband service for a side money maker, BUT the entire area is wooded which totally blows that out of the water.

directway was about 599$ for the dish and then about 60$ a month about 6 months ago