Satellite Internet vs. Ethernet: Why Satellite is Years Behind

There are plenty of times and places to apply satellite based network services. Many people who have remote locations run an entire branch on one satellite modem. However for a larger network infrastructure or for packet heavy communications, Ethernet services perform vastly better. That’s why businesses are weighing satellite internet vs. Ethernet.

Understanding How Packets Create Network Speed and Quality

Even Satellite Today understands the problem that even advanced satellite modems encounter, data packet partitioning. When information passes through a network, it sends packets of data to the end destination. These packets can be large or small, but each bit of information that needs to be passed is bunched into a packet for the network.
Satellite modems are very capable of sending large packets of data, however they run into issues if they need to send a lot of packets, such as 20 people using VOIP providers to communicate. The modem may be able to handle eight large packets of data, but when it starts to receive more packets than it can handle, quality will suffer if the modem has fail safe protocols, or lock up and reboot. For this reason, it is especially important to carefully consider not only the data speeds of the satellite modem, but also the packet capacity as well.
Ethernet services work on a slightly different principle to take advantage of the hardwired, reliable connections called Asynchronous Transfer Mode, or ATM for short. Instead of allocating a number of packets and sending large volumes of data across the network, Ethernet modems chop up that large data into smaller packets and give them a 16-bit code of address information called an ATM tax in the IT world. This packet allocation protocol allows the network to handle infinite number of packets coming through because at the receiving end, that 16-bit address line tells the receiving modem how the packet is meant to be reassembled.

What Does This Mean to the Large and Small Business Owner?

There are some remote locations where satellite internet is all that is available. In those situations with smart IT planning, a hybrid system of Ethernet routing and a satellite modem can adequately satisfy the needs of the business or operations. However, the reason satellite internet is years behind, is that even with a well managed suite of Ethernet services, the satellite modem and data transfer protocols will always be a bottleneck that can be compensated for, but never alleviated.
An Ethernet based network resulting in a cable or fiber-optic network connection creates a lateral network. Rather than data circulating naturally, only to slow down at the smallness of the pipeline, Ethernet with its ATM protocol can perform almost outrageous feats of networking such as sending one ultimate data files through two routers using standard ATM packets, coping with hundreds of different packet sources requiring data communication of both large and small file size, and Ethernet services also provide IT teams many opportunities to redesign the network to alleviate congestion, or clamp down on an insufficient network.

Making the Ultimate Decision

When deciding on your routing and modem technologies, you the business owner know best what to do for your company, but consider these pivot points before you invest too much in either technology.

1. Consider the actual size of data files passed over the network.
2. The number of packets transferred at one time, think about how many computers, devices, and VOIPs are connecting to the modem.
3. Fiber-optic and cable line development, which can give you more bandwidth often at a cheaper rate, which disfavors satellite.
4. A long distance from cable and fiber-optic services make satellite ideal

I hope this explains Satellite Internet vs. Ethernet. I’d love to hear your comments.

8 Ways To Improve The Wi-Fi Capabilities In Your Laptop

Firstly we need to give thanks to the development in radio communications that has made us live in an unplugged world. Often we cannot, or rather do not want to, think of wired internet any more. It has become a thing of the distant past. With the increasing innovation in the technical world, the majority of us enjoy wireless internet access.
Today’s wireless networking systems are easy to set up but whether it is easy to manage or not is a big question. One of the major problems encountered by the majority of the wireless internet users is a weak Wi-Fi signal which prevents a good data transmission speed, causing connectivity problems.
Next time you have some urgent work to get done and find your laptop’s wireless networking capabilities extremely slow or cannot find a signal, here are a few important things you can implement to boost your laptop’s wireless capabilities to the next level.
#1. Upgrade your wireless hardware: Recent laptops are equipped with 802.11g or 802.11n Wi-Fi circuitry and if your router is an 802.11b device that is the speed that you will receive. Therefore, upgrade your wireless hardware so that it matches the capabilities of your laptop. Nowadays, with the increasing capabilities of the wireless connection, the price of the wireless equipment like any other technology have invariably gone down.
#2. Expand or repeat the Wi-Fi signal. To add more strength to the connection a wireless amplifier, also called a repeater or range expander, can be an advantage that picks up signals from the router and then retransmits it. To make the best use of the wireless amplifier place it somewhere near the edge of the existing signal. The device then rebroadcasts the signal to cover other areas for the connection.
#3. Upgrade the standard antenna of the router from the omnidirectional design. The significance of the Omni antenna is to provide a signal in all directions. This directional signal allows you to target the location where you want the signal. However, check with the manufacturer or electronic suppliers to learn more information about purchasing a replacement antenna.
#4. Install an external adpater. If you want to boost the capabilities of your older laptop’s wireless hardware, simply disable its built-in Wi-Fi circuit and antenna and install an external adapter.  This usually comes with a large antenna and uses the up-to-date technologies. You can plug the external Wi-Fi devices directly into your laptop’s USB port or attach to it by a cable.
#5. Change your wireless channel for firmware. Wireless signals get broadcast on several channels. If one channel seems to provide a lot of interference change the channel through the router or access point’s configuration settings. However, if the problem still persists, completely reconfigure the router or access point using Linux based firmware or a DD-WRT program. But make sure that the equipment is compatible with the new firmware.
#6. Reposition your equipment for better Wi-Fi capabilities in your laptop. Try to place your router or access point in a central location, preferably where the signal will not be congested by thick walls or obstructing furniture. Also avoid placing your router or access point near any metal surfaces. Metals interfere with the signal broadcaster.
#7. Check transmission power settings – as some network adapters support the connection by adjusting their transmission power.  This setting can be adjusted through the adapter’s driver interface program with other wireless profile settings and Wi-Fi channel number. To ensure the strongest signal possible set the transmission power to maximum or 100%. However, if your laptop is being run in a power saving mode, this setting will automatically decrease the adapter’s range and signal strength
#8. Disable the network hogs that run in the background. Always check how many apps are running in the background of the normal user’s laptop. It is no surprise that background tasks can be the cause of a slowdown. Disable unused applications or notifications to maximize primary task speed.
No matter how long you use your wireless laptop, following the above mentioned tips will certainly help you to enhance the Wi-Fi capabilities in your laptop.