Nicodemus wrote:
Precisely why if I was forced to do satellite download/charts, I would want a system that uses POTS for the upload. At least I've cut that in half and double my chances at grabbing that elusive liquidity.
Have to agree...this is about the best I've been able to come up with. For the data, the satellite delay is, well, okay. For that up load tho (order entry) the phone line takes the cake. What I've done is just what youdescribed: one computer on a 56k phone line..that is the one I use for order entry (IB, or course). The Gateway uses the dish for the volumes of data I get from Realtick plus the squawk box. If any bad weather moves in, I can terminate the satellite feed and do a dial up on that computer quick as a flash. Okay maybe not *that* fast but within 45 seconds for sure.
All the above is why I have two pots lines and three ISP's (if you want to include starband). Each ISP conects to a different backbone. Want more? I have my cel phone programmed to dial IB, just in case all the shi* hits the fan.
Some useless knowledge you may or may not want to know: Life would sure be easier if I could do the whole thing using just the dish...and I've tried it several times...but no joy. The satellite latency adds perhaps a second or more before I see the green bar that says my order has hit the NYSE. Using the phone line, it is normally RIGHT NOW! But what really hurts is when the satellite does one of their packet dropouts. You are waiting for that bar to change to the appropriate color and: yup, nothing! That's right, some packets don't make it and I believe the error checking stuff in the software or whereever must ask for another resend and hell, that can take a whole bunch of time. When you're waiting for a confirmation. the wait is torture.
Here's the topper: When I do a "ping" to just about anywhere except Starband.net, I get time outs on 50% of the pings! When I ping Starband.net, usually they all go through...at 900 ms or more!
I'll tell you guys, I have been seriously considering a burstable T-1 or something along those lines...UUNET says they can hook me up for $1500 and that includes the Cisco router. It is really a turn key type of thing...all I have to do is write monthly checks of about $875 a month for all of this. Verizon is working up a quote for me and I'll have it this week. But all this is such overkill that I can't really justify it from a financial pov. Yet.
Regards,
Jim