Satellite Internet Forum

[rickenbilly]

This topic has already been tackled before but that dates back a bit. (2004 and 2005).

Would like to know who can provide me with up to date info about dish sizes, modems and ISP which and who will cover Cuba.

Are there no Canadian/Mexican/Venezuelan or other non-USA  satellites and or ISP around, who cover Cuba. These because of the embargo.

Equipment could be send to a third country. I do have some computer knowledge with Mac and Windows.

Any advise is welcome and thanks in advance.

Rickenbilly  

[rickenbilly]

Read 11 times! Answers none! Nobody knows?

Hope you guys and/or girls can help me out.

Rickenbilly

[Larry Cote]

There are beams that cover Cuba so technically there is no problem providing service.

The difficulty is just political. Check out the current US export regulations if they change in your favour then it should not be too long before you can get service.

[Dunhill Systems]

Even IF you can bypass the USA embargos (we are in the Dom.Rep.)

THAN

still you have the provider issue, CANT BE USA so, it has to be Hispasat - expensive and mostly unstable. I really don't know what type of technicians they have there.

THAN

You will have to deal with the political situation in Cuba, and they don't like any uncontrolled communication.

The only ones we could get around this are registered diplomats and embassies, but still they have to do a bunch of paperwork.

[bajadudes]

Starband dishes do work in Cuba. That I know.

How they physically get there I don't know and even if someone knew they would be crazy to admit it here on a public forum. If you can get drugs into a country you can certainly get a VSAT in there.

I hear a .98 dish with a nova modem on AMC-6 has been proven on the southern end and a standard .75 Nova on AMC-6 is marginal but mostly operational on the northern end.

[Dunhill Systems]

And if the service provider is USA based, he can be in BIG trouble, when the USA government find out that he provide satellite service in Cuba. If the service provider is from another country, nobody really knows what (big brother) USA will do.

Signals enough
Equipment getting in - no problem
connecting ...... (and staying alive and out of jail as client) ?

[bajadudes]

As long the customer is using a USA address and credit card it's the customer that will get in trouble not the ISP or sat provider. They can't assume responsibility for what a customer chooses to do with the equipment. It's the jail time in Cuba that would give me pause but I do think it noble to help those willing to take the risk and resist an authoritarian regime.

[pgannon]

Hmm. I would venture to say that the network operator/service provider has greater responsibility.  For most VSAT systems to work you need the latitude/longitude of the site.  If, as a network operator, a lat/long reading shows up in the middle of Cuba (or Syria, Sudan, Iran, or N. Korea), wouldn't you expect them to have some responsibility to disable service and report to the proper authorities?

There are surely ways to fake this out, but most outside the business wouldn't know about it unless the network operator assisted, thus making them liable if caught.

I concur with the desire to help bring communication to the "resisters," but it would be better to get a government sponsored program to do this, than do it as a law-breaking individual or company!

[bajadudes]

Both HughesNet and Starband modems are now auto ranging so there is no need to have a specific long/lat entered for the account to work. There is literally no way to figure out where the modem is deployed at any given moment.

Now you may say that the ISP would know the delay and therefore be able to deduce where the modem is from that, but in reality all they would be able to deduce is that it is somewhere in an arc about 100 miles wide and many thousands of miles long stretching across the united states and into Cuba.  Any equidistant point to the satellite will have the same delay.  Imagine stretching a long string from the satellite to Cuba and scribing a line in an arc across the USA and you get the picture. Viva la resistance !!!

[lemuel]

Both HughesNet and Starband modems are now auto ranging so there is no need to have a specific long/lat entered for the account to work.

Unless you can produce supporting documentation from each manufacturer for each modem currently fielded, I'm afraid I'm going to have to challenge that statement.

[bajadudes]

I have well over 300 accounts in the field with starband and they are all on HBR transponders, each modem can be moved anywhere and will auto range on boot up and coordinate delay with the NOC. This is why it is used by the mobile crowd.

Same with HN. look at all the mobile Rv customers they have, a simple google of Hughesnet or Starband tripod satellite INTERNET will return a lot of dealers. There are even yahoo groups devoted to the subject. In the early days when *B was first out it would not work unless the delay was set properly and then you had to do a zip code trick along the arc to get them to work OCONUS but this is no longer necessary. commission a modem in Raleigh NC and no matter where you take it it will boot up, auto range and work just fine.

Look at my website, I would not be selling so many portable systems and have a 5 star platinum rating for superior customer support and high volume sales unless it worked and had the tacit approval from Starband to do so.

If you want testimonials I would be happy to provide customer e-mails and you can ask them yourself. I swear I am not pulling your leg. BTW the modems in question are:

Starband: 360, 481, 484, and the new Nova series, also HughesNet 6000, 7000, 7000s

All auto ranging without any intervention required from the NOC.

[lemuel]

Starband: 360, 481, 484, and the new Nova series, also HughesNet 6000, 7000, 7000s

Thank you, that list proved my point. It only identifies modems that are "self-hosted". You've neglected to consider the thousands of PC-based modems still in commission. Not to mention that they're still being sold daily on eBay. As you've already intimated, PC-based modems must be told exactly where they're located before they can even sync up with the network timing loop.

PS: I don't think the 360 belongs on your list. Or did you forget about the "Mission Control" software?

[bajadudes]

360 accounts are also auto ranging, has nothing to do with PC based.  In fact I also am pretty sure that DW's 4000 modem can be moved without any issue at all.  Try going over to Datastormusers and asking about the 4000 there. Don Bradner runs that forum and he is a great guy. They are the HN experts and can tell you definitively if the 4000 is also easily moved and can be auto ranged.

Please post back here what you find out so we have a record for future inquiries on this forum.

regards, Max

[lemuel]

Don and I go back a long way, far enough not to waste his time with something I already know the answer to. You seem to be laboring under the misconception that having an auto-range capability automatically means that a modem doesn't need to know it's location. Two-way PC-based systems like the DW4000 and SB360 auto-range each and every time an ACP validation (or co-pol/cross-pol re-validation) is performed. NOC intervention not required. But both have to be told where they are located before ranging - whether auto, scheduled, or manual - will complete successfully.

I have an commissioned DW4000 online right now, I know it auto-ranges in conjunction with each ACP validation or re-validation - whether user initiated or automatic. I admit never having any hands-on experience with the SB360. But I have found the page (23) in the Starband 360 operator's manual (STR-IM22-7.02) that illustrates where modem location is typed in by the user; Mission Control/Customer Input Wizard/Configure Satellite Delay. Enter ZIP or Lat/Lon.

[bajadudes]

Well Like I said I am not an expert on HN systems but I do know that no NOC intervention is required and it seems that with the Hughes systems if you move them too far you have to use Don's tool to let them know where they are before they will do an exact auto range. I am not sure exactly how the tool works, what it changes or exactly when you need to use it.

Now for Starband I do know quite a bit and labor under no impression just solid fact, over 300 customers and hundreds more installs. In the early days of the 180 and 360 equipment it did not matter if you put in a different zip code or long/lat in the modem configuration tool, if the NOC had you set at a certain location nothing you did on your end was going to change it unless you found a zip code in the USA that was equidistant to the satellite from your OCONUS location (hence the same delay value). Then you had to do an address change with the NOC to get it to work. Needless to say this was a PITA. About a year after the introduction of the 360 Starband began upgrading all it's hubs with HBR technology (hub burst receiver technology) (except cluster 50 more on that later) and sending downloads to customers with new firmware. From that point on all 360's and future series modems did not care where they were located. On boot up the TX would flash a few times and the modem calculated it's delay and would come online.

There here is absolutely no cross-pol (ACP) or co-pol validation that takes place with Gilat modems. If you are looking at the correct bird and have your polarization angle even close to correct you are online. It is up to the individual user to call the automated system (CVACS) and make sure you are meeting alignment criteria. If not you better correct it because they monitor all VSATs and in the next 24 to 48 hours you will get flagged. If you are not too far off they send you and the dealer of record a polite e-mail to correct it or you get shut off by a certain deadline. If you are really incompetent and are way off they turn you off immediately and wait for you to call in wondering what happened. If you repeatedly get flagged and are a bad boy they put you on cluster 50 which is not auto ranging and requires you to be in a fixed location. Violate the antenna alignment often enough on 50 and they shut down your site permanently and revoke your certification.

This is a very big difference between Hughes Net and Gilat. With HN if you don't pass you don't get online. With Gilat you get online even if you are off on cross but risk being shut down if not corrected. I can emphatically and without reservation state that all 360 modems are completely auto ranging and require absolutely no reconfiguring with a new zip code or long/lat if moved. I know, I still have around 100 customers doing it right now.

The original point I was trying to make, and I believe I did, is that there is no way for an ISP like HN or *B to know where your modem is and that they in no way have to be part of a process that enables you to move your modem to a location other than where it was originally commissioned. In other words, they don't have to help you and they can't be held liable if you want a working system in Cuba. It's up to you and your responsibility alone if you want to take that risk.