Thinking of switching to DirecWay Pro?

The flat truth about DWay Pro is that I once had it (dual 4000 modems, small dish w/mount, and it cost $89.95 monthly. My download speed was about 700Kbps 'tops' ...I don't think my 'up' was any better than 50Kbps. Your FAP limit would be 500MB per four hours. Rain would wash me out at a Signal Strength of 71 ...90 was my highest (and I have a pretty decent satellite site). Overall it was a "set it and forget it" system. The modems do RUN HOT ...so I kept a tiny fan moving the air through them! (The modems are housed in twin boxes that have more holes for heat to escape than Swiss Cheese)!

I have a four month old dish, modems, wiring, etc that was used for DirecWay Pro, then I switched to DirecWay Commercial (their very best/fastest system) on OCT25, 2004. That cost me $1,000 up front for a DW6000 modem, a .98m dish and "radio" (transmitter/receiver) and "pro" installation (they won't let you have it unless an idiot installs it). Price is either $99.00 a month for 1.2Mbps 'down' and 100Kbps 'up' with a FAP threshold of 500MB, or the plan I bought into offers 1.5Mbps 'down' with an 'enhanced' upload of 256k (or higher ...sometimes THEIR speed site will say 300Kbps or more, but it's inaccurate ...it's more like 128Kbps I believe. FAP is 800MB every four hours and the 'bucket' fills up @ 100Kbps per hour. With the Professional system the 'bucket' fills at 50Kbps per hour ...or however that works other than being an excuse for them to screw their users out of bandwidth so that they can make even more money offa ya!
True speed never gets much above 1,000Mbps with the Commercial system, and realistically, especially during business hours, it will drop pathetically to as little as 30Kbps (which I experienced today and was not exactly pleased when they told me the problem was the "type of clouds" ...HA (my Signal Strength was a solid 97 ...which is my maximum). I imagine that their Commercial system that runs @ 1.2Mbps is similar in nature. (The 1.2Mbps system is also called the Small Business Package btw). Both Commercial systems are shooting satellite G4R @1201MHz. (I believe that the DW4000 Professional system is still beaming down from SAT-MEX 5 unless things have changed).

The nice part about the Pro system is that if you get a .98m dish is that rainfade practically becomes a thing of the past. I am unsure if the DW4000's are still available for purchase though. Seems that I read they were, or were going to be phased out ...but they'll continue to support them of course. If you'd like a very well kept system that hasn't seen any harsh weather or "overwork" ...make me an offer. (It's still attached to the office and everything is in "primo" condition)!

Personally, I would rather take a buttermilk douche than buy into DirecWay again (and I'm a male). The problem is that they are overselling the available bandwidth. When there should only be 10,000 users, they've sold 43,000 systems and counting!!!!! Good grief!!!!. In other words, there are so many danged Pro and Commercial users (on G4R anyway), that getting online during the day has gotten to be a real challenge over the past three weeks or so ...and no amount of Tech Support can help you when it is "net congestion to the max" that is knocking down your speed. They'll lie about, put you on hold until the phone company disconnects you ...etc. I'm stuck with it because there just isn't anything else in my area of the world except 56k's that run less than 20 ...so "they got me good." I'm pretty much limited to nights if I wish to get anything done at a decent speed. You'd have to ask a DW4000 user if they are experiencing similar behavior (I wasn't one month ago, then again, one month ago my new system was "cooking" too ...so there you have it).

Do as you wish, but I wouldn't recommend DWay to my worst enemy. If you wish to read about DirecWay in livid detail from about 370 disgruntled customers, please visit www.DirecWaysux.com ...they'll tell you about everything you'll want to hear (and wish you hadn't perhaps)? Shocked

On the flip side, there are thousand of people who are completely happy with DWay. Me ...I am not happy in the least. I feel that I've been burned badly without any recourse. And that my friend ...is frustrating as all get out!

The Reverend