Sunday, December 2, 2007

Moving in cyberspace like a turtle.

The Fuso Szulc is equipped with a Motosat Internet satellite device in order to travel in cyberspace.

This is a fantastic invention, mostly because it can run on solar energy.
Wherever one is, connection with human existence can be made.

This was the good news.
There is a gap between the theory and the practice.

Two issues are disturbing the happiness of having a Datastorm Satellite system.

The first issue is that when arrived on a location the system is switched on.
First, the system uses its build-in GPS to determine where one exactly is.
Based on that finding, what takes a couple of minutes, the “search” button on the system can be pushed.
The satellite disk on the roof starts moving and should go to the satellite it is programmed to find.
The SatMex 5.
It does find a satellite.
The disk moves slightly up.
The disk moves slightly down.
The disk moves slightly left.
The disk moves slightly right.
This goes on for 5 to 15 minutes and eventually it gives up.
Slowly it moves back into the “stow” position.
When the “search” button is pushed again, the satellite disk goes back up.
It looks again for the SatMex 5 and the second time it always finds it.
Within 10 minutes after making it search for the second time the Fuso Szulc is on line.

Having to try two times makes accessing the Internet a lengthy procedure.
At least half an hour.
Why the Datastorm Satellite system can’t find the correct satellite the first time is a mystery.
Has it do with the settings?
With the way the software is programmed?

There is a forum on the Internet of Datastorm users.
Where all kind of problems people experience are discussed.
This particular problem has not been found there.
And because there have been so many issues with the Fuso Szulc and still are, the effort has not been made yet to make a posting on the Datastorm forum, to explain the problem and ask for advice.

The second issue with the Datastorm Satellite system is the speed.
This is a problem Datastorm users complain about on the forum.
The Datastorm Satellite system is becoming more and more slow.
Unbelievably slow.
It can take 5 minutes for a website to load.
Why is this?
One clue is that the speed is not slow all the time.
Often the speed is as promised and websites download quickly, TV programs can be seen and SKYPE phone calls can be made.
But more and more this usual higher speed is not available.
Especially certain days of the week and specific hours.

Obviously this has to do with the amount of people who use the Datastorm Satellite system.
Probably the company Datastorm is renting capacity on the SatMex 5 satellite.
The more customers Datastorm is getting, the more people have to share the available capacity.
Now a reasonable man would say that a company like Datastorm needs to stick to the promises of the internet-speeds they make.
Meaning that when more people become customers of Datastorm, the company should rent more capacity on the satellite.

If it is not a matter of capacity of the Satellite but another problem causing the system to be super slow, Datastorm should do something about that.

We must remember that for the customer there is no alternative.
Besides Datastorm there are no other companies one can switch to.
To have better and faster Internet connection.

It is about 40 % of the time, that the Datastorm system is so slow that it can only be used to send and receive e-mails.
This problem is experienced by all customers locked to the SatMex 5 and Datastorm.
A change can only come if enough customers start to protest.






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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sure is funny how you are a photographer, yet I have noticed ther lack there of in your posts. With all the traveling you do could you show us all of the places you are always complaining about?

Anonymous said...

Datastorm may be inadvertantly hurting itself with overloaded satellites. Verizon and other companies with their high speed cards are starting to draw customers away.

Regarding your troubles connecting, if you have a D3 controller, drop the Trigger setting a few points lower to increase detection sensitivity for the sat. signal.

Anonymous said...

I agree, a blog by a photographer shouls have lots of pics !