Even these days, when it seems like just about everyone I know has access to broadband internet, there are still a lot of people who don’t have access to it. Many of these folks are in rural areas where it might not make sense for the broadband providers to offer service due to the poor return on the investment that would be required to install the required cables or fiber optic lines.

Although internet via satellite has been available for a while now, the technology and speed is being improved upon to bring subscribers a better experience. DISH Network has joined forced with ViaSat to offer a brand-new bundled service that includes DISH Network satellite television and next-generation satellite broadband service.

Beginning in February, the new bundles will be available to subscribers starting at $79.98 and will feature up to 12 Mbps download and 3 Mbps internet upload speeds, around-the-clock telephone technical support at no additional charge and installation starting at $99.00.

"This is one more example of DISH meeting the needs of consumers," according to DISH CEO Joe Clayton. "The market potential for this new Internet service is substantial given the nearly eight million to 10 million mostly rural American households that are unserved and millions more left with slower broadband alternatives."

Bundling satellite TV and broadband internet service simplifies things for subscribers since they can enjoy both services with the convenience of a single installer, one customer service organization as well as a single bill.

DISH Teams with ViaSat For Broadband Internet Offering

Although new technology is not the highlight of this story, what is interesting is that a brand-new player is entering the broadband business. DISH Network is set to begin offering broadband internet service in selected areas of its home state of Colorado.

It appears that the company’s broadband offering will be part of a new “triple play” package that will offer TV, broadband internet and telephone service. This is something the cable industry has been doing for a while, but now it appears that they may be joined by DISH Network whose offerings of internet service have always been dependent on partnerships with other companies.

Since DISH will be offering the new service over its Liberty Bell service that resells telephone and internet service using CenturyLink’s telephone network, it appears that it will be some form of DSL service that they will be offering. This may offer some customers in their service area a nice alternative to broadband service from their local cable TV or other provider.

As someone whose broadband choice was limited to the local cable TV company for many years, I was quite happy to see my local telephone company finally bring DSL to my neighborhood. I was a bit skeptical about DSL at first since I have always heard that broadband over cable is so much faster.

I had been getting very good speed with my Comcast broadband service for a while with speeds sometimes reaching around 15 Mbps at times, even though I was paying for their least expensive broadband plan. There’s no doubt that the speed was very good.

Fairpoint, the local phone company, on the other hand was offering 7 Mbps which is pretty good for DSL, but I wondered how it would compare with Comcast. With Fairpoint offering me broadband for about half the price I was paying for Comcast’s service, I knew I had to give it a try.

I didn’t even wait a month before cancelling my Comcast broadband service. Despite the fact that my DSL service is not as fast as Comcast’s, it’s still fast enough for our needs. My experience indicates that speed was the only advantage Comcast’s broadband had over Fairpoint’s.

Here’s what else I have noticed: My DSL service is more reliable than my previous cable-based broadband service. Trust me, after years of using broadband over cable, there’s no question in my mind that DSL service is a lot more solid than cable. That may not be the case everywhere, but it sure is the way it worked out here.

My DSL modem very rarely resets or reboots itself while my cable modem was much more “moody.” It could go for weeks without a reboot at times and at other times it would reboot itself multiple times a day. This happened with the first cable modem I had which I leased from Comcast and also the cable modem I later purchased myself.

Downloading is another area where I have seen improvement. Although the speed is not quite as impressive as it was with cable, the reliability of it has improved dramatically. I often use an FTP client program to upload and download files to my websites. With cable I knew I could never queue up a large amount of files for transfer and have them complete successfully. The FTP program almost always hung at some point during the transfer process and I would have to restart it.

I was quite surprised to see that my FTP transfers always complete without a problem since I have switched to DSL. I always blamed my FTP client program for my previous problems, but now I know it was caused by the poor reliability of my cable connection.

I guess the real take-away from my experience is to encourage people to not shy away from trying DSL. It may not work as well for everyone as it has for me, but now that I am paying nearly half the price for broadband service that is more reliable, it was obviously the right choice for me.

The way DISH Network is talking about their decision to begin offering broadband service makes it sound like a bit of an experiment on their part to see how it works out. The company has indicated that if it goes well, they may expand the service and begin offering it in the 14 states where CenturyLink currently offers telephone service.

It looks like DISH Network may be getting serious about offering new services that have historically put it behind the curve in some aspects when compared with cable. Maybe it’s time for the cable industry to start looking over its shoulder a bit since service providers like DISH Network may be starting to move closer to the day when they will offer everything that cable currently has in their arsenal.

DISH Network Set To Offer Internet Service in Colorado

DISH probably does not offer as much on-demand content as cable television providers simply due to the nature of satellite technology vs. cable TV technology. However, it appears that DISH is ramping up its efforts to be more competitive in the on-demand arena.

I’ve not watched a whole lot of on-demand programming since I usually find enough current programming to record on my DVR to satisfy my TV watching desires. I did experiment with watching some on-demand TV programs some months ago, but the interface was rather cumbersome to use at the time and each program had to be downloaded to my DVR, which seemed to take a very long time.

Some time within the past few months, DISH Network completely revamped the on-demand interface for the ViP622 DVR (and probably others as well) and at the same time, seemed to break the on-demand capability of my DVR. At least I thought so.

Each time I would try to seek out an on-demand TV program to watch I would simply receive a message on my screen that said something like “You have not selected any titles. Please press BACK to return to the previous menu.”

The problem was that I could never get to a point to where I was able to even view on-demand programs to select from! A bit frustrating to say the least.

After a while I decided to call DISH Network and try to get the problem resolved. After working my way through a couple of lower-tier tech support people, I was finally able to get through to “advanced technical support” where one of the technicians tried to diagnose the problem. He led me through some diagnostic tests on my DVR which all passed with flying colors.

The technician then tried to access my DVR through the internet since it is indeed connected to my home broadband connection (a requirement if you want access to on-demand programming). He reported that it appeared that my DVR was trying to access the internet, but for some reason was not able to connect to DISH Network’s servers.

At that time the technician suggested that they simply send me a new DVR and I agreed. We finished out conversation and I hung up the phone.

A short time later as I sat watching TV it hit me. The problem was not with the DVR at all! The router that connects all the computers and other network-enabled devices to the internet in my house is also a firewall with built-in web proxy. It’s not a standard router that you can buy off the shelf at CompUSA or Best Buy, although I suspect some of those off-the-shelf routers might cause problems with DISH Network DVRs or other devices.

I had remembered that were certain programs on my PC that would not interact with certain servers on the internet unless I allowed the web proxy to be bypassed when accessing those sites on the net. It happens very rarely, but it does happen. The router solution I use (which actually runs on a dedicated PC) offers enormous flexibility, which is why I choose to use it.

I logged into the router and adjusted the settings to allow the DVR to access the internet without passing through the web proxy. Within an hour or so, the on-demand programming I was not able to access before was showing up on my DVR. The web proxy had been blocking the traffic from the DVR for some strange reason and was causing the problem with access to on-demand programming.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that DISH has made significant improvements in the on-demand programming functionality. Not only is there an improved user interface that is much more intuitive, the on-demand programming is now available immediately!

With the old interface, I would have to wait hours for the on-demand programming to download from the internet to my DVR, but now there is only a delay of around 5 or 10 seconds before you can begin watching on-demand programming. A very significant improvement!

The take-away from this post is that if you are not able to access on-demand programming from your DVR, check your internet router and see if you can exempt the DVR from any proxies or firewalls that might be blocking the DVR’s access.

Some routers allow you to designate a particular computer or other device as part of a DMZ or “demilitarized zone.” Placing your DVR (usually by using its IP address) in that zone may solve problems you have accessing on-demand programming from your DVR.

DISH on Demand Problems With My ViP622 DVR

A few weeks ago I received a post card from the local telephone company advertising the fact that their high-speed DSL service was finally available in my area. That was the day that Comcast’s monopoly on high-speed internet in my neighborhood ended.

I wasted no time getting on the phone with FairPoint (the local phone company) and getting the details regarding their DSL service. The representative was not able to tell me with certainty that DSL was available for my home and had to consult with their technical support people to be sure. She offered to call me back in a few days when she had the answer.

I heard back from her within the week and was told that DSL was indeed available for my home. I asked her about the various service levels and although my memory fails me at the moment, I believe there were three options, starting with a very slow connection that was also very inexpensive.

Coming from Comcast, which I will admit has provided good internet service here, I was interested only in the top-tier option which was said to offer a download speed of 7 Mbps. Obviously a bit slower than Comcast when you consider raw download speed, but for uses like web surfing, e-mail and VOIP, I figured there would be no significant difference. We’re not huge downloaders here, so losing a little download speed is not a big deal for us.

A week or two later FairPoint sent a tech to my home. They do a lot of self-installs these days, but due to the location of our home, they decided it was best to come out and verify that the lines were in good enough shape to handle DSL here.

When the technician was satisfied that the lines were in good shape, he installed the modem and we were up and running. We’ve been on DSL for nearly a month now and I am very satisfied with it so far. As expected, raw download speed is not quite as good as Comcast, but the speeds we are seeing equal what we got with Comcast most of the time. There were times when we would note that a Comcast download would really scream, but overall, I don’t see a whole lot of difference between Comcast and FairPoint DSL where speed is concerned.

To be fair to Comcast, we did not have their “Power Boost” (or whatever they call it) feature enabled on our connection since I downgraded the service level some time ago in order to reduce our monthly bill. I believe our Comcast connection was rated at 7 or 8 Mbps, but we did often see the speed exceed that level – something we don’t see with DSL, but frankly, we don’t care.

What I have noticed about FairPoint DSL is an improvement in stability. I spend at least 6 or so hours a day listening to radio programs via the internet here in my home office and was not uncommon to experience weird distortions and even disconnects when listening via Comcast. So far, DSL has been much more stable. I hear virtually no distortion and experience almost no disconnects now.

Although the download speeds don’t match Comcast’s overall, downloading files also seems more consistent with DSL when compared with Comcast. I would often note that the speed of a download with Comcast could fluctuate quite wildly while the downloads via DSL seem to reach a certain speed and remain stable until the download completes.

The above differences may be due to the “shared” nature of cable modem connections. I’m no expert, but my understanding is that a cable modem connection is sharing the available bandwidth with your neighbors while DSL offers a more direct connection to the phone company servers before the bandwidth is shared with other internet users. I’m sure that’s not the best description that’s ever been offered, and may not even be totally accurate, but that’s the way it has been explained to me.

Although Comcast did offer pretty good service while we had it, my big problem with them was the cost. I was paying about $64 per month just for broadband internet, and I never considered it a fair price. Since I have DISH Network and was not interested in TV from Comcast, I felt as though I was being penalized with higher prices.

I was a little surprised on Valentine’s Day when I called Comcast to cancel my internet service that they didn’t offer me any special deals to stay on as a customer, but maybe it’s because I did not tell them I was switching to FairPoint DSL. When asked the inevitable “why?” question, I simply told the Comcast rep that I simply no longer needed it. Perhaps the NBC deal has them feeling more comfortable about their financial future than they have in recent years.

I am paying about $33 per month for FairPoint DSL for 12 months. After that the price will increase to about $40 per month which is still about $15 less than Comcast. For us, it’s a worthwhile savings and the warm feeling inside I got from telling Comcast to take a hike was the icing on the cake.

I love the smell of burning monopolies in the morning. Good riddance Comcast!

A Valentine’s Day Present For Comcast

I think it’s safe to say that my kids spend far more time watching video on the internet than on TV. They spend hours watching YouTube videos and TV programs on sites like Hulu.com. Since they practically grew up with a mouse in their hands, they feel pretty natural parked in front of a computer monitor as opposed to the glowing tube I spent countless hours watching when I was a kid.

This move to online video entertainment is not lost on DISH Network. Today they have launched a brand-new website that will allow viewers to watch DISH Network programming online. As soon as I learned about DishOnline.com I went to the site and was able to log in easily using the same username and password that I use to access my DISH Network account online.

I took a few minutes to browse through the programming that was available and it appeared to be a pretty impressive amount of programming, including popular programs like 24, Big Brother, House and many more. At the moment the new service is in “Beta,” and the number of programs available seems to vary quite a bit from program to program.

Personally, I’ll still be doing most of my TV viewing in front of my 51” HDTV, but where I see this service really coming in handy for me is if I happen to miss an episode of one of my favorite programs. Even with my DVR, I sometimes screw up and manage to miss something I really wanted to see. DishOnline.com will be a very welcome resource during those times.

I’m not quite sure if I am ready to tell my kids about this yet. I’m a bit concerned that they will start using outrageous amounts of bandwidth and get us on the “naughty list” with Comcast who we depend on as the only broadband internet provider available in our area.

I’m a bit unclear so far on whether or not all this new content on the DishOnline.com site will be accessible from my DVR. If that’s the case, I’ll be able to catch those missed shows in all their 51” HDTV glory.

Obviously DISH Network subscribers will have the most to gain from the launch of the new site, although there is supposed to be some free content available for everyone, so at least it will give DISH a chance to showcase some of their features.

As soon as my wife is done watching “her shows” for the evening, I will go up and give the features of my DVR a thorough going-over to see if there are any new ones that give me access to all that programming on DishOnline.com.

DISH Network Extends Online Offerings

DISH Network is taking TV via internet to a new level with Sling technology, which allows DISH Network subscribers to watch programming in real time from their DVR systems anywhere they can access the internet. Using Sling technology gives users an experience that is the next best thing to watching from your favorite chair in the comfort of your own home without being there.

Although the inner workings of the internet remain a mystery for the majority of users, it’s well known that the internet offers criminals a gold mine of data that they use to fuel their criminal activities. News stories of company websites being hacked and customer data being stolen are not uncommon these days. What may be lesser known to internet users is that data can actually be siphoned from the internet in real time by someone who has the knowhow and access to tap into an access point.

With DISH Network relying on the internet to broadcast Sling content, the need to secure the data was pretty obvious. To that end, EchoStar, DISH Network’s sister company, has employed Widevine, a company that is described as a “content protection and video optimization specialist.”

Widevine’s DRM (digital rights management) technology will protect DISH Network’s programming content as it is streamed onto the internet for use by subscribers with Sling-equipped DVRs and receivers.

According to Mark Jackson, president of EchoStar Technologies: "Our innovative consumer devices embedded with Widevine’s widely adopted security bring peace of mind to content owners and service providers seeking to maintain their revenue model while providing consumers unparalleled flexibility to watch their content on the go.”

Widevine Selected to Protect Sling Content

Satellite companies like DISH go to great lengths to protect their signals with various types of encryption, but when someone figures out how to crack the code and receive programming for free, they sometimes share it with others who also end up risking prosecution if they are caught pirating a subscription channel.

The court held that the posting of pirating software code is a violation of the Federal Communications Act, and that statutory damages should be arrived at based on how many persons downloaded the pirating software. Considering the $51 million number, one heck of a lot of people must have downloaded that code!

These matters are taken very seriously and as one pirate who was foolish enough to advertise his illegal wares found out, $51 million is a pretty big number. Can’t imagine how the average Joe could pay that, but I sure wouldn’t want to have to figure out how!

DISH Pirate Loses Big In Court

The big benefit I noticed right off the bat was that I had access to a lot more on demand content. Some of it was from channels I did not even subscribe to, so that was kind of cool. All you need to do is select one of the on-demand programs from the list and it will be downloaded via the internet for you to watch.

A while later I discovered another nice advantage to having my DVR connected to the internet. I could access and control my DVR from anywhere I could access the internet. I can sit in my office and browse the program guide on my PC and set up programs to be recorded while my wife is sitting in the living room watching TV.

Check out the story of how I managed to save the day by borrowing my son’s iPhone to access my DVR while riding in the car on the way back home one night after I realized I had forgotten to set the DVR to record something. Now that was cool.

DISH Remote Access Is Seriously Cool