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 NEWSHelius delivers affordable Internet access By Ana Orubeondo November 15, 1999 THE NEED FOR high-speed file transfer and access to the Web, regardless of location, is an essential part of today's enterprise. IT administrators need to keep employees connected to the Internet and the company networks, while also keeping the employees productive.
Competitive transmission systems such as 56K frame relay, ISDN, T1 lines, and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or cable providers are often expensive, complicated to set up, or not available. An average satellite dish will cost you between $250 and $300 for the hardware; the connection service is about $109 a month for the first 200 hours. (You pay for the service only when transmitting data.) Because Helius uses satellite technology, service is available anytime, anywhere. Helius' Virtual Technician remote support service provides an ideal solution for administrators who don't have the time or resources to configure or maintain their connections. To optimize throughput, Helius has incorporated into its router two key components: Advanced Packet Filtering and Dynamic Service Multiplexer (DSM). Advanced Packet Filtering helps resolve clogged Internet connections by eliminating redundant data packets and assuring that only real data gets sent. The DSM optimizes pooling. (In a pooled system, all computers share the available connections. When a computer needs a connection, the DSM assigns it; when the computer is finished, the DSM returns the connection to the pool, thus letting another computer use the link. With a pool, you don't need to offer a connection for every computer.) To speed up the installation process -- prior to the arrival of the satellite dish installers -- I mounted Helius' antenna to the mask, ran the cable down from the roof to my network, and hooked up the cable to the Satellite Router. As it would do for any customer, Helius made all the arrangements, and within two days I had a satellite installer on the roof. Unfortunately, this installer was new to aligning a dish for a Helius router, so there was some confusion on how we were going to check the signal on my network computer. After the installer left, I called a Helius representative who walked me through a short and quick process that should have taken care of things, but I still didn't have a signal. The next day, a Helius representative came over, spent 10 minutes on the roof, and got the system running. To test the Satellite Router against the Test Center's T1 and DSL lines, I downloaded files of varying sizes via FTP from numerous Web sites, while taking into consideration site speed and time of day. I found, for example, that when I received a 5.5MB file from Microsoft's site using our T1 line, it took 55 seconds to complete the file transfer. The DSL line took one minute to complete. The satellite system was the slowest of the three, taking nine minutes to complete. The satellite solution always finished slowest of the three transmission systems. That's not surprising, because latency is always a potential problem with satellite communications. But not all of the file transfers were so much slower than the others. Smaller file transfers were considerably faster and finished much closer to the times posted by the other transmission systems. There are other variables to consider: The InfoWorld Test Center is very close to the central office, which generally means fast connections for our T1 and DSL lines. They also have little latency when compared to satellite solutions. Furthermore, we pay $1,500 a month for our T1 Earthlink connection and $199 a month for our DSL line. So not only is the satellite connection usually cheaper, but it increases in value as you move away from a central office. The Helius router can be installed almost anywhere in the world. Administrators looking for a data-access system to meet general needs for Internet browsing, FTP, chat, and e-mail should investigate the possibilities of a satellite solution; the cost of ownership will likely be cheaper than for competing systems. The chief drawback of the system is the potential latency that can slow communications. The Satellite Router is ideal for small to midsize organizations, as well as for branch offices and remote areas that need reliable Internet access. It will also help administrators reduce costs by offering remote management and support. Ana Orubeondo is a senior analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center.
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