Tooway sat internet?

[Jonzjob]

A mate of mine has just given me the link to this company  http://www.toowaydirect.com/ .

Anyone know what they are like? They offer a darn site quicker connection than my 1/2 meg at the mo.

[Quillan]

I'm not sure but I think this may be to do with the new Astra 2F which supports fast speeds.

Have a look at their rates first if I were you, they don't seem cheap to me.

http://www.toowaydirect.com/purchase/

 

[elamessa]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]A mate of mine has just given me the link to this company  http://www.toowaydirect.com/ .

Anyone know what they are like? They offer a darn site quicker connection than my 1/2 meg at the mo.

[/quote]

I am using Tooway through Nordnet.fr for the last 12 months and although they are dearer than orange at least they are reliable with no connection dropouts and a consistant 12meg download and 1meg upload depending on contract (was on less than 1/2 meg with orange fr and for ever loosing connection) and if you get rid of orange line rental then they are on a par price wise.

HTH

[Gary D]

[quote user="Quillan"]

I'm not sure but I think this may be to do with the new Astra 2F which supports fast speeds.

Have a look at their rates first if I were you, they don't seem cheap to me.

http://www.toowaydirect.com/purchase/

 

[/quote]

Here's my first posting, which I hope helps someone...

Tooway isnt linked to Astra 2F, but Astra 2F does provide a similar facility.

I have Tooway here in 81220, and I am very happy with it.

There are a few things to be aware of when deciding if it is for you:

1. Compared to normal ADSL, there is a faily high startup cost as you need to buy the equipment up front, although some dealers may offer equipment rental.

2. You can't use a TV satellite dish, because satellite internet transmits to the satellite as well as receiving - however there is an attachment available for the Tooway dish to enable it to be used for sat TV as well.

3. You can choose to either self-install the system, or pay to have it fitted. If self installing, be aware that the dish is very heavy and needs to be very securely bolted to a sturdy wall.

4. When accessing the internet, there is a slight delay before the web page is displayed. This is due to the large distance the signal has to cover when going via the satellite. When downloading files, there is also a delay, but once the download starts it is very fast. The system works fine with video over Skype, SIPGate, and my wife can connect to her company's VPN and make VOIP calls through that as well.

5. There is a fairly complicated "fair use policy": There is a limit to how much data can be used in a 1 hour window, a second one that limits a 4 hour window, a third that limits the total data per week, and the main one for the monthly limit.

It took me a while to get my head around it, but I believe that, for my monthly 8GB limit, my FUP limits are 500MB per hour, 1GB in 4 hours and 4GB in a week.(I might be slightly out on these figures, but hopefully you get the idea).

If you exceed any of these limts, you are not disconnected, but your connection speed is much reduced until you usage falls below the FUP limits, at which point you can continue as normal.

6. If you find that you exceed your monthly limit (e.g. at Christmas), you can buy one off "volume boosters" which gives you an additional data allowance for that month.

7. Finally, as Astra 2F is also going to provide a similar system, it wouldn't surpise me if a price war develops so it might be worthwhile holding off to see what happens.

I bought my system from a UK supplier last summer which I self-installed without any problem (there is a handy video on YouTube which helped immensely) and I have only had one occasion where the system stopped working due to an unusally heavy storm over the satellite receiving site in Italy. Here in France it works fine through heavy rain and very thick cloud.

I would like to point out that the only connection I have with Tooway is as a satisifed customer.

Gary

[NormanH]

That is a very helpful first post Gary!

Welcome to the Forum [:)]

[Gary D]

[quote user="NormanH"]That is a very helpful first post Gary!

Welcome to the Forum [:)]

[/quote]

Thanks Norman.

Must apologise for the typos in my previous post - I have a very small keyboard on my old netbook here.

Also I should mention that with Tooway, I was considering using it at home in the UK as well as in France, but it turns out that there is a cost involved every time you change your location (which they can detect due to the small footprints from the satellite's antennas).

I've just checked the website of my provider, and it seems the price war may be starting!

They are now offering 20Mbps down, 6Mbps up, and 10 GB per month for £24.50.

The upfront equipment cost is £145, although I found delivery from the UK was extra and quite pricey when I purchased my system last summer.

Even so, I'm glad I've got it!

[Martin963]

Indeed,  very helpful.

I hadn't realised that they even monitored from where one was uploading/downloading.  I'd often thought that Tooway might be a solution for those who had feet in both countries (even when taking into account the extra costs of hardware in two places) but what you've told us suggests that it isn't an economic  possibility.

Thanks.

[jono]

I fitted one last year - an easy diy job.

Tooway 12 costs £40 per month.

It's reasonably fast and reliable.

Can use Skype so no landline required.

[Théière]

More helpful info, thanks to all.  Any disconnection possibilities whilst not in France? Or minimum contract periods?

[Gary D]

[quote user="Théière"]More helpful info, thanks to all.  Any disconnection possibilities whilst not in France? Or minimum contract periods?[/quote]

I have a 12 month contract, although 24 months seems to be standard.

As far as I am aware, no-one does temporary disconnections unfortunately.

[val douest]

Looking at the Tooway website (satisfied customers section) I came across the following, which might be of interest to two-home owners:

>>>Shirley and Eric are in the fortunate position to own two homes, one in France and one in Spain. They spend an equal amount of time in each home during the year, meaning each of their homes remains empty at some point during the year. With traditional broadband providers there has been a lack of flexibility in allowing them to only have the home they are currently in, connected to the internet.

Over the past four years, their broadband internet bill has totalled over €1300.

Eric and Shirley said…

We now save literally hundreds of Euro’s a year.

The concerns

Having already been connected to the internet, the main concern was quality of service along with requiring an alternative solution to the requirement from traditional providers for a 12 month continual contract at each location. In addition, many years ago they had a bad experience of satellite in trying to locate the old Astra TV satellite – so wanted to ensure installation was a pain free process!

The solution

In fact, all concerns were alleviated with ToowayDirect. Firstly, two installations were made, one at each home – Shirley said

“The equipment is very strong and well engineered, installation was easy with the inbuilt assistance for tuning to the perfect direction for the satellite”.

“Although we remain on a 12 month contract, what ToowayDirect allows us to do is ‘suspend’ one system when we are not there and ‘activate’ the other – meaning we have one 12 month contract, with two minimal activation charges each year. We now save literally hundreds of Euro’s a year”.<<

[plasterer43]

ive had tooway via avonline for over a year

generally works fine but does drop out now and then

39.00 month plus i have a vonage telephone box with uk number so the wife can call mother/friends at local rate(or they call us) 9.00 month

[FIDO]

I have been trying to use the satellite conection but have the following issues.

1) I was told that I could use the TV with the dish but this does not work. I have had a satellite engineer look at it and the dish is aligned perfectly for Nordnet but this does not get the astra 2 signal for the UK TV.

2) I have tried to watch video on the network but it is disjointed and the sound is out of sync with the picture.Itb runs then stops. This is because of the delay time.

3) I have run a quality test many times and each time the same result Failure!!!! see the following link http://www.pingtest.net/result/104615335.png

I am very very disappointed with the system…………..this was sold to me with great expectations and it is worse that my old connection!!!

If all you want to do is download big files then is is very good but anything else especially multimedia is unworkable.

[Quillan]

[quote user="FIDO"]I have been trying to use the satellite conection but have the following issues. 1) I was told that I could use the TV with the dish but this does not work. I have had a satellite engineer look at it and the dish is aligned perfectly for Nordnet but this does not get the astra 2 signal for the UK TV. 2) I have tried to watch video on the network but it is disjointed and the sound is out of sync with the picture.Itb runs then stops. This is because of the delay time. 3) I have run a quality test many times and each time the same result Failure!!!! see the following link http://www.pingtest.net/result/104615335.png I am very very disappointed with the system…………..this was sold to me with great expectations and it is worse that my old connection!!! If all you want to do is download big files then is is very good but anything else especially multimedia is unworkable.[/quote]

Well you can get UK TV from it by using something like FilmOn but you can't use the dish for UK TV via a Sky or Humax box. The reason for this is because it uses EUTELSAT KA-SAT which is located at 9 deg East and you need Astra 2E and F to get BBC, ITV etc. There are some English language channels on the Satellite your pointing at but probably not what your looking for (Bloomburg etc). Have a look at the following link.

http://www.eutelsat.com/en/satellites/the-fleet/EUTELSAT-9A.html

So in some ways he has not lied because there are some English channels but perhaps you should have been more specific and told him the channels you wanted to watch. If you did then I appologise.

[Danny]

Fido,

Just in case it confuses anyone,

Tooway is not Nordnet - they are different companies and use different satellites.

Nordnet - your set up - uses the same satellite group where the UK TV channels are found but the Nordnet set up uses Ka band frequencies. You cannot receive the TV channels with this set up. The TV signals need Ku band (the common LNBs and receiver) equipment to be received.

Your satelite engineer should have noticed this....

Danny

[Quillan]

[quote user="Danny"]Fido,
Just in case it confuses anyone,
Tooway is not Nordnet - they are different companies and use different satellites.

Nordnet - your set up - uses the same satellite group where the UK TV channels are found but the Nordnet set up uses Ka band frequencies. You cannot receive the TV channels with this set up. The TV signals need Ku band (the common LNBs and receiver) equipment to be received.
Your satelite engineer should have noticed this....
Danny


[/quote]

Are you sure? When I checked it was from the same satellite and a further google seems to say that as well. However it may have moved and google has no 'caught up'.

[Danny]

[quote user="Quillan"]

[quote user="Danny"]Fido,

Just in case it confuses anyone,

Tooway is not Nordnet - they are different companies and use different satellites.

Nordnet - your set up - uses the same satellite group where the UK TV channels are found but the Nordnet set up uses Ka band frequencies. You cannot receive the TV channels with this set up. The TV signals need Ku band (the common LNBs and receiver) equipment to be received.

Your satelite engineer should have noticed this....

Danny

[/quote]

Are you sure? When I checked it was from the same satellite and a further google seems to say that as well. However it may have moved and google has no 'caught up'.

[/quote]

Well, on checking futher...

Tooway comes from KA sat at 9.0E http://www.eutelsat.com/en/satellites/the-fleet/EUTELSAT-KA-SAT.html

Nordnet do two services. One from eutelsat's Kasat on 9.0E and one from Astra 2F on 28.2 E

from http://www.nordnet.com/offres/internet-satellite/notre-offre.php

Pour bénéficier du service, il est indispensable de disposer d'un Kit de

connexion compatible avec le satellite Astra 2F 28°2 Est (Gamme JET) OU

avec le satellite Eutelsat KASAT 9° Est (Gamme MAX).

The info on Nordnet's site is extremely opaque and/or confusing about the TV service. They do include a separate Ku Band LNB to receive TV with some offers but also say you need to buy a separate TNTSAT or Fransat decoder. But TNTSAT and Fransat services do not come from either of the satellites that Nordnet mention! [8-)]

TNTSAT is on Astra1 sat at 19.0E

Fransat is on Eutelsat sat at 5.0W

Danny

[Quillan]

It is a tad confusing. I remember when we were getting all 'exited' about the 2E/F that the info said one if not both were also capable of Internet which is why I said "unless it has moved" and that the speed offered was quite quick. I am wondering if 'chummy' might need a bigger dish? Difficult to tell without seeing and having the right equipment.

Strangley all our UK TV problems seem to have gone away over the summer months and it will be interesting to see what happens during the winter. I have my suspicions that we will start seeing pixels again like last year. One thing however is it can't be the trees as there were no leaves in the winter when we had problems but leaves in the summer when we have had none. Wait and see I guess.