i have starband's 380 piece of crap now, had direc pc's last year.
it does beat dial up, but it's pretty bad overall. cloudy days mean slow everything, and if it's raining or snowing hard just shut everything off. it's expensive but for surfing purposes (approving galleries ect)it is fine. forget trying to upload anything in under 4 hours, hehehe.
my house in on a hill, with direct southern exposure to the satellite, you can't get a better site. dsl supposed to be available in my area literally any day now, as soon as it is i am pulling this dish down too and junking it along with direc pc's dish.
between direc pc and starband i can honestly say starband is much much better. i have used them both for over a year each, and i cannot even begin to tell you how badly direc pc's connections were....and their tech support.....and getting anyone out to re-align your dish (which does need to be done every 6-8 months as maintenance).
hope i was able to help.
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make 70% sending your traffic to a real amateur babe-a-roni