Satelite Connectivity

  • Thread starter Thread starter Graeme Melville
  • Start date Start date
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Graeme Melville

Hi,

We are setting up a branch office in the middle of nowhere
and cannot get a decent telco line installed so we are
looking at putting in a satellite link. My question is
does anyone currently have a branch office connecting via
terminal services over a sattelite link? If so does it
work OK? I have heard about the natural latency causing a
problem and just wanted to make sure before i install.

Thanks

Graeme
 
I have successfully used a DirecWay Satelitte link to get into our TS.

Satelittle latency is not an issue until you get into trying to run a VPN
over it. Satelitte termination technology spoofs TCPIP on both sides into
thinking that the other side has responsed to a packet even though it hasn't
been sent. Packets are accumulated similar to the Nagle algorithm used in
the early 80s to telnet over TCPIP. This works great but it requires that
the IP header not be encrypted.

Unfortunately with most VPNs, the header gets encrypted and then the
spoofing technology cannot stream packets and then the satellite latency
becomes an issue (individual packets must travel completely back and forth
across the 22,500 up and down satellite link before the next packet is
sent). Some providers offer special VPN technology designed for satellites
that don't encrypt the IP header just the data portion. From what I've seen
www.vone.com is what most providers OEM or resell. Check out the extensive
set of documentation about what I've talked about if you need more. This
technology can be pretty pricey but I haven't looked to see if there is a
software only solution that is less expensive.

The bottom line is, I've used a satellite link and it provides acceptable if
you can live with putting your TS interface on a public internet IP address
without a VPN. With proper security this might be pretty safe and the only
thing you're vulnerable to is denial of service attacks and whatever buffer
overrun security risks there may be.

If you need a secure connection and you can only get a satellite link at the
location you need to connect to then look into www.vone.com or
www.skycasters.com.
 
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