Ricochet High Speed Mobile Access eh?

[hhh8785]

Well I've seen some commercials recently for "Ricochet: High Speed Mobile Access" that from what I can get, is an internet connection that also allows you to join a LAN or intranet. But what exactly is it and how does it work? Their website didn't seem to explain too much about that from what I could see. Is it a satellite service? It says it is "mobile" which I assume means it uses some kind of satellite gizmos and thingamadillys (nice technical terms there http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif) but I still don't get how it all works. If you know anything about it let me know.

I'm not really interested in getting it or anything, it is just that those commercials leave me intrigued. It just looks really cool.

hhh8785

[tw1112]

From my knowledge: The ricochet is a satelite connection for your laptops. It only works in areas where the service is avail, which is not everywhere. You could be driving and hit a no service zone, and be dropped from your connection just like that. Otherwise, it would act like cable or dsl..I hear that the service isn't all that great because you sometimes get dropped for a couple of hours before their techs fix the problem. I was thinking about getting this, but decided to let them get a little more settled, also I am hoping that another company comes out to host their service. As of right now it is approx, 75 a month for this service. I don't think it will work all that great while in building either http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

[MadMatt]

Ricochet is not satellite based. The network is radio based - similar to, but not the same as digital cellular. Max speed is 128kbps, but real world performane is (of course) slower.

As for the ability to join a LAN or intranet, Ricochet is based on the standard TCP/IP protocol suite and does allow VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections.

[This message has been edited by MadMatt (edited 02-20-2001).]