FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Satellite ASP?
Who is Skycasters?
How fast is the service?
Is there a specific Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
What effect does weather have on the service?
What equipment is needed at the customer’s remote locations?
What equipment is needed at the customer’s data center or host location?
Does VPN work over the standard service?
What is SuperVPN?
How are hosted applications supported?
What types of hosted applications are supported?
What hosted applications are not supported?
How do I use Satellite ASP to increase our ASP sales?
How do we get started?
How long does installation take?

Who is Satellite ASP.com?
Satellite ASP is an operating unit of Skycasters LLC that is devoted exclusively to providing service to the ASP (Application Service Provider) industry. Satellite ASP offers broadband satellite services custom tailored for providing connectivity between ASP’s and their customers. Back to top

Who is Skycasters?
Skycasters LLC is the leading facilities-based provider of VSAT satellite Internet. Skycasters is a fully-funded and profitable service provider serving the 50 US states, Canada, Central America and the Caribbean. Back to top

How fast is the service?
Satellite ASP provides many different service plans, including 12 primary connectivity plans: 6 high speed plans, and 6 high throughput plans; disaster recovery, rental and business continuity plans. The entry-level primary connectivity plan has a maximum information rate (MaxIR) of 2.5 Mbps down and 384 kbps up, and a committed information rate (CIR) of 512 kpbs down and 128 kbps up — fast enough for most VoIP service. Skycasters legendary near-theoretical latency also makes VoIP sound wonderful over our satellite connection. Back to top

Is there a Service Level Agreement (SLA)?
The service is provided on a best-effort basis. Satellite ASP / Skycasters makes every available effort to provide a satisfactory level of service and uptime. Uptime is above 99.5%, and is affected by weather and other factors. As a point of reference, the service has been proven to be highly reliable by many national organizations with the need to connect many diverse locations. Just look for satellite Internet equipment as you drive through town, on the roofs of convenience stores, gas stations, many banks, fast food restaurants, and many other national chain and franchised businesses. Back to top

What effect does weather have on the service?
The service uses a 1.2 meter dish which is more than twice the antenna size of residential-grade satellite Internet dishes. This means the service is affected by weather only about ½ as much as other satellite Internet services. Some areas of the US are affected more by rain than other areas. You can check with local satellite Internet users to see what the effects of rain are in your area. Outages due to rain occur about half as often and last about half as long when using our larger 1.2m dish antenna. Back to top

What equipment is needed at the customer’s remote locations?
Satellite ASP will install an outdoor dish antenna and transmitter with all mounting hardware and cabling, the indoor send-receive satellite modems and the SNS (Satellite Network Server). The SNS includes firewall, router, modem software, system diagnostics, remote support and other features. Other hardware configurations are available. Back to top

What equipment is needed at the customer’s data center or host location?
For standard service, all that is needed is a broadband internet connection. For the SuperVPN service, the customer will receive a Skycasters pre-configured Cisco router or PIX hardware device. Each Cisco router or PIX can support 40-50 remote sites. Other solutions are available to support 100,300, 750 etc., up to 7,500 sites. Back to top

Does VPN work over the standard service?
As long as the remote site is configured for a routable static IP address, VPN connections can be established using popular IPSec VPN clients available through Cisco, Nortel, Lucent, Checkpoint and others. VPN performance over all platforms is substantially reduced in comparison to regular email or web browser performance over satellite. VPN over satellite is usually a single-user application at approximately dial-up speed, however the use of VPN does not adversely affect other non-VPN applications. VPN over the standard satellite service is recommended only for incidental use. For a high-performance VPN over satellite solution, Satellite ASP/Skycasters offers their proprietary SuperVPN service. Back to top

What is SuperVPN?
SuperVPN is technology that dramatically improves the performance of VPN-over-satellite. It uses an IPSec tunnel to connect the Skycasters private satellite network to the customers private network (host or data center). It uses Skycasters hardware encryption in addition to DES encryption across the satellite link. 3DES session-key technology further increases the security. Using SuperVPN, customers have secure VPN/Private Network connections without the adverse effects typically associated with VPN over satellite. Back to top

How are hosted applications supported?
The Satellite ASP solution is perfect for distributed access to a central data center or hosted application, and can allow secure broadband access from any point in the USA regardless of geographic location. Designed as a client solution, the service is not recommended for use at the host site. Satellite ASP can support SSL based or VPN security for the connection. Satellite ASP can also provide a high-performance secure browser-based connection to any application through a Citrix-like interface optimized for performance over satellite. The service also supports Citrix and other similar applications. Back to top

What types of hosted applications are supported?
Our service will support almost any application that can be supported over a DSL or Cable connection. This could include hosted applications for accounting, billing, database, CRM, credit-card authorization, POS, inventory management, etc. Satellite ASP is willing to perform interactive testing of your application over our service. Back to top

What hosted applications are not supported?
Our service does not support applications that are particularly latency-sensitive such as interactive-gaming or VoIP. Also. because of the asymmetrical nature of the connection, it does not support 2-way video conferencing or other applications that require a high upstream capability from the client site. Back to top

How do I use Satellite ASP to increase my ASP sales?
If your hosted application requires a persistent broadband connection, potential customers who cannot get persistent broadband connectivity cannot subscribe to your application. Satellite ASP is focused on assisting the ASP industry in extending it’s reach to more customers and to achieving a higher penetration rate within each customer. Satellite ASP’s always-on, installed-anywhere broadband service opens the door to expanded marketing opportunities in order to acquire new customers. Also, within your current customer base, there are customers who would like to add user seats or licenses for remote offices, set up tele-worker employees, or even provide connectivity to the CEO’s mountaintop retreat. Back to top

How do we get started?
The first step is to contact us and let us know you are interested. We will discuss your application, answer your questions and schedule an interactive test. In most cases, no additional development or engineering is required.There are 3 ways to do business with us:1) Referral Agent- refer your prospects to us for all pre-sales, sales and post-sale service and earn a referral fee, or2) Direct Agent – You sign on as an authorized agent and complete training, then you sign up the customer on our customer order form and we provide all post-sales service. You earn upfront and residual commissions, or3) VAR Partner – sign up the customer on your contract, we install and provide support and you bill the customer. We send you a wholesale bill. Back to top

How long does installation take?
Installation typically takes 10 business days from the date we receive the completed order. Configuration of the remote site is done the following day. If SuperVPN is ordered, it is configured the day following the remote site configuration. Back to top