SuperVPN

SuperVPN is a unique offering that combines proprietary facilities and technology with the Direcway system, eliminating the traditional performance problems associated with VPN-over-satellite. SuperVPN can be cost effective with as little as a single remote location. There is no minimum or maximum number of sites a customer may or must deploy.

Skycasters and other Direcway providers support most popular VPN services over the Direcway Business Edition service, however performance issues associated with this application do not produce a robust user experience. If you have tried the Direcway satellite system then you know that it’s email, web-browsing and FTP performance is very satisfactory. If you have tried using a VPN over the Direcway or other satellite services, you also know that performance suffers badly when a VPN is activated. VPN service over satellite without SuperVPN is typically a 45 kbps single user application at it's best. SuperVPN service eliminates this problem.

To enable the SuperVPN service, an IPSec compliant VPN termination device will be installed at your headquarters location. All data traffic between your headquarters and your remote satellite locations will be transported exclusively across secure connections. Traffic is carried across the internet using IPSec 3DES VPN to our satellite uplink center, and from the uplink center traffic is carried across a secure, private satellite network to your remote site. Data traffic across the private satellite space-link is protected by hardware-based (ASIC) encryption, DES encryption and Conditional Access using session-key technology. Each remote location requires our standard installation of the satellite dish & SNS satellite router.

SuperVPN is not a not a cure-all for satellite-related performance issues, it simply is a way to use VPN without the traditional severe VPN-induced degradation. It does not increase whatever level or speed of service that would be available for a particular protocol/application above the level found if the application/protocol were to be used "in the clear". It does not "increase" anything, it prevents simply a decrease from occurring due to VPN use.Skycasters and other Direcway providers support most popular "regular" (Cisco, Nortel, CheckPoint etc.)

Satellite-ASP and Skycasters supports VPN services over the Direcway Business Edition service, however performance issues associated with this application do not produce a robust user experience. If you have tried the Direcway satellite system then you know that it’s email, web-browsing and FTP performance is very satisfactory. If you have tried using a VPN over the Direcway or other satellite services, you also know that performance suffers badly when a VPN is activated. VPN service over satellite without SuperVPN is typically a <60 kbps single user application at it's best. Skycasters SuperVPN service eliminates this problem.

The basic SuperVPN service will support from 1 up to 50 remote sites. Customers have the option of split-tunneling non-secure public internet traffic directly to the internet backbone from the remote site, or having all traffic tunneled to the headquarters location for routing to the internet.

For a detailed understanding of satellite VPN performance concerns in general, and how Skycasters SuperVPN overcomes them, view the white paper, click here.

See the performance chart from the Direcway website below, reprinted in it's entirety. It clearly demonstrates the performance degradation associated with VPN over satellite. You will note that during business daytime hours the VPN speed is equal to or lower than dialup access. Only SuperVPN eliminates the VPN over satellite performance problem.

VPNs are not ideal for satellite connections. Your speeds will be affected significantly. Average download speeds will be reduced from typical DIRECWAY speeds by as much as 50 to 75 percent (see chart). Average upload speeds are comparable to dialup performance. HUGHES does not endorse or support any VPN products. Customers that run VPN products do so at their own risk and will not receive any support from HUGHES regarding troubleshooting, configuring, optimizing, or maintaining a VPN connection. For more information, please go to Terms and Conditions.

FTP Download Performance