Will My Laptop Work With My Satellite Internet if I Am Not at Home?

For satellite Internet, your laptop must be at the location of the dish.

If you have a satellite Internet system in your home, it includes a modem with an Ethernet connection. You must connect your laptop to this modem. If you are not at home, you can't make the connection. If you move, you can take the dish and modem with you and install it at your new address.

How Satellite Internet Works

Satellite Internet systems were developed as a way to provide access to rural areas that don't have DSL service available or don't have telephone service at all. The dish installed in your home sends and receives signals to the satellite, which in turn relays them to the system's gateways at various locations. Each gateway makes the connection to the Internet for you signals. If your laptop isn't at your home location, it has no way to access the satellite system or the gateways.

The Modem

The modem in your satellite Internet system only has a single Ethernet connection to which you can connect a single computer or a router for additional computers. You could connect a wireless router and connect to that with a laptop with a wireless card installed. But you can use it only within the range of the wireless router, which works for about 100 yards, depending on the power of the router and the type of walls or terrain between it and the laptop. You can't connect from a distant location.

Moving

If you move, contact your satellite Internet service provider. They usually install new equipment for free when you sign up for service. If you move to another house in the same city, call the company that installed it to move your dish and modem to your new address. The company has no obligation for move it, but may do so for a fee. If you move to another city or state, call your satellite service provider for information on installation services at your new address. Or, if you are handy with tools, you could remove it and re-install it yourself.

Aligning the Dish

When installing the system at the new location, you must align the dish to the satellite used by your Internet service provider. Use a free online satellite locator such as DishPointer to find the azimuth and elevation angles, and then install the dish in a location where it can point to the sky at those angles, unobstructed by trees, hills or buildings. Connect the dish to the modem and the laptop to the Ethernet port. Adjust the elevation and azimuth for a maximum signal. Your modem user's manual has instructions to illustrate a signal strength meter on your laptop screen.

References

• WildBlue: How It Works
• DishPointer: Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps