ROTR

The HughesNet connection is up 'n running. Initial observations:

• The good: Always on. Throughput much much faster than dialup. Reached speeds of about 180Kbps while downloading a file last night, so more than 40 times faster than before. I can also upload photos at a clip of one per 6 or 7 seconds. No more timeouts when checking mail, committing to a Subversion repository, and so forth.
• The bad: FAP; I need not say more about this, other than that I have yet to run into a situation where I've been FAPped. Having only used the service for less than 24 hours though, I imagine that there will come a time where the users of the connection will need to plod along while the bucket is refilled. Latency is also an issue, but that's part of the game when your communication routes through a chunk of metal and plastic in geosynchronous orbit above the planet. After all, we are bound by the speed of light at the very least.
• The ugly: HughesNet, you are doing your customers a major disservice by throttling BitTorrent traffic. C'mon, get with the freakin' times, folks. Yeah, the protocol is used for illegitimate trading of music and movies. It's also being used more and more as a legitimate method of distribution, such as for indie-produced audio and video, and free software. Democracy Player is one example of an app that includes BitTorrent capability for downloading legitimate "internet TV". Ubuntu distributes ISO images to reduce burden on their mirrors. Some VMware appliances are only available via BitTorrent.