Satellite Internet?

Currently I live in a very rural area and there is no high-speed internet availible besides satellite. I've heard many mixed things about it, saying the ping is usually around 500-800 ms. However, my dial-up is at 500+ also. Is satellite worth a shot or is it better to stick with dial-up until DSL/cable is availible?

Satellite Internet is usually considered a very bad thing for gaming.

A satellite connection can often give an extremely fast download connection, but the uplink is still going to be slow (probably similar to a dialup modem) - thus giving you the slow ping times. A ping time of 800ms would be very good for a satellite connection - usually a figure of 1000-1500ms would be more normal making gaming rather difficult.

Personally I'd wait it out for cable/adsl to reach your area.

To the best of my knowledge, satellite internet is mostly good for fast downloads. I'm not sure exactly what sort of system they use now, but it used to be that you used dialup for "uplink" and the satellite for downlink. they may have systems now that also use a satellite for uplink, but in either case, the satellites are a long way up there, and there is a noticeable delay in the signal. Once something starts to download, it can download pretty fast, but it's the delay between when you ask for something, and when you start to get it (ping in other words) that kills satellite for gaming.