Patent ID: 6968394

Claim:
An asymmetric satellite based terminal device configured to receive Internet data from a satellite using a standard TCP/IP stack, the terminal device comprising: a personal computer comprising: a modem in communication with an Internet Service Provider (ISP); an expansion card based satellite receiver in communication with a Satellite Network Operation Center (NOC), the NOC having a range of satellite IP addresses assigned thereto; and an operating system, the operating system including the standard TCP/IP stack; a first driver configured to access the expansion card based satellite receiver; and a second driver configured to access the modem; wherein the first driver is further configured to route data received from the satellite receiver card to the standard TCP/IP stack, the second driver is further configured to route request data from the standard TCP/IP stack to the modem, and the modem is configured to send the request data to the ISP, the request data as sent from the modem having as its source address a satellite source IP address from the range of satellite IP addresses assigned to the NOC, the satellite source IP address not being encapsulated within another source IP address, whereby asymmetric satellite communications is enabled.