-It's pretty simple, really. 

The most common complaint about the Internet from users connected by modem is that the Web is just too slow to be useful. The problem, however, isn't always the Web; in fact, it's usually in the antiquated analog phone lines used by most Web surfers to receive today's data-rich information from the Internet. With DirecPC, however, consumers bypass the phone system for the high-volume part of using the Web -- receiving data. All the low-bandwidth, outbound information (like URL requests) is sent out by modem over the phone lines. The return path, however, takes a slight detour: all the high-bandwidth responses from the Internet are blasted back to the PC by satellite.

The process in detail:

When a customer requests a URL, the request gets sent by modem to their ISP. However, before that request leaves the customer's PC< the DirecPC software attaches a "tunneling code" -- essentially an electronic addressing mask -- to the URL. That code instructs the ISP to forward the URL request to the DirecPC Network Operations Center (NOC) instead of the server at the site requested. Once the NOC receives the customer's request, the tunneling code is stripped away and the request is then forwarded by multiple T-3 lines to the appropriate site, and the desired content is retrieved. The NOC then uploads the information to the DirecPC satellite, which beams it down to the customer's DirecPC dish and into his or her PC. Whew!

It may sound complicated, but it works. Check out the following diagram to get a closer look at the world's most advanced high-speed Internet service: