Thinking about Hughes?

[twarr1]

We have Wildblue. I think we pay $79 a month. It is definetly faster than dial-up but way slower than DSL or cable.
We were originally going to go with HughesNet but they wanted us to buy the equipment. I didn't want to own the equipment for two reasons; I figured it would be obsolete at the end of our 2 year contract and I didn't want to worry about repair if it broke. It turns out this was a mute point because when the satellite modem quit, Wildblue charged us $100 to replace it. I tried to get them to explain to me how they could charge me to replace their modem but to no avail.
The service does go out in stormy weather, we kept the aircard for backup because of this so we could check the weather radar.
I guess the only real complaint I have is their "fair access" policy. If you go over your allotted bandwith, they "throttle" you back to speeds so slow as to be worthless. Trying to figure out where exactly you are in terms of usage is confusing at best.
All in all, I am grateful to be able to have "better than dial-up" access way out here in the country. We'll probably renew when our contract is up, unless another technology becomes available.
Hope this is helpful.

 

[RadarTech]

I have a couple of thoughts--
Once upon a time I lived in a rural area that had no broadband..

So the options-- were T-1, dialup, and ISDN..

As an IT guy, I always need good access.
So when I looked around, I found that I could get ISDN coverage for $80 a month plus $30 for the ISP charge..
Now this required a router, and that was not bad..

A couple gotcha's is that the phone company sometimes charges per minute for the ISDN --- check your local bell... Mine did not..
for the ISP-- I found a $30 unlimited ISP rate too... This I found at ISP Guide - Cable Internet Providers & DSL Services | Dial-up ISPS & High Speed Dialup Reviews

now that was about 8 years ago... So your mileage will vary on this..

Lately we have seen several businesses pop-up providing wireless internet into homes.
Basically the same wireless access you might use between your laptop and a wireless router..

again hit up ISP Guide - Cable Internet Providers & DSL Services | Dial-up ISPS & High Speed Dialup Reviews this may yield some options---
Next thought is to hit up the local Radio Shack-- often these folks know about the "local specials"...

Anyway--- I have found that satellite is good in only a few situations....
And local providers, while not big boys-- may be a good option..



hope this helps...

J

 

[dirt ditch]

I have had both satellite and wireless internet. Nether is as fast as DSL or cable. The satellite signal is affected far worse than a wireless signal by cloud cover, rain, and snow. Wireless has limitless internet usage. Satellite on the other hand is sold in packages that have finite amounts of internet usage they call a threshold. A threshold is the amount of data that you can upload or download in a rolling 30-day period before the satellite provider's Fair Access Policy will kick in and automatically reduce your bandwidth speeds to slower than dial up. That rolling 30 day period sucks. when you hit 100% of your 30 day threshold there system will automatically slow your down to a crawl until your 30 day usage drops below 70%. If your largest usage is when you hit 100% it will take 2-3 weeks to drop below 70% to get your speed back.

We found out our cell phone company has an internet service package that plug into a usb port on the computer. It is faster, and not affected by rain or snow like satellite or wireless. The price is cheaper to. We may switch when our contract runs out.

 

[The Dougster]

As some folks have suggested, going with an "aircard" thru a cell phone company may be the way to go. If you have cell phone coverage, you have internet access. A few months ago, we switched from Wildblue to Sprint's aircard, which we use at home and when we go to the ranch, we simply remove the aircard from it's USB port and have internet access there. When traveling, often my wife will open the laptop and check her email... very convenient indeed.
Prior to getting this service from Sprint, we were faced with getting some kind of internet service at home and at the ranch, which would have been expensive.

To the best of my knowledge, all cell phone carriers offer this service, and almost all of them require a two=year contract. Cricket does not require a contract but they have very limited coverage at this time. Good luck with it.

 

[EddieWalker]

I had Hughes for over 3 years. It was either that or dial up. When it worked, it was great. It was fast enough that I never noticed any delays.

The original install was a joke, the guy that came out had only done a few of them and after a day of messing with mine, he gave up and I had to wait a week for the owner of the company to come out. He figured out the problems and got it working. After awhile, I had some problems and called customer support. They are in India, which only means anything if you get a tech that you cannot understand. The first tech that you get will run you through a basic list of problems. They are pretty much useless, but after you play that game, they move you up to the next level of tech, who usually fixes the problem. They give you a list of things to chang in your settings, and sometimes that works, other times it doesn't.

Don't believe anybody who tells you that the clouds don't affect your service. Every time you call customer support, the very first question they ask is what the weather is like. They know that clouds affect service, and if you tell them it's cloudy out or raining, they might play along and see if it's something else, but they will also tell you to call back after the sky clears if you still have a problem.

If the tech can't figure it out, they will send out a technician. Every time that I had a technician come out, it was somebody different. Not just a different person, but a different company. Hughes changes companies that they hire to service their customers all the time. If you get a good one, don't be suprised if it's somebody different the next time. I had them drive up from Lufkin and Canton. Both are over an hour from Tyler, which is both a bigger city and right next to me. I've also had them from Tyler and the surrounding area, but like I said, it's always changing.

I've had them re-align my dish, change me to different satelites, replace the cable connections and even replace the cables. I've had three modems and two dishes. Nothing lasted very long and it's a non stop game of getting service. After your two years are up, you have to pay for what they replace. What really killed me was that the dish they replaced that I paid for went out about one month after the warrentee on it ended. All the parts that they use are remanufactured, and in my opinion, not done very well.

The techs all had two things in common. They bad mouthed the previous company and tech who had been out before, and they hated dealing with Hughes in getting paid for repairs and getting parts to make those repairs.

The last time it went out, I was done. I had allot of problems with them and their lousy service. Every time it rained, it died. My TV is with DirecTV Satelite, and it stayed on during most storms, while Hughes died at most storms. I lost emails that I'd send and it would die on clear days. Cold weather also killed it from time to time. It was just the most unreliable thing that I've ever dealt with.

You can do a search here under my name and Hughes or Direcway or Internet and read in more detail my problems. I posted allot of times here about it.

I have a cellular modem now. It's small, simple and easy. You don't need a tech. If it stops working, I'll just buy another. So far, it's never died on me and it's never not worked. I have it in a router so my wife can be online the same time that I am. We took it with us on vacation and were able to surf the net while driving and where we stayed. It was very helpful for finding things to do and to review companies that we were interesting in going rafting with. It's the same price per month as Satelitte, but much better with the really big bonus of being portable.

With the availability of cellular modems, I think it's just a matter of time until satelitte goes out of business. It's a lousy service that charges top dollar and requires others to fix it when it goes down. They support it with rebuilt parts and are very bad about keeping their service people supplied with parts. Don't do it if there is any other option available to you.

If you can get a cell phone to work, you can have reliable internet service.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[n8wrl]

At the risk of piling on, we had HughesNet for 2 years and it worked great, until it didn't. We decided to downgrade our service - save $20/mo and use less bandwidth. We made the call and shortly thereafter the whole thing quit. Wouldn't connect. After about a week online with India they decided my hardware failed. Interesting coincidence?

Now I use Verizon cellular and love it. It has different limits - 5GB/mo and then they charge you per megabyte after that - but it's managable. About the same monthly price too and doesn't go out in a storm!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Cell coverage isn't all that great once you get off the beaten path, but if you can get it, I would recommend it over satellite. Because of terrain, house location and tower locations, I get 1 bar on Sprint, 1 bar on ATT, 1 bar on Tmobile, 0 bars on verizon (too expensive to try) in my house, but great service on all as soon as I get a mile down the road. posted using Hughes..

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I just checked out the new Verizon MiFi, mobile 3G hotspot. $60 month for 5 GB data limit, approx 1 Mbps downlink, 300 kbps uplink (depends on EVDO RevA is available on the nearest tower, you might get higher speeds). The speed and price is basically the same as my Hughes service, but the MiFi is mobile, and small. Of course I don't have a monthly limit. The verizon maps shows service in my area, but not in some of the areas I travel to.

 

[JESSE1]

I really think the quality of your Hughesnet service depends on how good your installation is. If you have a good installer who takes the time to do it right I think you'll get good service out of Hughes. The only slow time I've experienced is around 7pm when everyone in the country is using their computer. I have a two year contract and when it's up I'll check to see if there's anything better. Right now, in my area there's nothing better I can get.

 

[Gsquared]

I have Hughes net here in the country and a cable modem in the city. The difference is amazing. I had to call tech service today because the Hughes net was out and the Tech service guy in India was very hard to hear due to some problem with his phone connection. Like so many others of you, I wish I had never done this and can't wait for my contract to end so I can get a phone company internet card. So many folks are using them the cell type internet will only get better. Maybe we should start a new thread for creative ideas on what to do with old Hughes dishes, it looks like there will be a lot of them around.