Originally Posted by EddieWalker
When I moved out to my land, I did some online searches and decided to go with DirecWay Sattelite for my interenet connection.
That was about 4 years ago, and since then, I've had five seperate technicians out here to fix my system, I've had everything replaced from the cables to the dish and modem replaced at least once, and some parts replaced several times. When it works, it's OK at best. Uploads are always slow, but downloads on a good day are pretty fast. If it rains, the signal is likely to be lost depending on how heavy the rain is. We've lost the signal due to the frost on the dish on cold mornings and have even lost it on cloudy days.
Most of the time, it's just annoying and frustrating. Last year, after HughesNet took over DirecWay, they came out with a new modem. The HN7000S, which we received. Since then, it seems like the problems are even worse. It's more likely to lose it's signal on the lightest of rains and cloudy days.
In April, it got so bad that I had to have a technician out here again. Cost for that was $125. He was here three times becuase the problem was my dish wasn't working anymore. The two he carried with him didn't work either. So after a week of being offline, he came out and got it working again with a full 90 day warrenty.
It's almost 120 days since then, and it's not working again. Or I should say, this morning, it's 80 degrees outside, clear skies and I haven't had a signal for the last two hours. I have one now, but it's not something I can rely on. The customer support said that my dish and modem are not reading each other and that I need a technician out here again for another $125.
To say I'm unhappy wouldn't begin to cover it.
I'm paying $60 a month for lousy service and have hundreds of dollars into this worthless equipment and service calls. The technolody isn't getting better, it's actually been worse over the last year.
I have a phone line and might just go back to dial up. I hate the idea of it, but I hate throwing away money on something that doesn't work even more.
There are several threads on cell phone internet connections that I'm curious about. Who has this, where did you get it, and would you recomend them? I'll change cell providers for my phone if that helps to.
Please help!!!!!!!!
Eddie
I have tried repeatedly and offered repeatedly to help any of you who may be having problems with your Satellite based broadband connection. I have had years and years experience putting them in and fixing them.
There is so much said on this forum that is quite frankly not at all factual. One person said that Wildblue and Hughesnet were the same company. That is about as far from the truth as night and day. I don't know where some of you get your information.
First of all I would agree with Eddie that a Hughesnet system is about as consumer unfriendly as one could get. I know I have spent years putting them in and fixing them. Many dealers have dropped them simply for that reason.
The Wildblue system is really quite dependable. At first they as a company were facing two problems. 1.) They were wildly successful right out of the chute. 2.) Their success created massive network problems that they have fixed and/or are getting their arms around. Since their inception, they have launched a new Satellite and now have two up operating. It has helped immensly getting things ironed out.
Most of the problems that people are experiencing fall in one or more of these categories. Too tight line of sight. You can not put one of these systems in at the same location of your Dishnet or Directv antenna, iff you have a tight line of sight. You should have a minimum 10 degrees of clearance from ANY possible obstruction...especially trees. Look at your mounting location and then look at the antenna. Many of you think that the angle of the arm is the angle of clearance you would need.....but think with me here....your signal does not come in at that angle. It comes in at a higher angle and REFLECTS into the collector or subreflector on the front of the antenna. Therefore if you are back under an ovehanging roof or tree etc., you are going to have problems.
Next category....Your installation is garbage. Look carefully at your cable run. Is there tight turms? Does the cable run have gentle sweeps? Look carefully at the cable....my reccomendation is that you have 3ghz rated cable in your system. Those specifications are written on the cable somewhere. Tell me what you have for connectors....are they the crimp style connectors?? They should be, NO MUST BE compression style connectors. Why do I ask? Because a crimp style connector will cost your installer .07 cents and a quality compression connector will cost 25 cents. So guess with me what 90 percent of the installers use.
Next category....is there a visible ground block in your system? That would be where the cables come and terminate on one side and then hook to the other side and continue on into your home or office. From that ground block you should see a #10 solid copper green wire running to your ufer ground. The ground strap should not be more than 20 feet. That would be the ground below your power meter or where your power enters your home to the main switch panel. Somehow, YOU MUST HAVE A GROUND HOOKED UP PROPERLY, to your ufer ground. If your antenna is clear on the other side of your house....then guess what, you should have a ground rod driven every 6 feet and then the ground strap connected to each of them and BONDED to your ufer ground. YES THAT TAKES A LOT OF WORK, AND IS NOT FREE.
Final category.....cable length. How many feet of cable are you running from your antenna to your modem?? I don't care what the specs say....EXPERIENCE says that if you get over 70 feet you are begging for problems. Also if your cable run is too short...you are begging for problems as well.....keep it minimum 40 feet.
Finally let me make some general observations...some are factual and some are observations from years of experience. Every time I go to a service call that is experiencing "slow page loading," they all have one of three things in common. First they either have Norton or McCaffee virus programs, and they have AOL all through their computer. That is an observation. Factually, many of you grab things from the net that will make your computer "run faster." Some of googles programs do nothing but raise havouc with page loading on SATELLITE BASED SYSTEMS. Factually many of you have two or three firewalls operating. You may not know it but if you check....you will find out that is so. If you are running a router, you should turn off all of your other firewalls. The router is your firewall, in other words it has its own firewall.
Observation....I have found that if you are running VISTA, go in and turn off your Phishing filter. That really creates slow page loading.
Some of you will wish to argue with me, particularly about firewalls. That information comes directly from Satellite engineers who are also computer engineers. I don't know what a "GREAT" virus program is....I just know that some will screw up your computer and cause slow page loading....and others try to take over your computer. I have tried several, but I am not any way shape or form an expert on any virus programs.
Finally, I have owned both systems....Hughes Net, and Wildblue. I am going on three years now with Wildblue. I have had four times that my system was not operating....other than those times when Wildblue is performing maintenance on the system. I have DSL running right by my home, and have my system run comparisons to my neighbors...and I will not switch. Now if Cable or Fiber ever comes to my home....I will switch in a heartbeat.
My biggest gripe with much of these complaints is this....it seems like no one will listen when you tell them to pay attention to the installation. This is not like Dishnet or Directv...you can not just slap them in and call it good. For example the sweet spot for most Dishnet and Directv antennas is about the size of a basketball.....for Hughesnet and Wildblue the size of a tennis ball. Also, and I reccomend highly purchasing Wildblue, should you purchase a system...get off of this nonesense that Dishnet and Directv have conditioned you.....THERE AIN'T NOTHING FREE....The more free you EXPECT, the bigger screwing you are going to take.
Thanks for listening.
