hughsnet?

[MotorSeven]

I'm on Hughes. In these ridges it's Hughes or Wildblue.......no cell, no microwave, no cable, etc. I had Wildblue for 3 years and had to switch to Hughes because Wildblue slowed down to a crawl. We are on the botttom tier and it's about $70 a month. Other than the cost I will rate it satisfactory. It's not cable or broadband...never will be, but it's a zillion times better than dial up.

 

[Airedale]

I have heard nothing positive about Hughes from anyone, I have the 3g Verizon mifi which has been working out pretty well for me, way better than dial up. Verizon is now transitioning in many areas to 4g which is supposed to be up to ten times faster than 3g, I am not holding my breath but when it becomes available and reliable it will be a big leap forward.

Al

 

[rtimgray]

I guess that I am in a small minority that is very happy with Hughesnet. We had dial up for about 10 years and it was so slow that we couldn't really use the internet at home. We tried a wireless card from AT&T (which has great cell service at our home) but the speeds were horrible.

Thanks to the Reinvestment and Recovery Act (or something like that), we were able to get Hughesnet installed for at no cost and instead of the $60 or $70 per month for the lowest tier of service, we have it for $40.

I am absolutely satisfied with what we get, but it may be just because of what we had before. It is also probably the manner in which we use the internet. We don't do any "twitch" gaming, we don't do much uploading, and we don't watch streaming shows or movies.

We can watch video clips, download files, music, etc. We installed a download monitor so that we can see how much usage we have remaining in our rolling 24 hour period. You also get one "free" token per month so if you use up all of your allowance in a day, you can recharge it. You can buy additional tokens for $5.

They have recently added another 50 megs to our daily allowance and have also changed the the way your "bank" works to let you use up to twice as much in one day (example: if you didn't use it at all yesterday, you get double today - but you can only bank up to 2 days, so far).

At this point, I couldn't be more happy with Hughesnet. Yes, it does go out during inclement weather (same time as my Dishnetwork signal does). Sometimes its faster than other times, but, in my case, it's cheaper than a wireless plan and is much, much faster.

I cannot comment on service, because we haven't had any problems (it was just installed in July). I will be able to comment on this shortly, because we are going to have to have the dish moved due to a building expansion, so I'll post how that goes.

I do definately seem to be in the minority, but I assure you, I'm not a "plant".

Good luck and take care.

 

[jpm1]

At one time i had Wild Blue. The service stunk to say the least. If it was cloudy, it didnt work. If it rained, it didnt work. if it snowed, it didnt work. If it was foggy, ha it didnt work. About 8pm each night it didnt work and wild blue wouldnt cancel my contract. Bascially i was stuck with it! I switched to a Verizon hotspot and it worked ok for about 11 months, then that to stoped working (no signal) at my house. Go 1/2 mile down the road and it worked. Talked to verizon and there solution is . . .go a 1/2 mile downthe road. They to will not cancel the 2 year agreement, I refuse to travel down the road and sit in my vechile to use the internet. The battle with Verizon has just begun!
Fortunately in Nov of last year the cable company finally broke the REDTAPE with the township and we now have cable HS internet. Its not like the city but its great! Don't know what to tell you to use but dont use the 2 i had. Good luck .. . John

 

[JESSE1]

I've been on Hughesnet for over three years now. The only bad experience was over a year ago when my modem went out and it too several weeks for Hughes to decide what the problem was and send a new one. My only other choice at the time was dial-up and Hughes is definately much better. No way it's as fast as the TV ads but it's acceptable. If I ever get an alternative I'll consider trying it. Hughes is supposed to have new satellites in '12 and also announced other upgrades so I may keep Hughes as long as I don't have any more major problems. If wireless gets better in my area I might give it a try.

 

[KML]

Another bad experience here: Had Wildblue then Hughes. Finally went back to dial up as the connection and service were both terrible. At least with dial-up the bad internet was cheap.

3G cell service finally became available and we jumped on it. It's WAY better than satellite. Get about 1.5meg down, much faster response (pings) and can stream video..It's almost like having REAL internet!

 

[rekees4300]

Hey folks, has anyone out there used hughsnet for their internet service? and what do you think of it. My current provider (ibec) is going out of business, and where I live DSL and cable are not available, any thoughts would be appreciated.

Had Hughesnet for 2 years. It's better than dialup but not better than anything else. Before you signup with them check on Verizon wireless coverage.

Coverage Locator - Verizon Wireless

 

[TripleR]

Had Hughesnet for 2 years. It's better than dialup but not better than anything else. Before you signup with them check on Verizon wireless coverage.

Coverage Locator - Verizon Wireless

Like anything, a lot depends on your area. My brothers were assured Verizon would work for them, but it was terrible. They were able to get on a line of sight system when a local carrier expanded their coverage area.

 

[bigbull338]

ive had hughes.net for years,an im completely happy with it.it has done everything ive asked of it an more.now i did have some probs with it during their upgrade.an had called to get a service man out.but things got back like they should.an havent had him out.my bro tryed the ATT aircard an it was a complete bust.wouldnt stay charged at all.now he is on verizon an he says it works great on his pc.we own all our internet equipment.so if the modem or router goes out we change it real quick.

 

[Phils]

We've had dialup almost 20 years, and only 26.4kbs on the best days.

I recently looked at the microwave service (Digitalpath.com in our area). IF I removed/trimmed enough trees I maybe could get service, since there is an antenna only a couple of miles away and within lin-of-sight IF trees weren't in the way. $60/month.

Our dialup is free, since we get the service as part of our office DSL account. I've been reluctant to buy satellite service since nobody's given raving reviews (reference the preceding posts as some examples). We are reluctant to even use our home computer for internet... because of the slow speed. Maybe check an email account, if there's no hurry. Need to update Win XP? Turn it on, come back in 3 - 4 hours when it's done.

DW got a smartphone last summer. It connects at "3G". An option is to make it a "hotspot" for $20 more per month (doubling her limit from 2 GB to 4GB/month). I visited our local Verizon store to investigate that option, and they convinced me to buy the Samsung "hotspot" unit... $50 per month for 5GB (the $50 cost of the unit is supposedly being rebated).

So far, it is usually as fast as our office DSL. Sometimes we have to reset the unit, or reboot the computer, and after finding enough posts online we aren't the only ones. 95% of the time it's great, then after resetting/rebooting, it's great again. The first Samsung unit was defective and replaced by Verizon (I couldn't get it to work, and after leaving it with them for a day, they couldn't either).

Of course, coming from a slow dialup, my standards may be low compared to others.

Phil