Satellite internet

[grainger12002]

I am in CT and having a hard time w hughesnet,We have some cable on part of my rd,but they wont complete the loop......no cell service either,I need some help finding bandwidth... My exp w hughesnet is awful, the service is sketchy at best, and the call center is obnoxious. is there anyone w exp. either w other internet or another satellite provider? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[jpm1]

Sorry to hear about your problem but i was in the same boat! I first had dial-up. . .
s l o w . . . Got into "Wild Blue" from Dish Network, It only worked on sunny clear days! 8:30 PM everynight it would go out. Dish network told me it didn't go out, sent a tech out at that time and he couldn't make it work and offered no explanation. Basically almost said, "sucks to not have cable" Dish Network was taken out and disposed of properly. Went with phone internet from AT&T it was ok but screen was to small!
Bought a Verizon Wireless "Hotspot" had to sign a 2 year contract but they guaranteed me fast service. 5 gig of download for 50$ a month. It worked ok the first year, Just as i passed the 1 year mark the unit wouldn't work in the window i've always had it in. WT? ? ? worked across the road, down the road but not on my side of the road at my house. Verizon's solution sell me another and 2 more years on my plan. I COULD NOT GET THEM TO UNDERSTAND THAT IT WORKED, BUT NOT AT MY HOUSE OR FOR THAT MUCH ON MY SIDE OF THE ROAD! The one sales person said "well get in your truck and go down the road to use it!" I was floored to say the least by their comment, their comments got worse along with their attitude,mean while the store manager pipes in and with a worse attitude, needless to say they pi--ed me off and i returned fire. There were several people whom walked out saying they would never use Verizon, never ever! I finally cancelled out costing me 135$ Now they want me to pay 2 months usage that i couldn't use! My advise to you . . .Don't go that way either.
There was a saving factor in this. Our town finally let a local cable company in the upper part of the town which i live now. Its GREAT! High Speed internet. My package was unlimited long distance phone, HD cable with DVR and unlimited High Speed internet, with taxex. . . 82$ a month price lock for 2 years no contract other than the price lock, i can back out anytime. Didn't want to rub it in cause i feel for you. . . . John

 

[cdaigle430]

I am in CT and having a hard time w hughesnet,We have some cable on part of my rd,but they wont complete the loop......no cell service either,I need some help finding bandwidth... My exp w hughesnet is awful, the service is sketchy at best, and the call center is obnoxious. is there anyone w exp. either w other internet or another satellite provider? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Do you have DSL available? Most folks with a Land Line phone have that capablitity. Also, maybe other sat providers like Direct TV might be worth trying.

 

[oldnslo]

Not sure about your neck of the woods but try looking at roadrunner or T6 broadband, etc.. I am using T6 here in northern IL and am very satisfied with the service. Yes like all thing there is an occasional signal failure but very occasional and very good response from service.

 

[grsthegreat]

Do you have any microwave line of site companies around you. I also gave up on Hughesnet.....what a waste of a provider... I am now with a local microwave provider. I have a small 6" x6" square receiver on the roof which points about 10 miles up to their mountain top receiver.

I am now getting 4.3 mbps download constantly and 1.5mbps upload sppeds. There are NO max bandwidth limits per month.

The system is not affected by weather or winds.

Its more expensive than DLS or Cable, but neither of those are near us.

 

[rekees4300]

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Satellite internet service has one inherent design flaw... all the data has to travel thousands of miles up then down then back up then back down. Even at the speed of light the distance causes a delay.

Just because you can't get cell service that doesn't necessarily mean you can't get Verizon Wireless. Check their coverage map for your location.

 

[Dutch445]

Our town finally let a local cable company in the upper part of the town which i live now. Its GREAT! High Speed internet. My package was unlimited long distance phone, HD cable with DVR and unlimited High Speed internet, with taxex. . . 82$ a month price lock for 2 years no contract other than the price lock, i can back out anytime. Didn't want to rub it in cause i feel for you. . . . John

are you with Time Warner?
that's quite a good price, our bill averages almost 150 now for their
phone/internet/cable with no pay channels..... (dvr is extra)

i am moving to a different hose less than 10 miles away with no
time warner, getting nervous about what i'm gonna do.....
frontier telephone has dsl with a bundle with dish network i guess.

 

[whistlepig]

When we moved here five years ago the neighbors warned us not to get hughesnet. We went with dishnet and have been happy with it. As far as the cell phone service that was trial and error. We finally signed up with four different cell phone providers at the same time for a free trail. We had eight cell phones. Two from each cell phone service. That's the best way do determine the best cell phone service.

 

[ozley]

Sorry to butt in but if anyone is going to go with data with a cell phone co. Try millenicom.com they have no 2 year contract and no sales tax and if you go with Verizon it's $60 for 20 gig's

 

[Pettrix]

So from what I am gathering Satellite Internet is not a good deal and the best internet service for rural areas without cable is cell tower/line of sight? The area I am looking to build has a Verizon cell tower within the line of sight (4 miles), so that would be my best bet?

Does Verizon "idle down" your speeds or the amount of data your transferring? I don't want my Netflix moves to be pausing due to idle down conditions by Verizon.

 

[rekees4300]

Verizon doesn't have a FAP policy like Hughesnet. They just charge more money if you go over the monthly limit.

 

[creekbend]

We purchased Hughes Net almost a year ago because due to our location, it was the only service available in our area. We also have had DirectTv for over 6 years. DirectTv did not offer the ISP service that we wanted at the time. We still don't have land line phone service available. We rely on our cell phones for daily communication and possible emergencies. I have only had problems with Hughes Net one time, and after a call to the installer, the problem was addressed and fixed. I tried contacting the Company via the 1-800 number, and after struggling to understand "broken English", I called the installer. Severe weather conditions do interfere with reception at times. Even the speed provided by the ISP is more than adequate. After hearing about all the negativity associated with Hughes Net, I suppose that our case must be a rarity.

 

[phiferpharm]

I'm forced to use satellite service out here, and only have sporatic cell service if the signal spirits are smiling. I have WildBlue and it has gotten better in the past year. It's not as good as my DSL was in Miami, but at least it's liveable for now. I went over and got new cable from the local installer and he said they are rolling out an upgrade in the next few months that should increase the speeds, so we'll see.

Now my next item is getting a Wilson Cell Booster fo the house. Hope that works!

 

[DirtRanger]

We were on Wild Blue and while it was much better than dial-up, it's definitely not perfect..we got more than one e-mail from them telling us we were getting close to the limit Anyway, we set up our own system with 4 of these from a buddy's house where we got a dsl line hooked up..it's taken some fiddling around to get it to work but it's awesome...$50 a month unlimited...6gb/s at the source, 4+ here, and that's with 2 of the GS2400s acting as a repeater on the mountain above us..just need a kid every once in awhile if something goes wrong.

 

[Barnone]

We are on WildBlue satellite when we are in the mountains of Western North Carolina in the summer and they have gotten better in the last year or so but it is slow and very subject to weather interference at our location and also at the return to earth site. We have DSL in Florida in the winter and it is very fast and reliable.

We are in a cove so don't get very good cell phone service unless we hike up the mountain a bit. I'm need to look into getting an antennae and cell booster in WNC. Anyone here on that type of system to boost their cell signal? I'm thinking it would be more convenient to just go cell for the net and phone and get rid of the land lines.

 

[TripleR]

We purchased Hughes Net almost a year ago because due to our location, it was the only service available in our area. We also have had DirectTv for over 6 years. DirectTv did not offer the ISP service that we wanted at the time. We still don't have land line phone service available. We rely on our cell phones for daily communication and possible emergencies. I have only had problems with Hughes Net one time, and after a call to the installer, the problem was addressed and fixed. I tried contacting the Company via the 1-800 number, and after struggling to understand "broken English", I called the installer. Severe weather conditions do interfere with reception at times. Even the speed provided by the ISP is more than adequate. After hearing about all the negativity associated with Hughes Net, I suppose that our case must be a rarity.

We haven't had problems in the five years we have had ours.

 

[Kyle241]

We've had Hughes satellite for about two years now and I will say if you have ANY alternatives, explore them first. While the internet works, the latency is the issue as someone else mentioned. One has too keep in mind the distance travelled between the dish on your roof to the satellite and back down to the server (wherever that is) and then return back the same way. When you think of that distance, the 'speed' is not bad but it's not speed, it's latency that is the issue. If you can, look at 4G wireless but that usually is line of sight and may require a tower that can cost a lot to install or if you do it yourself, not too bad but still expensive unless you already have one or can get a used one. My issue this year with Hughesnet was I could not VPN for work which meant I could not connect to any databases that needed to. I looked at going to the 4G wireless however after analysis, determined I needed a 50ft+ tower and the cost was prohibitive. So I upgraded my package with Hughesnet for a dedicated IP and increased daily allowance (500mb) and it has been a lot better but still not ideal. The latency kills me no matter what I do so again if you're considering, look at alternatives first as cost, latency and FAP are major cons to satellite internet.

 

[Oaktree]

I agree with Kyle241...go with satellite only if you have no other options. I've had Wildblue for the last 6 years. It's either that or dial-up. The fastest d/l I've ever gotten was around 280K, and the latency makes any sort of VPN use very frustrating.


Wildblue does have a new service called Exede which (theoretically) offers "up to" 12Mb speeds, it requires buying/leasing new equipment and a 2 year contract. Also got an email from them recently implying that existing speeds will improve with no equipment to buy. We'll see.

Supposedly cable is coming thru here sometime this year...not really interested in overpriced tv packages, but it would be nice to have "normal" internet.

 

[phiferpharm]

We are on WildBlue satellite when we are in the mountains of Western North Carolina in the summer and they have gotten better in the last year or so but it is slow and very subject to weather interference at our location and also at the return to earth site. We have DSL in Florida in the winter and it is very fast and reliable.

We are in a cove so don't get very good cell phone service unless we hike up the mountain a bit. I'm need to look into getting an antennae and cell booster in WNC. Anyone here on that type of system to boost their cell signal? I'm thinking it would be more convenient to just go cell for the net and phone and get rid of the land lines.

I think you may want to look at Wilson Electronics. I am waiting for my barn to go up, then I'll get their booster system. When I went to the dealer a few weeks ago, he said it was around $450.

 

[MasseyWV]

Satellite internet.... SUCKS! Been there done that, until we got cable, now life's good. Cheaper too.