Sattellite internet users

[grainger12002]

anyone have any luck or reliability w their sat internet ? I spent another 75 mins w hughesnet last nite and still cant get any degree of reliable service from this provider ? Any thoughts or related experience is greatly appreciated, I am in NE CT and have no access to cable even though its in our town and on most of my street, also has anyone had success communicating w charter comm ? It appears this telecom does what it wants,where it wants w very little oversight....

any input is greatly appreciated

 

[Western]

If you within the Sprint area, look into these independent providers. I use a Verizon Jetpack (WiFi), if I had Sprint service here, I'd switch just for the increased bandwidth for less$$

http://www.evdodepotusa.com/
Plans | Millenicom

 

[Western]

If your within the Sprint area, look into these independent providers. I use a Verizon Jetpack (WiFi), if I had Sprint service here, I'd switch just for the increased bandwidth for less$$ They basically "piggy back" on the Sprint service.

http://www.evdodepotusa.com/
Plans | Millenicom

 

[Gary Fowler]

Dish network also offers satellite internet. I have Dish for tv but don't use the internet service as I have a landline for that. Claims are fast connections. I have heard a lot of disgruntled users comments on Hughesnet and the high cost of downloads, so watch and read the contract carefully.

 

[cletus99]

I had the Exede service last year which is the same satelite service you are recieving. Kept it for about 4 or 5 months and paid the disconnect fee. I was so aggrevated at it. Every time I turned around I had to unplug the modem to get it to reset and for some reason a lot of web pages just wouldn't come up. I could go to a page and get the blank white disconnected screen or whatever it was and then try a different page and it would work. Go back and try the other one again and it wouldn't come up. Try it on my phone and it worked fine. Absolutely hated the service.

I'm in the same boat. Satelite and 4G cell service is all I've got where I live. Now we're using our hotspot on our cell phones thru Verizon. We all have smart phones with free hotspot so we just use it with our iPads and desktop computer. Works pretty good. No complaints except for the data cap. Wish I still had unlimited data. We're on the 20 gig a month plan and have went over by a gig or two for the last couple of months. Cost too dang much to go up to the next plan higher. I'm just hoping that one of these days I'll have more optionsor at least get unlimited data. I'd love to be able to cancel my cable and go back to streaming tv online thru Netflix, Hulu, and everyone else. Heck, now I've got to even be careful how many Youtube videos we watch.

 

[cletus99]

Dish network also offers satellite internet. I have Dish for tv but don't use the internet service as I have a landline for that. Claims are fast connections. I have heard a lot of disgruntled users comments on Hughesnet and the high cost of downloads, so watch and read the contract carefully.

All the satelite services now are going through the same satelite. I've forgot now the name, but I think it's ViaSat or something like that. They launched a new satelite into orbit a few years ago which is what is giving everyone the speeds that they are getting now through satelite. Hughesnet, Dishnetwork, and all the other companies are still going through the same satelite. Basically works the same way these smaller cell phone companies sell service, but are using Verizon or some other major cell companies towers. They are just using ViaSat's satelite.

 

[eventer79]

Also, FYI, Millenicom lost its contract with Sprint so they no longer offer their unlimited data plan. I am researching all the same stuff as I am moving away from my cable, snif. I do have the new farm house built on a hill with a clear sky view, will that help?

 

[deerseeker001]

i have Hughes gen 4 and love it.big improvement over old hughesnet,we have had the upgrade since Jan.we have the middle priced package.

 

[TripleR]

We have had Hughes for years since Charter dropped service on our road and like deerseeker001 now have Gen4 and it works fine. Like Dish or Direct, we lose signal in heavy rain, but otherwise, little to no issues.

We have no other alternative due to our location, so Hughes is not our first choice, it is our only choice other than dial up.

 

[thatguy]

If you within the Sprint area, look into these independent providers. I use a Verizon Jetpack (WiFi), if I had Sprint service here, I'd switch just for the increased bandwidth for less$$

http://www.evdodepotusa.com/
Plans | Millenicom

We are using Millenicom 20 gb package - its through Verizon.. its $70/mth our 4g speeds are in the 15 Mb/s area, but i found that 4g doesnt stay 'up' as much, so i lock into 3g (evdo)

 

[Western]

We are using Millenicom 20 gb package - its through Verizon.. its $70/mth our 4g speeds are in the 15 Mb/s area, but i found that 4g doesnt stay 'up' as much, so i lock into 3g (evdo)

Tell me how you got that please!! Millenicom told me they cant work with Verizon:confused3: Only Sprint?? I am on the jetpak through Verizon as I mentioned and its 5gs for $69:shocked:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I was on hughesnet for many years, was OK, but I switched to excede when it came out with faster service and cheaper cost. hughes didn't have gen4 when I switched. someone mentioned they are the same, but they aren't. I have found Excede to be better than hughes, but I tend to go over my limit quickly. I also have 4g verizon mifi. Excede is faster for me.

 

[streamin]

I was on hughesnet for many years, was OK, but I switched to excede when it came out with faster service and cheaper cost. hughes didn't have gen4 when I switched. someone mentioned they are the same, but they aren't. I have found Excede to be better than hughes, but I tend to go over my limit quickly. I also have 4g verizon mifi. Excede is faster for me.

Are you saying that satellite( assuming Excede is satellite) is faster than verizon 4g? I have a verizon 4g mifi and it is plenty fast enough. I didn't know the satellite has improved that much.

 

[CurlyDave]

We had satellite about 6 or 7 years ago. Better than dial-up, but worse than any other choice.

They we got DSL. We were too far from the nearest router, so that was only somewhat better. I didn't know to measure latency, I realized it was bad on satellite, but thought it was close on all land-based systems. This is wrong. It is a major thing on all connections. The highest speed we could get was supposed to be 2.5 MBPS, but we actually got more like 1.5.

The speed tests you find online will also give you a ping time, time to send a signal to some internet hub and get a reply back. The smaller the number the better. On DSL this was 70 to 140 milliseconds.

We found a local internet provider who uses small microwave dishes (maybe 12" diameter) to communicate with towers on nearby mountains. These are not the same as cell phone towers. We didn't even know this provider existed until we had lived here for a number of years and asked around. If you can see one of the towers from your roof you can connect to it.

For less money than the DSL, we now get a true 5 MBPS down and 2.5 MBPS up, which frequently exceed that spec which is good. The ping time is 20 milliseconds, which is much much better and makes the 5 MBPS seem faster.

To find if you have one of these providers in your area do a Google search in internet service providers and your zip code. Check every one that shows up, even if you think it is a blind alley. The one we got was near the end of a list that I had gone over briefly a few times, but overlooked each time because I just didn't think it was "real".

 

[Ken45101]

We had Hughes for years, the only option. Customer service was always abysmal but fortunately we didn't need it much. Last year, service got worse and worse. We had an outage every afternoon and evening for a week (total outage, no connection). Customer Service (? NOT) had no answers. We cancelled and used AT&T MiFi for a while but it's pretty bad here (4G service is only mid range 3G in reality. AT&T lies about their 4G). This spring, we went with Wildblue (Exceed) and it's been good, or at least as good as you expect for satellite (latency is a given).

AT&T is the only coverage here and their backbone infrastructure sucks. You might get 3G/4G to the tower but then the tower connection to the Internet must be a dialup line sometimes

 

[cqaigy2]

Tell me how you got that please!! Millenicom told me they cant work with Verizon:confused3: Only Sprint?? I am on the jetpak through Verizon as I mentioned and its 5gs for $69:shocked:

Verizon Home Fusion, pretty constant 3-4 Mb down, 1-2Mb up. 10GB cap , $10 per GB over cap. $69 per month 2 year contract. They install a "cantenna" on the house or pole w/cable connection back to their router. Router has 4 ethernet and wifi.

 

[cletus99]

For anyone that is using a mifi or jetpack through Verizon may be wasting money if they have a smart phone. That is if everyone in the household has smart phones with hotspot. Especially now with the shared data plans. It cost, last time I checked, $20 a month plus your data plan for a mifi or jetpack, or even Home Fusion for that matter. Verizon doesn't charge for hotspot anymore so if you do the math you will come out ahead if you can use your hotspot on your phone. That's what we do. It wouldn't make any sense for us to have a seperate mifi, jetpack, or Home Fusion through Verizon when I'm getting the same 4G service through my smart phone turning on the hotspot and broadcasting a wifi signal that anyhting with wifi capability can connect to. I have a wireless adapter on our desktop that connects to it. Of course this wouldn't work for someone that only has one smart phone in the household when they're not home.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Are you saying that satellite( assuming Excede is satellite) is faster than verizon 4g? I have a verizon 4g mifi and it is plenty fast enough. I didn't know the satellite has improved that much.

Just did a speed test. About the same speed right now: Verizon mifi 4.47 Mbps down / 1.37 Mbps up. Excede satellite 5.52 Mbps down / .39 Mbps up. I've been a lot happier with Excede than hughesnet. Hughes would always FAP you when you go over your daily limit. Excede doesn't slow you down till you reach your monthly quota (which I am over right now, so I think that is why it is only 5 Mbps down right now), but you can go online and purchase more. I go over a lot on my Verizon plan, every extra 1Gb over 5 Gb is $10.

 

[thatguy]

Tell me how you got that please!! Millenicom told me they cant work with Verizon:confused3: Only Sprint?? I am on the jetpak through Verizon as I mentioned and its 5gs for $69:shocked:

here is the link to package we use.. Unless you dont have Verizon coverage I have no idea what they mean..

Plans | Millenicom

Sprint and Millenicom are on the outs (as mentioned above)..

 

[thatguy]

Are you saying that satellite( assuming Excede is satellite) is faster than verizon 4g? I have a verizon 4g mifi and it is plenty fast enough. I didn't know the satellite has improved that much.

YES.. with a new generation of satellites that went up a year or so ago, they get (in the best conditions) speeds comparable to 4g.. BUT you still have much longer lag than with other methods..

One of the satellite providers allows unlimited download from midnight to 5 or 6am.. Also with the new higher speeds there is no daily FAP limit from what i read

brian