Hughes Net Question

[pappy19]

The place I am living here in SW Texas does not have any AT&T internet so I have been using my Verizon air-card. I am finally sick of the slow, very slow, connection and speed. Like 3 minutes to buffer 6 seconds kind of slow. So I called Hughes Net and they will install next week. Just wondering if anyone has had experience with Hughes and anything I should know. Thanks.

Pap

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Pap, I've never heard of Hughes in S.C. But the Verizon service we have is the #1 service in our area.

Have you ever thought about moving to South Carolina?  ;D

[loggah]

Its better then nothing!!! any time the weather is bad its on the fritz,and the download allowance is a pain ,can hardly watch any videos, and it gets exceeded all the time and you have to buy more "TOKENS" to restore the down load allowance. If we could get cable here hughesnet would be "GONE" !!!!!!. Don

[Jeff]

I do know that several members have had connectivity troubles in the past that trace to hughs net, and I also know that many times forum server generated emails never make it to hughs net email addresses.

[ancjr]

Besides the limitations in bandwidth and weather-related annoyances, their DNS services have driven me batty.  Some domains (gardenweb.com is a particularly bad one for me) have to be reloaded many, many times before you can access them. 

Their technical support staff and on-site techs are pretty helpful and competent with the on-site modem, satellite hardware and install, but the deeper technical issues within the system seem to be well beyond their expertise or control. 

Considering the cost versus the bandwidth and other limitations, I would thoroughly research any other available options before going to Hughes.

[Ianab]

What Loggah says.

It's sold as Farmside here in NZ, it works OK, but you only use it if you can't get anything better.

4G cellular would be better, but if you can't get cable or DSL, then chances are you don't have fast cellular either. 

Also check is any company offers long range Wireless broadband. This is similar to Wifi, but with a 10 mile or so range. Antenna gets mounted on your roof and points back to a local radio tower. Similar to the Sat dish, but a land based system is much cheaper than putting a satellite in orbit. But if you can't see the tower, then you are back with the Sat dish.

Ian

[Corley5]

We've got Hughes Net.  It's better than the Verizon service we had but it's not cable or dsl.  If something better came along we'd be the 1st to switch but it's our best option right now.

[pabst79]

We have had hughes for almost 5 years, dsl isn't an option. My wife works from home and just so your aware hughes does not support most vpn applications, so we also have to have a 3g cell with hotspot for her to work from her home office. Last week the hughes was really acting up and we called and raised holy stuff, now they are coming tomorrow to put in the new Gen 4 system which is supposed to be much faster and allows 10gb a month. Same price, if you have the option, get the Gen 4.

[Corley5]

We wanted to upgrade to the Gen 4 but they were going to make us pay a penalty for terminating our present contract to upgrade : >:(

[Sixacresand]

I looked into it.  The reviews I got from people who had it or had had it was not good.  DSL or cable, if available, is the way to go.  If you live close enough to a tower, then the Verizon hotspot would be next best option. 

[Larry]

We use a Verizon air card which works great.  Before that a AT&T air card which was slow because of poor reception.

I would explore air cards more and find a service that works.  I think Sprint has a data plan with no limits.

[ND rancher]

Did you check if you can get Verizon home fusion? (think that's what its called)  4G only.Sat. service is so-so here.Had good Internet service until they doubled the price this spring, just switched to Verizon 2wks. ago well see how it is.

[clearcut]

 I had a Hugesnet connection for 6 years and as soon as a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) established service in my area, I jumped right in and have had excellent service ever since ($40/month). I would only subscribe to Hughsnet again if my only other option was dial-up.

What's wrong with a satellite connection.

1. Cost - $80+/month for slooooooow uploads and sometimes fast often slow downloads.
2. Latency - the time to send a signal into space, back to the ground, over the intertubes, back into space and back to the ground killed applications that used secure connections, on-line gaming, bittorrent, and video. Checking the balance of my bank accounts was a five minute or more effort.
3. FAP - Fair Access Policy - if you downloaded too many MB over a short period of time (I think it was 180 MB over 4 hours) , Hughesnet slowed your connection to a crawl. Thoroughly sucks with a major software update. Forget streaming video.
4. First tier customer service through India that you always had to pass through to get someone who could actually help. Hughesnet is the only company that I had to contact through customer service several times a month the entire time I subscribed.
5. When I started with Hughesnet, I had access to streaming music that did not count against the FAP limit and to Usenet groups. Each simply went away one day with no notice from Hughesnet. Only when customers complained did they post a notice that they deleted these services to "improve customer service".
6. Big ugly dish stuck to the roof.
7. Frequent weather related outages.
8. Frequent unexplained outages and slow downs.

Explore other options, most cellular carriers will give you one to two weeks to test out their service - but read the fine print. Look for a WISP in your area.

[doctorb]

We've got Hughes Net.  It's better than the Verizon service we had but it's not cable or dsl.  If something better came along we'd be the 1st to switch but it's our best option right now.

X2.  There is no cable where I live and have tried all the 3G and 4G wireless Verizon and AT&T interent options, but signal strength is a problem leading to inteermittant service.  4G is a possibility, but you pay for downloads over a certain amount.  There are newer "Home Fusion" 4G service with an outside antenna from both Verizon and AT&T, but neither got a reliable enough signal at my house (on my roof!" to be a predictable provider.  I have the new HughesNet 4G service and it is an improvement over their original internent service, which we've had for 5 years. 

The biggest problem with satellite internet, and the one they don't tell you about, is that when a large number of users in your area are on the interent, the service slows (school nights!).   So, sometimes the service is acceptable, and sometimes it can be unbearable.  For now, it's the best I can do, but 4G, when the signal is good, is much faster,and any cable service is faster still.

Grinding my teeeth at the cost of this stuff. :D

[learner]

Pre Gen4 Hughesnet is now obsolete!  They really dropped the ball when they obsoleted my equipment and I had to up-grade to Gen 4.  Took them 18 days to get me back on the internet.  Other than that I am happy with the speed of the new gen 4 system.  I'm a working man so I don't have time to stream big videos or play real time online games so its no big deal to me.  10 gig is a large amount of download, unless your like a certain family member of mine that has to download EVERYTHING out there! :D  Usually my sat tv goes down long before my hughes does so that not really an issue for me.  Gives me the opportunity to get other things done.  My only real issue with them is the $5 a month charge because I refuse to let them auto deduct from my bank account and the customer support that allways seems to barely speak clear English.  Sadly though that seems to be a problem with All the bigger companys these days!

[Tom the Sawyer]

We live out in an area where cable and DSL are not available (nor water, gas or sewers) and we tried HughesNet (years ago).  The upside was that it was 'usually' faster than dial-up.  There weren't any other upsides.  Expensive rates, frequently trying to sell us new receivers, modems, etc.  Poor response from customer service.  Speeds were very slow and even worse in the evening, plus throttling.   

No local dedicated service (this was in the Kansas City suburbs).  When a tech would come out he was an independent who worked for several satellite companies.  He wasn't a HughesNet fan either.  We dumped them and went to cellular card.  Eventually ended up with microwave internet.  Works really well, much faster and $25 per month cheaper.

Count up the responses, HughesNet is only acceptable if there are absolutely no other options - just my experience/opinion.

[doctorb]

"HughesNet is only acceptable if there are absolutely no other options"

Well summarized, Tom.

What is microwave interent??

[Tom the Sawyer]

doctorb,

Another 6/5 baby - happy birthday. 

Microwave internet is a group of local area systems that use Motorola microwave transmitter/receivers to provide internet speeds of up to 10 megs or so I've heard.  The company we have, www.mercurywireless.com refers to the technology as 4G WiMAX 

I think it is primarily restricted to line of sight, meaning if you are down in a valley you probably would have difficulty getting a signal.  I have a receiver mounted on the eave at the upper level of my home, was a yagi style antenna but now it is totally self-contained box aimed towards the transmitting antenna.  I think it is mounted on a water tower about 10 or 12 miles from my home.   Service has been excellent.

[doctorb]

This sounds like the directional antennae (or omnidirectional) of the systems operated by Verizon and AT&T.   Their signals were not consistent at my home.  Google Home Fusion to see the setup, if interested.

[thecfarm]

My wife has something like Blue Net or Wild Blue. Has something to do with Direct TV,which we have. Seem like it was $10 cheaper than Hughes because of a bundle. She almost went with Hughes. But the $10 was the thing that did it. So far,no problems. I don't think she has any problems with it being real slow. Or she would be on the phone.  ;D This a 10 gb a month. We did have US Cellular. But she has a lap top and to tether or whatever she had to do with the cell phone, would gobble up the gb bites and I do mean gobble. Not a good thing. and that was only a 5 gb a month too. Don't take long to use that up. Have to be real careful on what she was doing. Now she has no problems at all, We kinda wonder if thier counter was working right with the cell phone jack.  :

[petefrom bearswamp]

Had it, was slow and expensive.
DSL came along got it and have never looked back

[thecfarm]

Was kinda funny. When the guy came to set us up for the satellite Internet,his feet hardly hit the ground before he was asking us if we got cable or any other high speed stuff. We said no,that is why you are here. As he said the other stuff is so much better. We know!!! One of the joys of living out in the woods.

[ancjr]

Similar story here... The Hughes installer asked me to keep the boxes the equipment came in because I'd more than likely want to return it before the 30 day trial period expired.

[Tom L]

I have hughes net here at the office only because we are so far off the road, the speeds are crummy and service is bad

I did just get a 4g box that came with an updated verizon plan that provides wireless 4g connections up to 10 computers at a time. it costs $20 per month added onto our existing verizon 4gb plan. it is twice as fast as hughesnet. and seems like the way to go if you have a good signal. I may be leaving hughesnet if the verizon box keeps working

[pappy19]

I have a 4G Verizon Jetpack air card but only receive at 3G which is almost worthless except for just emails, no youtube, etc. That's why I'm going with Hughes' newest system. There is another local internet outfit here in Pleasanton, Texas but when this project is over, I'll go back to Idaho and Hughes will transfer for free. I really appreciate all of the helpful responses and I will also be looking to use the 30 day return policy if I am not satisfied.

Pap