Satellite Internet Service GDG

[M&K's Retrievers]

We are moving from BFE #1 to BFE #2 next week. We currently have cable internet which works great 90% of the time. The new location only has satellite service from the likes of Hughes, My Blue Dish, Broadband Blue, etc. They all brag how great their service is but all I have ever heard in horror stories. Anyone have any advice - good or bad? Thanks in advance.

[jacduck]

We finally switched after years of being downtrodden by Hughes. Every heavy rain and snow storms and it seems strong wind interrupted service. Plus the download restrictions they placed on us were not user friendly so much so that when a update came in from MS it may take days to get it all and meanwhile the speed was reduced to fax machine telephone line speed. Perhaps they have changed but the two locations we used it in over several years left a very bad taste in our mouth. We even had to cut down a large old tree that when it has leaves was in the sat window. Then we used our Verizon phones as a modem. Now we are using a "jetpack" which is a free standing connection. We live in the north woods of MI a 3G area so it is not super but certainly better than any sat we know of. We travel a lot so it works well for our life style. Good luck in your search.

[Vicky Trainor]

We do not have any option other than satellite service. The Verizon jetpack doesn't work for us since we do not have a good enough signal here at home.

For the past 14 years, we have dealt with HughesNet. The initial years when it was Direcway weren't too bad...the speed was better than dial-up and when you had a problem, you spoke with someone here in the US that you could understand. Then HughesNet bought Direcway out. Not too bad at first; but then the FAP (Fair Access Policy) went into effect as well as Customer Service going down the tubes. Having to deal with problems with representatives that you could barely understand their English was quite frustrating; not to speak about how they evidently go down a master list of questions and instructions. The FAP when it would kick in (don't dare try to download an update to your software or watch more than 3 or 4 YouTube videos!) would slow you down worse than dial-up for 24 hours. HughesNet finally introduced a "Token" system where you would get 1 free token a month and could purchase more, if needed. By using tokens, you could "re-set" the FAP meter and be "back up to speed".

Our granddaughter moved in with us this past August to attend college. Some of her classes required online conference labs. I knew we were in trouble, so I started checking into other internet options. The local broadband did not cover our area and any cable company was not expected in our area for years, if then.

I had been getting emails from HughesNet about their new Gen4 service. I hated HughesNet so much I didn't even want to consider binding us to more years of their service. Buying tokens started adding up and I knew I had to do something. So I started researching HughesNet's Gen4 service and learned that it was getting pretty good reviews.

So, we "bit the bullet" and ordered the Gen4 service. I won't go into all the details of the nightmare we had with the "offshore" CS reps in trying to place the order, only to say that we had to wait weeks to finally get to where we got to talk with a Supervisor and worked out the contract and purchase of the equipment. (They offer really good deals to new customers and seem to care less about giving old customers the same deals pricewise) I will say this...What a difference! I can now download necessary updates to my software, watch plenty of YouTube videos, have my granddaughter do her online class labs and actually tell a difference in the speed of our connection. The Gen4 service actually costs us a little less each month than what we were paying before.

I still hate HughesNet's customer service, but the last 2 times I called to talk to them about what I thought was a problem (turned out to be me, not their service), I actually got to talk to 2 different people located here in the States!

So, if you have to use satellite service and are considering HughesNet, do yourself a favor and get the Gen4 service right off the bat!

Good luck

[JustinS]

My wife and I have hughesnet and we HATE IT can I repeat that we HATE IT but we do not have the gen4 as we do not want to attach ourselves to them any longer than we have to, my younger sister is going to be moving in with us to go to college and help us out with our newborn in August and we were worried about the internet connection a bit and then we found out that the cable company can get a big chunck of $ for running lines to rural areas and they are now planning on running either net to our area after we asked and filled out some paper work on the reasons we needed it, it took about 2 hours to talk to them and get the required paper work and fill it out but if it all happens the way they say it will by July we should have regular internet.

check out your state rural internet grants and talk to your cable or telephone company they may work with you if not try the Gen4 but we are just sick of hughesnet - had to drive 20 miles into work to turn in reports as the reports I was doing required me to be online and I drained the alotment so I couldnt send that big of a file on email

I go to school in SD and have very good acess here as it is a college town.

[Brad]

I had Hughes net, but switched to Verizon Home Fusion, 4G signal. Works a whole lot better. I can now watch a video clip without waiting.
If you get a good 3G signal on your phone it will probably work

[Ken S.]

I have Exede from Wild Blue. While it may or may not live up to their claims, it is decent. It is not available everywhere. It has great download times, but with satellite you will always have a latency issue. What you notice is that the time for a query back has a bit of a lag. It does what I need it to, and is not too expensive.

[Cleo Watson]

If you have access to AT&T, check to see if you are now offered DSL by land line. This is the best we have ever had and we have gone the route, dial up, Hughes, Jet Pac and now AT&T. If not AT&T and Verizon is available, try that one. Good Luck - we all are so lost when we can't get information as quickly as we want.

[TroyFeeken]

ViaSat is a new company to the market place offering some serious speed. Check them out. I'm not a user of them but keep tabs on the options if I ever move to a more remote area. They're getting great reviews on their uptime during weather and speed.

Here is a link to a tech website with some articles about them. http://www.engadget.com/tag/ViaSat/