how-to block ads
|
 Review by Arion 
UPDATED: 39 days ago
member for 2 years, 1015 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Marquette,Marquette,MI
 Contract price not specified.
 "Always on, no disconnects. Reasonable FAP. Great off peak speeds. It's been dependable for me."
 "Poor to non-existent customer service. Off shore csr's reading off of a script. Overloading of gateways and transponders."
 "For those of us in the boonies, especially when your stuck on dial up, it's the best way to go."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
First of all I purchased the system used off of Ebay and installed it and commissioned it myself!! Yes, it can be done. This is a DW6000 system and I got the modem, dish, mount, ect for $120 bucks. I have installed KU band dishes before and they are much more sensitive to aiming than a pizza pan dish. I followed the install manuals and was very careful on grounding and other requirements. My setup consistently provides performance which exceeds the plan specifications for a DW6000 with a home account.
Because of being a self install I have no experience with the sales people or installers. IMO the biggest problem with these systems are overloaded transponders and gateways. You can pretty much expect your great system speeds to be during off peak times. Mainly between 10pm to around 10am. However peak speeds is always better than dial up. My peak speeds are usually around 125kbps/35kpbs.
Many of the problems with the systems are do to very poor installs. The installers are taking shortcuts and not being careful enough. The best thing for you to do is to be proactive. Learn what the installer is expected to do and then be their for the install and let him know that you know how it's susposed to be done. If you have a good installer then chances are you will have a good experience. For example, if the installer fails to ground the system or grounds to an receptacle box instead of bonding back to the service entrance it will effect your speeds (especially upload) and reliability of service.
Also you need to understand what satellite internet is and what it is not. It is not anywhere close to cable modem speeds or performance. Bottom line__if you have been on dial up and your out in the boonies with telephone wire that Thomas Edison himself might have put up in the air, and if your proactive....you will probably be rather satisfied with the system. Boards such as these get a lot of people that are having problems so you might be tempted to think that the systems are all bad. That's not the case. Human nature what it is we tend to complain when things are not working the way we expect them but we seldom report when things are good. And yes!!, I would do it all over again. No question about it. 
Update 4/07
I took advantage of the "free" HN7000S upgrade for $25 shipping and handling. I got the modem in 3 days and got a power supply, lan cable and new base along with an install CD. You usually only get the modem with an update and use the same power supply ect. The upgrade went pretty smoothly except I never got an email from customer service which has a 28 digit ID that you have to put in to do the upgrade. A quick call to customer service fixed that.
With the new FAP policy in place that a lot of people are upset about I decided to upgrade to the pro package for an extra $10 a month. You get an extra 175 MB a day to play with and that should keep me from fapping. If you Fap now your on a 24 hour slowdown which would stink. I was pleasantly surprised that I was put on an 8-psk gateway. I didn't think IA-8 had any 8-psk capability so that was a plus. I ran a speed test at 12pm noon and was getting over 1mb in DL speed. That is quite an increase from the DW6000 and the residential package. So I am still overall pleased with the service.
Update 9/07
After having the new modem for 5 months I can say that overall I'm pretty pleased with everything. My speeds meet or exceed the plan speeds of 1000kbps on the download and about 170kbps on the upload. There is some degradation during peak times but rarely below 500kbps and that only lasts for a few hours or so. The new Fap policy that allows for unlimited downloads between 3am to 6am has gone a long way towards remediating the complaints that many have had about the fap policy. I think they have found the sweet spot in balancing service with network demands and I have no real complaints.
Update 6/08
The system continues to perform very well and as advertised. I'm still on the proplus plan and get very close to my advertised 1000kbps down most of the day and evening. As a matter of fact quite often in running numerous testmy speed tests I get 1200 to 1300 kbps down. I do occasionally have some DNS issues where the system is unable to resolve a DNS address but this problem is spotty and not a real impediment.
Followup comments:  johndeere
join:2006-03-08
Dwight, IL | Automotive wax on dish? Winter is aproaching and this will be my first snow season with my system.I was wondering if waxing the dish would help keep the snow from sticking?Also protect it from fading in the weather. | |
| | 
lostnthwoods
join:2001-12-03
Arcadia, OK | Re: Automotive wax on dish? I read in the forum that Rain-X helps, but I haven't tried that yet so I can't say from personal experience. | |
| |
Arion
join:2006-07-09
Marquette, MI
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
| I applied the Rain-X and it is helping to shed snow. Mine is on the roof so I bought a 12' telescoping paint roller pole and a brush that screws on the pole to use for getting the snow off the dish. Beats the heck out of a ladder.
--
DW6000 IA-8 1350 Router: 67.142.137.152 /.74 1 watt / Residential / Amd 2000+ / WinXP Pro - SP2/ Firefox 2.0 | |
| 
FKKD
@direcpc.com
| Hughes Satellite 1. Of the B/B ISPs in area (aDSL:Frontier, Cable:RoadRunner, Satellite:DirecPC, Hughes) --
Hughes is the most expensive, though slight fluctuations with specials for DirecPC and Hughes.
2. Best (but limited) DL is 350 Kbs; this is NOT sustainable. Typical is 60-70 Kbps.
3. I am unable to utilize DSL or Cable as their delivery area falls 2-miles short of my residence!!!So I am locked into the $atellite trip.
4. Latency can destroy some connectivity (eg, I cannot access my business network because latency is too high)
5. I can surf and send eMails fine....
6. Except when the new profit-tool from Hughes kicks in: Called "Fair Access Policy", it is a mechanism to keep usage minimal (surf and email) by penalizing significant usage( download large files...100-300 Mb, DL video, etc). FAP means your BW automatically, without warning, gets cut to effectively 0 (they turn off your connectivity) for 24-hours.
7. This does not affect duffers and little old ladies who do not use the internet seriously, but just for program and patch downloads, this is serious constraint of business.... | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of HughesNet Satellite Broadband |
|
|
(53)
(63)
(30)
(15)