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Review by Mayam 
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 1.5 years, 0 visits, last login: 1.5 years ago
 Aydlett,Currituck,NC
 Contract price not specified.
 "Potentially faster than dial up"
 "Read on..."
 "SUCKS!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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After moving to the wilderness were the cable doesn't flow I realized this was my only option for the time being. I need high speed internet, scratch that, RELIABLE high speed internet for my job. I also enjoy(ed) it for leisure in the form of on-line gaming. Realizing the latter wouldn't be possible with this service I had to go with it for the former. Turns out neither is really possible.
I was hoping I may be able to log into games like EVE with maybe a decent enough latency to farm materials, not even close. Oh well at least I can still use it for speedy research and communications for my job right? Nope, not if you ever find yourself in need of an update for any of your software that isn't small in size(own Vista, anti-virus, any software really?!?!). Better plan on getting up at 3 am EST to try and download it - you aren't busy then or in need of sleep are you? Sure hope not because that is the only time this "service" you are paying for allows you to download anything of standard size without reducing your speeds to a crawl that would make a standard 56k modem run laps around while laughing hysterically.
For example, you have a program that needs to update to run with Vista maybe? No problem right? No, not with cable. You have Hughesnet though, you download it and for the next 24 hours - don't even bother trying to use the internet because you won't be able to, and likely you hit your cap somewhere during the download and it timed out and you didn't even receive the full download. Straight-up, you can't update your software if you use Hughesnet.
All this service is, is a highspeed net surfing tool for the price of REAL highspeed internet. If you attempt to download most updates for any OS's, anti-virus, multi-media, CAD, etc., etc., you will only serve to destroy your net access for the next 24 hours and you likely won't even get the update. But hey, you can always wake up at 3 in the morning and do it! I pay $70/month, they tell me to get up at 3 am to use their "service". Yup, definitely money well spent I feel.
This is a scam. I suppose in a very loose sense they are what they advertise but these problems are only magnifying. As all PC's are going to Vista all the software must adjust, this means many update downloads. If you live in the area of respectable cable internet, this will not be a problem most likely. If you live in Hughesnet country you are wasting your time and money. Especially if your job requires you doing some of your work from home on your computer.
Since moving out here to get away from the congested city I have been forced to spend so much time at my office getting work done and getting necessary updates for the software my job requires that my wife has questioned my fidelity. We're moving back to the city, clearly I was wrong and these days the internet is more important than hearing gunshots in the night. Oh what the hell, I'll even save a fortune on gas.
This service is not what it leads you to believe. Unless you only want to check your e-mail and the weather and news a bit quicker with out any need for advancing software, save your money. I mean hey, a 56k may take a while to download your huge update, but eventually, it will get it done, and then it will access your e-mail just as fast. Hughesnet will not only fail to d/l your update in a timely manner, it will fail to d/l at all, and THEN you won't be able to access any e-mail or news for 24 hours without you slamming your head on the desk in frustration.
They can't represent a respectable latency for physical reasons, ok. They can't represent a respectable bandwidth for... I have no idea? Financial reasons? They sold a product they couldn't supply? I do know I have payed for a product that is not what I was lead to believe it was. Hopefully others will learn of this before they've spent the money.
I have enough frustration, I certainly don't need to buy it.
Followup comments:  mruksurf
Premium
join:2004-08-21
united state
| HughesNet's "Unlimited" Access Hughes advertises "unlimited" access to the Internet. What this means is that you will always be able to "get to" the Internet; it does not mean that you will always be able to make practicable use of the Internet. This is because of Hughes' so-called "Fair Access Policy." (What an oxymoron! It should be "No Access Policy"). If you download more than a certain number of *megabytes*, then you are basically put in "time-out" for the next 24 hours, meaning that pages load very, very slowly and forget trying to download or upload anything. Of course the number of megabytes you may download or upload depends on how much money you pay to Hughes. And, it's my take that the whole Fair Access Policy gimmick is designed to drive you up the price scale as you become more and more desperate to use the Internet you become willing *to pay and pay* for continued availability of high speed access. But, even at $89.00 per month, which is what I pay, I can only download about 400 megabytes in a 24 hour period and I still haven't figured out my upload limit, though we were gigged on it a couple weeks ago. Bottom line, I find that between my wife's business use and my use we are in time-out every other day that we at our wilderness location. The real kicker is that we seldom use this location on Mon through Thursday most weeks, but of course Hughes' "Fair" Access Policy doesn't take this into account.
Our next step up the Hughes price scale jumps to $119.00. This is just too much. So, I just went out and purchased a USBConnect 881 card (sometimes called an Aircard). I also purchased a Wilson Electronics cellular signal amplifier and a couple of antennas which I intend to install this weekend. It's my hope that I can pull in a 3G network, use ICS and tell Hughes to take its Fair Access Policy and shove it. So far, I've used the USBConnect 881 *while riding* in a car on a road trip and in the hotel. It works *very* well, seems almost as fast as DSL. So, I have hope!
I really think Hughes may be ripe for a class action, as well as a successful complaint before the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs for its trade and advertising practices, which in my view are of very questionable legality. In my case the Fair Access Policy seemed to appear out of nowhere years after I had signed up with Hughes. Certainly had I known about the FAP I would not have signed up with Hughes. | |
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HughesNet Satellite Broadband
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Re: HughesNet's "Unlimited" Access
Don't waste your time and money.