Review by chances14 
member for 3 years, 378 visits, last login: 8 days ago
updated 1.2 years ago
 Imlay City,Lapeer,MI
 Contract price not specified.  "better then dial up" "FAP and Latency which are the norm for satelite" "If you have no other options, hughes is a good alternative"
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
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As a person who had been stuck on dial up for years, I am very happy with my service. The FAP is a drag but is something that you just have to deal with. Luckily, they have a FAP free time between 2am and 7am every night to allow you to download large files. I would recommend a download manager if you do want to get up at 2 in the morning to download. If you are a gamer however you will be very disappointed with this service as the latency is terrible, which is unavoidable in satellite. I would try avoiding tech support as they are some of the worst in the business, and just look on the hughesnet forum on here if you are having problems. More often then not, you will find the solution to your problem there.
The number one thing i can say is just do your research beforehand and know what
you're getting into with hughesnet. many of the bad reviews are from people who did not do research and were taken by surprise with FAP and Latency. i cannot stress enough to especially gather info on what to look for in a good installation, as that is the root of the problem in many cases of people who have had bad service. If you know what your getting into and what to expect, you will be very happy with hughesnet.
UPDATE: 12/20/2011
I was finally able to get a good signal at my location from my local WISP so i am no longer with hughesnet. But just some closing comments. Since i first posted this review, i had seen dramatic improvements in download speeds. I am on the old 1mb home plan but i was receiving speeds in the 2.5 to 3mb range. Along with the increased speeds, hughesnet introduced a rollover allowance where you can rollover any unused download allowance up to double your normal plan allowance.
One complaint that i have is that the latency has become increasingly high, even for satellite. When i first got hughesnet a couple years ago, normal pings would run at 800-900ms. Lately, however it's been up in the 950-1000ms range. I would attribute this to their satellite becoming increasingly crowded. Also, speeds during peak hours of 5-9 pm est have been slower than when i first signed up. But these problems should ease a bit once hughes launches their new satellite in mid 2012.
Overall, i was pleased with my experience with hughesnet and i would still recommend it to someone that has no other alternatives.
Comments:
 | |  Maybe I'm just lucky. I agree completely with reviewer above
It's not cable and it's not DSL and it's not wireless, but it's better than dial-up. If you understand what you're buying, disappointments should be few, in my experience. | |
| | | Hughesnet Worst I have had Hughes for the last 5 years paying $79.95 per month after purchasing the equipment. The only reason I had this was I lived in a rule area where cable or DSL was not a choice. I finally found a replacement that works alot better and is less expensive at $50 per month. Check out Air Cards. I got a 3G US Cellular card Air Card. This is nearly as fast as cable (I had this when I lived in the city) when you have an excellant signal. I really tested it today when we had a constant downpore of rain and the signal stayed excellant. Try that with Hughes! This is far superior and you can take it with you on the road. You can even get a MoFi wireless router and plug the Air Card into the USB port to give you wireless throughout the home. It also offers an option to adapt an external antenna in case you have sigal troubles. I sent Hughes an email telling them to keep their eyes on Blockbusters reason for filing chapter 11. It's called greed and not being competitive with quality service. Pay more and get less. Hughes will be there soon. | |
| | | TERRIBLE! Terrible service. They say there is suppose to be a latency of 700 milliseconds to 1500. I get over 25k at some points. Yes, I did research and if u look hard enough hughesnet says they are compared to dial up. I understand that it's not cable or dsl, but they do make themselves seem like it. Do not get this service unless u absolutely have to. You might even want to try one way satellite if u can. | |
| | | My Issue I've been a Direcway/Hughesnet client for something like 14 years. That's long enough to buy a pretty nice used car for what I spent for internet service,
Generally, other than the warnings about support and overall expense, all I can say is it's better than dialup.
What I really object to is their commercials. Anything that indicates you can download music and watch videos is a joke unless you get up in the middle of the night and do so between 2am and 7 am. My gf has a tendency of playing facebook games. Forget it, they eat up your daily download limits. Watch a 3-4 minute youtube and watch a 5% drain.
Hughesnet is fine if you stay away from multmedia activity but that is where technology is today. I could have on demand with directv, but hughesnet makes that impossible.
Hey, its not their fault that I prefer to live in low density neighborhoods, but government should force cable companies and phone companies to service all the constituents in their area, not just the most profitable ones.
If 4G ever gets close enough to provide an adequate signal without FAP requirements, I'll be so far gone from Hughesnet you won't hear me leave. | |
| Reviews:
 ·WildBlue
| It is not about not doing research I am tired with people claiming that lack of research is the problem. Research doesn't tell you your speeds may be only 20% of advertised speeds during evening hours, or that you will time out on secure web sites or that sometimes while simply reading an HTML web site you modem will suddenly turn click off all your remaining megs and put you in FAP. It also will not tell you that tech support generally will not fix your problems, but tell you "service is not guaranteed."
For those on the HN7000s, things are not that much better. Speeds were great for a while but are now back in the poor zone. I got an extra 50megs before FAP, and the use window in the evening is a little bigger, but that is it. | |
|  | Reviews:
 ·Air Advantage
·HughesNet Satell..
| Re: It is not about not doing research And I'm tired of reading all these rants on the reviews complaining about the FAP, latency and high cost. Doing a little bit of googling will answers these questions beforehand. And i have yet to find an ISP that states that their speeds are guaranteed.
You are right that Hughes tech support is downright terrible. But they have begun to improve that by creating up an official hughes forum that is run by the executive care techs and not the India script readers.
As for the 7000's it's pretty common knowledge that service on the 7000's is deteriorating as the transponders that hughes leases are expiring and instead are moving those users to their own satellite spaceway 3 and the 9000 series. You could most likely call Hughes and they will upgrade you to the 9000 for free | |
| | | Reviews:
·WildBlue
| Re: It is not about not doing research I have called them. They offered to switch me for a $400 fee and a 2 year service commitment. I decided to wait for the viasat to come on line in February. If it is no better I will cancel, pay any fee, and do without internet. Uses for the internet keep expanding, and satellite just can't keep up.
I am sorry you are tired of hearing about it, but the truth is we often do not get the little bit we pay for. We need to state this in forums like this so people who do research can know what they are getting. I know 2 people who were getting free installation with stimulus money, and they were giving them 7000 series modems. A demonstration of my system changed their minds. | |
| | | | Reviews:
·Air Advantage
·HughesNet Satell..
| Re: It is not about not doing research that sucks that they weren't willing to upgrade you for free. I know many people that i talked to who had 7000's were able to upgrade to 9000's for free after they called hughesnet about poor service. Perhaps you just had the bad luck of talking to a cranky hughes rep 
Based on the complaints about the 7000's in the hughes forums that last year, i also wouldn't recommend anyone switch to a 7000. However, the 9000's are night and day in terms of performance | |
| | | | | | In case you didn't know, 7000 are JUST AS GOOD as the 9000's. One is KU band, the other is KA. They have the same capabilities, and in several situations, there are advantages to having a 7k over a 9k. Idiot | |
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