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Review by Klard See Profile

  • Location: undisclosed location
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Expensive - Slow - Antiquated

Hugsesnet Satellite ISP –

A very common Commo problem is quality Internet Service. Most of us rural folks have to pay extraordinarily high monthly fees for a Satellite provider, like HughesNet. My planned monthly allowance of “data” with them is split into two timeframes. 8 AM to 2 AM (18 hours) I get 30 GB of data per month. From 2 AM until 8 AM (6 hours) I have access to the remaining 50 GB of data per month. 62.5% of your data is only accessible from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. What is the typical person doing during that time?



When your allocation of data is consumed HughesNet “throttles” your download/upload dramatically. Dish Network’s ISP is identical to HughesNet. If I lived in a city or town I could get unlimited internet 24 hours a day for around Fifty Dollars, rather than well over twice that with a satellite provider. Many times I have been offered fiber or cable ISP only to find out that no company currently services my area.

member for 7.9 years, 13 visits, last login: 109 days ago
lodged 207 days ago


Review by DataDoc See Profile

  • Location: Hedgesville, Berkeley, WV, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
It's better than Frontier, the only alternative
Bursty delivery of everything, can't connect to major sites
Starlink finally arrived, bye bye HughesNet
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

My Other Reviews

·StarLink
06/22/19 - Just installed 30GB plan today, installer did a great job with dish install, wiring and explaining what I needed to know. I'll add more in a week or so, unless there's a major hiccup.

08/26/19 - Service is as reliable as DirecTV, which we also have, meaning lost signal if there's heavy rain between our dishes and the satellite. This doesn't always match what's going on right outside. Speed is just OK, mail pickup takes about 30 seconds for 11 accounts, highest download speed I've seen is 480KBs. Speeds could be faster, this is just what I observed using Free Download Manager »freedownloadmanager.org/ Speeds observed using FDM vary up and down constantly, and this is noticeable also during browsing, as pages seem to complete in bursts. I use the bonus zone (50GB/month only during 2-8am) for downloading to save our 30GB for browsing and email. We don't do streaming, it would eat up our 30GB. There is an app you can download, for PC and phone, to monitor your usage. The first 20 days of your first month your limit is reset every day, but the usage still shows in the app.

03/25/2020 - Everything is the same, except worst for the last 2 weeks. We can't get to many sites, like Amazon and Etsy, with the error "Server not found" which comes back instantly, not after a few seconds like other sites that just time out. Did all the usual remedies, clearing caches, rebooting, etc.

Tried several times to get through to Support different ways. Was dumped out of chat over and over with no response form Hughes staff, just the message about downloading the chat text, which didn't exist. Calling gets a fast busy or hangups after 15-20 minutes waiting in the queue. I'll continue trying, this HAS to change.

10/07/22 - Installed Technitium DNS server (a local caching DNS) to bypass HughNet's DNS. Solved many of the connection problems, HughesNet DNS servers appear to be overloaded. Should have done this years ago.

11/03/22 - Potentially the last day for HughesNet service, as we get Starlink tomorrow.

11/04/22 - Got Starlink, tried it out by setting it on the ground in the back yard and running cable through window. Immediately got speeds exceeding those claimed by Hughes, which we never got.

11/07/22 - Cancelled HughesNet service.

member for 23.8 years, 8390 visits, last login: 6 days ago
updated 1.3 years ago


io chico
Premium Member
join:2003-12-30
Marble Falls, TX

io chico

Premium Member

How has it been?

Update on the service?

DataDoc
My avatar looks like me, if I was 2D.
Premium Member
join:2000-05-14
Hedgesville, WV

DataDoc

Premium Member

Re: How has it been?

Updated review, any specific questions?
sparky007
join:2011-08-25
Phoenix, AZ

sparky007

Member

No Throttling

Did you look at one of these.. The one I got works good.. IF you have a tower near by.

»www.ebay.com/itm/AT-T-Un ··· spddOzhz
FGG
join:2018-04-02
Gerrardstown, WV
Motorola MB8600
Linksys EA9300

FGG

Member

Feel your pain

Had Hughesnet for 7 years before Comcast finally wired our subdivision. It was relatively reliable, but it was tough managing those data caps and when I had to use a VPN for work, it was painfully slow. Use testmy.net to test your download speeds. They should not be that low. Join the Hughesnet support community. »community.hughesnet.com/ ··· NSupport. There are corporate moderators there than can look at your site and work with you to try to get those speeds up.
Good luck!

P.S. With the latency inherent in satellite internet, you may have been better off with Frontier's DSL.

Review by kingreich See Profile

  • Location: Bandon, Coos, OR, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
It is an option for
There are no other options
No choice
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

Highest data package, $100 per month. Order process was easy, install process much less so. Not sure the brand/model, but no real issues with that. The big issue is the tech. Just now in a connectivity test : avg. delay - 782ms ; min. delay - 610ms ; max. delay - 1350ms. Speed test - 0.054/0.086 Mbps. It is raining, so there is that. Cannot reliably do netflix/amazon prime/zoom. Cannot game online. A 10 min. 480p youtube video takes a half hour to watch.

But, hey - I do have internet...

edit - 50 gig data cap

member for 21.8 years, 228 visits, last login: 1.9 years ago
updated 3.3 years ago

dplantz
join:2000-08-02
Bradenton, FL

dplantz

Member

Starlink is your option

Starlink is in public beta now. 99 a month 499 for equipment. Average speeds people are getting is 150 down and 15 Mbps up. under 50 ms latency and no data cap. Commercial deployment in early 2021. Your in an area its available.
kingreich
Premium Member
join:2002-05-03
Bandon, OR

kingreich

Premium Member

Re: Starlink is your option

I do wish that were true, but I've been waiting on that email from Starlink for weeks. Not much else you can do, its not like you can just order service from their website...

Review by caribconsult See Profile

  • Location: Mayaguez, Mayaguez, PR, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
It works dependably
Service lost during heavy showers
We don't have many other choices
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

My Other Reviews

·DM Wireless
I had Hughes years ago and it was an exercise in masochism, it rarely worked well and I dumped it in favor of various 3G and 4G services, including AT&T which worked fine until post hurricane Maria. AT&T was in pieces and apparently in no big hurry to fix it but still wanted full price. That's when we switched to HN Gen5 and it's been pretty satisfactory. I like that I can take down the dish if a storm comes and internet service will resume as soon as I put it back and the sky is clear. Nothing island-based can interfere with it. That counts for a lot. Plus, up in the mountains where we live, there is no cable or DSL and the phone lines are in such bad shape that even dial-up is problematic, so satellite works fine for us. The Gen5 gear is a world apart from their previous incarnations, it doesn't require daily tinkering, and the modem/router has all the functions I need. Big improvement over previous setups.

member for 21 years, 1416 visits, last login: 211 days ago
updated 4.5 years ago

Dunhill3
join:2003-07-17
Dom. Rep.

Dunhill3

Member

DirecWay problems? Dominican Republic / Puerto Ric

I have set up our system in the Dominican Republic, and it works perfectly, even with the storm, thunder and rain from the last weeks we did no go offline for 1 minute

what kind of dish and LNB did they sell you, because maybe i can advise you.

For the dominican republic it is completely new, most satellite salespoint here don't even know that this system is possible in the caribbean.

Ok, we did a lot of tech. research ourselves, because DW and Hughes don't have the technical knowledge for the caribbean

We had to contact one of the "business" salespoints to get the goods we needed and the result is, NOW, we can sell a good installation that works perfectly, but for a higher price.

Arjan van Kasteel
DunHill Systems
Dominican Republic
info@dunhill.2y.net
»dunhill.2y.net

caribconsult
Premium Member
join:2003-03-19
Mayaguez, PR
·DM Wireless

caribconsult

Premium Member

Re: DirecWay problems? Dominican Republic / Puerto Ric

The dish is the white one, the LNB has no other brand names on it other than Hughes. I am sending some picture to help you identify it.

My questions to you are: what satellite are you on, and what is your approximate signal strength. Aside from the slow uploads, the service failure in bad weather is my worst complaint, and it appears you have something more reliable, so maybe we could figure out why?

Thanks for your help.
Dunhill3
join:2003-07-17
Dom. Rep.

Dunhill3

Member

Direcway .98 vs 1.20 dish

And there it was, our .98 direcway system

Today, august 29, is a perfect day to test the difference between the .98 and 1.20 direcway dish.
Clear sky, rain, heavy clouds, thunder , all ingredients were here today.
Both sytems we tested with a BirDog digital Satellite meter on the G4R satellite
With a clear sky both dishes gave a 207 signal with a 75-85% quality factor.
In light rain the .98 went down quickly to a 20-30% while the 1.20 stayed at a 65-70%
Heavy rain, .98 went down to 10% or less, the 1.20 stayed at a 45-55%
Thick clouds, .98 was gone but the 1.20 gave still a 25-35% signal.
Thunder/lightning/heavy rain, .98 still dead, but the 1.20 still gave 0-5% and went only completely offline 2 times for 1 minute, at this time we could not even see our shoes in the thick rain
NOTE: a 30-40% signal on the BirDog will result in a 75-85 signal on the DirecWay status Page !!

Conclusion: If you live in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, and you don't need a continues internet connection the .98 will work when the weather is good.
If you want to be online in not so nice weather conditions the 1.20 is a must.

Arjan van Kasteel
DunHill Systems, Dominican Republic
»dunhill.2y.net

caribconsult
Premium Member
join:2003-03-19
Mayaguez, PR
·DM Wireless

caribconsult

Premium Member

Recent upgrade

Hi, Dunhill, long time no speak!

I finally bagged the 4K system, bit the bullet and upgraded to a HOME edition of HN7000S, 2w xmitter, .98 dish (already had that) and new connectors on exiting cables. It works as advertised. Download speeds have exceeded advertised speeds frequently, the upload is way better and overall it runs smoothly. Yes, the 4K was faster AT TIMES, but it became pretty obvious that HN was phasing it out and service would continue to deteriorate, not improve.

I still contend the price is way too high, especially here in PR where we don't get the generous discount upgrades offered stateside. Do you get these? If we had received the same deal as a stateside 4K user, it would have cost around $50, instead of $700.

Jeff

Review by marcelle19 See Profile

  • Location: Hesperia, San Bernardino, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
This service is terrible.
Avoid if you can.

Huges Net Satellite promises a certain download speed (fast) and that it can be used on multiple devices at once - streaming - but in fact delivers terrible download speeds after the first 20 days.

If you look at reviews of them online, you will not find a good review. They are liars and crooks, charging accounts which have canceled for services never delivered.

Avoid at all costs if you have any other options.

We were told that we would have 25 mbps download and that after the cap was reached, it would decrease 1 to 5 mbps from that, which would have been great.

In fact, it went to 1mbps, and many times, down to 256 kbps (yes, telephone modem days speed).

member for 22 years, 1807 visits, last login: 222 days ago
updated 5.7 years ago


Anonf6c00
@charter.com

1 recommendation

Anonf6c00

Anon

Too many Americans are technically ignorant and lack reading comprehension

"UP TO 25 Mbs" is the operative phrase in their advertising... i.e. one user on one beam.

The fact most subscribers expect to stream Netflix movies (or play games) reveals much about their ignorance and piggish behavior. Service has slowed because of stupid pigs. You want to watch movies? Get DirecTV morons. Netflix should be blocked on HughesNet/ViaSat.
Gabe1972
join:2009-07-06

1 edit

Gabe1972

Member

It's because you ran out of data...

By saying that your speeds were fine for the first twenty days explains why you're having speed issues. You ran out of data. For the first twenty days your service is in a relaxed bandwidth state, meaning your data is constantly refilled during this time. After twenty days it stops. If after twenty days your speed is bad it's due to burning through your entire data allotment on day 21 and having your speed throttled. This means that, with your usage habits, you don't even have enough data to last a day.

HughesNet sells you a data package, and while you have data available your speed is good enough to do the things you mentioned, as you indicated. It's the customer's responsibility to know what a byte is and what can be done with it.

If you were told that you would have 25Mbps speed after you reached your data limit (which I highly doubt and it's more likely you misunderstanding what was being said), and it hasn't been more than 90 days since that sales call, you should request a sales call review. If it's determined that you were misled by the sales person on the call they may very well let you cancel the service without paying the Early Termination Fee.

BTW, telephone modems have never had speeds of 256Kbps. The highest real world phone modem speeds were/are in the upper 40Kbps range.

Review by Gabe1972 See Profile

  • Location: Perrysburg, Cattaraugus, NY, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Fast speed. Fairly Reliable.
Phone tech service lacks native English speakers and is generally not very good.
Decent as an ISP of last resort. Not made for cord cutting.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

For what it is, it's decent. The price is high compared to other ISPs, but considering other ISPs aren't available for most satellite internet subscribers, the higher price is worth it. The only other options are wireless, if you can get it, and dialup. You can barely get online with dialup these days. The installation was fairly easy and the installers polite. I am paying $79.98 per month for the 15GB/50GB package, including the equipment rental fee. The service does not come with a router, though you can buy one from the installer. The speeds I get average in the mid 20Mbps for download and about 1Mbps for upload, but I am on a lightly loaded beam, so beams of a higher load would have lower speeds. Speeds can also fluctuate greatly from off peak to peak usage times. The service is subject to rain fade, meaning you can lose the signal during heavy rainfall, and the further north you are the less rain it takes to cause it (i.e. those in the south have less of a problem with rain fade than those in the north). It has a data cap, but it has to have a data cap due to a smaller finite throughput than land based systems, and without the cap the service would slow to a crawl due to so many people being on the service and endlessly streaming. Overall I am happy with the service. My folks have it and like it, too. I would recommend it to my friends in this area.

Upgraded to Gen5 in late March 2017. It's been fantastic. My download speeds are averaging 47Mbps and upload speeds are averaging 2.5Mbps. The FAP speed (which I haven't experienced yet) is, according to those who have been in FAP and reported their speed, between 1Mbps and 3Mbps, on average, and some were even able to stream in the lower definitions. A step above Gen4, that's for sure. The built in Wi-Fi in the HT2000W modem is decent, as well. It's no frills, but it works very well and the range is decent. It's also dual band. Overall, upgrading to Gen5 has been VERY well worth it.

member for 14.7 years, 2411 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 5.9 years ago


Sputnik1
join:2015-04-19
AL

1 recommendation

Sputnik1

Member

Gen 5

47 mb/s is great! I'm still happy with the 15 I'm getting from gen 4. Wasn't too long ago we were all at 1 mb/s with direcway . Hope they keep improving.
Gabe1972
join:2009-07-06

1 recommendation

Gabe1972

Member

Re: Gen 5

I remember the 1Mbps days, that's for sure, and having to blow through my saved free tokens when I had a large update that wouldn't finish in time during the download zone. I had to update my folks' computer, too, as they were on dialup, so that was even more tokens. Interestingly enough, though, just before I upgraded to Gen4 in Feb of 2016, my legacy plan speeds were 1.6Mbps, which shocked the Gen4 installers.

I waited a couple of weeks after its release before upgrading to Gen5 so I could see what others were saying about it. I was starting to be more affected by the congestion during the evening with Gen4, and the Gen5 upgrade deal they gave me made it worth it all around. No installation or activation cost and I got the One Up deal. I couldn't pass it up.

Review by angelat See Profile

  • Location: Thomaston, Upson, GA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
They install quickly to trap you into a contract that will cost hundreds of $s to end
Absolutely everything else
A huge SCAM!!!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

Do not sign up with HughesNet!! I never got the service I paid for! I rarely ever had service and when I finally called to complain I miraculously got service for a day or two then nothing! But accidentally stream one video and “boom” all your data allowance disappears. The worst part is when you call to cancel your service you learn the contract fine print. It costs $400 your first 90 days to cancel and each month after ninety days only subtracts $15. So if you get fed up after 6 months and try to cancel it will cost you $355, after a year $265, etc...also when you call to cancel they try to get you to hang up by putting you on hold for 10 mins at a time. “Oh, you want to cancel service? Hold on one minute while I check the computer” .. ten mins later “ I am going to talk to a manager to see if we can lower that cancellation fee, hold please”... 10 mins later “ the manager says you are bound by the terms of Your contract. It will cost $400 to terminate. How about I discount your service by $10 a month. Hold please and I will see what I can do for you”... ten mins later. I am just waiting for someone to sue so I can join a class action law suit. I know I got ripped off. Don’t make the same mistake.

member for 6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 6 years ago


Review by Well Bonded See Profile

  • Location: Labelle, Hendry, FL, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Not too much goodness at all.
Totally useless in the evening
The Telegraph is faster than HN.at night
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

Back in October I subscribed to HughesNet as a backup connection for my landline Century Link ADSL.

The install was slated for an AM appointment, noon came around and no installer, contacted the HN contract company and was advised the installer was tied up on his current install, the contract company didn't seem to give a rats fanny about appointments and couldn't provide an estimate as to when the installer would arrive.

The installer arrived around 3PM DST, good tech hard worker and he knocked out the install in about 2 hours.

The only mistake he made was not properly grounding the dish, but I didn't care I would solve that myself, however the average subscriber would be screwed and considering this is the lightning capitol of the U.S. that was a major eff up.

Tried the service out, eh not to impressive, but it worked and as a backup for ADSL it would do or so I thought.

About a month and a half later it got worse, much worse in the evening.

Clearly HN had oversubscribed the bird and things where getting out of hand, a quick review of the "official" HN tech support site confirmed what I was experiencing was not an isolated case, lots of people where having the same problem of very slow dial-up like speeds in the evening.

I contacted HN and basically advised them if they didn't have a solution, just close the account and I will send the equipment back, no hard feelings, but I was not going to pay an ETF.

Tech support dug into the problem and advised me I was only getting 12% of the service I was paying for, I was credited a months service and was advised someone from "engineering" would contact me soon, I was asked what would be the best time to call me and I made it very clear from 5:00 PM to 7:00 pm is when the service was really down hard and that would be the proper time to call.

And they sure did call back, a few days later at 9:30 pm, I received a call from HN, I ignored the call and let it forward to VMS, at that time in the evening I am not willing to spend a hour of so working with a tech support agent on their problem.

The following night at 8:50 another call from HN, once again ignored and off to VMS.

A day or so later I did some 25 meg download tests at the HN recommended TestMy.net and discovered I could download at up to 40 megs even though my subscribed service was 25 down, the problem was in the evening remained the same crappy service, the circuit went in the tank and was useless until later into the evening.

On December 12, 2017 I filed a formal complaint with the FCC detailing the service they sold, but was not being provided by the carrier, Hughes Network Systems, they where served with my complaint on December 14, 2017.

On December 20, 2017 I received a call at 3:15 pm from HN advising me due to an unexpected demand for Gen 5 service, the beam I was assigned to was overloaded and they where diligently working to solve the problem, I was also advised it should be solved within a week or two, but to placate me they would credit me $30 per month for 6 months due to their inability to provide the product I subscribed to.

Good deal, but not, the service in the evening went from bad to worse, I could get faster downloads with a 33k dial-up modem then I could get with HN.

I once again contacted HN and politely advised them, they could take their service and park it where the sun doesn't shine, they agreed the service was sub-par and that's being generous, in the end they agreed to send me a carton and instructions as to how to dismantle what they wanted back and terminated the contract with no ETF.

My advise to anyone considering subscribing to HughesNet is, think twice and check for any other possible options, maybe a WISP, maybe cellular, but if you want an internet connection that works in the evening, HN is not the way to go, period!

Down the road this might change, but I am out and not looking back.




member for 8.4 years, 3545 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 6.1 years ago


Review by DarkSol64 See Profile

  • Location: Gloucester Point, Gloucester, VA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Faster than dialup?
Nope
I got screwed.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

This was back in 2006 when the service really sucked a big one. I'm thinking (and really hoping, for all the subscriber's sake) that it is much better here now in 2018. Please!

member for 18.7 years, 1184 visits, last login: 245 days ago
updated 6.1 years ago


DarkSol64
join:2005-06-26

DarkSol64

Member

X







Review by PSWired See Profile

  • Location: Annapolis, Anne Arundel, MD, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
During off-peak hours, speeds are good
So slow it's unusable during anytime you'd actually want to use Internet at home
Only use this service if it's your last resort
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

Ordered service in late August 2017 as a physically diverse backup connection for my FIOS connection at home. FIOS has proven to be very reliable, but I need outage protection for work.

First, the install. Your usual oval dish with a single coax line to an integrated modem and wifi AP. IPv4 is provided by carrier grade NAT, so port forwarding or any inbound access is not possible. IPv6 is provided natively, and can be configured for outside access, with a few caveats. First, the modem firmware is buggy, and requires some nonintuitive hoop-jumping to get the firewall to allow inbound IPv6 connections. Second, the prefix changes often (though it seems to have calmed down significantly since mid-December 2017) so you'll need a dynamic DNS service for your IPv6 devices requiring external access. There are some other quirks (IPv6 happy eyeballs broken by HT2000W modem implementation, oddball DNS hijacking quirks due to modem's DNS caching implementation, etc.)

Now for the important part: my beam (ES19 #068) and MANY others are severely congested due to oversubscription. Speeds can be as low as tens to 100s of kbps during peak hours, and are very inconsistent, making it impossible to stream video even at low resolution. Speed during off hours is great- 40 Mbps is not uncommon. But that does no good unless you like browsing at 3 AM. Hughesnet is dancing around the problem and coming up with various excuses, but no fix is in sight. Contract does not allow for termination due to speed issues. They know it's a problem and even go to extreme measures such as blocking "FCC" or "breach of contract" phrases from being posted to their support forums.

Don't even bother with the HUghes phone or live chat support people, by the way.

member for 17.9 years, 5204 visits, last login: a few hours ago
lodged 6.2 years ago