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Review by Rockin4D 
UPDATED: a few hours ago
member for 2.1 years, 118 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Beggs,Okmulgee,OK
 Contract price not specified.
 "None. This service is utter garbage. dial up speeds but with much higher latency"
 "The new 9000 is very slow on reboot. Software seems fragile. Hughes traffic control makes all modems seem useless"
 "Very dissapointed with the HN9000. World of Warcraft now permanantly blocked it seems. If your dialup works stay with it."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
Final update October 2008. Hughesnet responded to my Better Business Beaureu complaint
and still refused to admit the existance of software traffic controls which effectively ended any
gaming I was able to do reliably for 3 years. Wildblue blocked reliable access to World of Warcraft a year before Hughes finsihed WoW connectivity in july 2008. I cannot with a good concience recommend Hughesnet service for anyone. For the money the data allowances are stupidly retarded. I quit the service in july 2008 and came back a month later for 5 days and had nothing but rage, anger and frustration. I've been without my own internet since then and am resigned to it.
My opinion is its not even worth it anymore. Stick with dialup if it works. If its still two slow invest in a 2nd line and go dual dialup.
*looked and called every possible ISP and none could serve my area. Dialup doesn't work
*Ordered the BI400 monthly price $120
*Order and install non eventful.
*HN9000 is now standard for new customers
*good experience (I can surf?) feh anyone can do that/Bad any gaming I used to enjoy has been much worse on the 9000 and tonight its blocking all game packets to my favorite game.
*less than a week I'm calling them back to see if I can send my equipment back and try to get my HN7000 and dish reinstalled.
Just an update to my previous review. Quit the service in a huff two months ago and came crawling back like a loser because no one else could provide service. (dialup lines are very poor quality and cannot stay connected) Signed back up with the BI400 plan which was as close as possible to my small office plan with the HN7000. Hughes changed their service plans and rolled back data allowed on some plans for the same price. My 500 meg a day bucket is now 20% higher in price but what can I do  I love to play world of warcraft and was hoping that the new Ka band signal might improve on it. Basic surfing (which I could care less about is pretty much the same. Faster speeds means you FAP much faster so be very careful. My new plan the BI 400 is a megabit faster 3 vs 2 but still the same data allowed per day. Tech support is pretty much the same. Can get an operator fast but they really have no power if you have a true problem.
My favorite past time World of Warcraft and Hughes on the comercial plans
worked just fine. Except......
Two major problems 3 days into the service. I cannot log onto world of warcraft anymore period. I check with others on different services to make sure it wasn't just the game servers. It was me. no luck connecting. First two days the latency was all over the board even if it started allright. the playable range I used to get from 700 to 950 doesn't happen anymore. at best its 900ms and usually progresses to about 3000ms or so. Now its nothing as I can no longer log in. Tech support was useless to explain why. The 2nd problem is https. My credit card website where I can manage my account no longer accepts logins on the HN9000. I tried useing the same computer elsewhere (away from home) and it worked just fine. About the only thing working is basic web surfing and chat.
My favorite pasttime is now gone. I want to take a hammer and murder the first living thing I see but cannot crawl through the telephone lines to accomplish this.
This may seem extreme but you spend 6 hours with tech support trying to work out the problems in just 3 days of being back online. Working evenings makes this all the more frustrating. The only real people to talk too are the tech support and its almost becoming a game talking to them and knowing they can't help you but keeping them on the line anyway to waste their time.
Below is old review.
Sales info is average. I've had the service for 4 years and 14 months ago upgraded to the commercial dish and level of service.
Install went without any major problems. Was very dissapointed when I expected broadband performance like what my friends in town have. I could download but not upload.
Connection reliability is fine if you do lame crap like surf the web and avoid any sites like youtube or anything bandwidth intensive. I will recommend small office or above if you want to download anything large in size. Multiple users can expect daily FAPS. Building a brand new XP machine with downloaded software and all the updates to what I installed includeing windows was 800 meg in the first day. I had to update to the small business plan to not get FAP'ed
Mail, DNS, news, Dont use their mail at all. just yahoo web based only. DNS dont use. News Dont use. I tried a fixed IP address block in order to host FTP on my machine or even a telnet talker. All failed miserably even after following directions to the letter. Ports 21 and 23 were unuseable and blocked to anyone trying to access any server software I installed.
I'm an avid World of Warcraft player. for the last two years (year one on consumer dish)-latency was 950-1300 playable (2nd year on commercial dish) latency was 685 to 950 tops. Wonderful and could even PvP in the battlegrounds. Since early september latencies have been steadily getting worse on average. I have called and complained constantly to no avail. the last month and a half best average latencies are now 1500 and the last week latency to game is now set at 5000ms to 20000ms average and not going to change. So gameing is now effectively finished. All speed tests pass. command tracerts show normal pings. Hughesnet now actively handicaps the port used by the game by placeing it in a much lower que to other traffic. Wild Blue has allready done so a few months back. When my commitment is up in December I"m going back to dialup.
Chat programs: unable to upload or download. Yahoo was an exception until recently. Now I can download only. Uploads freeze like they are blocked.
These problems give my value for money rating one of the worst. I'm paying one hundred dollars a month for very substandard service.
I know someone on the basic plan who gets fapped everyday (you try to download less then 275 meg a day on broadband.)
March 8, 2009
Update of life with no net.. A friend mentioned
I should look up a and try a company
called Accel-networks which uses cell tower
signals but not just one company it uses all
towers available at once. The service is 150 a month
with a 3 year comitment and for that should
be a seemingly true wired broad band replacement.
Its a device that you plug into your network ports on a switch or
router and can be strengthened by an external antennae which
can install on the house (I'm ordering that as well)
So in the next week or so I'll I will do a new review on the product.
BTW tried hughes again at neighbors place (they are suffering customers)
and while you can browse, World of Warcraft is still very much UNPLAYABLE.
UPDATE. 20 May 2009 I read on this website
someone has sued hughesnet. If anyone has information
about how I can get on this bandwagon please let me know
would love to be part of a class action suit against these crooks.
Hughesnet deserves to be dissolved.
Just a quick update August 31st 2009
Still no internet. Waiting in vain
that someday Onalot wireless provider will actually be able to broadcast service
to my house through the trees with their new 900mhz signal.
I call every few months to find out "ya we'll be able to ping your
house in 3 to 4 months" That was nearly 4 months ago 
For now i occasionally goto my next door neighbors house and use their hughesnet
connection. So I'll rate that its far far worse now (even for browsing) than it was
when i had it when it worked. They are on the 90 dollar plan (home)
Average latency is from 2 to 20 seconds world of warcraft is permanently done and useless
dont even bother to try to use hughes to play WoW anymore. Youtube videos
take like 5 to minutes to load if they even finish loading. To log onto my banking
and credit card or any secure websites is like a 30 second wait with a blank browser screen
while the password resolves. If any web objects take too long to load the speeds drops from a flow bouncing from 8k to 50k a second to mere dialup speed. Seriously this service is utter
garbage. I start off describing it like that and end up with the same comment.
Bumping it up again. I recomment no one buy this worthless service.
I was borrowing the neighbors hughesnet
from time to time here this november 2009 and good god.
Its freaking horrifically bad. I'd call satellite "viewnet" or "fraudnet"
you get to lightly look at the internet but unable to properly affect/interact with it
that means up uploading capability for anything larger than a text message
or typing in your web address. Never dreamed that its been like 16 months now
and I still cannot get 'real' or 'tolerable' internet it just doesn't exist.
I've even gone as far to find a 48 foot radio tower used and cannot find a
contractor willing to install it. begin hate filled rant
"HUGHESNET I CURSE YOU TO ROT IN HELL.
HUGHESNET CEO (i cannot use his vile name) I HOPE YOU END UP GETTING CHARGED WITH FRAUD OR GET CANCER OF THE MOUTH FOR ALL THE LIES AND SUFFERING YOU HAVE CAUSED EVERYONE WHO USES OR HAS USED YOUR SERVICE.
U SURELY ARE A WART ON THE BUTTOX OF SOCIETY."
end rant. Just cannot express strongly enough how much is viciously despise this service.
Followup comments:  jwko
join:2007-04-02
Cecil, AR
 ·CenturyLink
·AT&T Yahoo
| I agree I left them in April 2007 because DSL made it to my area. I had the pro plan, could download no more than 350MB in a 4 hour period before FAP kicked in with a refresh rate of aprox 50MB/HR.
I cant believe they changed the FAP to within a 24 hour period. You are right, it don't take long to max out on broadband speed. There was some guy on here the other day that made the statement that a normal person could watch videos from youtube all night and wont be fap'd as they only do that to the power downloaders. It takes the same amount of bandwidth to watch one as it does to download one. And a normal size video is anywhere between 10-100mb's just depends on the quality of the file that was uploaded.
I'm sorry that you and alot of other people are stuck with the unfairness of the satellite internet providers. But you know what, before long I'm sure most people will have access to DSL or some other form of broadband internet. With the way technology is advancing I'm sure it will be soon. | |
| lrymal
join:2004-02-24
Joaquin, TX
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
4 edits | Bummer about Warcraft, at least Skype works... (for me) Bummer... hate to hear about that and Warcraft. I'd be too danged chicken to try it. About the only "envelop-pushing" that I have done is a couple of test video conferencing sessions and actually had workable sessions. I didn't think the latency would allow it.
Have NO IDEA how to daily monitor FAP, but video conferencing is not a major part of my routine anyway.
But, my major issue is wireless routing and the 9000, AND doing the occasional video conferencing. For some reason, the Linksys 802.11n router I'm using does something stupid to the 9000 and makes it reset when doing video conferencing. If I have a direct pipe to my computer from the 9000, there is no reset. Maybe it is a setting in the Linksys, but I'm too much of a novice at this and it takes forever for the 9000 to reset.
Otherwise the Linksys 802.11n router and the 9000 work fine. I'd prefer to use the 802.11n standard mainly because I seem to be able to hit the entire house, and my garage with a very strong signal, as compared to the old 802.11g wireless router.
Good luck with the gaming. I know this is awfully frustrating. | |
| | 
Odin M
@corning-cc.edu
| Re: Bummer about Warcraft, at least Skype works... (for me) said by lrymal :Have NO IDEA how to daily monitor FAP, but video conferencing is not a major part of my routine anyway. Search this site and forum for a program known as hnFAPmon, it is a program which examines the modem's statistics and returns an approxmation of how much you have used and how much is left.
I've been using it on my HN7000S for some time with good results, though it has created a dilemna where when I see it get down to only 5% I end up hammering the modem restart function at »192.168.0.1 to hold the modem in a disconnected state so that whoever it was among the five people I live with can't push it that last 5% and cause a fair access policy trigger.
Though it is set up so that one computer manages the actual modem access, and then from there it broadcasts out status updates to the client- I've put the client on every computer in the house and instructed them all that if you see it get below 15% stop whatever you are doing and turn your computer off immediately before I start shutting things down my way. | |
| 
yolarry
join:2007-12-29
Creston, WV
·HughesNet Satellit..
| that sucks so sorry to hear about that.
I wish verzion would hurry their ass's up becasue I about ready smash the dish with a Hammer.
It was great during 2001-2004. ever since they change their name it went all down hill. I cant wait for contact over with. I probably A cancel and found better sat company or B upgrade the package.
--
HN7000S - 99 West - Pro Plan - installed October 2007 - Linksys WRT54G V8 - Xbox 360, PSP-1001 CFW - 2 Vista Desktops - 1 XP Desktop - 1 vista Acer Aspire 3680 laptop | |
| | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: that sucks I'm still racking up tech support time. Tonight and last night I was having problems both connecting to world of warcraft and downloading individual files from websites. The results are just "unable to connnect" in the browser, World of Warcraft behaves like i'm not even connected to the net. I've been told its going to tier 4 support with all the notes I've given. I'm only 4 days since comissioning this new dish and 2 months since I quit service on my old Ku dish. Tracert and pings to worldofwarcraft.com time out or dont acknowledge existance of the website for game logon. since I stay up to 5am usually because I work nights I've made it a hobby to just keep calling tech support and wait for india to refer me to america. I'm courteous most of the time now and even more so since they are now going to be eating 800 number charges from me I figured "why not its something to pass the time" If I cannot play online I'll be calling tech support for no good reason and enjoy just talking to the techs. after 4 hours I finally got ahold of a tech who decided to go against the rules and check out my claim and finally 'Finally!' got the tier 4 comment. I'll post more comments as the time goes on. | |
| | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Still suckin but feeling it out and learning more. Anyway.... wednesday morning 12:39am to about 4:30 am. I spent the majority of the time on the phone with tech support to enable my fixed IP address i ordered to solve a few problems. Result the Credit Card account logon page on the web now works. World of Warcraft still doens't work (no suprise really). In fact the game suffered a fatal exception error for the first time and I typed in the description of what I was doing when the error occured to be auto sent to Blizzard. The error program was unable to connect to blizzard so they never received the report. Further I discovered that the Apple Basestation router I have that worked wonderfully with the 7000 modem (with fixed IP) is flat out rejected by the 9000 when I enable the modems addressing for computers behind it (9000 with fixed IP) In order to get on the web and post this I had to remove the basestation from the network and naturally specified the address on my main computer. So tonight was mixed. Solved one problem, failed to solve the 2nd, and discovered a possible incompability between 9000's with a fixed IP and the Apple basestation set to distribute Local IP's to computers on the network. Going to call Apple tech support this time to explore this issue further then back to hughes. I'm day 5 into my 30 day trial with the Hughes 9000 Business internet. So far it looks like will bail before the 30 and suck up my losses for shipping equipment back. My only option then would be to re-comission my 7000 modem and dish and just suffer with basic net for the time being. Anyway I'll write more as the days go on. If anyone has any questions feel free to write or post. | |
| | | | Schivelrybrn
join:2007-07-17
Berrien Center, MI
| Re: Still suckin but feeling it out and learning more. i just got upgraded to the HN9000 yesterday 9/2/08. last night i tried to play WoW. and everything was going good latency was at 848-960ms. about 40 minutes into playing i got a spike, and my latency went up to over 3000ms. it then disconnected me. i logged back in and my latency was at 1000-1500ms. then it spiked againg to over 2400ms. I really hope this is not going to be normal. I too play WoW all the time. i was changed to the new bird, due to speed issues with 127 west. To bad i didnt see this review before i was switched.  | |
| | | | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: Still suckin but feeling it out and learning more. Sorry to hear your experience is the same as mine. There seems to be something in the 9000 software that causes
any connections to the net that are too long to begin to slow down like its tired of holding onto it. If any others are experiencing this please post. ALso what I've experienced is large blocks of time where latency is 30 seconds roughly which explains the inability to log into the server. | |
| | | | | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| wednesday the 3rd Logged more hours with tech support. finally called blizzard tech support. discoverd the two ports the game uses are 6112 and 3724. I'm sure hughesnet knows this or doesn't care because those ports are now given very very low priority. At this point I removed the fixed IP from my account. It did not even help the problem. Tried to log into WoW today nothing. probably in the 30 second delay time period which lasts about 3 hours at a time.
I'm finally getting to the point where I want to beat the hell out of a tech. Apparently Hughesnet has won. I can't suggest strongly enough that if your with hughesnet if you have these problems call tech support and raise as much hell as possible. if enough people call in there might be a chance they'll do something about this. ALso call blizzard tech support and let them know. If you know a hughesnet customer who played wow (past tense lately) please encourage them to call both blizzard and hughenet and raise as much hell as possible.
Its apparent I"m going to be closing my internet and
WoW account by friday if I cannot solve this problem.
if I wait too long I'll be stuck with hughesnet for the next 24 months and god forbid I dont want that. | |
| | | | | | | Schivelrybrn
join:2007-07-17
Berrien Center, MI | Re: wednesday the 3rd Rockin4d
Call (301)428-5500 ask for (the office of the president) for Hughesnet. and let them know what you are going through. they might be able to help you alot better than tech support does. and also, they are in America!!! | |
| | | | | | | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: wednesday the 3rd Too late. as far as calling the office of the president. All the evidence I've been finding points directly toward the opion of hughensnet that they DO NOT WANT people to play World of Warcraft with their service. Its only a short matter of time before they change their FAQ terms of service to state directly that they will not allow connections to world of warcraft vs the old "we do not support online gaming". Huge difference. I've called tech support today one last time to cancel the account and send my equipment back. I'm out 200 dollars for the installation charge and any small charges for the days of service I've used. (6 days service used) I called AT&T and signed up for 2 two phone lines and with some haggling got some fees for install waived. I have my trusty Apple Basestation on hand for single dialup connect. Maybe T&T improved the lines in the last 5 years. Ultimately on very short order I'm pulling out my dual dialup router and dusting it off and I'll need to purchase two modems as I dont have any external modems anymore. Maybe I can get back on. I fear though that dialup will still not work and I'll just cancel that as well if that ultimatly is the case. At the same time I feel completly horrible that I've spent hundreds of dollars for nothing. If I do read that Hughesnet has actually responded to customer sentiment and allowed World of Warcraft players to use their service again I may recomission my HN7000 modem and .98 dish. Until then. The HN9000 modem and dish are being sent back for a refund. I'm heading home to no internet service. Finally a night where I'm not wasting it away talking to tech support hours on end and being lied too. It should give me the time I need to 'watch tv??'
Once my phone lines are in and I have the full dual dialup running I'll make one more post here and I will probably need to move to a different thread my experiences with going back to dialup.
*wave* | |
| | | | | | | | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: wednesday the 3rd Further update. Dialup lines are still very poor quality so dialup is still not an option. All I have left possibly is recomission my H7000 dish but I so FUCKING hate this company now that is probably unlikely. Wildblue is probably not an option either as I've read they are treating WoW players the same. If there happens to be any wildblue users out there that know differently please write and let me know. Cell networks are very poor and their best latency is 1400 and on way up with speeds still mostly being dialup equivelant. Being that I have no way to connect to the net annymore I am now forced to sell my home and look for another property in the country that has DSL. I'm sure that will be easy because everyone else I know peer wise that lives in the country has it.
Status: no internet access.
Just at the library when I'm on lunch at work. | |
|
mr_Truckdriver2U
@gvec.net
| wireless broadband is it Try calling your electric company to see if they offer a wireless broadband in your area. vERIZON HAS no INTENTIONS OF PUTTING IN HIGHSPEED TO RURAL AREAS SINCE THEY DON'T PRODECE ENOUGH REVENUE TO SUPPORT THEM. I did a search for other wireless services in my area, 40 miles S/E of San Antonio. the only options I foud was Hughs "shit"net, wild blue and Americas internet. Neithwer one were worth a crap for the price they wanted. I found out my electric company had wireless broadband tower only 3/4 miles from my house. For $125 instalation, $44 @ month and $ 10 @ month rental I now have highspeed. My other isp was Earthlink dial up. I paid $60 @ month for the longdistance phone service from Verizon then $ 21 @ month for Earthlink, That's $ 81 @ month I ended up payong for slow dialup. Now for a total of $ 54 @ month I have highspeed. I called up Verizon, told them I no longer need their crappy service and turn my homepnone off, IMMEDIATLY. I have no use for them, I have my AT&T mobile phone. So now I pay about $30 @ month less for my internet and couldn't be happier. My highspeed has no restrictions on how much I use it. I get 1154 mg down, and 512 up | |
| Luminaris
join:2005-12-01
Winchester, VA | Games just fine for me I have hughesnet with the HN9000, Pro Plus and World of Warcraft games just fine on it. My latency is usually around 600-900ms and it's no problem for me. | |
|
dns
@direcpc.com
| Grounding Your escalating ping is not hughes. Your dish is building static. ground it. I had a similar problem until I drove a ground spike next to the dish, to ground the frame. I also grounded the "ground wire" that my installer just clipped, to my house wiring.
That said, yes, the service is crap. I work nights, so I'm up at 3-6 eastern time to do my game patches, and windows updates. There's nothing better yet, so I'm hanging on to hughes.
Initially, my installer couldn't get a signal better than 85%, and started telling me that the tree in my front yard had a branch kinda hanging into the signal's path. I told him to box it up and rip the pole out then. I was bluffing, but it worked. Before he left, he'd moved the pole, wasted another bag of cement, and gotten me up in the 90's.
Hughes is a last resort. I wouldn't recommend them, but if you have no other option, do your research, and know how the install is supposed to be done, and stand right there with the guy when he is aiming your dish. They will do a half ass job if you let them. Their installers are morons. My installer was just some guy in a broke ass truck. No uniform, no logo on the vehicle. Don't hesitate to send the guy packing if he tries to BS you. | |
| | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: Grounding DNS while the game was experiencing a steady increase in Ping that was like 30 seconds I was doing http pings and they were still like 600 avg. Something was definately going on to hijack the game and everyone else I knew on hughes was experienncing the same problem. If it works now I'd love to know. I've been sitting here with no home internet for like 5 months now. I still have the 9000 in the closet and the dish in my yard. But am very loathe to try to come back and waste another 25 dollars to see if it might work. | |
| | |
Erothoff
|  Notes from an installer
First the comment about grounding is a good one. I install both Wild Blue and Hughesnet, (And had Hughes 7000s, 9000, and Wild Blue)so I know the different characteristics.
Hughesnet 7000s and 9000 both had an average Ping rate of 800-1000ms, but the 9000 was much more irregular than the 7000. Wild blue's ping rate is about 1200ms.
I do not know about specifics for WoW, (Sorry, no time for gaming) but grounding greatly effects your transmit speeds. THAT could very well have been your problem with the 9000 install. Also, if the 7000 worked for you, you CAN get back on the 7000. They allow that for no line of sight installs still. Now there are 5-7 satellites that the 7000 runs off of, and with them moving all new customers to the 9000, you should get more of the speeds promised.
All that being said, I would still suggest other types of internet. The WiFi/WiMax internet if available from a local provider is usually the best after Cable/DSL. After that is the cellular EVDO/EDGE networks. Their ping rates are 300-400ms. I do not know the coverage in your state, but check into those. If it is 1x forget it. Altel data is still an unlimited, and Verizon and Sprint have a 5gb cap, if I have been told correctly. (I do know know about ATT or T-Mobile. We don't have good coverage with them here in Michigan.)
IF you have only 1-2 bars, a cellular booster can help. Zboost isn't bad, (that is what I am using) but I think I will be switching to a wilson direct connect booster instead.)
If you have any questions reply to this, as I put on to receive email reply notifications in case you did. I am not normally on this site and am not registered here.
Eric | |
| | | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: Notes from an installer Looking back on my experience and thinking about it. Grounding has nothing to do with the service. While the supposed horrific latency was occuring it was only occuring on the game port indicating that the paticular port was being hijacked by hughesnet itself. I would do a simultaneous ping on port 80 and it was a normal 685 to 900ms. I've tried cell networks through friends who brought their devices to my house and the performance was dismal so those are not options. Going on my 7th month without interenet except when I visit others houses. Wish I could move but due to the economy I"m stuck cause no one will want to buy my house. Especially nowadays I'm betting if they cannot get net that works properly. | |
|
Guest
@direcpc.com
| I agree Hughes Net absolutely sucks. I would never recommend this to anyone. I can not even web browse with their service. It takes about 30 seconds to load my google home page. When I call to get a reason for this poor connection, they tell me it is because I use Mozilla Firefox, and not Internet Explorer. Hughes Net is terrible. | |
| oscarwilde1
join:2008-10-08 | no, its not for gaming Hughes.net is not for gaming. Indeed, I do not know what it is for...checking email for brief periods seemed to work, as long as you don't open any attachments. But you can do that for $9 a month most places. | |
|
Anony_mouse
@direcpc.com
| Now that you've mentioned it... Hughes frequently drops connections entirely when using email (Gmail) for brief periods. While I'm sure not everyone's experience is similar to mine in that regard, I thought I'd just drop by and say that, no, sadly, Hughesnet's performance is awful on even that front.
So. Rockin4D. Any news on Accel-Net? Any other info about them? (Like potential bandwidth caps and limitations?) According to their coverage application, I'm out of range but according to their coverage map, I should be able to pick a signal up. I'm looking into it regardless and any info would be appreciated; wireless would very much be preferable to satellite, but so far my search for a wireless provider that reaches me has been pretty fruitless. | |
| | | | | oscarwilde1
join:2008-10-08
·Embarq
·HughesNet Satellit..
2 edits | Re: Now that you've mentioned it... Here is a possible solution we were going to try before we got DSL-see if there is a local small business in your area which has broadband and would allow you to come in and use it(for a monthly fee). Real estate agents and independent car dealers would be particularly open to sharing their offices during the economic downturn. We were going to sublet office space (well, it was more of a closet) in a restaurant (which has Roadrunner).
They were willing to give us 24 hour access, (plus coffee, fountain drinks and day old baked goods) for $150 a month. With a discount if we would let the delivery guy in at 4am. It might be worth asking around. | |
| | | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: Now that you've mentioned it... I would like the idea. However the whole idea is to have internet at my own home so I can enjoy being in my own home playing games online 
That usually means me in a T shirt and underwear at my keyboard wasting many hours (hard to do in a public place) with a bowl of cereal or a bottle of Gran Marnieart. (spelling). For me to go anywhere from my house to use the internet is like a 20 to 40 minute affair driving someplace away from home which I am tired of doing to use the internet. | |
| | | | | oscarwilde1
join:2008-10-08
·Embarq
·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: Now that you've mentioned it... said by Rockin4D :That usually means me in a T shirt and underwear at my keyboard wasting many hours (hard to do in a public place) I can see where that might cut down on used car sales. I hope you get some useable alternative in your area soon. | |
| | |
Anony_mouse
@direcpc.com
| Sorry to hear that. Seems like we're in a similar situation, then. Turns out I'm "just" out of range with Accel, like I'm just out of 3G range, just one mile from DSL and three from cable. It's pretty much a bad joke at this point.
$326/mo. is very good for T1, but of course absurd for those of us in the real world who only want a personal connection.
You might consider ISDN, though you'd be looking at paying potentially twice as much for a fraction of the speed. You'd also be going from Hughes' poor customer support to, well, none. But ISDN has great latency, and some people (gamers, mostly) find the trade off agreeable. The speed is an issue for me, but the thought of making the jump is always lurking around in the back of my mind.
Anyway, thanks for getting back to me. Hopefully something viable pops up for you some time. | |
| | | | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK
·HughesNet Satellit..
·AT&T Yahoo
| Re: Now that you've mentioned it... ISDN is not available where I'm at. AT&T gave me a $65,000 quote to make it available. T1 is the only option. all other options are exhausted. Just gotta bide my time and make sure I can afford it and get a roomate. Am looking now. Also have called a realtor although i doubt it will be easy to sell to anyone once they find out internet cannot be obtained.
All for now. | |
| | Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Beggs, OK | I called accell after two weeks of hearing nothing from anyone.
Another dead end. | |
| zalternate
join:2007-02-22
BC
·TELUS
1 edit | Re: update may 20 Here is the link to the Hughesnet class action you requested. I do not know what the status is at this time. After all, people can only keep concentration on something for so long and then get bored and run away.
»www.druginjurylawyerblog.com/200···nst.html
EDIT: just saw on the main page that a new lawsuit has been filed...
»www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/···ndwidth/
quote:
The potential class-action suit was filed in Oakland, California federal court last Friday. It seeks damages for an estimated 80,000 California HughesNet customers,
--
Consumer Rights is more than just a suggestion. | |
| | | |
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Review by seaweedsl
Posted: a few hours ago
member for 3.2 years, 146 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Mexico
Contract price not specified.
"It existsm- sometimes it works well"
"Way oversold so you may not have usable internet for parts of the day"
"Don't get it unless you really have to. Keep a dialup line for peak periods."
| |
I have a well optimized system, and can get full pro-plus account speeds (1.5 MB) in the middle of the night. This is what I get at 7:30 pm:
Download Connection is:: 42 Kbps about 0 Mbps (tested with 97 kB)
Download Speed is:: 5 kB/s
Test Time:: 2009/11/20 - 7:42pm
Bottom Line:: 1X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 204.8 sec
Tested from a 97 kB file and took 19.142 seconds to complete
Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 4.75 % of your hosts average (direcway.com)
D-Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-PJ9W76S0V
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Review by moag
UPDATED: 4 days ago
member for 18 days, 19 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Chelsea,Washtenaw,MI
Contract price not specified.
"Faster than dialup, daily FAP-free time, FAP tokens"
"Peak times are slow, latency, low threshold"
"Satellite ... FAP... Expensive... Getting better."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Hughesnet is, as far as I know, the best satellite internet provider around... The other one is Wildblue. Hughenet usage is calculated in a 24-hr period, not monthly. There is also a 5-hr FAP-free window from 2-7am, where downloads are not counted towards your download threshold. I have been a Hughes/Direcway customer for years and I have a few bits of wisdom for new recruits.
1) You must think of Hughesnet as super-fast dialup, not ultra-slow cable.
2) Make certain you have no conceivable land-based alternatives before signing up, now or in the near future. There are no advantages to satellite if you have other internet available, and Hughes has a killer ETF after the trial period.
3) Read and understand Hughesnet policies (FAP) and search Google for more. You need to understand how satellite internet works and understand how to use it before you can really enjoy it. There are certain things you simply cannot do on a satellite connection, the quicker you learn to avoid these things, the happier you will be 
4) You must have a practical usage monitor. I recommend hughesnet_usage_calc for Firefox with Greasemonkey, but there are others available.
5) There are no hacks.
Overall, Hughesnet is a decent service for those of us with few other options.
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Review by yolarry
UPDATED: 17 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 527 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Creston,Wirt,WV
Contract price not specified.
"a little bit better than dial up"
"No online gaming like WOW, FAP and slow speeds"
"If you dont got dsl, cable. cell covarge then get it!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I had Direcway (DW300) for 3-4 years and drop them because I need to move in 2005 because the landlord was a b!tch. Once I got things going at our new house. I going to give them a ring and tell them that I just moved and I need installer to hook it up back online. They tell me my equipment was too old. So I got pissed and hang up and got dial up (Netzero) and it was no fun. They keep spamming me and I keep losing phone calls so I went back to Direcway (installed on October 2007) which is now Hughesnet and thought well hopefully they improved....boy I was wrong but its the only option to get! So I currently on Pro Plan for $74 a month.
sure beats 3 hours of downloading a song but I want out. Please Verizon or Frontiernet...bring DSL in Creston, WV
Update 8/22/2009 - Last month lighting ran into my house and fry the power adapter. I ring in hughesnet and they give me a better (65 watt) power adapter. I very please that the power adapter looks like a laptop power adapter instead of some bulky box that covers my extra plug-in on my surge protector. The cost...10 days off my billing. I also got a e-mail that I can get 10 dollars off for six months. This month bill now 53 dollars. Past 3 days I been getting 12KB on my downloads and usage page was also down. Everything seems to be normal now today. Still wishing for DSL
Update 10/13/2009 - Well Its been 2 years now and things still run ok. I still getting discount for 6 months. I no longer worried about getting FAP since I know what to watch out and also tech support can now release you from FAP (only once a month) but I still monitor my usage in case I get fap again. I now runing zvolts scprit for my usage page with greasemonkey and firefox. Which you can get from theses links....
Firefox
»www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html
Greasemonkey
»https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
hughes usage calc by zvolts (now works for HN9000)
»userscripts.org/scripts/show/56458
oh almost forgot. they did fix Twitter's Search!
11-03-2009 Hughes email me beta tools where I can free myself from FAP but the limit is still there. »services.hughesnet.com/service_tools/
Attachments:
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 Review by video
UPDATED: 19 days ago
member for 3.9 years, 240 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Newburg,Charles,MD
Contract price not specified.
"None!"
"Customer Service is awlful, not really broadband!"
"If this is your only choice and you really need to connect then follow the Hughsnet forum for help and support!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
After 4 years of absolutely no good terribly horrible service from this company which I am a bit embarrassed to say is based here in the fine state of Maryland I finally got EVDO wireless, what an improvement! Really there is nothing good to say about this company, they oversold their bandwidth so my daytime speeds are very low sometimes even limiting my email capabilities. You can call up and try to get through to a higher level of customer support but if you have a busy schedule trying to run a business you will never be able to keep up with it. They employ overseas customer service representatives which as far as I can tell act as speed bumps in their customer service workflow. The overseas customers reps are nice folks but when they deal with you they are working from a script and their main job according to that script is to slow you down in trying to get through to a state side customer rep in hopes that you can have the state side rep switch you to another transponder or satellite that uses less bandwidth enabling better speeds on your end. So if you can connect to a tower do it, it is a lot cheaper to build towers then to launch satellites. If you can’t connect to a tower just hang in there and keep checking your options.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 21 days ago
(review was emailed from domain heathergm.com)
Springfield,Lane,OR
Contract price not specified.
"better than dial up speeds most of the time"
"slow, unreliable, horrible tech support and frustrating FAP"
"If you can't get anything else this will mostly work for you"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
We live in a pocket in the foothills with no cable, DSL or other internet available. We signed up for DirectWay satellite right away. At first it seemed amazing to have fairly speedy internet for $70 a month (2 year commitment) but the service crapped out in less than a year. After an epic weeklong troubleshooting with their ridiculously poor tech support (which tried to say it was my fault for using Macintosh over Airport) they finally sent a tech out (from the neighboring state) and said the original installation was done incorrectly and water had corroded our wiring. Re-install resulted in lower signal strength but decent service even after upgrade to DW6000 and transition to HughsNet when they were acquired.
But that was when our FAP woes started. With no notice they changed the FAP terms and we ended up going over our allotment and being locked out for 4 days in one month. We became very careful and although the satellite dropped out from time to time it was semi-reliable until this year.
Now speeds are very slow, the signal drops out pretty regularly and the bandwidth constraints are getting difficult to deal with as the web continues to expand and demand more load for even basic pages. I really don't want to extend my contract and from reading the forums don't feel that upgrading my modem or package is likely to help so I am in limbo, limping along until someone brings true high speed service to this area.
So if you can't get anything else HN can work, although its expensive for what you get and not nearly as reliable as you would hope. Avoid dealing with customer service if you value your sanity - but sometimes its your only hope. I hope the Better Business Bureau complaints convince this company to start treating their customers with more respect - like actually providing what they advertise.
Followup comments:
AshleyChris
@direcway.com
| hughesnet God I agree 100%. I wish I had came to this forum before having hughesnet installed less than a week ago. We have had nothing but trouble with them from day one. I'm lucky that this site is even loading. I had to use my mothers dial up just to print my rebate forms off because of the constant disconnecting. I wake up this morning and it is far slower than dialup on a bright sunny clear day. We have 30 days to cancel but we lose over $400 in the process. There are so many problems we have had with the service I cant even keep track of them all..... | |
| |
HN Help
@cablerocket.net
| Re: hughesnet You have a 30 day trail(money back guarantee). You should not lose your money. But if you did not get a standard install, had to do a pole mount not sure if you will get that money back, as it is not handled by Hughes Net. If it goes 31 days they will charge the early termination fee. Hope this helps | |
|
HNHater
@direcway.com
| "Faster than dialup" ... I don't think so! I can't even begin to tell you how many hours of productivity I have lost since I had to switch my office to HughesNet. We moved to a new office location, and cannot get DSL or cable here. Our only option other than HughesNet is a T1 line, or cBeyond, both of which are cost prohibitive.
The service is slow at best, and unreliable most of the time. It takes forever to send an email with even a small attachment. Sometimes I can email, but can't browse. Sometimes I can browse, but not email. There are days when we get better service in the middle of a rainstorm than from clear blue skies. There's no difference whether we're plugged directly into the modem, using a router, or wireless. Same thing with Mac vs. PC and different web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer). The service sucks no matter what you use.
We are constantly exceeding their 425MB allotment...can't even update software on ONE computer, much less the 9 that are in our office without going over. Our employees have to frequently leave the office and go to coffee houses to use their wireless internet in order to complete the required functions of their jobs.
What really annoys me is their stupid (and completely useless) "measure web responsiveness" tool. It took over 45 seconds for that test to complete, only for it to come back and say that it was completed in 3.5 seconds. It's completely unreliable, and their customer service reps will keep telling you over and over again that "everything is working perfectly." Well, I'm sorry, but where I come from, if a user can't load a page in under 2 minutes, then everything is NOT "working perfectly."
Of course, there's also that wonderful required 2 year contract, and even when that is up, I doubt anything else will be available. That's what these people count on...you wouldn't be with them if you had any other options. And, then, of course, if a new option does arrive for your area, then they get you with an early termination fee. Pitiful. Really pitiful.
If you have absolutely NO OTHER OPTION, then go with HughesNet, but go in knowing that you'll be wishing you hadn't. | |
| | | | |
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Review by protospork
UPDATED: 35 days ago
member for 150 days, 5 visits, last login: 23 days ago
Sterling Heights,Macomb,MI
Contract price not specified.
"I suppose it is faster than dialup."
"Slow, unreliable, expensive, misleading adverts, uncooperative website..."
"If you've can't get cable/DSL, aren't in a 3G area, and can't get Wildblue, this is your only option."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Before we had hughesnet installed, I borrowed someone's USB 3g adapter. I quickly decided it was the slowest way I'd experienced the internet since ditching dialup in 2002, and we went ahead with hughesnet. Now, after several weeks of hughesnet service, I wish I could undo that decision (They made us sign up to a 2-year contract, so no dice.).
We've got an HN9000 Modem and are on one of the plans with the 500MB daily cap. I'm honestly not sure what the advertised speeds were or exactly what we pay every month.
There've been several days where the connection worked fine EXCEPT for http traffic, a day when http was the only thing that worked, often only encrypted traffic (https, ssl, sftp) is blocked. Rare is the day when every aspect of the connection is working as advertised. Weather doesn't seem to have much to do with it, either - I've had better signal in a torrential downpour than with clear blue skies.
You're given a late-night bandwidth unlimited period (Ours is 2am-7am, allegedly), and during this period the line speed actually seems to pick up quite a bit, but you still can't really use P2P apps (or many 'legitimate' programs). The way the network is set up, you can't forward ports - so you're more-or-less unable to upload except in very limited, unpredictable cases.
Oh, and downloading things outside that late-night period? Watch out. If you go over your limit, you'll be given an unstable slower-than-dialup connection for "24 hours". In my last case it was actually limited for 24 hours, 'full speed' for about an hour, limited for most of another day, and then brought back to normal speed.
All of you people who complain about the line speeds, poor service, unfair practices, etc. of their cable ISPs, listen to me: Comcast has got nothing on Hughes.
Followup comments: Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI | No other options? In Sterling Heights you can't get AT&T DSL or Uverse or Cable, whether it's Comcast or WOW? That is hard to believe these days, both AT&T and Comcast service much of the metro Detroit area. | |
|
PJD
@umich.edu | "Can't forward Ports" Can you please expand on this? I'm a Hughnet user who is frustrated to tears trying to make a light-weight web site work over Hughesnet.
Thanks. | |
| | | |
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Review by CujoBuddy
UPDATED: 36 days ago
member for 49 days, 24 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Goetzville,Chippewa,MI
Contract price not specified.
"So far, so good...getting advertised speeds, wayyyy better than dial-up"
"expensive, occaisonally weather affected, tech support, FAP"
"NOT in the same league as Cable, DSL, Fiber, Wireless but better than 56k"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
I ordered the Pro-Plus plan (1.6mbps down / 250 kbps up) & have been hitting these speeds so far, even in 'busy' times (5pm - 12pm EST). I've had service for 1 week.
I ordered thru a local installer rather than HughesNet, and am glad I did, as the order process was very easy & very fast in setting up the install appointment. The installation was first rate, installer really knew his stuff. I purchased the equipment outright, and got the HN9000 modem with .74m dish & 1 watt LNB, all brand new, unused.
No DSL/Cable/Wireless options are available in my rural Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan area. I only have one dial-up provider available (Lighthouse), and while they do the best they can & do offer DSL & Wireless in other areas, I'm stuck in no-mans land. Local telco is CenturyTel with descrepit/cracked phone lines that at best allow me a very unreliable 26kbps dial-up connection through Lighthouse, so my only option is satellite.
I looked at WildBlue & HughesNet, and did my homework research on both, and decided HughesNet, with the FAP-free period from 2AM-7AM would be best for me. I am disabled & do not work, so staying up for the unlimited download times are not a real problem for me, and I can also use my download manager when I need to. I also am not a gamer, so the latency issues that essential prohibit online gaming do not affect me.
So far my downloads have been consistent & at advertised speeds both here on BroadbandReports & HughesNet's own speedtest website & latency is around about 1/2 second.
I will be reporting in from time to time to update my review, and I hope I am able to avoid some of the problems others here on BroadbandReports have been having.
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Review by jakerweb
UPDATED: 36 days ago
member for 2.6 years, 17 visits, last login: 36 days ago
Sebastopol,Sonoma,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Get "abit" faster than dialup when no other solution nearby."
"Really false advertising claims for speed; EXPENSIVE too."
"HughesNet: Not good choice if you have other broadband around."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
15 October 2009. NEW INFO, NOW IT GETS REALLY INTERESTING: The ongoing multi-year saga!
Oh yeah: Today speeds are 40~85 - Kbps Downloads; 25~50 - Kbps Uploads... On my "Business Plan" w/2-watt/2-meter dish w/HN7000S modem, speeds sold to me as: 2-Mbps Down & 500-Kbps Up. What a ripoff, this was ALL DAY! And MOST DAYS!
Greetings again, fellow HughesNet Subscribers: A "NEW" policy for their Techs to determine if you have a "PROBLEM" with their service or not... They now determine if your Satellite connection is "OK" or not, if your "RESPONSE TIMES" are within a certain spec of time THEY determine is good enough or not. IT IS NO LONGER ABOUT SPEED OF YOUR DOWNLOADS OR UPLOADS, and this is true if you have ANY level of bandwidth account with them.
Let me see... You can spend less for a "lower speed" plan, and they will make a decision if your setup is working within spec or not, the same as another person who is paying tons more money for more bandwidth, but their "RESPONSE TIMES" are "OK"??? (or NOT as is the case with me ~ 40% of the time, yet they still say I am "within specs", we will not esculate you to a trouble ticket")
It is amazing to me, that now, a decade plus since I first signed up for their first effort at satellite broadband called "DirecPC" using a MODEM for uploads... Then, to the years later upgrade to the dual-USB "Transmit" and "Receive" boxes with 1-watt small dish... Then, to go what THEY claimed will "IMPROVE" my speeds and internet experience by using their new DW-6000 Ethernet Modem (which only throttled me DOWN; from that upgrade onwards, I never was able again to use "available bandwidth during off peak periods as I could with the USB modems, going up to 2-Mbps with the old USB equipment on a "Home Plan" of 500-Mbps maximum download, supposedly. Now, the DW-6000 gave them the technology to keep strict limits on download speeds even if the satellite had available bandwidth!)... ULTIMATELY, to bite the bullet and go UP to their recommended "1-meter dish with 2-watt transmitter" plus ANOTHER new Ethernet modem named the HN-7000S, this despite the fact that I had just purchased the DW-6000 Ethernet modem less than 9 months prior. The kicker here is, I had their own techs instruct me to SWITCH the newer HN-7000S modem for the older DW-6000 modem, during a troubleshooting call when I called to complain I was getting WORSE speeds than before I went UP to the new 1-meter dish with 2-watt transmitter AND the new HN-7000S modem: The tech (top level, senior at HughesNet!) told me, that the DW-6000 was almost identical to the HN-7000S, and would give the same speeds! Indeed, during our trouble shooting calls, the DW-6000 was identical in speeds, latency, etc, to the HN-7000S newer modem I spent almost $400.- on! To this day, to see if the HN-7000S modem is ok or not, I can just plug in my DW-6000 modem, and voila, all tests are identical.
But I digress: I have been getting such horrible speeds that during 2pm ~ 7pm PST, often I cannot even use the internet. Even on HughesNet own speed test site, I OFTEN see the UPLOADS "Time-out" and return a speed of "0"; with downloads 25-Kbps ~ 80Kbps at the same time. I have complained so many times to them, that it is ridiculous. I now have a stack of speed tests which is over 3 inches thick. In the last year since somewhere in 2008, they stopped using a continuous spreadsheet format to display your speed test, and now you have to click "Next" to get the test results for the previous page, each of which only contains exactly 20 results. This is the same for either the "SPEED" test results, or the new "RESPONSE" test pages.
As I already mentioned, they will not FIX you with any tech service, if you RESPONSE times are adequate, as THIS is the new yardstick for gauging if your connection is ok or not.
Whew, what is a business level account to do?
I have had to give up on my Oracle owned service called "Netledger" for full business WEB-HOSTING of: SFA (sales force automation), CRM (customer relationship management), web-hosting of the website, with Multiple Currency support, multiple warehouse, all inventory management, all online sales directly posting to the customers account with all aspects of running an international business, etc etc... All DATA hosted and updated to the website in realtime, by Netsuite. and so our international business is run through a Web Browser! The response times for an administrator or other user, was just horrible at this location, me being the CEO, President and founder of the company... I could not even run my own company from here with my ONLY internet option via Satellite as I am on 25 acres on a Mountaintop on the Coast range just north of San Francisco. My manager had good response, but then, he had cable internet access in the office...
Enough said.
I am now both:
1) Video recording my keystokes, my full monitor and mouse activity
2) Printing my speed tests from HughesNet immediately, as they keep issuing me a new account, which "wipes-out" my past speed test history.
3) Notifying HughesNet when I call, that the conversation is being recorded.
4) Going to put up a domain to ask people who are feeling dissatified with the service, to join a class action lawsuit.
5) In the meantime, HughesNet is throttling me back horribly, to unusable speeds.
6) Also, I cannot use their own speed test site anymore, as they "reset" the connection to my browser every time I try, and I cannot even get onto the page...
7) They have been totally unresponsive to my getting "0's" for uploads, and 25-Kbps ~ 80-Kbps DOWNLOADS, despite them auto-debiting my checking account every month, for a 2-Mbps down and 500-Kbps Upload plan speed... A bloody "BUSINESS" plan after all.
8) This has been the pattern from HughesNet ever since I upgraded years ago, to the 1-meter/2-watt dish, with the HN-7000S modem, plus the $495.00 "install" fee.
I feel that due to the time I have had to deal with so many calls to them, stay home while they sent someone out to do, what, NOTHING whatsoever, my hours and hours to do requested speed and now RESPONSE (latency + speed!) tests, that I have had enough from one company. It is going to be up to the legal system to decide if "what an average person would consider within reason" given their marketing, actual user experiences, etc.
Thank you all,
jakerweb
PS: A BIG "KUDOS" goes out to the admins or webmasters here at "DSL reports", for your comments, and saving my earlier posts!
PSS: Are you able to pull out my old speed tests also, from years past? I will need those in my pursuit for justice.
Mahalo and Aloha!
PSS: The "NEW SOLUTION" as put forth by HughesNet: I "ditch" my two year old $1,500.00 investment in upgraded equipment, and MOVE onto their new satellite which offers faster speeds. Unfortunately, this new satellite is on a different "band", and my current equipment will not work. Plus, they want over $350.00/month for a 5-Mbps download plan, which by the way only offers a 500-MB download daily limit! Hum, my current plan has a 1.25-GB daily download limit... WHAT business would only use 500-MB per day? It is a much pricier group of plans for what you REALISTICALLY get (based on what I see from tests on the web, at least...), but the clincher is the download limit "total" being so low. Heck, I can do an "Open Office" download, and updates from Microsoft, and that's it for one day. What if you wanted to go to the home page for Yahoo, and views news clips in video format, at a lousy 1-Mbps download rate? I leave my "REALTIME" Lan or Ethernet Monitoring tools running all the time, as well as Microsofts own "Taskmanager" with the "Networking" tab selected, and under "Options", then make sure that "Show Cumulative Data" is checked... And EVERY day, just with my Norton 360 ver.3 updates, my various programs updates such as Acrobat, Firefox, Java, etc etc, I EASILY use up 500-MB in just less than 1 or 2 hours. What if one were to actually download some photos, watch news video clips in those small windows, or ACTUALLY use HughesNet for BUSINESS??? (I am on a Business Plan, after all!)
It is a complete lack of reality on their part to offer a business account yet not offer any real speed as solicited in their marketing, their website, nor on the web.
I resent that I am told to throw away such a large investment after only such a short time, as a solution to what is THEIR problem.
I continue, as always, to be very unhappy with the corporate attitude and business tactics employed by HughesNet.
- jakerweb
THIS I POSTED BACK IN 2007 !
jakerweb correction: When I signed up, it was $199.-/month + tax for Business Plan, now they have reduced it to $179.99/month + tax. Text below states the earlier higher price, sorry.
From: jakerweb
Long but informative post from one who knows a bit about Hughes Net and other internet providers plus good electronics and Network knowledge. Read the first part to see my past experience, then I go into the Hughes Net experience, next their "cut and pasted" text from their own website; with an ending of my opinion re the whole Hughes Net situation.
Just a preface about myself to lend some credibility to what I write:
I started in electronics at age 11, when I built my first "Heath Kit" ham radio. I majored in Electronics in college, even "jumping" a full year of 3rd year courses, as the teacher saw I already knew more than his class would teach.
ALL my "cable TV" references below are with the 4th largest cable TV one city system in North America, the company was "Cablevision".
While in college studying Electronics, I got a job as the sole "Night System Technician" responsible for keeping ~ 60,000 RF amps and tens of thousands of miles of system "big" 3/4" > 1.5" main and feeder lines up and working correctly by maintaining the "head-end" with its Micro Wave and RF "Proc-Amps (processing the signal for chroma, stair-step, audio, all sorts of signal levels and qualities), as well as going out and fixing whatever went amiss during the night in ANY technical way, etc etc. I was only 19 years old. By age 20, I had been promoted to "Senior Technician" in charge of good size group of technicians. By age 21, I was the "Chief Technician" and then quickly offered "my own" system to run: Be the "General Manager", anywhere in the "Cablevision" new outlets in the state/city of my choosing, as they were growing rapidly. I have continued my electronics and computer work my whole life, now being more experienced. I have installed Satellite dishes in Hawaii for both DirecTV and Dish Network AND DirecPC (Hughes 1st foray into "broadband"); was able to achieve getting ALL the satellites on both TV companies even with a "LOOK-ANGLE" over the Horizon of only 12%. I achieved this by sourcing super SUPER "low noise LNB's", ie: The sensors which picks up the satellite signal directly from the dish. The Satellite signal must be a certain level HIGHER than the BACKGROUND "Noise" or there will not be signal reliably. I also found very efficient DISHES which were larger than even their commercial dishes, end result, successful full programming when I was told by "Professional" dish/satellite companies it was "impossible" to get the signals from the satellites I did, in Hawaii. I have extensive Microwave; Proc-Amps, etc, all equipment knowledge of a large cable companies "head-end" or distribution and signal processing center. I am adept using tools such as "Time Delay Reflectometers", "Sweep Spectrum Analyzers", RF /micro-ware signal meters naturally, plus all diagnostic knowledge to troubleshoot ANY circuit, be it a satellite navigation system on-board a multi-million dollar yacht... I am able to design from "scratch" a circuit, then "etch" the circuit board and then source the parts/put it all together and test it completely, and I mean quite complicated circuits, not some little hobby project.
Not trying to impress anybody, just giving doubters of what I wrote below having validity, that maybe I know something I write about.
What I write below is rather detailed and long, but contains fact and info which many customers are not aware of. I wish it is all hopeful and mostly, helpful!
I was one of the FIRST to adopt "Hughes DirecPC" quite a few years ago, back when UPLOAD was only via a dial-up modem thru your "landline" ISP. I have upgraded over time: Years later, I went "UP" to their 2-USB boxes (Receive and Transmit box); then just barely 1.5/2 years ago, to the 6000 Ethernet modem: This was great, as building a private network or Networking via Ethernet is a breeze, compared to USB!
NOW, just over a month ago, Hughes Net said the following to me:
Was told by first customer service then Supervisors then Tech Support, I HAD to start a NEW account if I wanted the "BIGGER" 2-watt w/.98meter dish (yes, the transmitter which sends the signal UP to the satellite, is in the DISH, not the modem) plus the brand new HN-7000-S modem. The "UPGRADE": It cost me $987.00 with a "standard" installation.
Interesting point: The original "DirecPC" which needed a modem for upload, was capable of over 2-Mbps downloads, even using a modem for uploads. I have/had network "tools" to see exactly all my connections, their speed, their IP and port number plus port name plus the WHOIS info in real time, with company info behind it all, plus if was a redirect packet(s) etc etc. I am able to launch 10 simultaneous LARGE/Medium/Small (my choice, to see how large vs small file speeds are being affected by their network) file downloads and see both each Kbs speed plus the total network speed through the DNS (Domain Name Service/Server) router which is built into a HN-700-S Hughes Net Modem.
Many do not realize this is in the modem, as there is only ONE Ethernet port output: All "hubs", "switches" and other devices such as a WiFi access point/router, are given an IP address by the HN-7000 modem, same as was done by the older 6000 model.
My existing "Old ~ .65meter dish" with USB boxes, got me up to 2-Mbps downloads off-peak, and this on the standard home plan! The upgrade to "6000" Ethernet modem, put an end to faster speeds than advertised, and NEVER got the speeds advertised by "DirecWay", not ONCE in ~ 2-years; always 20 ~ 75% ONLY, of advertised maximum plan speed. The average speed from test sites is usually ~ 200 ~ 450-Kbps download, and often FASTER uploads usually between 60 ~ 400Kbps! This upload speed is what most HOME plan users complain about, as they often only see 20 ~ 80Kbps which in reality means they could get a better site response from a good ISP phone line MODEM connection! Sure, if the site has any substantial images or substantial files sizes to download to show the page, the Satellite will pull ahead in a hurry. But often, simple text pages with minimal graphics will load faster on a dialup modem, IF the ISP is not bogged down! Take the basic "home page" of Google for instance: I have seen it pop up faster on a modem with my old laptop, faster than on my dual-core, 10,000-rpm Raptor hard drives in RAID "0", with a 1-gigbit network card connected directly to the Hughes Net 6000 or now the HN-7000-S new modem! Google has just some very small image files with some text in the middle of the page, all else is blank. Smart of them, as we mostly just want it to SNAP up in a hurry so we can type in our search keywords, right?
Now, I'm on their "TOP OF THE LINE" equipment and BEST SPEED plan unless you sign up for an "Enterprise Plan Custom Solution", which is just ridiculous for a simple "home office" or ANY home user. I am getting pretty good UPLOADS sometimes close to advertised 500-Kbps, but DOWNLOADS are pathetic, frequently LESS than the UPLOAD speed! And it costs me ~ $220.-/month with taxes, just unbelievable.
NOW the interesting part: My downloads on Hughes Net PRIVATE "customer only" test site, shows that I often am getting 1.2 ~ 1.5Mbps downloads (2-Mbps is what I pay for yet ANY hour of day or night or wee morning hours NEVER more that 1.5-Mbps), with 400 ~ 500-Kbps uploads... Good that uploads are close to advertised speeds, but I am not doing WEBSITE "FTP", "RAS" (Remote Access to your home computer which DOES need good upload speeds!), file-sharing or any other upload intensive stuff, so I would be happy with ~ 100-Kbps uploads!
Heck, even on their own private customer speed test site, I often see download speeds in the 60-Kbps, 90-Kbps, 150-Kbps... Some are in the 300 ~ 700-Kbps range, but wait! Didn't their own website "FAQ'S" page state that I would see ~ 1.2-Mbps during PEAK periods? I have logged over 100 speed tests at Hughes Net own test site, and have NEVER seen over 1.5-Mbps no matter what hour of the day. I have done MANY test in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6am time period, and it just does not help, NEVER over 1.5-Mbps: It is ALWAYS the same speed within 100-Kbps of my max which is only 1.5-Mbps NOT the 2-Mbps I pay for. Then, even on their OWN test servers, I have over 30 results of my ~ 100 tests with them in 1.5 months with download speeds between 30 ~ 200-Kbps! HA, caught!
What is this, feels like a problem to me, but tech said all is ok after having me do all sorts of things. Just that's the speed you get on the satellite, they said: We do NOT push your speed issue up the ladder unless you are getting consistent 180Kbps! How is this possible, when I pay for what is a 2-Mbps max and SUPPOSEDLY minimum 1.2Mbps ~ 1.5-Mbps during peak periods, if you are to take their text on their website seriously. What, is this a consumer fraud issue or what is it? I have cruised all over the web forums, and I see everyone is unhappy with what they get in speeds from Hughes Net, not what they were told nor sold on when they signed up.
Well, problem is, the HughesNet "SPEED test server(s) are at the "NOC" (Network Operations Center), NOT outside their infrastructure and on then connected to the actual web BACKBONE outside their own infrastructure! So, their speed tests mean nothing for "real world experience on the web", except that your Dish is in proper communication Up and Down to their Satellite AND passing into their NOC ok. That's all this speed test means, it does not represent what you can get out on the web, even if you do a speed test at a major "Server Farm Hosting Site" with a huge PIPELINE into the web...
There are some SPEED test servers connected with the biggest pipelines to the web; some original science labs which NASA used/uses, so-called private science servers which feed "Super Computer" results to the global scientists on the project, some of the BIG networks on the web are interconnected to accomplish unified computing power from servers all over the globe with FAST pipelines, or even some Universities from the old days... Plus some secret servers one has to have the inside scoop to access and do a speed test (on Maui, the host ISP did some speed test on the at that time "BIGGEST pipeline" to the backbone anywhere in the USA: Why was it so broadband?, turns out that the Star Wars "Super Computer" (fastest SUPER computer on the planet at the time!) was hosted on-site, and needed to give scientist and whomever else was needing access in real time to see what this computer was spitting out worldwide. My DirecPC was able to achieve over 3-Mbps with a bloody modem when given this "special test" phone line plugged directly into a T-3 going right into one of their web servers (the ISP was a friend of mine, and indeed, hosted my company website as well: I even "GAVE" him a computer to "USE" in return for a special price and website hosting connection, ie: Speed!).
Bottom line: NOW, it does NOT matter what size pipeline you test through when actually on the web: Your speed test with Hughes Net will ALWAYS come in much lower than the Hughes Net website speed test, as they are giving their speed servers "full speed bandwidth" to the NOC, thus the satellites, so customers will not freak out! What they SHOULD do, is put the speed test servers on a big pipe, somewhere out on the web, this would give a more accurate result. Now, after you send a request packet for a website, all traffic has to go through their own "NOC" NETWORK bandwidth distribution servers... So we are all being flushed through the same "NETWORK distribution routers/software/servers routines and rules". But really, even OFF PEAK like at 2am ~ 5am, the results are identical... This means the satellites are saturated ALL THE TIME! Their only recourse is to distribute bandwidth according to which Plan you have, and even at that, they are incapable of delivering the higher "Business Plan" speeds without severely hurting all those HOME PLAN or PRO or PRO-PLUS accounts, with those customers expectations. And for the HOME PLAN customers or PRO or PRO-PLUS plan customers, you are all being held back in speed to a sorta "good enough" average so everyone has enough to do web surfing, better than a modem, but still not as advertised, they cannot give us full speed or they will have to stop signing up new customers, plus they are already over the limit if you throw in the Enterprise "QOS" contracts with all of us! A new satellite plus a change in the NOC processing, bigger pipe to the web, is all needed. Maybe they even really need 2 new satellites?
They are PURPOSELY throttling BACK our speed, thus we do not see what is the plan speed advertised. They do just what they think they can get away with, with just a certain amount of customer bitching to them, so they can continue to spread out the customer base and grow... This will allow them (or FORCE them) to launch more satellites for bandwidth. But as a company policy, NOW it is not possible to get your advertised speed as they are allocating bandwidth to fulfill their "Enterprise Customers" QOS contracted speed agreements (QOS = "quality of service" contracted speed minimums) plus keep their satellites from hitting full and total saturation: What if a QOS Enterprise who paid for 6-Mbps tried to update servers across the nation for their different stores or distribution centers, and they spied they were only getting 2 ~ 3-Mbps? Hughes Net would certainly be sued and this is not good business.
Consumers will take ALLOT more abuse than corporate heavy hitters, before they get into the organized "Class Action Lawsuit" position, and believe me, big corporations decision makers who are in charge of keeping the company out of trouble with consumers, know EXACTLY how far they can push the envelope, vs the "Cost/benefit" ratio if they DO get a class action lawsuit levied against them, and then they lose the case... In the meantime, they have made so much money by signing up customers, and charging $200.- month for a lousy so-called "2-Mbps" connection, when in fact, the customer usually only uses up 200 ~ 700-Kbps of bandwidth VERY INTERMITTENTLY as one loads website elements... Also, the idle time while you read the web page, is bandwidth they can SELL AGAIN, even though you PAID for it! I never run up against my FAP (Fair Access Policy, distribution of bandwidth which ALL customers are subject to on a time-line basis) with this "Business Plan", I got it not for lots of bandwidth usage, but to have an acceptable web browsing experience. The result is, I can detect virtually NO DIFFERENCE in most normal web site downloads or page-load completions, due to the nature of "IP" packet transfer: Each packet must report BACK to the server that it was received in full without any errors, or else the server will have to RESEND the packet. Anyway, the latency due to the limit of the speed of light of a satellite which is 25,000 miles in space, up and down from their NOC, to satellite then to your dish on your house, makes it easier for Satellite providers to "Cheat" on the "persistence" of the home computer to any particular website server... They can just cover up lack of PERSISTENCE causing more lag with some additional latency, further keeping bandwidth for their use, and SELLING to more and more people.
Now, one has to factor in the saturation of both the web itself which your request for IP packets would LIKE to follow as most "DIRECT-PATH" to the server (which may have limited bandwidth available plus more; saturation with the "get in the line and wait your turn to be served!) which hosts the web page you wish to view. The web does a very good job of routing traffic and keeping bottlenecks to a minimum given the bandwidth demands put upon it, by using the available "backbone" or main bandwidth circuits in the most efficient manner, but it is flawed, since your packet request could go some additional thousands of miles due to this "Bypass" bottleneck process web routers use. More latency or wait for response to you!
SO, every speed site I have found on the Internet, even paid subscription servers with OC-3 to 12 connections right on Internet backbone, show that I am NEVER at ANY time of day or night, ABOVE 900Kbs download, with max 400Kbs uploads. The other factor which is really a pain: Doing a "ping" test to see how LONG it takes to do a round-trip to a server IP address, is just horrible with Hughes Net: Most internet connections be they via modem, DSL, or Cable have ping times in 30 ~ 200 milliseconds. On HughesNet, I see at least 700 milliseconds up to multiple whole SECONDS for a response! It is NOT unusual to see 1,200 ~ 1,800 millisecond response times for your "ping" signal to be returned from the IP address you test to. True, many servers are much slower than others, but if you take a major server "farm" such as "google" or "MSN" or "yahoo" or your OWN website, you will see what I am talking about. The NOC, network, servers, routers which Hughes Net runs are NOT optimized for speed, rather, to give some sort of lower "average" consistency as they are doing a balancing act constantly with available satellite bandwidth, again, not serving the customer in their best interest for a speedy internet experience, but to just keep us off their back and let them continue to grow...
This is just frustrating, to the point that I feel that Hughes Net should have a "Class Action Lawsuit" against them (I see on web that there is already one started?).
To NOT be able to "upgrade" my equipment and account to new better equipment, which forced me to pay almost $1,000.-, is just another "bad" policy of Hughes Net. I am especially ticked off, that after spending hours on phone with tech support, they could not do ANYTHING, just admitting that the satellites are getting saturated, yet they keep running the ADs on DirecTV as well as on NETWORK TV channels! This forces the situation to worsen, 99%+ of the time resulting in them making false promises.
The stated speed as worded on Hughes Net own website is the following:
DIRECT "COPY AND PASTE" FROM THEIR WEBSITE 12 April 2007:
03) Q: What connection speeds will I typically get with HughesNet?
"With the HughesNet Business Internet plan, connect your office to the Internet with maximum download speeds of 2.0Mbps, with typical speeds about 1.2Mbps during peak times. Upload speeds, which are capable of reaching 500Kbps, are typically 300Kbps during peak hours.
A: With the HughesNet™ Small Office service plan, you may enjoy maximum download speeds of 1.5Mbps, with typical speeds of about 800Kbps during peak times. Upload speeds, which are capable of reaching 300Kbps, are typically about 185Kbps during peak hours".
(don't you love the words "enjoy maximum download speeds of 1.5-Mbps? Anyway, they continue...)
"Because No One Wins By Waiting
You’re in business to succeed—and HughesNet™ can get you the results you want faster. How fast? With accelerated download speeds of up to 2 Mbps, HughesNet’s satellite broadband gives you back more hours per workday, to manage what you do best… your business!
See the HughesNet difference for yourself!"
I'd say, to not get the PEAK speeds even during the middle of the wee morning hours, is crazy as they claim the above "TYPICAL" speeds. One is SUPPOSED to get the "Maximum" plan speeds, during "off peak" or at least somewhat close to it!
To read this, and see the test results I get, means they are violating their contract, and yet, they will not offer ANY sort of adjustment in spite of acknowledging the fact I am not getting what I BOUGHT based on their own published text on the website.
I am not only frustrated, but upset and at times angry when I could have got a download or website to load FASTER on the old USB Modems with small dish, on the $59.-/month HOME PLAN. Worse yet, I could get LESS latency via the original "phone line modem ISP" method, as there is not as much latency for IP/Packet requests when they enter the web via a Local ISP who is connected well to the web with a good pipeline. Even the Analog modem translation in a digital format does not come close to taking as much time as the UP and DOWN satellite plus the NOC plus their network utilization rules which further slow down our pings, latency and computer to computer "persistence" (this is like keeping the door open to let the person just behind you enter your house, without having to re-open the door. HughesNet does a poor job at keeping the computer to computer persistence "open"... Thus forcing new packets to be resent to open the door again. More time lost, more latency or delay in your viewing web page experience.
I cannot comprehend how it is possible for an FCC licensed company WITH Federal rules as to their performance vs published advertising, can continue to do that they do... What about all of us who are paying over $200.-/month, and getting lower than base "cheapest plan" "DSL" speeds?
Just amazing. If I had ANY other choice, I would jump ship even though I now have over $2,000.- invested for service equipment with HughesNet over the years.
IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER CHOICE, BE IT DSL OR CABLE, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR HUGHESNET, YOU WILL NOT BE SATISFIED NOR GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR IN SPEED or BROWSING EXPERIENCE, EVER!!!
Signed: jakerweb, member of "Broadband".
Followup comments: jwko
join:2007-04-02
Cecil, AR | AMEN! I Agree 110% | |
| |
Hughesnet Fraud
@comcast.net
| Re: AMEN! I was getting around 150Kbps downloads and 70Kbps uploads with the 6000 series. This is far lower than promised by Hughesnet. I called and was advised to 'upgrade' to the 7000 series. Now I am getting 7Kbps downloads ... yup ... 7Kbps ... almost useless. When I called customer support I was told the 7000 does nothing and would NOT provide me with anymore bandwidth. I asked why it was promoted as an 'upgrade' and why I was promised 'twice the bandwidth'. The customer service replay was that the 7000 was was just newer technology that worked better for the company but offers the customer no additional bandwidth. So, it was a lie. Now Hughesnet is charging me another $40 per month for it ($99 per month now). I can't change back to the older, cheapr and marginally better service because I signed a 3 year agreement. Basically, I'm paying $100 per month for nothing. I am a very experience technology consumer and have never dealt with such a corrupt company as Hughsnet. Buyer beware folks. Where do I sign up for the Class Action? | |
| tasmithe
join:2002-09-16
Graham, NC | too long Too long! But agree 100% | |
| 
jspaleta
join:2001-01-25
Petaluma, CA | Right on Great review! | |
| 
PolarBear
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
Premium
join:2005-01-03
 ·CableOne
| Educated? You would think that someone as educated as yourself would have much better writing and grammar skills.
Also, the ping times you are experiencing are completely normal for ANY satellite internet service. One must consider that when you send a ping from your computer, that ping has to travel 24,000 miles to the satellite, 24,000 miles to the NOC, out to the internet, back to the NOC, 24,000 miles to the satellite, and 24,000 miles to your dish. The fact that any data can travel over approximately 100,000 miles in less than a second is absolutely amazing. Seven hundred milliseconds is nothing.
--
A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequilla. -- Mitch Ratcliffe | |
| | zwaaa
join:2004-02-26
Amissville, VA
| Re: Educated? plus, the text clearly says "up to" not "you will definitely indisputably get" 2 megs.
This is a best effort service - just like cable and DSL. which suffer the same problems when they oversell their bandwidth. High Knob in Va had speed issues with Sprint when the node was oversold.
I appreciate the frustration of being in a rural area with limited broadband options. If you read carefully you will see that you are getting what they promise you. | |
| jakerweb
join:2007-04-06
Sebastopol, CA
·HughesNet Satellit..
|  I did include info to "replies" stated I didn't or accurate
"aaron83_01"
&
"zwaaa"
Perhaps the "zwaaa" reply POST did not see what I pasted directly from HughesNet own "FAQ's" page regarding speed and what we "SHOULD EXPECT?". It is all EXACTLY pasted from the HughesNet website, in my original POST below. They say only that the plan, in my case the Business Plan, is 2-Mbps download, "maximum" (naturally, you only will get what you pay for on a plan "maximum" speed). What they DO say, it what we should expect DURING "PEAK" times. This PEAK speed which IS spelled out, by definition, would mean that to use a legal phrase "the average normal person would expect this to be what would be the lessor speed, with the PLAN speed being what we should expect during "OFF PEAK or at least CLOSE to the stated plan speed the majority of the time. They do not qualify "SPEED" in any LOWER than PEAK SPEED with any statement. Other than this text below, which I "copied & pasted" from HughesNet FAQ page on their own website in my original post, this represents what HughesNet claims for the service speeds they sell to us:
DIRECT "COPY AND PASTE" FROM THEIR WEBSITE 12 April 2007:
"...
03) Q: What connection speeds will I typically get with HughesNet?
"With the HughesNet Business Internet plan, connect your office to the Internet with maximum download speeds of 2.0Mbps, with typical speeds about 1.2Mbps during peak times. Upload speeds, which are capable of reaching 500Kbps, are typically 300Kbps during peak hours.
A: With the HughesNet™ Small Office service plan, you may enjoy maximum download speeds of 1.5Mbps, with typical speeds of about 800Kbps during peak times. Upload speeds, which are capable of reaching 300Kbps, are typically about 185Kbps during peak hours".
(don't you love the words "ENJOY maximum download speeds of 1.5-Mbps" for their Office plan? Anyway, they continue...)
"Because No One Wins By Waiting
You're in business to succeed and HughesNet can get you the results you want faster. How fast? With accelerated download speeds of up to 2 Mbps, HughesNet satellite broadband gives you back more hours per workday, to manage what you do best; your business!
..."
END QUOTE/PASTE"
A more "GENERAL" response to you all from jakerweb, who wrote the long "HughesNet" POST:
I would like to defend myself regarding my writing and grammar: I did NOT write my post in WORD or other, and edit it first. I started writing this post at 10:17pm, but with other matters taking me away from the long post, I did not finish it until wee hours in the AM *I believe it was ~3:30am and was quite tired. I had gone back and forth between two other detailed emails I was sending overseas, coming back and EDITING my post with more and more adding to it. I did not feel that a POST had to be of literary quality, based on what I see at this and other post sites. My abbreviated test AFTER I spell out what it stands for, is a way not to write out a longer word each time: Example: "Proc-Amp"; I wrote what it stood for, ie, "processing amp" for video and sound of a cable signal. Other words are showing up in red just because they are not in the on-line dictionary. Plus, my sentence style was of the "Hummm, that does not seem right"... Style, as I felt we are of a sorta family and this group is not needing formality. I am actually a writer of some skill, if I am to believe some people who actually write and publish books, coffee-table big books, magazine articles as well as friends who run weekly columns in newspapers. I am usually told that I am very descriptive, verbalize thoughts into writing in a very good manner and do indeed have a good grasp of the English language, being brought up by parents who were both school teaches that were strict about every nuance of writing skill be it grammar, sentence structure or literary style. I FDID NOT try to organize all my thoughts and words in such a manner for that post, my first on any web forum. I always have just READ what others had to say. In this HughesNet matter however, I was compelled to write as not only was I very distraught about my service but saw on forums around the web that others were feeling the same. The posts frequently did not appear to be from someone of extensive technical knowledge about how it all worked, so I felt that if I was going to voice my opinion for the FIRST TIME on any website forum, it should include what I DID know in an effort to let others know more about what they were experiencing and especially WHY...
I NOT understand your criticism of my "writing and grammar skills" as it appears that many POSTS are not "fine tuned" in that area.
I also do not understand why you write about apparent lack of knowledge of the latency built into ANY satellite service, since if you read my "cut and paste" portions below, which I took directly from my POST, you will see that I did indeed address this subject. Perhaps due to the length of my POST, you just did not get that far into it to see what I had written?
I will NOT post another long POST again. I THOUGHT there was allot of good information in my POST, however long, which others might be interested in. After all, it is our hard earned money which is being spent for a service which does NOT deliver what their own "FAQ's" page states we will get even during PEAK periods... Which do indeed state in numbers in text on their website where one goes to sign-up for their service.
I see there is ANOTHER reply to my POST, which states that:
Re: Educated?
plus, the text clearly says "up to" not "you will definitely indisputably get" 2 megs.
This is a best effort service - just like cable and DSL. which suffer the same problems when they oversell their bandwidth. High Knob in Va had speed issues with Sprint when the node was oversold.
I appreciate the frustration of being in a rural area with limited broadband options. If you read carefully you will see that you are getting what they promise you.
ANSWER:
"Best effort" has nothing to do with what is written on a website to SELL a service, which is DEFINED as to what we WILL TYPICALLY see for speeds. I know in my case, and judging by what so many of the other HughesNet customers have and are still experiencing, we are not getting anything CLOSE to what is TYPICAL. If I sign a contract, and it states these terms, then if the vendor does not live up to the term "TYPICAL", they are in violation of not only their contract, but fair trade laws as well as false advertising plus... This amounts to criminal activity, and as such, can be addressed in a court of law. I do NOT consider that I am getting what as you state, "If you read carefully you will see that you are getting what they promise you": Quite to the contrary, if you define the word TYPICAL in LEGAL terms, it means that AT MINIMUM, you will see more than 50% of stated speed at LEAST 50% of the time or MORE! Usually, TYPICAL in contract law, means what as I stated above, the "average user or person" would expect in each particular situation being considered.
If you people take exception to what I did do extensive research on, BEFORE I wrote about anything whatsoever about HughesNet, well to BOTH of those reply POSTS seemingly critical of my facts, I did indeed cut and paste DIRECTLY what HughesNet has written on their own website: Perhaps the "zwaaa" reply POST did not see what I pasted directly from their own "FAQ's" page regarding speed and what we "SHOULD EXPECT?".
Anyway, it's a free society, so all opinions are valid: Take exception to my LONG one-time POST, that is your prerogative and so be it.
Signed, the long "HughesNet" POST fella,
jakerweb
I cut and paste from my POST some of what I wrote about PING and more...
A bit more I wrote about "PING": I know that Satellite is always going to be 600 ~ 700 milli-seconds
at best from any SAT provider... What I am saying is that HughesNet is NOT system or NOC with is routers, network management tools with their settings, the software with its Packet and bandwidth rules all vying for available bandwidth from the satellite, yielding results almost always in slower ping times than they should be: In MY experience! Hughes own senior Tech support commented, "Wow, that IS a slow PING, do it again... Then again, then he had me go to several other IP addresses, all resulting in much worse than the possible SAT PING times of around 600 ~ 700 milliseconds. My point is this: HughesNet makes has not setup to deliver the best possible latency performance for their customers. Those "slow" ping times were to tier-one class servers, and should not show anything but the best SAT PING time possible. I see PINGS even "time out" on occasion, not frequently, but way more than I should especially since I am connect to their SAT which is for BUSINESS PLAN users. I was told, that they DO put different class customer plans on different Satellites, by Senior Top level HughesNet tech support. To pay 4, 5 times as much as a comparable Cable or DSL, and see this amount of frustrating browsing, is just not fair, in my opinion.
More cut and paste from my POST, to respond to your comment about SATELLITE LATENCY, which shows below that I indeed did write about the long round trip the signal takes up and back into space...
"...Each packet must report BACK to the server that it was received in full without any errors, or else the server will have to RESEND the packet. Anyway, the latency due to the limit of the speed of light of a satellite which is 25,000 miles in space, up and down from their NOC, to satellite then to your dish on your house, makes it easier for Satellite providers to "Cheat" on the "persistence" of the home computer to any particular website server... They can just cover up lack of PERSISTENCE causing more lag with some additional latency, further keeping bandwidth for their use, and SELLING to more and more people..."
"... Doing a "ping" test to see how LONG it takes to do a round-trip to a server IP address, is just horrible with Hughes Net: Most Internet connections be they via modem, DSL, or Cable have ping times in 30 ~ 200 milliseconds. On HughesNet, I see at least 700 milliseconds up to multiple whole SECONDS for a response! It is NOT unusual to see 1,200 ~ 1,800 millisecond response times for your "ping" signal to be returned from the IP address you test to. True, many servers are much slower than others, but if you take a major server "farm" such as "Google" or "MSN" or "yahoo" or your OWN website, you will see what I am talking about. The NOC, network, servers, routers which Hughes Net runs are NOT optimized for speed, rather, to give some sort of lower "average" consistency as they are doing a balancing act constantly with available satellite bandwidth, again, not serving the customer in their best interest for a speedy Internet experience, but to just keep us off their back and let them continue to grow..."
That about sums up my response to alleged inaccuracies in my original post. I still do not see anything in it which as EXCLUDED as alleged, nor did I inaccurately states facts as quoted from HughesNet own website web page(s). I hope this clears up any misunderstandings.
Signed, the long "HughesNet" POST fella, with HIS replies to YOUR replies,
jakerweb | |
| | zwaaa
join:2004-02-26
Amissville, VA
| Re: I did include info to "replies" stated I didn't or accurate Yeah, I saw it, but I did not see anything that Guarantees you any speed. We read what we want to read in some cases.
Incidentally - from the subscriber TOS ALSO on the hughesnet website that you may have signed without reading when you got the service:
To ensure equal Internet access for all HughesNet™ subscribers, Hughes Network Systems maintains a running average Fair Access Policy (FAP). Fair Access establishes an equitable balance in Internet access across satellite broadband services by service plan for all HughesNet customers regardless of their frequency of use or volume of traffic. To ensure this equity, customers may experience some temporary throughput limitations. HughesNet Internet access is not guaranteed. This policy applies to all service plans including “Unlimited” plans where customers’ use of the Service is not limited to a specific number of hours per month.
Say it AGAIN!!
To ensure this equity, customers may experience some temporary throughput limitations. HughesNet Internet access is not guaranteed. This policy applies to all service plans including “Unlimited” plans where customers’ use of the Service is not limited to a specific number of hours per month.
Enjoy this wnderful Monday - Weather in Va is wonderful! | |
| | | jakerweb
join:2007-04-06
Sebastopol, CA
·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: I did include info to "replies" stated I didn't or accurate zwaa
Greetings!
Yes, I saw the subscriber "TOS" which you refer to, BUT:
HughesNet seez:
"...
To ensure this equity, customers may experience some temporary throughput limitations
..."
My statements have been based on the fact that I do not get what is advertised on their own website/literature as "TYPICAL" speed. The "TOS" statement above, does state only that we MAY experience "SOME TEMPORARY" throughput limitations.
I do not nor have EVER seen over 75% of the claimed Business Plan speed of 2-Mbps, EVER, be it afternoon, evening, night or early AM hours from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7am. If they say we may experience "TYPICAL" speeds on this Business Plan, which is VERY EXPENSIVE compared to other internet mediums, then in my opinion in indeed by facts of what is both stated and advertised, I and all other subscribers are being CHEATED on our PAID-FOR in-advance, NO REFUND without stiff ~ 1/2 price paid (close to $500.- for my just under $1,000.- investment in Equipment plus install labor plus cancellation penalties which for a loyal customer who has seen a steady decrease over the years in THROUGHPUT vs what is ADVERTISED and indeed contractually promised in a written "TYPICAL" speed statement: All this for a ~ 10-year customer UPGRADE. Seems to me, that they would not want to piss of so many people, and have a good reputation. I know that HughesNet is not in financial difficulties, and as such, could broaden their market base better if they used their cash reserves OR good credit-line to put up enough transponders/satellites to honor their stated claims. To NOT honor CONSISTENTLY, what is supposed to be a certain TYPICAL speed experience, is indeed, according to a lawyer who specializes in "Class Action Lawsuits" who IS gathering information for the suit to proceed as we speak, well, it is just plain bad business but worse, a breach of contract which can and will result in compensation or bankruptcy for HughesNet. WHY would they NOT stem the flow of bad reputation they are spreading, and take preventative action, is beside me...
I guess the lawyers will figure out WHY HughesNet did not act in a timely manner to correct known false claims before it was too late.
By the way, the "FAP" only "kicks in" when you go OVER your plan bandwidth. The TOS or quality of service statement you refer to, is unrelated to "Fair Access Policy" or their FAP.
Sure, one could say the two are related as the bandwidth allocation decrease which induced in this manner, (in their words!) and I quote again: "customers may be temporary throughput limitations".
This is NOT "FAP"... And the words they use, "TEMPORARY THROUGHPUT LIMITATIONS" has NOTHING to do with "normal" day in day out usage, which is defined in their "TYPICAL" throughput bandwidth they advertise.
This is called "FALSE ADVERTISING", and is REAL.
I don't think anybody reading this, can be confused as to what they READ they would "GET" in speed in "TYPICAL" uses, vs what they are experiencing in reality.
ALL these posts on just this one of thousands of forums which reference to HughesNet speed "not being as advertised or sold" to all of us.
to spend what is actually quite allot of money, upfront for equipment and labor to install, in my case over $3,000.- if you go back to the beginning when I first signed up and upgraded over the years to NOT gain what is stated by them, is really something to cause me and others to be disappointed as well as seek legal remedies.
I am a businessman: You cannot publish one thing to get some customers to BUY a "NON-REFUNDABLE" product (unless you call taking over 1/2 your investment refundable!) and not deliver on your claims. It is both unethical as well as in the extreme, criminal. Either way, it is just simply a horror to spend so much to find one is ripped-off (in my case, to have the original "smaller" dish w/1-watt transmitter and DW-6000 router/modem/AP just still sitting there which got close to what I have paid tons of extra money for to get LOTS more bandwidth and not get it. This does NOT take into the consideration, the now huge dish sticking out from my home, with the old smaller white 2-way dish still mounted on my roof causing an eye-sore and reminding me of the ripoff every time I see those dishes and modems.
I know that some people just want "adequate" internet speed which to them is anything better than dialup... For me, that is NOT the case. I am trying to network a small group of computers and to NOT see what I paid for delivered to me ie bandwidth and browsing speed, is really a pain. To have to WAIT like I was on a modem at times (way to frequently) is so emotionally frustrating, that it creates anger. This is NOT what a company should strive to serve their customers with.
THAT is my frustration coming out...
Not to be rude, but I do not understand your repeated misconstruing of the facts as written in my posts. This can mislead customers or potential customers, ESPECIALLY if they are CONTEMPLATING upgrading to the BIG DISH plus the HN-7000S modem! They MUST, if they do it, start a whole new account, AND, they will have lost their investment in their white 2-way 1-watt dish plus their old modem.
FACT: If a customer wants ABOUT the speeds/bandwidth that a high-priced "Business Plan" customer gets, they CAN and WILL get it on the OLD smaller 1-watt Dish with the DW-6000 modem. To upgrade and start a new account plus have the pleasure of spending another just under $1,000.- PLUS a new "LONG-TERM" commitment, is not worth it. You should just sign up for the PRO or PRO-PLUS plans, keep the old equipment, and enjoy your money and NOT be frustrated by the fact that you do not EVER get your stated speed on the Business Plan... Max in the best of times, will be only 75% of advertised plan speeds, and THAT will the vast majority of times, only to the HughesNet own "SPEED TEST" site, not the "other" speed test sites all over the internet. On those, you will typically see less than 50% or less of advertised speed. But wait, that is in the best of times!, what you will USUALLY SEE is 10% ~ 40% of advertised speed, time of day will not help this statistic, PERIOD!
I have done over 300 speed test at sites from A to Z, WITHOUT any network or Switch or Router on my side, plugged directly into the DW-7000S HughesNet router/modem/AP. Yes, I have run speed test in comparison on different computers, and there is just no getting around the fact, HughesNet is not giving us what we pay for. And YES, I know enough about networking to know how to make sure that there is NOTHING slowing down my connection: It does NOT matter if I disable any FIREWALL or Anti-Virus or Anti-Spyware or other intrusion detection program, the speed is just plan not up to spec. NEVER, EVER, not ONCE... Not even CLOSE! The MOST I have ever seen is 75% of plan speed, and that is on HughesNets OWN speed test servers!
End of story, case closed. (wow, I hope this ends what has really been a surprise to me: Who can defend HughesNet: The "TOS", the "FAP", as NOT the culprits. It is just that they do not give us what they sell us. Just remember their FAQ ("facts page"), they use the word "TYPICAL" to sell on their plan speed and thus take our money unfairly. That is just seat of the pants, common sense, WRONG!
Signed,
jakerweb 23April 2007 @ 21:22 PST | |
| | | | zwaaa
join:2004-02-26
Amissville, VA
1 edit | Re: I did include info to "replies" stated I didn't or accurate Class action lawsuit eh? Good luck with that.
The only words that matter IMHO are "HughesNet Internet Access is not Guaranteed"
A good attorney may be able to wrangle it, but it will be an uphill battle.
Caveat emptor! Read your contracts folks! | |
| | | | | jakerweb
join:2007-04-06
Sebastopol, CA
·HughesNet Satellit..
| Re: I did include info to "replies" stated I didn't or accurate "Re: I did include info to "replies" stated I didn't or accurate"
Hi zawaa!
Yeh, class Action lawsuits are a bitch.
It is not MY action which has been initiated or even me signed up for, but there are a group of lawyers who ARE subscibers to HughesNet feeling the pain, and as lawyers, they feel they can win. Their main focus is on "misleading" the public, with the FAQ's page, where they state the "TYPICAL" speeds one can expect. There are court precedents which DO hold that "average person belief as to what is being sold" does hold merit over any other disclaimer, as if an average normal person would be misled, then the advertising or sales pitch is flawed, so the courts will award redress for that.
Only time will tell. But I do think that a court action will make some dent into the way in which HughesNet does its business at least.
My personal take on this, from reading other articles, especially from the website "Enquirer" (not the magazine), is the fact that DirecWay is trying to find a way to position themselves in this new broadband market, with all its alternatives: Cable, the new WiMax, DSL, and possibly either "try" again to do it themselves, or sign up some reciprical deals to give them access to the new "3-way" end-to-end communications solutions: Phone, Internet, TV all on one account, one method or wire, or a MIX. It is a very bad time to invest in any direction right now, until the market fleeces out this whole sheebang.
Anyway, I hope that we will get something better than the overpriced slow internet we have to live with now!
Mahalo and thanks for your comments!
jakerweb 25 April 2007 @ 16:32 PST | |
|
moparman
@direcway.com | me too!! I agree i got hughes net an it suxs,it's faster than dail-up i had but the cost an 300mb per day download limit sux!!!!!!!!!! | |
| | Hellsent
join:2009-09-22
| Re: me too!! 1000% agree this company is a ripoff.
Everytime I get one the phone I ask why there isn't a Official Forum for hughes.net?
They keep telling me there is a FAQ i can read.
I said I don't want a FAQ to READ I want to see what others that own this service have to say.
Normally gets ignored or they talk about the issue or try to get me to cough up 125 bucks for some guy to come out and say it looks like its a NOC issue.
I hope you do get ur site up man. | |
|
Hughes Hater
@sprintlink.net
| They don't want a forum so you can discuss how they STINK! My speeds between 6 pm and 9 pm are slower then dial up. I work all day and only get home in time to not be able to use the Internet. But in my case, out in the boonies its all I have. We have FAPed two weekends in a row by simply cruising the Internet. no downloads, or uploads. Just checking out facebook and running my ebay store. I emailed them to see if they have any plans to raise the FAP limits. HA - they responded if I wanted them raised I would have to buy the next version up. Already paying 89.00 a month...JEEZ... | |
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| Forums » comments on review of HughesNet Satellite Broadband |
| »next page (previous review)
Review by Vince_C
UPDATED: 38 days ago
member for 2.6 years, 8 visits, last login: 38 days ago
Grayson,Caldwell,LA
Contract price not specified.
"It actually worked years ago."
"Completely useless service most of the day and night now."
"Not worth the cost!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
When I first acquired this service years ago it worked great. I could do almost anything with few exceptions.
Hughes' fair access policy will keep you from doing such things as watching videos and downloading service packs for twenty two hours out of a twenty four hour day.
However, over the past year, this service has degraded to the point where I can barely run the test @ »www.speedtest.net in the afternoon. Here is a link to my latest test result from just a few minutes ago: »www.speedtest.net/result/591362293.png
After viewing the results, you tell me if this service is worth $59.99 a month! I can answer that with a resounding NO!
My suggestion: Don't waste your time and money on this service. If you do, it may work fine for a while, but the service will degrade. Hughes will be of no assistance and have you running in circles trying to get it fixed. They have abhorrent business practices that are driving away long time loyal customers! Be weary and be aware before you decide to purchase this service.
Attachments:
Followup comments:
Mon
@direcway.com
| Thats Right Well i know the felling about HUGHES NET i had it about 10 years now and its not worth crap. 69.95 month and most of the time its slower than dial-up,this been going on to long now.search goggle about HUGHES NET lol you'll see. and my 2 cents the fcc seen like they don't care about are issues. maybe there good buddy's up to the Big Offices.. | |
| 
george357
join:2009-09-18
Hot Springs, NC
·HughesNet Satellit..
| I am a lucky 1 I guess. I have had it for about 2mos now and I still love it. It does get a little slow during "primetime" 4pm-10pm eastern but even when slow it is soooo much faster than my previous dial-up.
George
--
Spaceway III HN 9000 Pro+ Plan 1.6 Mbps Down. Acer 5000 series laptop w/AMD 64 bit Turion 1.6ghz, 1gb Ram, 90gb HD. Windows XP SP3, Ubuntu 7.10 Dual OS. FireFox 3.5 | |
| | Snilubez
join:2007-03-20
Salem, OR
| Re: I am a lucky 1 I guess. give it time, when I first got it it was great too, especially during that first month when I still had the option to cancel without penalty. but it's been slowly degrading over time. but there are no other internet options available where I live. Hughes knows it. and that's why they think they can get away with it. do a little research on the internet, you'll find many many testimonials like this. oh yeah and they screwed a lot of people out of the $150 rebate they were supposed to get | |
|
Patrick T
@direcway.com
| Hughes Net is a Load of BS I have had hughes.net now for 6 years. The worst waste in money i have ever seen. There is no other choice in internet here other than crappy dial-up, and who wants that. You cant play any online gaming, you cant get updates of softwere i need, if its slightly cloudy out forget about going to google. and dont even get me started on that "Fair" access policy bs. My mother, who is a freelance computer tech. gets boned because of it. When she redoes some ones pc, of course she has to re-install drivers and service packs. They are hindering her from getting paid, and thats pretty much a nazi thing to do during this crap heap of an economy that we are in. And every time i see that damned Hughes.net commercial, i want to go down to where they work and bash in all of their faces with my hughes.net box. DO NOT GET IT. THEY WILL EXTORT YOU. im not surprised they havnt been sued yet. well lets wait till Feb. when the National Broadband Policy hits congress. Good Fight Hughes net i hope you die. | |
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