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Review by ged5555 
UPDATED: 1 days ago
member for 1.7 years, 681 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Mitchell,Lawrence,IN
 Contract price not specified.
 "I'm now running 3 pc's as fast as I was running 1 on dialup"
 "will move up when better is available"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
all I can get besides dial up EDIT 11/10/08 service is slower lately do to overcrowding, But what ya gonna do DSL maybe by spring contract runs out next NOV, so its Hughes til then
Well here it is December 1 2009 dropped HUGHES on November 28th after 2 years. Found aWISP in my area. over all it was what I had expected the last 4 months were the worst with slow downs and such and that was with only 2 computers hooked up. My new WISP is the same download and uploads as my HUGHES pro plan and I've found some simular problems between the 2 but at $20 a month cheaper and faster ping times I made the right decission to switch all in all I give HUGHES a C- and would recomend it over dial-up if thats all you can get
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of HughesNet Satellite Broadband |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Bloody Jabs
UPDATED: 4 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
Stroudsburg,Monroe,PA
Contract price not specified.
"Good if all you have in your area is Dial-up. Another thing is that it atleast connects to the internet"
 "800-1800 pings, slow speed, way overpriced, after downloading a certain amount of MB, you'll get throttled down."
"Just plain sucks... Most ISP's don't have this download limit, and most Tech Support was in India and they didn't know anything"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have had this Satellite connection for about (or over) 5 years now. Yes, that means before Hughes came in, I was using DirecWay (bad because it was still satellite. Good because the download speeds were better, there was no limit on what you could download, and the tech support was ok back then). I don't even know why I switched to Satellite, because I had Cable and DSL already here... Well I had the plan which was about $80/month (way too much for trash) and had a 24 hour limit of 375MB, and I have the HN7000S modem.
Let me say that if you really complain about your internet connection being slow or something, please, there is worse. At its very best, I get a 1.01Mbps Download/0.15Mbps Upload speed with a ping of almost 900. Takes about 12 seconds to fully load this site's home page. Online gaming sucks, it's horrible, you can even call it respulsive using Satellite. In shooter games like Halo, I would warp around the map, and if it wasn't that, people would kick/ban me for 'lagging' the server. In the Xbox 360 game Halo 3, I can't even do matchmaking; I'd be lucky to even be able to sign into Xbox Live.
Really, I sometimes find Dial-up more reliable than this. If I downloaded a file over 375MB in a whole day (not during their Happy Hour--2am to 7am) I would get throttled down for 24 hours with a top download speed of 1.75KB/sec. Now at it's best download/upload speed with no limits, which is called Happy Hour, my very best download speed would be 121KB/sec which I find somewhat slow. During a rainstorm, I would not have a connection at all to the internet, but if I do, it would be very slow. If I had a little ice or snow on the Satellite dish, no connection at all.
Found Verizon DSL and I already purcahsed it. I have the 1.5Mbps Download/384Kbps Upload plan for $19.99/Month (way under 50% of what I was paying for, while getting better connection). They already sent me the Wireless Router Modem (Westell model 7500) which was free becuase I purchased online, and my service will be activated 12/1/09. On that day, as soon as I find a connection to the internet with the DSL, and all computers are connected to it; I am trashing HughesNet.
If you have no internet connection around your area except Dial-up (which I find more reliable at times, using Hughes, in my opinion), try satellite, but if you do have something else, stay with what you got or switch to something not satellite.
[I will most likely be writing a review of my plan of Verizon DSL after month or two of using it]
Goodbye Hughes.
P.S. Will not miss you, and I will probably celebrating when you are gone and replaced by Verizon DSL.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of HughesNet Satellite Broadband |
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Review by Rockin4D
UPDATED: 11 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 122 visits, last login: 2 days 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
| 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: 11 days ago
member for 3.2 years, 146 visits, last login: 11 days 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: 15 days ago
member for 29 days, 37 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: 28 days ago
member for 1.9 years, 537 visits, last login: 1 days 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: 31 days ago
member for 4 years, 253 visits, last login: a few hours 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: 33 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: 47 days ago
member for 162 days, 5 visits, last login: 35 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: 47 days ago
member for 60 days, 25 visits, last login: 3 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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