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Review by Glynn See Profile

  • Location: Inez, Victoria, TX, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

My husband and I signed up for Hughes Net internet service about 3 months ago. They advertise "Always On, Always Connected." This is FALSE. They say you will have a constant internet connection wherever you live. This is NOT the case. We have had a terrible connection ever since we signed up for service. We are constantly getting kicked off the internet when searching online and we cannot stream videos or watch Netflix. We currently are spending about $70 a month for this service. A service that does not work! Our contract says that we are supposed to be getting 5 MPS. We are currently averaging about 1.5 -2 MPS. This is not a high enough speed to download videos or to do anything we were wanting to use the internet for. A few days ago I called to file a complaint. I was directed to tech support to see if they could figure out what the problem was. The tech representative ran several test and concluded that it had nothing to do with our router. She asked me to plug our laptop directly into the Hughes Net modem to test the download speed. If we are plugged directly into the modem, we can stream videos. Obviously, we should be able to stream videos from anywhere in the home and not have to be constantly be plugged into the modem...hence "WIFI." The tech representative recommended that we might want to try moving the modem to a more centralized location in our home. So, we had a technician come out and do so. They charged us $125 to move the modem. Even after the modem was moved, we still had a bad connection. So, we basically just threw $125 in the trash. So, I called customer service once again and spoke to a supervisor about canceling our contract because they were unable to resolve our connection problems. This supervisor, Mario, said that he could cancel but that we would be charged $385 for the remaining 20 months left on our contract. What?? Why would I continue to pay for a service that doesn't work and doesn't provide the connection speeds that was promised in our contract. We ran a diagnostic test on several different websites and they all came back as 2.0 MPS. Not 5 MPS as stated in our contract. The Hughes Net supervisor said that he wanted to run a speed test through the Hughes Net site. If the results came up below 50% of the 5 MBS then he could help me possibly get out of our contract. Again, he asked me to plug the laptop directly into the modem so that he could run the test. Miraculously when he ran the diagnostic test through the Hughes Net site, it had an average of 4 MBS. It was way higher than all of the other sites we used. What a scam. So, since the test said that we were getting above 50%, they could not cancel our contract. This is ridiculous. The only way our internet works well is if our device is pugged directly into the modem. Now, we are stuck in a 2 year contact for a terrible internet service! Do not sign up with this company! False, advertising, terrible customer service and horrible internet service!

member for 8.6 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 8.6 years ago


fotch
@myvzw.com

fotch

Anon

research first not afterwards

everything I ever read about satellite internet indicated the service to be total crap. I would try to get the FCC or a local congress person to help. Good luck.

Tamara
@direcpc.com

Tamara

Anon

Re: research first not afterwards

I cannot even get internet without connecting to our box. I complained and they gave me an extra 30 days to try the service without a contract fee. I was repeatedly lied to and told I was getting an upgrade (twice) when I wasn't. They also moved our dish twice and left both poles concreted in my yard. When your dish was installed did you sign a waiver saying you were not at 100%? They told us you had to be at 100% or sign a waiver or they couldn't install it. I do not believe my dish is at 100% and they kept blaming it on my computer. Well we have three computers and two smart phones, so they all cannot have something wrong with them. This has been a terrible ordeal!! I pray you find a way out of your contract.

Fred H
@centurytel.net

Fred H

Anon

Hughesnet

Boy, am I glad I researched first. I'll stick with my current IP or look elsewhere!
Thanks to everyone who wrote a review and exchanged information.

Alan L
@comcast.net

Alan L

Anon

Re: Hughesnet

I am also very glad I found these experiences. Also I thought I was paying a bit to much for my internet and phone service but Hughesnet prices are 'not' better than what I pay now and I never have problems that I can't resolve myself. My service is fast and reliable. I won't be changing. Also I concur with the person that suggested contacting a senator or congressman about the problems they are having. The more that do this the better chance you have of getting real help.. POST on every web site you can find as well.

javiern
@rr.com

javiern

Anon

Hughesnet wifi problem

Have you tried the speedtest on this site? if you are still getting 1.5-2mbps on wifi, but you are getting close to 4 mbps on Ethernet, then its the modem. My friend who lives out in the mountains was having the same problem as you were.

There is some truth that having the modem/WIFI box in the center of the room will give you better reception. But normally the ISP provided WIFI access point/modems don't work as advertised. I suggest that you go to your local big box store and buy a good wifi access point to connect to your current HughesNet modem. The WIFI access points that you buy are better built for the task than a modem with wifi built in. If your speed still does not improve with a separate WIFI access point, then the problem is your home.

One thing that you need to realize is that WIFI signals do not penetrate walls well. And all Wi-Fi signals suffer from attenuation. A 5ghz(2.3 inch wave) signal does a poorer job penetrating a wall than a 2.4 GHZ(4.9 inch wave) connection. So the further away you are from the Wi-Fi access point, the poorer your signal and speed is going to be. This gets exacerbated with thick walls since Wi-Fi access points pretty much all operate on less than 1/2 watt of power. This is why I am recommending a separate WIFI access point to connect to your modem because of low power limitations. The one thing I noticed with wifi+modem boxes is that they have a really bad internal antenna. The Antennas tend to be smaller than what is needed. They normally are either a poorly printed antenna in plastic or a poorly made Inverted-F Patch Antenna which have lower gain in general.

I personally prefer external antennas for consumer wifi equipment because they have better signal gain, thus faster connection speeds. Also, if the wifi speeds outside the room where the wifi box is located is lower than the wifi speed you get in the room where the box is located, then I may also suggest that you also look into powerline wireless extenders. With thick walls, they are sometimes needed to have a reliable wifi connection in a house. I still think its the poorly made wifi+modem box though.

c0rr0sive88
@direcway.com

c0rr0sive88

Anon

@Glynn

You stated that the laptop streams video when connected directly to the Hughesnet modem. This means that something on your side of the service is at fault if when your router is connected streaming becomes difficult.

The Hughesnet Contract does NOT state that speeds are a consistent 5Mbps, it states that speeds are UPTO 5Mbps. You can review your contract and other details at the links below.

Hughesnet Fair Access Policy: »legal.hughesnet.com/Fair ··· Gen4.cfm
Residential Subscriber Agreement: »legal.hughesnet.com/SubA ··· 1-15.cfm
Hughesnet Service Terms and Conditions: »legal.hughesnet.com/Serv ··· rent.cfm

As with ANY Internet Service Provider, or utilities such as water, electric, and gas, the company provides service only to the meter, after that, if the service is usable, then they are in the right. Hughesnet service requirements stop at the LAN port on the back of the HN9000, HT1000, and HT1100. With your router being the likely culprit, you are on your own, and may want to seek assistance from a technical community.

Review by Zetsuei See Profile

  • Location: Pelham, Caswell, NC, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
none.
forced into 2 year contracts, terrible data cap/ping and expensive
only get it if there is NOTHING else and even then beware.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

Currently paying $100+(it varies since sometimes we're forced into buying more data) for 2.5MB/s. Usual speeds range in the 400-700kb/s and its extremely rare to get it go into the 2MB range. 15GB during day time hours(8 a.m - 2 a.m) and 20 GB during night time hours (2 a.m - 8 a.m). Ping ranges from 700-1500 which is to be expected from satellite internet. Any sign of clouds or rain and it will go out almost like clockwork. The only decent thing about it is its reliable(usually). But then again, is having a tiny data cap and dsl speeds something you want to be reliable? If you have a choice for wired internet go for it. Never sell your soul to the devil that is satellite internet unless you know you won't get anything else for 2 years.

member for 8.6 years, 151 visits, last login: 7.9 years ago
lodged 8.6 years ago


Review by rwhitley823 See Profile

  • Location: Suffolk, Suffolk City, VA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
install and good connection so far so good
day 1 is good lets hope my experience is better than others.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

so far all is well.. install was scheduled for Monday, got a call guy could come Sunday.. so installed and went well... up and running no issues. have it connected to directv and computer for now. have to the a wireless router in the morning... have tested Netflix and on-demand worked well... speed test showed 18 down 1.5 up ping is high but that's sat.

will provide more later

went for the 50 GB 79.99 with 50 GB bonus

member for 12.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 8.6 years ago
lodged 8.6 years ago


Review by elstonizer See Profile

  • Location: Milford, Pike, PA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Connection reliability:

I am using HN9000 Hughes system. Have had it for years. resisting the upgrade to Gen 4, not sure if the upgrade will be better.
These last few months, it seems that a few times a week I am unable to open at least half of the web sites that I normally open. This sometimes goes on for days before all the sites work again.....
These include , gmail, facebook, banking, even google will open but after a search, I get results, but when I click on one it says website not available.......... SUCKS !
I can still get on ebay and msn ......
Anyone else have this problem ?
Is it Hughes making it so I will upgrade ???

Are there any wireless systems that at least compare to the amount of bandwidth you get from a satellite provider ?

Any tips ?

My system checked out fine when a serviceman checked out my system.... everything was fine , except when he left it started all over again.........
Help !

member for 8.6 years, 3 visits, last login: 8.5 years ago
updated 8.6 years ago

elstonizer
join:2015-08-06
United State

elstonizer

Member

Half the time, only half of my normal websites will work

I am using HN9000 Hughes system. Have had it for years. resisting the upgrade to Gen 4, not sure if the upgrade will be better.
These last few months, it seems that a few times a week I am unable to open at least half of the web sites that I normally open. This sometimes goes on for days before all the sites work again.....
These include , gmail, facebook, banking, even google will open but after a search, I get results, but when I click on one it says website not available.......... SUCKS !
I can still get on ebay and msn ......
Anyone else have this problem ?
Is it Hughes making it so I will upgrade ???

Are there any wireless systems that at least compare to the amount of bandwidth you get from a satellite provider ?

Any tips ?

My system checked out fine when a serviceman checked out my system.... everything was fine , except when he left it started all over again.........
Help !

pjsutton
join:2013-06-25
Kempton, PA

pjsutton

Member

Re: Half the time, only half of my normal websites will work

You are in PA - can you not yet get DSL?

tim_k
Buttons, Bows, Beamer, Shadow, Kasey
Premium Member
join:2002-02-02
Stewartstown, PA

tim_k

Premium Member

internet

I still can't get DSL, when plugging in my address it still shows LTE for my internet option. I'll be surprised if DSL became an option before the end of the year, there must be some loophole allowing them to offer wireless internet options instead.

Maybe there's an issue with the DNS server, try a free one like OpenDNS or the Google DNS server.

Review by nelsonaf9 See Profile

  • Location: Rimrock, Yavapai, AZ, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Wow I shoud have done my homework before signing :(
Worlds Biggest Rippoff
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

I should have checked the reviews first. HUGE Ripoff. They want to charge $400 for breaking contract when services were never correctly provided in the first place. After spending hours on the phone with 5 different people who don't sound like they even speak English, they finally got a 5 min window when I got download speeds of 13Mbps - close to what I paid for (15Mbps). Only problem is, they can't keep it that way. Talking to a local rep when I tried to cancel, he says they have "peak times" they cannot guarantee speeds. That happens to be all but a 5-10 minute window in the afternoons? Tests show average downloads speeds of 1Mbps. That is supposedly acceptable? NOT! Here we go BBB complaint being filed. I want my money back and they can keep their crap. BTW they get your debit/credit card info and start making random charges whenever they feel like it. I've had to do VISA charge backs. How they can stay in business is beyond me. Must be plenty of small town suckers like myself that don't research ahead of time.

member for 8.7 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 8.7 years ago


compuguybna
join:2009-06-17
Nashville, TN

compuguybna

Member

Write these. Office of the President

bbbdc@hughes.net (Handles BBB complaints) or

(ECC) executivecustomercare@hughes.net or

william.smouse@hns.com (my last contact)

Review by JMSEIL See Profile

  • Location: Carrington, Foster, ND, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
unreliable
do not switch!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

If you are considering a switch DO NOT DO IT! The satellite service is unreliable. We cannot stream YouTube or Netflix. The basic service, just to get to a website, is slow. When our Internet went out entirely, a repair could be scheduled for SIX DAYS later. But wait, for only $30 they would come out in two days, then the repair person called and said he couldn't come in two days, but he would come in four days for $30. Safe yourself the trouble and don't choose HughesNet for Internet service.

member for 8.8 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 8.8 years ago


keyboard5684
Sam
join:2001-08-01
Pittsburgh, PA

keyboard5684

Member

Research

It always amazes me to see people give bad reviews on satellite internet services like they were surprised. Nobody buys satellite internet service unless they have no other choice or do poor research on the services.

If you have any alternative, cellular for example, then you go with that.
Satellite service is expensive to provide and complicated to maintain.
Even bgan or other similar services, which cost thousands, are not close to a land line type of service.

And regarding your time to repair: you can't just have anybody come out and work on it. There are regulation on transmitting signals through air space and other regulations. Besides the precision of the repair, which is kind of important.

Thanks for stopping by on dslreports to drop a bad review in hopes to somehow worsen the services reputation, but it is simply not necessary. Join, stick around and provide more to the community.
xQim
join:2003-09-20
01234

xQim

Member

Hughesnet is Awful

Sorry for your terrible service, but one should expect such service with satellite. Even with a clear view and good signal, speeds are absolutely abysmal. The last test I did was 698ms (which isn't to bad) 129Kbps/654Kbps. I do not live with her, but my mother isn't very tech savvy at all so she had no idea how awful it is. There is a 10G monthly allowance with a sweet FAP. Every video buffers. I did a speed test on my $10 Net10 3G phone at her location and the results were: Ping:136ms 1.43Mbps/0.846Mbps. This was with two bars of reception. The service does have a 1G cap which after exceeding is throttled to 128Kbps. However, the latency is considerably less which makes webpages much more responsive. I know there is better cellular service out there but I presume you don't get a signal. Satellite is a last or never option. I'd pay for ISDN or even bonded 56K V.92 service before satellite. My random opinion that probably has no merit.

compuguybna
join:2009-06-17
Nashville, TN

compuguybna

Member

Office of the President Contacts

Write these addresses, they go to the office of the president.

bbbdc@hughes.net (Handles BBB complaints) or

(ECC) executivecustomercare@hughes.net or

william.smouse@hns.com (my last contact)

Review by ncone1952 See Profile

  • Location: Wallace, Duplin, NC, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Solid connection
none so far
better than dialup
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

My Other Reviews

·T-Mobile
I am listening right now to streaming audio. No buffer pauses.

I am on the home plan $59.99

The only time I have had any Sat work done that the installer was in my driveway without calling and was on time. Good grounding and stable speeds generally 400/125.

HN7000S dynamic IP

I have not had a reason to call Tech Support.

I had Cell data plans, first a 3g usb modem, then 3g smart phone, lost it, then 4g Nexuxx , then found 3g phone, my wife now using it as a phone and camera.

This morning I had a gen 4 system installed. The installer did a neat job, The signal strength was 113 with moderate clouds Except latency(I knew and accept). It worked hooked directly to the modem. Found my cradlepoint router had failed. Just installed a Linksys 2500 and smooth sailing now.

I will post a speedcheck after a month

member for 17.8 years, 4772 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 8.8 years ago

BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI

BigVe

Member

Which one...

are you rating here? Can't see it being Hughes with that high rating.If Alltel then you should post a new review for them and not up the rating on Hughes
ncone1952
Premium Member
join:2006-06-08
Wallace, NC

ncone1952

Premium Member

Re: Which one...

I finally found out how to do that. Thanks for the heads up.
CMoore2004
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI

CMoore2004 to BigVe

Premium Member

to BigVe
LMAO... I just happened to see a 4+ score while browsing the HughesNet forum and had to look myself. Now I see it was by mistake.

Review by Rockin4D See Profile

  • Location: Beggs, Okmulgee, OK, USA
  • Cost 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:

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.

December 13th 2009.
At the neighbors again trying to use hughesnet.
I must say. No improvements. The service quality and quantity is
a mere fraction of what is was in 2006 with a commercial account i had.
Even now it doesn't matter what service plan your on. Its horrific.
Good dialup is far better but AT&T and others have made changes in the phone
lines to make that impossible even now. Dialup hasn't worked here since 2003.
When i say not worked i mean modems do not connect anymore period. I'm not the
only one who has noticed this. Its almost seems that the powers that be
want us rural customers crammed into shiddy satellite services who suck our money
into they're coffers and leave us with garbage. Just read an article today
that we rural customers can expect NO relief from the stimulus plan.
Small hope though. the 48 foot radio tower i bought will be installed soon and i'll be able to clear my forest high enough to intercept a wireless signal from onalot.com *fingers crossed*
Again i say: Hughesnet I hate you with all my heart and soul and i hope a solar event
destroys all your satellites and that worthless CEO gets busted for some kind of fraud and spends the next 50 years in jail. Would be a fitting end to Hughesnet and Wildblue deserves the same. Have a not so Merry Christmas because it appears the Anti-Clause has taken my internet away years ago.

Rot in HELL Hughesnet.

Bump to the front.
I say again Rot in HELL Hughesnet.
Finally sucking it up this week and have ordered two phone lines again and a dual dialup router from 3Com. Failing that I'm seriously considering since i can't even sell my house
just letting it go into forclosure and move the hell out.
I'm so sick of this. Once the Dialup modems and router is online (if it can even connect via dialup) I'll be doing an AT&T review on dialup.

Rot in hell Hughesnet.

Just wanted to BUMP this again i have gotten on neighbors hughes system
and its still a worthless salad bowl of a satellite service.
AGAIN ROT IN HELL HUGHESNET 10/20/10

just wanted to bump this.
live in rural nebraska now and have wireless service. (works much better)
pretty sure hughesnet is still a craphole provider from the reviews i've been reading
and this detailed hate fill rant of a story deserves to be read again in 2015 to
serve as a warning to those even considering hughesnet as a provider.
Between all the upload throttling/blocking and packet hijacking its better to have
no internet at all than this vile putrid service.

member for 16.4 years, 317 visits, last login: 7.8 years ago
updated 8.9 years ago

jwko
join:2007-04-02
Cecil, AR

jwko

Member

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

4 edits

lrymal

Member

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

Odin M

Anon

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

yolarry

Member

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.
Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

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

Rockin4D

Member

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

Schivelrybrn

Member

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
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

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

Rockin4D

Member

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

Schivelrybrn

Member

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
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

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

Rockin4D

Member

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

Anon

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
Waterford, VA

Luminaris

Member

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

dns

Anon

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
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

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
@96.14.181.x

Erothoff

Anon

Notes from an installer

Rockin4D,
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
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

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

Guest

Anon

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

oscarwilde1

Member

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

Anony_mouse

Anon

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.
Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

Re: Now that you've mentioned it...

Accell forgot to notify me that I couldn't be served due to the fact I 'm not in the coverage area. (just barely outside of it) took em like two weeks to let me know but that is because I had to call them myself :/

The only option left now is a T1. a broker got me a rate of about 326 a month.
I cannot afford it obviously. I did visit my neighbors house a few days ago and used they're hughesnet connection seems even more laggy nowadays. Must have gotten their millionth customer signed up now

My options at this point are
#1 Move and sell the house
#2 get a roomate which would help me afford such a monstrosity of cost
#3 Freeze myself for 500 years and by then dial up internet might actually work again in the area or dare I say it (dsl?)

I'm sure at any rate by the time I get internet I can stomach and actually like
the golden years of the net will have passed and you wont be able to do crap
on it anymore.

All for now
oscarwilde1
join:2008-10-08

2 edits

oscarwilde1

Member

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
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

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

oscarwilde1

Member

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

Anony_mouse to Rockin4D

Anon

to Rockin4D
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
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

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

Rockin4D to Anony_mouse

Member

to Anony_mouse
I called accell after two weeks of hearing nothing from anyone.

Another dead end.

zalternate
join:2007-02-22
freedom land

1 edit

zalternate

Member

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 ··· nst.html

EDIT: just saw on the main page that a new lawsuit has been filed...
»www.wired.com/epicenter/ ··· 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,

nazhog
@aol.com

nazhog

Anon

onalot

dont go with this service from hdr it sucks been down 8 days of dec. thay have no support service . thay do call if your payment wont clear within 10 mins. but wont return calls for service outage..onalot sucks too
Rockin4D
join:2007-10-11
Louisville, NE

Rockin4D

Member

Re: onalot

is there any other reviews on the company. it appears that it is the only
one that can provide any sort of semblence of broadband. i was looking at a dedicated account for 200 a month because i allready know that all wireless companies basic accounts suck very badly. As soon as i can get one last loan paid off i'm going to get a T1. If you can give me any more heads up on onalot please reply. thank you.
mdrejhon
join:2004-02-02
Hamilton, ON

4 edits

mdrejhon

Member

Cellphone Internet

Hello,

You might want to check if ANY carrier (Verizon, TMobile, AT&T, etc) provide ANY reception at all in your area. Even if just ONE BAR of reception AT THE TOP OF YOUR TV TOWER ABOVE THE ROOF...

Even old fashioned 2G service such as EDGE and 1x is vastly faster and superior to Hughesnet and dual diakup, using an "Internet Stick".

You can even use an antenna at the top of your house to get cellphone service necessary for Internet. That way you can get BEYOND the coverage maps of your cellphone company.

2G About 100-240 kilobits/sec with ~200-300ms ping:
- Verizon 1x
- Sprint 1x
- AT&T EDGE
- T-Mobile EDGE

3G About 400-3000+ kilobits/sec with ~100-200ms ping
- Verizon EVDO
- Sprint EVDO
- T-Mobile 3G
- AT&T 3G

You can also plug a SIM card into a router such as a CradlePoint (which also has Ethernet jacks) or MiFi, and get your Internet that way. But if you're like 5 to 10 miles outside cellphone coverge, try standing on the top of your roof with several brands of borrowed 3G cellphones high up in the air, see if you get a bar or two. If so, good news -- time to invest in equipment such as TV tower pole, antenna wire, high-gain cell antenna, SIM-card router (i.e. CradlePoint MBR1200, or anything with an external cell antenna connector), an unlimited or 5GB plan with one of the carriers, etc...

Or Poor Man's Setup: Even an ordinary 3G USB "Turbo Stick" or "3G Stick" or "Internet Stick" might even work on your roof, if you use a USB 'active' extension cable (daisychained active cables can go up to 75 feet in 15 feet increments... make sure you use a weather enclosure and only buy the 'active' or 'buffered' cables to bypass the 15-feet limit of USB). Buy 4 or 5 of these cables from eBay for $5 each, daisy chain them together, get a turbo 3G stick for less than $100 off eBay, wrap the connectors and stick in weatherproof material (or use well-sealed PVC piping), wire the whole kit up to the top of your existing TV tower pole, and viola... 3G Internet Stick service a few miles outside the outer edges of your cell carrier's coverage diagram... Even test with a Pay-As-You-Go for one month (carriers are finally starting to offer one month of prepaid data at a time)

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

1 edit

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: Cellphone Internet

Not to bring up a dead thread (the previous poster already did that), but..

Find an old Laptop or a CradlePoint, build a directional antenna, aim the antenna at the closest tower.

..or you could also build yourself a Soekris box (weather-proof enclosure), install Linux on it (1-2GB CF Card), and install a 3G card in the CardBus slot. Then put the box up the tower along with a directional antenna.. Then feed ethernet cable from the house router to the Soekris box (can be PoE if you want to).

..or you could use an old laptop with a pair of CardBus ports and/or a USB port and do the above. I'd suggest replacing the HDD with a CF card (the adapters are cheap).

EDIT: One idea for a directional antenna, a slightly modified DirecTV Dish.

nalt
@qwest.net

nalt to mdrejhon

Anon

to mdrejhon
I'm about to move to a broadband black hole, but I'm pretty sure I can get 3G from my cell carrier there. Good to hear that may be a viable option. I wonder if I can get clear 4G if I put a tall enough antenna up. Anyone know how their equipment works? Should I just go for 3g? I don't game, (except my wife and her damn zynga games - now I know how women feel when they complain about us gaming).
wirelessdog
join:2008-07-15
Queen Anne, MD

wirelessdog

Member

Stop bumping.

You have nothing new to add. Let this go.

Review by Scooberto See Profile

  • Location: Charlotte, Mecklenburg, NC, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:

Hughesnet is a TOTAL JOKE. They should be sued for false advertisement. The connection is sporadic and slow as Christmas. The customer service is a joke as well. They say the Internet speed was slow because we exceeded data allowance. So why was is slow on the first day of the new billing cycle? Then they say it's my fault for not letting them know they SUCK. Now I'm to pay 236.oo early termination fee.

member for 9.1 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 9.1 years ago


Starr80
@charter.com

Starr80

Anon

Hughes net fraud do not buy

I agree with the comments made except they are not strong enough! When you talk to the Philippine's (and you will) you will wait for long periods and get someone with a tenuous grasp of English who will transfer you to "management" then you will be disconnected to start the process all over again these people are crooks you can sue them in your area by contacting there corporate registered agent in your state,call the state licensing office for that info, its usually an attorney office, sue in small claims and they will loose because there rep will not show up,you win and can use your state rules to hound Hughes net.

Review by daylily20 See Profile

  • Location: Providence Forge, New Kent, VA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
contract cost $59.99 a month
Pre Sales information:
Value for money:

I live in Providence Forge, Virginia 23140. I have had Wild Blue by Via Sat for 5 years and have been robbed by them the whole time and want to change. So I called Hughes net on Friday January 16, 2015 and told them what I have looked at on their site and that I had already put in my physical address and zip code and I qualified for a three month discount on the package we discussed.

The sales person immediately asked for my zip code and physical address, and came up with "Sir, I am sorry but because of the high concentration in your area we do not offer a discount." My nearest neighbor is over 200 yards away from my house and the next closest neighbor is a half a mile. This is a clear use of BAIT AND SWITCH. We then tell him ok that is not important and we agree on a plan and compute an initial cost for installation and start up with us purchasing the equiptment for $299.98 and a plan for $59.99 with a total cost of $359.97. After coming up with this figure I ask if he agrees with this total cost on which he acknowledges " Yes $359.97 is the total set up cost." Then he gives us a confirmation number 7986479 and informs us that installation has been set up for Tuesday January 20, 2015 from 1 to 5 PM. I then tell him that I would appreciate him E-mailing me the information on what we had agreed on. We feel we are going to finally find a decent internet service provider.

The next morning my wife calls our bank to go over our billing and is shocked to find that the charge from HUGHES NET is not $359.97 but $459.97.She informs them that this is an incorrect amount and she will call back.

Hughes net shows no state or city address, but it does give phone business hours as eastern standard time and with those phone numbers, we then have an hour to wait for them to open. My wife and I have made up our minds that with this sloppy initial business error we cannot see Hughes net being any better than Wild Blue net so we decided to cancel the contract. The call is placed and we select cancellation, and then wait for approximately two minutes for someone to come on the line who ask for our last name and first name which I give to them after which I also say I'm in Virginia, where are you and I'm told I'm in the PHILIPPINES. We are given a confirmation number and give her our E-mail and hang up. Now we wait for our account to show a credit from Hughes Net.

member for 9.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 9.1 years ago
updated 9.1 years ago


garyburk
@direcpc.com

garyburk

Anon

Hughesnet Satellite

Satellite connectivity or dial-up are the only option on our Colorado mountain. Hughesnet commercial usually works and with slow to modest speeds. I average 7 Mb/s down and 0.3 Mb/s up. It's quite expensive for my 50GB daytime + 10GB anytime plan plus more for guaranteed one day service.
The customer service via phone is dreadful to work with, being tedious, slow, always with a long wait, and frequently supplying the wrong info from a language challenged representative. However, with patience and persistence, it usually does get the issue resolved. Just expect several frustrating hours of getting transferred to different Reps who then ask for the same info you've tediously supplied to the previous Rep. After 3 or 4 different Reps, the problem is usually resolved.