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 Review by zvolts 
UPDATED: 71 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 671 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Mikado,Alcona,MI
 Contract price not specified.
 "It's faster than dial up"
 "Expensive, Installer didn't properly ground the equipment"
 "It's the only high speed choice I had"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
HN9000 - KA band service
Moved into upper Michigan a year ago and quickly found I had no traditional broadband Internet options. My house is surrounded by ridges and tall trees so EVDO isn't an option, either. I read many reviews of the satellite providers and primarily based on those reviews decided to stay away from satellite. For the last year I've been poking along on dial up, and I must say...... dial up absolutely sucks! Yeah, I know.. big surprise. So over the last year I've been talking to folks in my area and found that most of those with satellite Internet service were, by and large, pretty happy with their service. I checked with WildBlue and for whatever reason they don't do installs in this area. Next stop was Hughesnet. Decided on the Pro package and with some trepidation eventually clicked on the "submit order" button. I figure that if things go south on me I'll take them up on their 30-day money back guarantee. With free installation I won't be out much.
The very next day (Thursday) I received a call from the designated installer to arrange for the install. The next available slot was the upcoming Saturday, with the standard between 1:00pm - 4:00pm deal. The installer arrived at about 3:00pm Saturday and did what appears so far to be an adequate job of it. He mounted the dish on the roof in an area that has good access to the southern sky and will be easy to get at for any future servicing needs. The installer took about an hour and a half to complete the install with no major glitches. He was helpful and courteous.
Edit: Installer didn't ground anything. If you're having a Hughesnet system installed, do yourself a favor and do a bit of research about how the system (dish, cable and modem) is supposed to be grounded. Then make sure the installer does it right.
The first thing I did was a speed test, which I've done several times this weekend (it's now Sunday). Best case scenario with my plan is 1.2/200. I've been consistently getting 900/200. The latency isn't as bad as I thought it would be (about 1 second – 1000ms). All in all not too bad for a weekend.
It's too early to comment on some of the other review criteria, but I'll post an update after 30 days or so.
Update:
I'm mostly a happy camper, as far as the service goes. After reading so many of these reviews, I guess I'm the exception in that view. I think the key may be having realistic expectations of the service. I did research on the service way before I signed up. I expected a high latency, capped (FAP), relatively expensive service where connection speeds would vary depending on weather and many other factors. Not surprisingly, thats what I got and I'm fine with that. After living with dial-up for a year I'm just glad to have an alternative.
I did speed tests throughout the month and they were all over the place, but never anywhere as slow as dial-up. The connection has been solid. I lost Internet access for about an hour 1 day (tests showed I could communicate with the satellite, just couldn't get to the Internet). We've had 3 solid days of overcast skies and rain and surprisingly I've had a decent connection the whole time. I was worried how susceptible the connect was to storms. So far, so good.
I have no need for their email services, so I haven't used them. I haven't had to deal with tech support, so no informed opinion there.
Bottom line: My 30-day trial is about up and I'm sticking with it.
Followup comments:  
Opticwonders
Premium
join:2009-03-31
united state | Dont forget about the cap! You are aware of the monthly limit, right? | |
| |
zvolts
Premium
join:2005-02-04
Mikado, MI | Re: Dont forget about the cap! Yes. Not thrilled about it, but my daily FAP limit is greater than by dial up downstream total for the whole month of March, according to my firewall stats. | |
| zalternate
join:2007-02-22
BC
 ·TELUS
| KA versus KU reviews You probably have the newer KA band service via the Spaceway3 satellite. A lot of the ,shall we say, 'negative' reviews here are mainly for the KU band service. Would be nice if the users could post their service platform in their reviews.
There have been some glitches with the KA band service but people are more happy with it. Even though they would be more happy with wireline or a good ground based wireless Internet platform.
And WildBlue's beams are probably sold out if you can not get a install from them.
--
Consumer Rights is more than just a suggestion. | |
| |
zvolts
Premium
join:2005-02-04
Mikado, MI | Re: KA versus KU reviews Yes indeed, I am on the KA band service (HN9000).
Good suggestion about including the type of service in reviews. I've updated mine accordingly. | |
| 
Hello88
@direcway.com
| Hughes HN9000 - Elite Plan I have been a Hughes.net subscriber for about 3 years. I was on the Pro Plus Plan and got inconsistent speeds....sometimes very slow during peak hours. But, this is the only option I have- - other than dial up. My service was almost always up and running, however. Very few interruptions.
One month ago I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to the HN9000 router and to the Elite plan. Yes the price tag is steep at $119 per month. But, my speeds are much, much better (even during peak hours) and more consistent. I am on a new satellite now and am getting 2100 kbps mps and uploads of 300 kbps consistently. Latency is less than 1 sec. I'm much happier and pleased and finally feel like I'm getting what I'm paying for. | |
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Review by Willow
Posted: 73 days ago
member for 73 days, 0 visits, last login: 73 days ago
Churubusco,Whitley,IN
Contract price not specified.
"Does not tie up phone lines."
"Lots of down time, slow alot of time (like tonight- slower than ny old dial-up), FAP"
"Not worth the money."
| |
I decided to go completely digital. I ditched my landline phone as cell was cheaper and decided to change to broadband. Only thing available a few years ago was Hughes Satellite in my rural area....so paid part up front and spread the rest of it out over time via higher monthly bills. The installation went well.
Though at times the speed can be pretty good, I would say over 50% of the time now it is slow. I have to refresh pages as I get page not found errors or server not available often. I wait over a min most times for a page to load. Its not my computer- my new one runs the same speed online as my 4 yr old one did. Online checks at speedtest.com confirms that it is slow. FAP (fair access policy)...since I am not willing to pay more than I already do ($60/mo) I seem to get into FAP land about once a month due to downloads of upgrades on 2 different computers. Someone hacked into my connection and put me into FAP- and I could not report work on time as I do it online. Other times have been unable to print out my work (also done online)...costs me money. But if you call they don't care...it is computer run and the foreigners you can barely understand just try to upsell you to a higher plan. Yes, I have tried setting up upgrades to download during "free time"- 2am to 7 am...but if the computer is off, then it doesn't happen. I am currently looking into a different provider as I hear that wildblue and possibly a couple others are in the market now. I would not recommend this to anyone unless they have no alternative. Many times I have thought about going back to dial up.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of HughesNet Satellite Broadband |
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Review by kenno1
UPDATED: 73 days ago
member for 73 days, 1 visits, last login: 72 days ago
Forest Ranch,Butte,CA
Contract price not specified.
"None"
"Speed variability, Tech Support"
"Only have two choices, Hughes is terrible"
| |
Have had basic package for some time and rarely got the stated speeds. Recently got worse and upgraded twice. Each time the speeds got slower until I was at dial-up speed. I did get 950 mbps for 24 hours right after I upgraded. Tech support said sorry, it is due to traffic. Pay $79.95 a month and get 300 mbps speed. Not a very good value. They blamed my computer and my router. I spent $200.00 to prove it wasn't. Then they said traffic. Have filled a complaint with FCC.
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Review by ryvtta
UPDATED: 75 days ago
member for 75 days, 0 visits, last login: 75 days ago
23966-2123
Contract price not specified.
"There are no good points"
"The advertisement of fast speed completely false. Cost unreasonable"
"Since I work at home, I have no choice in the matter there's no other option where I live"
| |
I have the HNS7000 series. The cost $99.99 per month. It's supposed to provider me with the most bandwith short of going to commercial product. I'm not a small business but I work out of my home and I have to have this service in order to work. I've spent the past 2 1/2 years checking, hoping even praying that other high-speed options would be available out in the area I live. The state I live in, Virginia, had been working on making broadband available statewide. This study has been going on for the past 4 years and I'm still waiting.
Hughesnet download/upload speed is so slow that I'm hampered from doing my job. Documents or web-sites I often cannot get because I time out before the download completes. At least once a month, I lose my signal completely but since my service warrenty has now expired when I call them I'm offered nothing more than a service call. That's $125 just for the call if the Tech determines that the problem is not due to Hughesnet then whatever the cost to repair will be my responsibility. You would think that for $100 bucks a month service would be better than that. This company could care less about what their customers needs are. In fact, I've filed a complaint against them and just sent another complaint to the FCC on them. As soon as I find another high-speed provider, I'll be telling Hughesnet to retrieve their junk off of my property.
Followup comments: jameswade
join:2001-12-09
Hot Springs, NC
 ·US Cellular
·Verizon BroadbandA..
·AT&T Southeast
| Have you considered a cellular data card? You may have already checked on this - do you have Verizon, US Cellular, or Sprint coverage in your area you may be able to use a data card.
We were using a Verizon data card, but their coverage in this area was terrible even with a high gain cell antenna on the roof and a 3 watt amplifier.
Now we're now using a US Cellular data card. It's about $58 per month including taxes, surcharges, fees, etc. We get 1.2 Mbps down, 667 kbps up, and latency of about 33 msec.
The biggest downside is the 5 GByte per month cap, but we haven't been hitting that with two PCs doing heavy web browsing and Windows updates. We don't do very much streaming audio or video though.
This has been a pretty good alternative for us and new cell sites are going up all of the time. | |
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Review by fike301
UPDATED: 79 days ago
member for 79 days, 22 visits, last login: 62 days ago
Friendsville,Garrett,MD
Contract price not specified.
"service is on almost always, even if its slow."
"FAP, pings 700-3000ms, tech support is a joke, seems many installs are not done correctly"
"Even if everthing is working full speed, still must work around FAP (2am-7am) for movies etc.."
| |
When I first got HughesNet (then Direcway) Wild Blue was not up yet,
My current package DW7000S pro plan advertised to be 1000/200kbps currently 1000/30kbps....level 4 tech support claims nothing wrong. Many times peak hour speeds are 150/30kbps....cute for $70/month not to mention FAP and high ping times, its not real broadband.
Install was not bad, however grounding was not done correctly to the .74m Direcway dish.
Tech support for the most part is a total joke (very hard to understand accents), information is very basic (read scripts)....the upper level is very hard to get to because a pin# is needed. Many times you wait for higher level support to call you back. Over the 8 years of service, have needed to file BBB complaints 3x to get the problems fixed, re-points and transponder changes for speed issues etc... If the problem can not be fixed by the jokers at level 1 support, be prepared to put some time and effort into getting the issue fixed. Trust me the "I'm still waiting" advertisement, that's whats you will be doing.
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Review by mark700
Posted: 80 days ago
member for 80 days, 5 visits, last login: 59 days ago
Talkeetna,Matanuska Susitna,AK
Contract price not specified.
"It works off-grid, best option available"
"Have to buy the equipment, pay for install in Alaska"
"Best you're going to get out in the sticks."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
We tried cellular for internet, excruciatingly slow, voice has priority over data at towers. We pay 10 bucks more per month now ($60) for the basic service, 700kbps down, 128kbps up, and it screams compared to cellular. There's only one dealer for Alaska, Alaska Satellite Internet, up in Fairbanks. He has installers scattered around the state in most populated areas. Ordering was easy and a local installer was referred to me. He came out and did a site survey, gave me an estimate for the install. He came back on the scheduled day, did the install, we were up on the 'net with no problems. We got the standard dish (.74 meter/ 1 watt transmitter). No real problems, we've had to reset the modem a couple times (it seemed 'stuck').
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of HughesNet Satellite Broadband |
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Review by hughesnetbad
UPDATED: 81 days ago
member for 90 days, 2 visits, last login: 54 days ago
Lineville,Clay,AL
Contract price not specified.
"Nothing, alleged to be the Worst company I have ever been with, Nasty, dirty, filthy, Goats,"
"alleged Violators of the Uniform Commercial Code, Truth in Advertising, alleged to be a terrible company"
"Dont do it, Stay away, Stay Far Away, alleged to have over sold available bandwidth, slow connection, bad connection"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
The following are allegations and opinions.
This customer alleges that this is worst Experience I have ever had with an ISP, truly as bad as a bald headed Goat and stinks as badly too, no offense to the goat.
Service is terrible, no customer support, outsourced non english speaking personal,
currently paying over 100 per month, I do not get the advertised speeds, I do not get half the advertised speeds, I do not get 25 percent of the advertised speeds, I do not get 15 percent of the advertised speeds,
constant connectivity issues, installer charged and over charged, left cable lying on the lawn did nothing to create a professional appearance or install at all.
I have never seen a more unorganized business plan, once you get installed you will never speak to an american again unless you find out a US phone number to call, even then you will not have an option to speak with anyone in the US.
You have to have a pin number in order to speak to someone in the US the worst experience I have ever had, and I have been with Bellsouth, ATT, COX, Mediacom, as well as other broadband companies, including starband, and never have I seen such a mess these people could care less about you as a customer, why do I say that, look at all the complaints, not only here but other places online, and you will never see someone from hughes either defend or even apologize for the poor service.
I allege that it is because they do not care and it is because they have abdicated their responsibility to the customer by isolating themselves from their customer.
They are alleged to be just a little better than dialup but really why waste your time.
This is my opinion and as such may not be the opinion of dslreports, this is based on my customer experience which I feel is more than enough to justify my opinion.
Is it better than dial-up? barely, I wish I had mediacom back and that is saying something...
Attachments:
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Review by feustond
Posted: 87 days ago
member for 87 days, 0 visits, last login: 87 days ago
Muncie,Delaware,IN
Contract price not specified.
"fast and so far very reliable!"
"if you live in a rural area than i would get this!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)
|
i live in the country and this is all i can get and i was very skeptical after reading all the bad reviews..but we got it anyways and wow this is a very good connection. its fast and reliable so far and the installer did a good job. i tested my speeds and they are what we ordered. we have the hn9000 modem. so far so good!
Followup comments: deepdiver
join:2002-06-23
Cullowhee, NC
| HughesNet The first installer said i had to cut some trees. My tree guy said I didn't. The second installer got it done very easily, I receive at 174. I get what I paid for 1MB/120KB. Downloads of files is good but ... the actual surfing using real websites is still slow, not much better than dialup. Is this due to the 520ms latency? | |
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 89 days ago
(review was emailed from domain att.net)
Los Altos,Santa Clara,CA
Contract price not specified.
"speed, support, connectivity, etc."
"avoid at all costs"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I tried Hughesnet for my internet service as I live in the Hills of San Jose
and have no access to DSL. Hughesnet performance was absolutely horrible.
Note: they do not guarantee performance and they sure don't deliver. Their
tech support was out of India, their billings was out of the Philippines. I
spent hours collecting performance data for them and was not able to get the
system performance to much better than dial-up. I finally took the system
out but they still wanted me to pay for the remaining service. Finally wrote
a letter to the chairman of Hughes to get this resolved.
Followup comments: Luminaris
join:2005-12-01
Winchester, VA | Question Just curious, what was the final outcome? Did they still make you pay? | |
| | 
compuguybna
join:2009-06-17
Nashville, TN
| Re: Question Write
bbbdc@hughes.net
or
executivecustomercare@hughesnet
They are read by most everyone in the company.... Including Office of the President.
(Of course, you must already have documented cases with tech support logged, and must have already spoke with Tier-2) | |
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Review by ruralchic
Posted: 94 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 41 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Windsor,Broome,NY
Contract price not specified.
"Suppose to be broadband,when it's up works fairly well"
"out sourced tech support ,can't understand them.costly"
"Don't have Hughesnet installed"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
Hughesnet installed May22,2009.worked well for 3 months when modem took a crap.Then I had to deal with the tech support.Who are outsourced to India,couldn't undersand what they were saying and repeatedly holding on the line .Kept saying I understand alot.They had me try several things from unpluging cables ,power plug waiting thirty minutes and then plugging back in. Finally after an afternoon on the phone.They sent new modem and power pack.Then on July 9th,2009 The damn thing went down ,no lights on modem .It is HN9000.Dealing with tech support was awful.I'm still not online .I have had tech come out 3 times .Which is costing me more money to an already expensive service.So i made a consumer complaint.and Wrote a letter to Hughesnet But no where could I fined the number or would anybody give me the number to corporate headquarters.As of this date August 22,09 no browsing for me.
Followup comments: hughesnetbad
join:2009-08-26
Lineville, AL
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
| Typical, today I spent over an hour talking to support Terrible experience, after 30 min of talking tech support person in halting english says that, It appears that the problem is with the website you are trying to view,
I say, what? I am not able to connect to any website.
tech support,
Oh you are unable to connect to any browsing website?
I tear out my hair and say as calmly as I can manage, no that is why I have called you today, because I cannot connect to the internet.
Tech support
O then let us check to see if your computer is at fault.
Me,
there is nothing wrong with my computer it is brand new
Tech support ok then let us check to see if your modem is damaged.
Me,
Fine, what ever, check modem, nothing wrong with modem,
check cables, nothing wrong with cables, check butterflys on the wall nothing wrong with hey wait, what,
Ok, see you will go crazy if you listen to them for long, but for sure, they will never ever admit that it is something that hughes did, ok it is always your fault, for being a customer,
it is always some other persons fault, or it is the fault of the website you are trying to get to or it is the fault of your computer, or it is the fault of your cable lines,
never is it the fault of hughes, which I find to be an insult.
But you know that already... | |
| ruralchic
join:2007-10-10
Windsor, NY
·HughesNet Satellit..
|  Hughsnet Not Worth it.
| |
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