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Review by humboldtsgt 
UPDATED: 220 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 278 visits, last login: 85 days ago
 Potter Valley,Mendocino,CA
 Contract price not specified.
 "It's Broadband"
 "It's not cable or DSL"
 "It's better than dial up by a long shot"
| Pre Sales information:
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(ratings match consensus)
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After many long years living in a technology deprived area with poor dial up abilities I finally decided to make the leap towards DirecWay satellite internet service I had researched and read all that I could for approx. three weeks. I am sure glad that I prepared myself, I have avoided allot of headaches and disappointments.
First off, I did the $99/15month Consumer Edition DW6000 contract. The install company contacted me within 3 days as advertised at which time I arranged an install date. IMPORTANT - Your install/commissioning date is your billing date and will not be changed so plan appropriately. I knew in advance that I wanted a pole mount so when the install company called I retrieved the proper guidance as to what to buy etc... SAVED ME $$$$$. So $30.00 later and about two hours of my time I mounted a pole, dug a ditch, and drilled holes for the cable run under my house.
The installers arrived and it turns out that he was very happy with the fact that I had completed most of the site setup. He gave me the cable and I ran it under the house while he and his partner set everything up near the pole. They were helpful in explaining what they were doing and why as they assembled, installed my dish and conducted the commissioning setup. After a few questions I realized that between the both of them they only had less than a year of satellite experience (8 months and a few months) and they normally installed satellite television systems.
Anyway, they seemed to know more than I did so I was happy. As they were nearly finished I pointed out where my house GROUND was. They looked at me as if I was some snot nosed kid thinking it's a perfect world. I told them that I wanted it grounded. One of the installers said that it was not needed and that they do alot of these and do not ground them. The main installer told me that if I wanted it grounded he would "install a grounding block" I thought great, a little persistence paid off.
While the assistant installer and I were in the house plugging everything in, the other guy was outside "grounding" my dish. At one point he asked me if I had some copper grounding wire! I told him no and he said "that's ok I think I have some".
The assistant installer using his laptop (WIN 98) completed the commissioning of my account. I use WIN XP Pro and could not get connected. The installer had no idea what to do, the assistant installer didn't like XP and I just told them that I would take it from here (having the knowledge from BBR!)
After they left, I applied a few tricks I learned and everything worked just fine (I turned off the browser proxy and that gave me access to the LCCU utility which I promptly downloaded). Later that night I started to notice a vast difference in performance. I immediately went out side to look at the setup (which I did not do earlier as I was so excited). I saw that the system was not grounded. The installer had used a 4" piece of speaker wire that he attached to the pole via a screw and ran it to the coaxial junction box!
I went to the hardware store and bought #10 gauge unshielded copper grounding wire and properly grounded the system to my house ground.
Bottom line: It is a wonderful system if it is all you have a choice of besides dial up. I went from 3Kb/s downloads to an average of 100-120 Kb/s with some short bursts in the 180-220 Kb/s range
Gain the knowledge, ask questions and call the installers on their work, after all you will be paying for it anyway.
Added: Know your grounding issues and do not let the installer tell you otherwise, an excellant ground is a must and I cannot be more serious, with a poor ground the service is unpredictable and very frustrating!
Also, the date they come out and "commission" your account or activate it is the date in which your credit card will be billed! So if you are using an ATM/Check card (which they say they wont accept but they did mine) take into account when they will be taking the money out. This is a very hard date to change if not impossible.
4/09: Still have the dish (in the garage) having moved to a cable ISP area.
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 Review by ctceo
UPDATED: 222 days ago
member for 8.6 years, 2424 visits, last login: a few minutes ago
Mishawaka,St Joseph,IN
Contract price not specified.
"Speed was better than advertised, and throughput was always consistent."
"Install Contractors, software reliability, Price, Caps, Throttled (FAPS), Need I say more?"
"Good ONLY if you can afford it, otherwise consider alternatives."
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I will state beforehand that I had the service when it was but a youngling, and it worked great for what it was intended, even worked for several non-lag problematic games. From what I hear the ping times have been greatly improved since my dealing with them in their first year of service.
The installer that came out used spit to seal the broadcast node instead of the sealant that came with the dish, he insisted on doing everything his way, and not being very courteous to our polite requests on how to run the wire along the side of the house. He also insisted that the device (dish portion) did NOT need to be grounded even though there was a screw just for that purpose because the engineers knew that it built up a LOT of electrostatic charge and heat as it was running. (I went up after the tech left and connected the ground to a 6 ft copper ground rod using the appropriate gauge wire). After the hardware install he was clueless as for the software setup, and we had to wait several hours between tech calls to the NOC/Engineering to finalize getting the satellite heartbeats to time correctly, and get the drivers installed properly without the floppy drive killing the sat signal.
But as I mentioned before I hear that service has increased greatly. I personally would only use it as a last resort, but would recommend it to businesses who cannot get ISDN/DSL/Cable/Wireless services in their area.
Update 4/22/2009: Out of the 12 or so installs I have done in the past 5 years, The service quality has improved only slightly, but the prices remain near the same. The quality of the installers has improved a tad bit as well, though I still encountered the lack of proper grounding in about 60% of those installs.
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Review by maxfaded
UPDATED: 226 days ago
member for 230 days, 1 visits, last login: 226 days ago
Elgin,Bastrop,TX
Contract price not specified.
"1st 2 days i enjoyed high speed downloads"
"after 2 days i went from 120 kbs download to 20 kbs download"
"hughes net would be decent if they delivered what they offer"
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just recently purchased hughes net and loved it the 1st day , i knew nothing of FAP and went crazy downloading music videos and all the software i was struggling to get with dial up. then i got fapped and wasnt too happy (fair access policy restricting usage of an internet access i pay almost twice as much as broadband) thats all fine and well (i suppose) i read the fine print , did my research and whatever and set a schedule , since there is no restrictions of downloads between 3am est and 5am est , i cut back my use till then. i thought i was still fapped the next day cuz my download speeds werent restored (tho they were faster then dial up, 20kbs) so i waited a whole day to download anything. next day i tried to download a music video ( aprx. 10mbs) .... again .... 20kbs download speed. i pay for 120kbs (pro plan) and get 20kbs during either time weither its the free download time or not. in my opinion , thats not what they offered. the first day i was suckerd into thinking i had a good thing , then it was reduced by the FAP , than again reduced beyond that. i have no idea why i only get a download speed of 20kbs (sometimes 30) but my connection has perfect strength and i only share with one other person in the house (doesnt use his computer much) all i know is i feel as if im being ripped off in many ways... if you have an alternative i suggest you use it , if you are looking for a way to solve all the problems of dial up then re consider , hughes net is not the perfect fix.
unless the FAP (fair access policy) policy changes there will always be alot of unhappy customers.... and unless i can get my download speed problem fixed , i will no longer be a customer to complain
FOLLOW UP:
ok after trying to resolve this problem through customer service and other ways ive concluded its only getting worse , i no longer get even the 30kbs transfer rate i was complaining about .... even at the moment im downloading a relatively small file (14 mbs) ive been here nearly an hour @ between 2kbs and 6kbs (my dail up was close to that) .... ive made repeated calls to customer service trying to see why my service isnt the same as it was the 1st few days , they ask me to do a test and say "there is no problem with your service" and "your test shows you have the correct speeds" ...... basically they are telling me im an idiot (AND I FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT FOR CHOOSING THIS SERVICE) if they gave the offer they claim it would be a great service , but they way its actually run makes me wonder if everyone has this problem , and why havent they faced any sort of lawsuit or something to that effect
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Review by lswx1
UPDATED: 228 days ago
member for 241 days, 5 visits, last login: 221 days ago
Versailles,Morgan,MO
Contract price not specified.
"Works Sometimes, near stated speeds in am. less than half in pm."
"Speed poor to no service in pm."
"Customer service near ZERO. One of worst customer service expiriences in 36 years in business."
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Can not supply solution for modem. Down over three weeks. 6-8 hours with tech support. Lost order, reordered ship in 5-7 days, backordered, no end in sight.
CONSIDER ONLY AS LAST RESORT.
Only option for broadband besides WildBlue.
1.5 mgbps. down. HN 7000S Modem.
Daily FAP 500 MB.
Contract Price $99.99 per month. 2 year commitment.
Eagerly waiting an alternative.
We know it can work because it did when first installed.
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Review by jacob_hawley0
UPDATED: 229 days ago
member for 6.4 years, 10 visits, last login: 31 days ago
Scotts Valley,Santa Cruz,CA
Contract price not specified.
"I can connect"
"At 65k down, and 200k up most of the time"
"it sucks, and my mobile phone has better connectivity"
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Wow ... I mean Wow, this is horrible.
I spent 2 hours on the phone with level 1 support, to finally get to level 2 support, only to be told to do speed tests for 2-3 days and call back if it hasn't gotten any better.
I am still waiting to see what level 2 support is going to do with 2 days of speed tests, but rumor has it that I go to another level of support.
wait ... isn't this a bad joke, where I end up with no internet if I try and get something resembling dial up with my Dish ...
And now for the sad part, I have amazing line of sight, it has been clear skies and according to my modem I have 198 signal strength which far exceeds the 135 ss needed for optimum performance.
Sigh, and comcast won't even return my phone calls out here in the woods.
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Review by blurplesuburban
Posted: 235 days ago
(review was emailed from domain uniquebeadedjewelry.com)
Hunters,Stevens,WA
 Business customer
Contract price not specified.
"it's not dial-up"
"It continuously will not connect to the internet."
"I hate Hughesnet! But it is our only choice. If you can avoid it, do, by all means!"
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We have had Hughesnet (DirectWay) for about 2 years now......and I can tell you.....their overall performance SUCKS!
The commercials totally LIE! w have paid for a better "service' than the norm, but it seems to work worse! I am kicked-off the web about 5 times a day. Usually have to switch between my wireless and my line in to stay on the internet. I have gone through 3 new routers, thinking that may be the problem, but no, the problem still exists, regardless of what router I have, or if I am plugged directly into the box!
It seems that since January 1st...their service has just been going downhill.
I can't wait until we can get something else, but at this time, Hughesnet is our only option. I do NOT recommend Hughesnet to anyone who can do without it!
Followup comments:  
Acmesatellite
@sbcglobal.net
|  HughesNet
»www.acmesat.com/blog | |
| |
blurplesuburban
@direcway.com
| Re: HughesNet Thanks for the response.
As a matter of fact, we were gone for 2 days, and no one was on the internet, but when we tried to get on this morning, it was so slow that we just gave-up for a couple of hours.
For the amount of money we spend per month for this, I believe we should have better service!
The commercial TOTALLY leads people on to believe that this is the best thing out there, when in fact, it doesn't deliver half of what is being quoted on TV. We just ran a report from our "myhughesnet" to see what our usage and such is, and we are no where near what our monthly limit is, but it runs like it does when we have gone over our limit. (We did it once by downloading a movie via Netflix).
I am not impressed, I'll have to tell you that much, but it is much better than the wildblue offer. | |
| | | | | oscarwilde1
join:2008-10-08
 ·Embarq
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
2 edits | said by Acmesatellite :
HughesNet holds their retailers to high standards and unsatisfied customers are not good.
Is this why they hire odd, gang tattoo'd guys who only take cash to do the installs?
Seriously, my installer was one scary guy 
I got kicked off 5-7 times a day, slow downs were normal, and the usage page continued to show use when the radio and modem were packed in a box on the back porch. | |
| | | AcmeInternet
join:2009-04-20
USA
| Re: HughesNet said by oscarwilde1
Is this why they hire odd, gang tattoo'd guys who only take cash to do the installs?
Seriously, my installer was one scary guy:)
[/BQUOTE : Sounds like you got a bad one installer. That seems to be the weakest link sometimes with satellite TV and satellite Internet. It's tough to manage thousands of guys rolling around in trucks all over the nation. As a retailer of HughesNet myself, It is frustrating for me to hear about things outside my sphere of influence. » :www.acmesat.com/faq | |
| AcmeInternet
join:2009-04-20
USA
| Modem and Radio in the Box said by oscarwilde1 :The usage page continued to show use when the radio and modem were packed in a box on the back porch. ....Oscar, It seriously sounds like someone is stealing your signal or Hughes has your acct crossed up with another user. Ask HughesNet support (phone number: 866-347-3292) if they can identify the IP address of the computers on your system. Compare it to yours and immediately change your password. Don't use your home phone number as the password because by default, many routers are set initially with this. Also, make sure your modem as well as your router have different unique passwords.
»www.acmesat.com/blog | |
| | oscarwilde1
join:2008-10-08
·Embarq
·HughesNet Satellit..
2 edits | Re: Modem and Radio in the Box This is no longer a problem for me (I no longer have the service) however, this is an ongoing problem with at least two other people I know further out, who got service at about the same time I did.
One of them is most peculiar, it can't be a security issue because they live 2 miles off the main road. Linksys is good, but not that good. They have pretty much given up and switched to Verizon at this point. It would be interesting to know where the strange "ghost" usage problem is coming from...
BTW, had to get DirecTV out here today to repair multiple problems caused by the intital installer so lack of correct instalation is a major problem with all forms of Sat.. The main first bad experience everyone has with Hughes.net is the unexpected costs involved in the install (the post, for example, which many people do not expect and any other extras the installer ads on) and the poor quality of many installations. Then you contact customer service and it all goes downhill from there..... | |
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Review by las
Posted: 240 days ago
member for 241 days, 11 visits, last login: 224 days ago
Bumpass,Louisa,VA
Contract price not specified.
"Better than dialup"
"Not much better during peak times"
"Very expensive for what you get"
| Pre Sales information:
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I recently upgraded service to the Elite Plan at 120 per month with a HN9000 modem. The installer, Sure Site Satellite, reset the dish three times to make sure I had a strong signal. That has been the only thing I would rate highly.
There is no consistency as to the speeds I receive and per their high level support that is what I should expect. The elite plan calls for downloads of "up to" 2MB. However, I was told that as long as I get downloads of 630, the system is operating properly and there is not a problem.
Followup comments: zalternate
join:2007-02-22
BC
·TELUS
| Tiered pricing. You could always mention to support about their 'tiered Pricing' system.
You are paying in the 'up to' 2Mbps tier and therefor your speeds should never drop below that tier in to the next lower tiered pricing level.
So in legal theory, your speeds should be between 1.7Mbps and 2Mbps.
So if you were to start getting download speeds of 630Kbps(as per supports quoted numbers), thats enough for a contract violation by Hughesnet. Talk to your States Attorney Generals office, if you feel like pushing the issue.
Would anyone pay for a 'up to' 100 minutes long distance plan and only get to use 20 minutes?
But Government keeps ignoring the Satellite Internet Industry for some strange reason.... Oh right. The Government does not regulate the Internet(officially) and uses that as an excuse to allow consumers to be abused by carriers who can't provide consistent bandwidth speeds during all hours of the day and night, as per purchased pricing tiers.
--
Consumer Rights is more than just a suggestion. | |
|
preebo2
@1dial.com
| Class action CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT
PENDING SIGNATURES
Defendant: Hughes Network Systems, LLC
Subsidiaries: SPACEWAY and Broadband Unbound
CLAIM AGAINST: HughesNet.com satellite internet service.
HugheNet is perpetuating fraud.
I am a HugheNet customer who called and complained about their speed claims. They claim 20 times faster download than dial up. I have never gotten faster than 4 times faster and 95% of the time it was dial up speed. I’m in an online college and need fast and reliable service.
I was paying 10 dollars a month for dial up and now paying 70 bucks a month for dial up speed using the HughesNet service. This is on top of paying 220 bucks to set up the dish even though HughesNet advertised at 170 dollar setup fee.
I called Tech Support and was told that I am only allowed 200 MB of download usage during a 24 hour period (Which is equivalent to 10 minutes of streaming video) at which time I exceed this, HughesNet automatically slowed my internet transfer usage to less than dial up speed. (They call this Broadband Unbound?) What a joke! I informed the tech guy I called in India that I was not told about this at which time he replied that I could spend more money every month to take the block off. WHAT!!!!! What a rip-off! Since HughesNet illegally defrauded me I demanded that the contract be voided at which he replied that there is a 400 dollar cancellation fee. They know how to screw you coming and going. Why can’t businesses get rich these days by being honest with people?
If you are like me and sick and tired of big business screwing with your hard earned money while they continually grow rich by “breaking” your back; then send me an email if you have been screwed over too by HughesNet and as soon as I get enough signatures, my lawyer will file a class action lawsuit for millions of retribution for the scam they have generated.
Send your email to: preebo2@yahoo.com In the subject put HughesNet Scam so I will know which emails to pull out of my spam folder.
Thank you,
Tim Dupree | |
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Review by MWAdams
UPDATED: 240 days ago
member for 240 days, 0 visits, last login: 240 days ago
Tyndall,Bon Homme,SD
Contract price not specified.
"Works independent of landline or cellular towers."
"Fair axcess policy violation speeds are quite low (at 15Kbps a 19.2Kbps modem would be faster)"
"Works when nothing else is available, better value than Wildblue."
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Hughesnet/Direcway currently has an acceptable base program & price of $59.99 + taxes (purchase equipment) or $69.98 + taxes (lease equipment) for 1Mbps/128Kbps service.They have a "Fair Access Policy" that limits how much you can use in a 19 hour use window (currently have a "free time" of 5 hours that data usage is not counted against you) makes it a better value than Wildblue. Tier 1 tech support appears to be "outsourced" to (Middle Eastern?) a foreign country. If you are in an Alltel EVDO service area I would recommend (no "FAP") it rather than satellite. As a "Last resort" option it serves its purpose quite well and is completely reliable and its only limitation is electricity. Due to its high latency it is not a good candidate for VOIP. I can not comment on its speed for gaming as I am not a gamer. I have the "Home Plan" & it works well for my particular network of 2 desktops, 2 laptops, & 3 HD-DVR's, just wish I had access to DSL or Cable broadband, but at least it works better than my Alltel cellular broadband which is 1X service for a 128Kbps/96Kbps service.
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Review by sassy
UPDATED: 242 days ago
member for 269 days, 7 visits, last login: 242 days ago
Hernando,Citrus,FL
Contract price not specified.
"beats dial up"
"expensive,FAP sucks"
"get download manager and its all good"
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I started with Professional but it was a new satellite in 2004 and always dumping me.I switched to residential and its was actually better.Now that digital TV is here I can't get crap on the TV and it goes out in the middle of shows so I now do utorrents during 2-7am for TV shows.I really worked on it to configure, and downloads are decent and they have a scheduller so once its done it shuts off computer
I BEGGED comcast to get out here but ended up in new 1 yr contract and an upgrade to 7000S I sure hope it doesn't screw up what I have done.I HATE commiting to another year cause with my luck all my work to get comcast in here will come to fruition and I will be stuck with Hughenet...UGH! it beats dialup and I run websites so no many options here.
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 Review by Just Rachel
UPDATED: 243 days ago
member for 6.4 years, 2942 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Mccloud,Siskiyou,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Hughes...at least there's something for boonies dwellers!"
"cost"
"my only option"
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I don't have phone lines where I live, or, any other options. I'm just happy to finally
join the 21st century. I haven't had the mail problems or connection problems that others have had. Guess I'm pretty lucky!
UPDATE:
I am still very pleased. Haven't had anything other than minor problems which were easily resolved. Guess if I were an online game player or big downloader I might not be so pleased!
UPDATE:
Never have any problems here unless the snow has covered the dish. 
UPDATE: After 3 yrs. of nearly flawless performance from the 4000 I recently upgraded to the 7000 pro plan. Still working pretty darn good. The download tests aren't as good as the 4000, but I don't even notice the difference. I quit taking the speed tests as often. Why bother if everything is okie dokie?? Even the folks in my nearest town are going to satellite because they're so unhappy with dialup. Yeah, it's expensive, but it's the best option here. :~)
UPDATE: Still content.
UPDATE: Still with it. I still have no other options. I will likely die a Hughes customer. I'm okay with that.
UPDATE: Still working for me.
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30 pages of instructions, a sextant.... 
·
·
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Hughesnet
Hughes doesn't want you to use their internet service...
Re: HughesNet