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 Review by bobbin 
UPDATED: 5.3 years ago
member for 8.3 years, 1234 visits, last login: 26 days ago
 Lynchburg,Lynchburg City,VA
 $70 per month (12 month contract)
 about 14 days
 "Only option for high speed ISP in my area"
 "Depends on Hughes NOC"
 "Worth the effort, beats dial up."
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Used the Hughes dial return system at first, the PCI version of the satellite receive only equipment. It worked OK, especially after I found the satellite support forum here. Problem was that the Hughes billing department never could get the money right. Finally let it go in disgust. Really missed my high speed. After lurking here for months I finally ordered the Earthlink version of Direcway. (August 2001) Time to install was a couple of weeks, installer was prompt and accurate. (I had already put two runs of RG6 inside my home to avoid having wires all over the roof.) It's been a trip. As a retired marketing manager and engineer for electronic communications equipment, I'm suprised at the lack of real customer support from Hughes. Earthlink does seem to be trying. They impressed me by overnighting a copy of the software recently, when I was unable to download it again. I continue to lurk the forums here. Security, MS software, networking and of course Satellite are my favorites. I have three puters in the house and spend a couple of hours a week maintaining and fine tuning my system. If you've got to have high speed in the boonies, Eathlink satellite is worth a look. I get dial up included for the days when Direcway hickups or when I travel. It includes Email and Web space, but most important; I never get bills from Hughes! (It's time to go fishing now!)
Summer 2004 update. Continue to lurk the Sat Forum here. Did the DW6000 upgrade early this year. Most of the difficulties of Sat Service are resolved since the 6000 works a lot like a real modem. No software or significant tweaks are needed. Now have four computers on a switched lan behind the DW6000. Guests are able to plug in with no special tweaks. Continue to search for a WISP service. Several are rumored to be in development. Will drop the satellite the minute a WISP can provide service, just to avoid the latency. I don't game but the lags in browsing are very apparent. Mean while it still beats dial up! Earthlink is still a big jump up from Hughes and the DW6000 is much more reliable than the DW4000 IMHO.
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 Review by CM
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 7.6 years, 2602 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Vaughn,Cascade,MT
$70 per month (12 month contract)
about 14 days
"Tech support tries to be helpful, and sometimes even succeeds."
"Tech support is not connected thru satellite so they can't see what you do."
"Large provider who will probably stay in business over the long term."
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EARTHLINK Tech Support will run you in circles if you let them. Once your system is up and running and you have some time to watch speed trends and go through a few NOC outages, TRUST your equipment. When TS wants you to uninstall and re-install your software, do what YOU think is best. If your system is stable, many of the 'fix' actions they will suggest are useless. A large percentage of problems are caused by equipment at Hughes which Earthlink has no control over.
I'm not saying that Earthlink TS is useless. They were helpful when I first got online. And I have never dealt with anyone at TS who was impolite or uncivil. But, they have to assume that the customer needs to be led by the hand through each step. If this is not the case with you, and you can politely make them aware of it, they will work with you until your problem is resolved or they run out of options.
When the 'option bucket' is empty, turn to the Satellite forum. You will probably find what you need.
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 Review by new2it
Posted: 6.8 years ago
member for 8.1 years, 517 visits, last login: 196 days ago
midwest
$69 per month
"Connecttion Speeds , I could never go back to dial up."
"Latest software is bad, only install the satelite part."
"28.8 was best dial availabe, heck still is, Its truly comparing a lemon to a tasty navel orange."
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I have to leave a few of the details out , like time for ordering , and contract ect.
I had Pegasus first, and they sold accounts to Earthlink,Thus the questions do not apply to earthlink.
There is nothing to complain about for a user like me. I had some disconnects a few weeks back , kept telling me the modem was not plugged in. I had tech support tell me it was a bad usb cable . Boy was he surprised to hear that yes i have another hang on a sec while I hook it up......and yes that was the issue.
There was one outtage since switching over, and while waiting for tech support it came back up.
Only one thing to complain about. Their latest software that was sent to me,
took over my entire computer. nothing would work. Took it off and only loaded the satelite software.
The price is high, 69. per month, I justify it due to my love of the internet and its cheaper than alot of other hobbies.
All in all, the satelite is the way to go if you live in a place with only diap up.
I wold do it again in a heartbeat.
I have the large two way white dish, and usb modems. I have run everything from win 98, currently, to win xp pro.
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Review by YankeeDragon2
Posted: 7 years ago
member for 7 years, 0 visits, last login: 7 years ago
Fredericksburg,Spotsylvania,VA
$69 per month (12 month contract)
about 2 days
"Always on, no cable slowdown"
"Can die in a HEAVY rain"
"More reliable than Adelphia cable, fast connection for those w/o cable access"
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I moved 10 minutes down the road from my old home and found myself outside of the local cable companies service area. Although, for $4500 they would be happy to run the cable to my home. Opted for two-way satellite hook up through Pegasus. If you aren't computer savy, you may find yourself with a learning curve. I actually had to help the installer with the software (it was his first installation). Pegasus service was good, but they did have some rough spots. Tech support was intially there 24/7, but dropped to 16/5. The folks were always knowledgable, polite and I rarely had a long wait. Service could be tempermentable during heavy rains or snows, but outages were rarely long. Earthlink bought out Pegasus a few months ago and I have to say things have improved since they took over. Signal strength is higher and outages, even in bad weather, are very infrequent. I also like the fact they give you 20 hours of phone connectivity a month as well. When I went on vacation, I had access without having to pay for a backup ISP. I had contact with tech support during the switch from Pegasus and the folks there were also knowlegable and polite and called me back to make sure everything was okay. I would strongly recommend opting for the two way connection. No sense in relying on a phone line for uploads. Downloading game patches, Windows updates, etc. has always been quick and reliable. I networked two house computers via a crossover cable and we can both play Everquest online at the same time with no problems. All in all, I've been very pleased and I kept $4500 in my pocket.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 7.6 years ago
(review was emailed from domain aftermind.com)
San Jose,Santa Clara,CA
$89 per month (12 month contract)
"Cool looking roof art. Fast and useful."
"Expensive. Up/Down times somewhat slug-like."
"Worth it if you cannot get a fiber to your kerb."
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Where we live there are two ways of getting an internet connection – the phone line (dirty, can get up to 21K baud if you hit it just right) or satellite. The Earthlink Direcway dish has been on our roof for 6 months now – I would give it an overall “good”, but it is short of a “great” due to technical issues.
1) Long waiting list to be installed – these folks were BUSY. We waited almost 3 months before an installer could come out. The guy was great tho – put it up, turned it on – worked first time.
2) Latency is noticeable. Since the satellites are really really far away, the speed of light is perceptible – it takes a while for the signal to make it up to the satellite, down to the ground station, to internet, to the site, from the site, to internet, to the ground station, to the satellite and to our dish – you do notice the latency. When the data comes, tho, it comes in really fast bursts (compared to the 21K modem) of 400K, which makes the latency less painful than you might imagine.
3) Down time. Here is where we have had the real issues. Email connection goes away quite frequently, the satellite signal will be lost on very rainy days (which is normal) but will be lost for no reason at all on some days. In 6 months of service, we have lost connection for a total of 24 hours or so – not a lot in internet terms, but it always seems to happen at the weekend and/or when you need it most.
4) Price. At $69 for the service – pretty good value. They host our domain/site for an additional $19 – cannot complain about that at all.
Overall we are very satisfied with the connection and with the support from Earthlink. It has been a lot less painful than Northpoint & Rhythms so far…
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Earthlink Satellite powered by DIRECWAY
