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Ordered service directly from Wild Blue. Three days later the equipment arrived, but I still didn't have an install date. Another call to Wild Blue and soon after, I had the phone number of an installer. Installer arrived on time the following week. Install went fine with no problems. I hooked the modem up to my Zyxel router. Didn't need to configure anything. It connected to the internet with no problem. I've had the service for two months now. I had to reboot the modem and router a couple times and I've lost connection a couple times, but nothing serious. My upload speed is lower than it should be, but it varies depending on what speed test I use. Many other people also complain about their upload speeds. Wildblue is aware of the problem and is trying to fix it. Overall, for satellite service, I'm very pleased. UPDATE 1/20/09 I just cancelled service a couple days ago. As with others, service went downhill when they started traffic shaping and pings doubled. Traffic shaping made going to secure websites a real pain. Most all webpages loaded rather slow. I never had a problem with download speeds though. Service would go out when storms hit, but was up pretty much all the rest of the time. About 1 1/2 years ago an engineer stopped by to check my service since they determined the modem power numbers didn't look good. He remarked of problems with the install and left a flyer saying they would fix it for free. They never did and all attempts to contact engineering failed. Since service still worked I didn't worry about it. After I gave up trying to get upload speeds fixed I never had to contact tech support. If not for the traffic shaping I believe WB would still be the best bet as far as satellite ISPs. I'm trying EVDO now and it looks like it's going to take some effort to get it to work right. member for 22.1 years, 5479 visits, last login: 80 days ago updated 15.1 years ago
I had 3 good months with cellular bb and 4 bad months. see (»Review of Alltel Axess by delta_queen) I defected to satellite, my last remaining option. The installers did a fine job and even followed through on a special install location for me. I have not had to deal with tech support and I don't use wb email so I can't comment on those areas yet. My speedtest results during the day are : 1567 down 121 up I paid for the pro pack. peak hours test coming soon. b/c this service is 'always on' tech at my company will be happier and I am able to use our wireless router which was not an option with celluar bb (unless pay $$$ for special equipment). I should have gone this route to begin with. 6/25/2008 >Update 17 days after install Have not had to call tech support yet speeds and connectivity are consistant (5pm test) 1512 down 87 up (yucky) half way through my first 30 day bandwidth monitoring I have used 9% of DL and 6% of UL. So this is something of a big relief. I am on the internet and emails for 12 hours a day sending PPTs, watching videos here and there and hosting webinars with no probs. No gaming and no movies for me.... Happy Camper to date. I'll keep providing updates. UPDATE: Jan 17 2009> 7 months after WB install Have zero complaints. I installed bandwidth meter pro and this helps a good deal. I don't watch a lot of video, but I'm able to click at will on news clips and short youtube vids. Haven't downloaded any movies and only a few songs. No outages in 6 months with the brief exception of bad storms No problems with equipment or connections. My job has me connected 10 hours a day and we keep surfing until bedtime. Never hit near the DL or UL limit. Speeds are worse in the evening than they are in the day. member for 16.2 years, 31 visits, last login: 13.1 years ago updated 15.1 years ago
Salesman lied about reliabilty, (or I NEVER would have wasted money trying it) every time it drizzled service was out, he said only hard rain would put it out, it was out most of the winter. Speed was NEVER as advertised. I canceled as soon as possible and upgraded to dial-up, I have a website to run and slow is better than NO internet. Trying to run my business on Wildblue was a nightmare and I just didn't have the time to sell much. I had basic service, they told me for $20.00 MORE per month I could have 10 hours of back up dial up, well I got unlimited dailup for $10.00 from someone else so I could have a connection. I didn't get sucked into upgrading my service as I know they were lying when they couldn't provide the service I was already paying for. And after reading the other reviews about this company I WAS LUCKY. 15 months after canceling my service I got a bill in the mail, complete with interest and penalties. This was a complete surprise as this was 15 months later and the FIRST bill ever in the mail. In the order cancellation email sent to me (I did NOT use wildblue for email) there was NO mention that there would be a special billing or anything else owed since they only way they accepted payment was directly charging my credit card. Since the customer service rep was so snotty I will never pay them or even bother opening another piece of information from them, this company is as crooked as they come and many complaints have been filed with the Atty. Gen. I know this is yet another sneaky way Wildblue has of ripping off customers, they are not satisfied with taking a huge amount of money for 1 year while not providing services promised, they will keep stealing form you after you think you are free of them. Stay away from Wildblue! DSL service was finally brought out to me, I am a record distance out and due to new switches or something I can now get it, check with your phone company! Or just stick with dialup, speed is the same and it works all the time! Plus we now have a permanent leak on the roof from the install and will have to completely re roof, after 1.5 years of trying to fix it we give up. member for 15.2 years, driveby review (so far) updated 15.2 years ago
Stay away!!!.... if you can't get cable at home, go with wireless if available instead of WildBlue or Hughes. We've been WildBlue customers for more than 3 years. We have no cable or even DSL options on our rural road. Our cell phone signal is improving as more towers go up, so I look forward to the day when I can switch to Verizon or AT&T for our wireless internet connection and call WildBlue to cancel. WildBlue has has driven us crazy with slow and unpredictable speeds, outages, and total lack of customer support. However, our neighbors with Huges aren't any happier. Both services stink. They know people are stuck with their services and so do little for customers. Satellite internet is very slow relative to cable (generally $70 a month, and WildBlue dropped our speeds by more than 90%. I believe this is a ploy to get people to pay for a more expensive (higher speed and increased download) service, since they will reinstate your "normal" speed if you pay for a higher level package. (review was emailed from domain wildblue.net) lodged 15.2 years ago
I've have the medium speed service, 1 gb download speed for $70 a month for three years. There is an outage less often than once a month, lasting from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Heavy rain of course will defeat it for a while. I had an equipment problem once and they were there the next day with a replacement modem, with no charge. This is likely a "franchise" operation, so a bad experience in one area of the country doesn't translate into another area. member for 18.1 years, 5 visits, last login: 15.2 years ago lodged 15.2 years ago
Had no other options for broadband at the time. 512 MHZ Dn.......$49.95 Order was ok Install a nightmare Do not know what model the equipment was. Bad Points....Installation, Customer Service, Tech Help, reliability, Customer Satisfaction Good Points...My experience had none. The service was provided by authorized distributor of WildBlue Communications, Inc. ("WildBlue"). To be honest If the system had been installed correctly ( In my opinion) or had there been an effort by ISP provider to make the installation right at no additional cost to me I think my total experience would have been different and I, in all probability would still be a customer. member for 15.3 years, 2 visits, last login: 10.7 years ago updated 15.2 years ago
Wild Blue (Branded Gotsky) is a great ISP if you just cruise the internet and send text emails. Start downloading music, Windows updates, watch movie trailers, or demo programs and you will potentially run into their 800lb gorilla called "Fair Access Policy". While a "FAP" is an understandable tool to keep people from clogging the system up by endlessly downloading movies and music from pirate sites, there is a serious problem with whatever system they use to measure your usage. I ran into major problems when I was at home with a illness and was using the computer more than normal. Some iTunes downloads, a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica and some software updates and I saw a serious jump in my download usage. By the way, Gotsky has a login page where you can monitor your usage. Its archaic and usually 48+ hours behind and runs on a rolling 30 day period. Since I was, at the time, in their middle tier "Select" plan, I was allowed 12000 MB or 11.7 GB per rolling 30 day period I figure I would be ok because that "SOUNDS" like a large amount of DATA and impossible to reach. That's 400MB a day!!! Well, when I saw a huge spike in my FAP meter, I backed off from downloading and just used the net for news, sports and basics. My FAP meter, however, kept climbing. Day after day it just kept rising. I called Gotsky and they looked into the problem and said I showed huge spikes at all times in the day. They said I had spikes at times between 3 and 6 AM!! Spikes at times when all my computers we OFF. My wireless network is heavily locked down and I dont have neighbors within a half mile of me. The Gotsky agent even had me unplug my router and modem for 48 hours while I was out of town. What do you know, major spikes in usage while I was gone. Their answer? Well, its tricky. The Gotsky agent was 100% behind me and worked hard to help me. Gotsky, however, is just a middle man for Wild Blue and acts as a liaison for tech support. All major issues had to be ran past Wild Blue. In other words, I would call Gotsky and report my issues, Gotsky would have to call Wild Blue and discuss the issue and then Gotsky would get back to me. This would often take several days and sometimes even a week. I could never talk to WB directly. In the end, the Gotsky rep (who I had established great rapport with) said that Wild Blue didn't believe that I unplugged my equipment and said there was nothing the could or would do. I found it strange that they suggested I unplug my router and modem and when results came back supporting a problem on THEIR end, well, then I must be lying. Why suggest the test in the 1st place. Feels really nice to hear a company that you pay $80/mo call you a liar! I had to increase my plan to the highest level so I wouldn't go over the FAP limit. Amazingly, after the final word from Wild Blue when they called me a liar, my FAP meter DROPPED like a rock and I was doing nothing different with my usage. Long story but indicative of what you are up against with Wild Blue. Their FAP policy and monitoring is wacky and shady. They will not explain exactly how they system works and the fact that the meter is 2-4 days late and runs on a rolling 30 day period forces the user to spend a lot of time making sure everything is correct. Check some of the independent Wild Blue forum sites. Theyare mostly devoted to problems with Wild Blue support and the FAP. This week the strange FAP problems have started again. My meter has spiked 4GB in a few days and the only major download was a couple of ITunes albums (300 MB total). Its really mind boggling. I will also add the usual ISP complaints about inconsistent download speed problems. With 1.5 mbps down you would think that basic YouTube videos would play without having to pause and buffer every 5 second. Its not computer related as all my computers are less than a year old and stripped of all bloatware. member for 17.9 years, 17 visits, last login: 12.4 years ago updated 15.2 years ago
Be afraid, be very afraid. (review was emailed in) lodged 15.2 years ago
Had WB since Dec, 2005. Could do many things with it. MMO games were not a problem. VPN worked well, file up / down was nice and refreshing compared to dialup. Since November latency has went form an average of 680ms to 1400ms-3500ms and it's all but went out the window VPN doesn't work reliably, games do not work. which makes it an overpriced connection to browse the web and obtain your email. Contract will lock you in while WB goes to the bank with the monthly fees. stay far far away from WB and don't believe anything there website says about how there system is designed to help offset latency and make it better and faster. member for 18.8 years, 178 visits, last login: 11 years ago updated 15.2 years ago
I have had WildBlue for two months now and it is pathetic. I can't believe DirecTV is willing to sacrifice their reputation by associating with it. You don't get anywhere near the speeds they advertise and when you call all they say is that is that the advertised speeds are up to speeds, not actual speeds. In the sign up info it mentions fair access, but doesn't define it. About 30 days after signing up, I received a notice in the mail that I only get 12gb down and 3gb up. If you get within 80% of this you are supposed to get a warning email. If you exceed the threshold in any 30 day window, they reduce your speed to 128 kbps down and 28 kbps up, until your usage is 70% or less of threshold. I didn't get the email and instead my service was dropped to the point where I can't access a webpage without timing out. I complained about the impossible speeds and they suggested I check my email in the middle of the night. They actually had the audacity to tell me that I probably wouldn't have adequate speed to use the Internet most of the day. If this is the policy, it should have been stated in all caps in the contract before they took a hefty installation fee and a $150 cancellation penalty. member for 17.6 years, 1 visits, last login: 15.2 years ago updated 15.2 years ago |