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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 40 days ago
(review was emailed from domain wildblue.net)
 Coulterville,Mariposa,CA
 Contract price not specified.
 "connection reliability"
 "fair access plan"
 "I'm seriously looking into Hughes Net"
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(ratings below consensus)
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The Fair Access Plan has a 30 day roll over, which is way too long to be without speed. Hughes has a 24 hour roll over.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 60 days ago
(review was emailed in)
Batesburg,Lexington,SC
Contract price not specified.
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S L O W ...SERVICE NO TECH SUPPORT HELP!!......WITHOUT PAYING EXTRA MONEY.....I SPENT 300.00 FOR THE EQUIPMENT AND 150.00 FOR A 3" POLE...CALLED TECH SUPPORT MANY OF TIMES IN THE FIRST 90 DAYS.....IT WILL COST YOU 95.OO MORE DOLLARS.....RIPP OFF...I GET AROUND 90 KBS...AND....40 KBS....CHECKING MY SERVICE AT WWW.TOAST.COM AND WWW.INTERNETFROG.COM....SLOW!!
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Review by pounce99 
UPDATED: 68 days ago
member for 4.5 years, 50 visits, last login: 10 days ago
Weslaco,Hidalgo,TX
Contract price not specified.
"you are online"
"slower than dialup"
"internet on my iphone is way faster"
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don't get me started
$90.00 dollars a month
for dial up speeds if your lucky
fair share policy they throttle your download speed (witch sucks to begin with)
if you download anything it seems like
rain means no internet
have to reboot modem all the time for what ever reason
there is nothing high speed about it
it is all lies
i have the fastest or the biggest package they offer for home use
12 gig's a month
and there don't let you use the internet really for anything but surfing
download anything and any speed you had is gone they throttle you
i moved to the RGV in south texas and there is nothing here
i cant get DSL cable nothing
this was only option besides dial up
and after having this for 3 months
i would rather have dial up
at least i could download all i wanted to with no cap on it
i have a clear view of the southern sky
and my dish is on top of a 2 story house
so i should get the best possible everything from wild blue
so it is the service it sucks
i don't suggest it to anyone
but that is my opinion
other people might like this service
i cant wait to move back to real broadband
no online gaming
no streaming music
no streaming movies
no net flix
no downloads
AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
it is horrible
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Review by mrpepsi
UPDATED: 77 days ago
member for 3.5 years, 238 visits, last login: 77 days ago
Tulsa,Tulsa,OK
Contract price not specified.
"None"
"It's a horrible, unreliable service."
"It takes my money, and does nothing for me. It works about 40% of the time."
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Save yourself the trouble, find something else.
Followup comments:  Wcameron
join:2006-04-24
Anderson, CA | You like the FAP? Is this sarcasm? I understand the need for a FAP but theirs is so poorly implemented. What is it you like about it? | |
| micwa
join:2009-01-13
Seminary, MS | Poster above Poster above:
Yeah because a daily 300MB cap is a lot better.
HN's FAP is so complicated to understand, most people just give up and pray they don't go over. | |
| | | |
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Review by cindy_black
Posted: 101 days ago
(review was emailed from domain hotmail.com)
Bainbridge Island,Kitsap,WA
Contract price not specified.
"Nice customer service people, but not helpful"
"Slow, 24 month contract, huge cancellation fees"
"Bad deal all the way around!"
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I am very disappointed with my Wild Blue experience. I bought the service for my daughter and son-in-law as a gift. I started with the basic service. When I visited them I couldn't believe how slow it was, basically just above dial-up. I decided to upgrade the service to "Pro" which is very expensive for the service you get. When I visited after the upgrade, it was faster, but still very slow compared to DSL. They now have to move due to job and school situations. The service contract is 24 months, which I is personally ridiculous in this day and age when people have to move more frequently. The cancellation fee is $15 times the months left on the contract. When I tried to move the service to the new location, they said it was free. I got transferred to another person who explained I would have to start a brand new contract for 24 months. I couldn't find that piece of information anywhere on their website. I said no way. I wrote and email to them explaining my situation and my frustration with their policies and service, but their response was pathetic and not customer friendly at all. The email looked like some canned response. What happened to treating customers with respect! Needless to say, I do not recommend this company and their services to anyone.
Followup comments: 
WiFiguru
Formerly jnethostman
Premium
join:2005-06-21
Lodi, CA | BBB Contact the BBB and your states utilities commission.
You'll get a response really QUICK. | |
| Luminaris
join:2005-12-01
Winchester, VA | BBB is your friend in this case I agree, that is horrible and should not be tolerated by any means. Contact the BBB and they will get some sort of resolution for you. I've had to do it before and they work great. Good luck! | |
| | micwa
join:2009-01-13
Seminary, MS | Re: BBB is your friend in this case They are trying to compare DSL to satellite. That was the first mistake. They should have done research before signing a contract.
No the BBB is not your friend in this case, common sense should be. | |
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Review by reedsr12
UPDATED: 102 days ago
member for 1.7 years, 156 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Terre Haute,Vigo,IN
Contract price not specified.
"It provided internet"
"High Ping times, less than advertised speed, no service during bad weather"
"This service is a last resort, and by last resort I mean if there is no copper available for dialup"
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High startup costs, Ping times that varied up to 2,000ms and speeds that were less than a quarter of the advertised rates. Some of you will say but, but, the contract, and I say no service based business should be able to sell a service and only be obligated to provide so little. They are basically taking no responsibility for the quality of service while locking you in for the various terms.
Luckily my wildblue was subscribed to through Dish and the only saving grace for the whole ordeal is that I complained to the BBB and Dish released me from the wildblue obligation with no termination fees at about 6 months.
Since my original subscription to WB, EVDO has come available in my area and I have moved on to it.
I wish I had stayed with my dialup rather than subscribing to WB.
UPDATE:
Wildblue did attempt to insert a charge into my Dish bill a few months after canceling my account. I called them and told them I hadn't been a WB customer for months and they removed the charge but I am sure they would have accepted the payment and continued charging it if I wouldn't have caught it.
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Review by humboldt_CA
Posted: 133 days ago
member for 2.7 years, 76 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Redcrest,Humboldt,CA
Contract price not specified.
"decent download .8-1.3 (1.5 adv.)"
"terrible upload speeds 70-80 at best,(256 adv!!)"
"reliable,upload a ripoff!"
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much better than starband pro or hughes except for the upload,i purchased 256 and get 70 -80
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Review by dsvanp65
UPDATED: 153 days ago
member for 2.6 years, 28 visits, last login: 133 days ago
Eureka,Woodford,IL
Contract price not specified.
"OK for us country folks"
"too costtly for the speeds as compared with cable and DSL"
"If I had other options would not choose WB or any other satellite provider"
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I am a GOLD level subscriber at $70.00/month... Wildblue is turning out to be a joke. Their FAP (Fair Access Policy) is something which a potential subscriber should be aware of. They (WB) only provide a cheesy "gadget" for monitoring usage and it covers the most recent 30 days so the subscriber only sees a cumulative value and not a daily usage. I am currently in a dispute with them over some usage amounts. Thus far they have refused to provide me details of the usage. My wireless phone provider gives me a daily breakdown of calls and minutes used.
All this to say... let the buyer beware... I would definitely NOT be a Wildblue customer if I had any other option. In fact, they have ticked me off so much recently that I am seriously considering going back to dial-up
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 Review by Island Jeff
UPDATED: 156 days ago
member for 4.3 years, 1467 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Beaver Island,Charlevoix,MI
Contract price not specified.
"Solid connection, great installers, friendly helpful service"
"latency of wildblue traffic shaping, but still better than previous starband system"
"Doesn't hold a candle to dsl or wisp, but got me by when nothing else was available -great from 2005 until 2006 w/o shaping"
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My Other Reviews ·TDS
|
After another maintenance event, raw speeds for larger files are again as advertised and quite good. Significantly for me, FTP is now working again which is a very very good thing and much appreciated as well. However secure sites are still noticeably slower than they were prior to 11/17 -- secure pages that were taking 10 seconds are now taking 30, which is a large drawback in my view. Also the doubled latency makes ssh very slow now so it's difficult to type much less correct a typo. I would currently recommend a wait-and-see approach: we know the wildblue hardware is capable of a very responsive and nice broadband system, but it seems the loading on Beam 17 is now too great and everything except non-secure http performance has been de-prioritized and there is not enough bandwidth to support activities other than non-secure site browsing and file transfers. I have high hopes that the new satellite will allow them to once again provide the truly wonderful system that wildblue was between September of 2005 and November of 2006.
PING google.com (72.14.207.99) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=237 time=1458 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=1 ttl=237 time=1191 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=2 ttl=237 time=1740 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=3 ttl=237 time=1305 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=4 ttl=237 time=1459 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=5 ttl=237 time=1685 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=6 ttl=237 time=1240 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=7 ttl=237 time=1168 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=8 ttl=237 time=1324 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=9 ttl=237 time=1211 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=10 ttl=237 time=1413 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=11 ttl=237 time=1188 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=12 ttl=237 time=1178 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=13 ttl=237 time=1728 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=14 ttl=237 time=1279 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=15 ttl=237 time=1209 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=16 ttl=237 time=1643 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=17 ttl=237 time=1187 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=18 ttl=237 time=1605 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=19 ttl=237 time=1735 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=20 ttl=237 time=1300 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=21 ttl=237 time=1191 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=22 ttl=237 time=1530 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=23 ttl=237 time=1168 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=24 ttl=237 time=1160 ms
--- google.com ping statistics ---
25 packets transmitted, 25 received, 0% packet loss, time 32029ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1160.896/1372.305/1740.754/205.001 ms
------
November 17, 2006
On 11/17/2006 a firmware update was pushed to wildblue modems that reduced performance by 50% compared to the previous 13 months of service and introduced a number of glitches even browsing due to frequent stalls and 4,000+ ms pings. Until this problem can be resolved, I would not recommend a new wildblue install in this area.
------
September 2005 until November 17, 20006
Midwest Energy ( »www.wild-blue.coop ) just finished my wildblue install today. After using starband for 3 1/2 years, I'm blown away.
Wildblue is awesome.
The installers were top-notch - very very smooth install and GREAT people to deal with! I can't thank Midwest Energy enough for an amazing job even in my difficult location!
:::.. Upload Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 239 Kbps about 0.2 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Upload Speed is:: 29 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (server2)
Test Time:: Mon Sep 12 2005 16:12:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
Bottom Line:: 4X faster than 56K 1MB upload in 35.31 sec
Diagnosis: 90% + Okay : running at 100 % of your hosts average (123.148)
Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-UFRKYA4XC
:::.. Download Stats ..:::
Connection is:: 1555 Kbps about 1.6 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)
Download Speed is:: 190 kB/s
Tested From:: »testmy.net/ (server2)
Test Time:: Mon Sep 12 2005 16:10:02 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
Bottom Line:: 28X faster than 56K 1MB download in 5.39 sec
Diagnosis: Looks Great : 2.71 % faster than the average for host (123.148)
Validation Link:: »testmy.net/stats/id-B2F1KTN8Z
I'm very very happy with both upload and download speeds. For $79 a month, it blows my previous staband $69/month system out of the water which was delivering ~450-510 down and 45-55 up plus required a windows computer to run the software.
I expected browsing, downloading, and uploading to be improved, but best of all, two things that I always had trouble on with starband, that I thought were just bad due to the high latency of any satellite connection, ssh and ftp, are working much better with wildblue! Much better! Secure sites are also performing 10x better than they did on starband - I can now use web control panels and online banking sites, shopping checkouts, and ebay without waiting an eternity for pages to load as on my previous satellite system.
Wildblue is very consistent for me right now:
ping -n 10 yahoo.com
Pinging yahoo.com [66.94.234.13] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=648ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=727ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=730ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=726ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=723ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=723ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=641ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=642ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=654ms TTL=48
Reply from 66.94.234.13: bytes=32 time=643ms TTL=48
Ping statistics for 66.94.234.13:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 641ms, Maximum = 730ms, Average = 685ms
ping -n 10 google.com
Pinging google.com [216.239.37.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=682ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=600ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=600ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=695ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=680ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=679ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=678ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=645ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=644ms TTL=238
Reply from 216.239.37.99: bytes=32 time=603ms TTL=238
Ping statistics for 216.239.37.99:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 600ms, Maximum = 695ms, Average = 650ms
ping -n 10 boatdesign.net
Pinging boatdesign.net [67.19.227.229] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=642ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=606ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=603ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=644ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=646ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=604ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=605ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=615ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=654ms TTL=48
Reply from 67.19.227.229: bytes=32 time=646ms TTL=48
Ping statistics for 67.19.227.229:
Packets: Sent = 10, Received = 10, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 603ms, Maximum = 654ms, Average = 626ms
What's interesting is that even with pings of 626-685 ms, ftp works much much better than it ever did with starband. The time between changing folders and getting the folder list is about 3x faster in wildblue. With starband it would often timeout before getting the remote folder list - with wilblue, no problem - click - it's there faster than the list was retrieved with dialup! (there's more latency obviously but the transfer speed makes up for it, and it works. With starband it would take 5x as long to get a simple folder list, with wildblue on a medium sized folder, it's a bit faster which is great!) Not sure how to explain this improvement, since the data being sent is small and one would think it would come down to latency, but somehow it just is much faster for me with ftp. Likewise, ssh lag seems noticably reduced when simply typing shell commands at the prompt. How? I'm not sure, but I have a wildblue system on one computer here and my old starband 360 system on the other, and there sure is a nice difference in favor of the wildblue system!
Thanks to Wildblue and Midwest Energy for a great system and GREAT service!!
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 156 days ago
(review was emailed from domain yahoo.com)
Goodrich,Polk,TX
Contract price not specified.
"none"
"everything"
"Wild Blue is uncaring"
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I am a widow with 2 small children. I got Wild Blue because it was the only high speed in my area even though it is too expensive. I now have to move home to take care of my sick mother and she is not allowed to have a dish. I called Wild Blue with my predicament and they are going to charge me the early termination fees anyway. They don't care if my kids get fed or not.
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