Tails
join:2007-09-25
Sanford, NC
 ·Windstream
1 edit | Eh
I've only heard bad things about this company. How do they stay in business? I heard the FAP was a nightmare, and throttling/low caps rule the day. What happened to their capacity problem? If they don't have enough capacity for their customer base now, then why do they continue to offer it to new customers? Am I making the right assumption here??
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Do or do not, there is no try! - Yoda |
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BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI
·CenturyLink
| My 2 cents
It's all about who lies the best/most in their commercials.Hughesnet commercial i would say is right up there and give those that know the truth a good laugh.I would NEVER use either 1 of them Not even worth the hassle i'll go back on dial-up before dealing with either one of them crooks. |
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netwire
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Mooresboro, NC | Dial-up is better, faster...
I had Wild Blue, the Pro Pack. Dial-up seemed to be a lot faster (perhaps slower boost speed, but a whole lot less latency). I'd never use them again; would rather use 1XRTT or Dial-up.
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World of Warcraft - My anti-drug.
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
 ·Comcast
·Qwest.net
 ·magicjack.com
 ·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| @netwire agreed! I'd rather use 32 kbps dialup than 512 kbps WildBlue. Latency of 1-2 seconds just kills the connection!
As to WildBlue's speed disadvantage vs. HughesNet, granted WildBlue tops out at 1.5/256 for $80 a month, but Hughes' 3000/300 package is an excercise in marketing more than anything else. I mean, who's gonna actually pay hundreds of bucks per month for a minimal speed increase? Even at 512k latency kills you in web browsing, and on the 3 Mbit plan you would just break your FAP in 20 minutes and be forced into sub-dialup speeds for the rest of the day. Not worth $2xx per month, says I.
Hmm, what's happening with these one-way sat roviders anyway? I'd actually perfer their tech, as it has gotta have less latency than two-way sat, with no FAP limits and lower startup osts. Wonder why nobody talks about them more. Seeing as how uploads on sat 2ay aren't much better than dialup. Hmm, maybe it's the requirement for a phone line... |
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18
 ·WildBlue
·TDS
1 edit | quote:
Hmm, what's happening with these one-way sat roviders anyway? I'd actually perfer their tech, as it has gotta have less latency than two-way sat, with no FAP limits and lower startup osts. Wonder why nobody talks about them more. Seeing as how uploads on sat 2ay aren't much better than dialup. Hmm, maybe it's the requirement for a phone line...
I like the ability to self-install 1-way, but uploads on sat 2-way *are* much better than dialup. On wildblue I always get 220+ kbps up. On dialup, I was lucky to get 30 kbps up. It's not as great a difference as the download speed improvement, but sending a file 7x faster is nothing to scoff at. As you say with the latency, dialup will come out faster if you're uploading a very small file, but for sending photos to friends or uploading to an online gallery, printer, etc. or sending files to others to work with, etc. the difference is well worth the $. (especially, as you say, if you figure in the cost of an additional phone line with 1-way.)
Also there is the reliability of local dialup -- can you count on it to be 100% reliable and always-on, or does it typically glitch after a while? (Here wildblue exceeded the reliability of the local GLE/transworld analog dialup by a good margin.)
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Very happy TDS DSL user | Wildblue in Lake Michigan |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
·Qwest.net
·magicjack.com
·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Hm, to my knowledge I've had two problems with dialup (circuits busy on the exchange where the modems on the other end were located). Otherwise, aside from wet lines killing the connection, the service was quite reliable. Sat 'net...not so much; wather issues, anyone?
As to upload speed, that's a very YMMV thing. I've speedtested in sat locations and upload ranged from 38 to about 100 kbps on a 512/128 connection. The average for my town's sat connections? in the 80s. Guess it depends on the ground station at the other end, but latency seems to be about 1300 ms on sat and with uploads that slow you have to FAP yourself (okay, not quite, but close!) to see any upload benefit over a decent dialup connection. |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY | 100% coverage
DSLreports needs to close up shp. 100% of americans not living in an apartment or with restrictive covenants already have broadband internet access. |
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keefe007
Premium
join:2004-02-24
Germantown, WI | I'm not sure what America you live in.... |
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karlmarx
join:2006-09-18
iraq
·Fairpoint Communic..
| umm, he was being sarcastic. His comment was something a right wing nut case corp ate shill would make. Of course, satellite ISN'T broadband, not by a long shot, bur as long as the megacorps get to keep their money, they will argue that satellite covers the definition of broadband, so they can continue to fleece the public.
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The happiest countries are the most secular. The struggle AGAINST corporations is the struggle FOR humanity! |
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tobicat
join:2005-04-18
Tombstone, AZ
| reply to patcat88
said by patcat88  :DSLreports needs to close up shp. 100% of americans not living in an apartment or with restrictive covenants already have broadband internet access. You sir have never been to Arizona, New Mexico or Nevada for sure. I live 15 miles of dirt road from the closest town. There ain't no broadband there or here except satelite.
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9000 spaceway III, 7000S SatMex 5 1270, Dlink wirless |
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decifal
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN
| not so much
heh, broadband penetration isn't nowhere like it should be here in this country.. I mean hell only a small amount of people desiring faster speeds realise theres websites to visit to bitch about the lack of service. So to think 100 percent of america is wired for broadband is basically claiming status of being a comcast/att lobbyist, cause they are the only ones that preach this Bull.. Just where I work alone, only sixty percent of people have broadband access where the rest of us do not.. Are we in rural areas? Hell no, its just slow deployment/change of technology...
I bet if uverse didn't suddenly become the next thriller of ATT i'd have regular dsl by now.. But I feel as if the uverse phase has put a damper on my enchancement... So i'm down to just sprint wireless and satellite internet options if you can call it that..
Lets recycle all this copper and replace it with Fiber!!!! |
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Island Jeff
join:2005-07-18
·WildBlue
·TDS
2 edits | reply to iansltx
Re: Dial-up is better, faster...
Very low upload speed and frequent weather outage might indicate poor dish pointing. Wonder if your local installer isn't dong a good job for you? Back in the Starband days in 2001 the upload speed was really poor (in the 40-60 range; those were frustratingly slow times), but with Wildblue I've gotten 220+ kbps upload 24/7/365 since the year 2005 when it was installed. I think a good installation with accurate pointing is key to both good performance and reliable operation through weather (here it has to be raining so hard I can't see the W on the dish 100' from the window for it to drop out; we have around 3-4 weather outages a year due to rain or wet snow sitting on the tan cap on the tria.) But that's much better than the analog dialup was which drops off every couple hours. The dialup ISP had said it was phoneline quality, but I find it interesting now that DSL is here that the same phonelines deliver 100% reliable dsl service at 60x the performance; I guess it was poor ISP equipment afterall in the analog dialup days.)
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Very happy TDS DSL user | Wildblue in Lake Michigan |
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N4ST
Jim
Premium
join:2005-11-25
Jersey, VA
·WildBlue
| WildBlue vs. Hughes
The competition is between Hughes and WildBlue. Not between satellite internet and other broadband delivery systems. Anyone with more than two neurons firing would pick something besides satellite if there was a choice. I would pay $200/month for decent internet, but $80/month for WildBlue is my only choice, and it is far far better than dial-up for use by myself and my family. We are not doing twitch games, VOIP or VPN because performance is unsatisfactory over satellite. You don't have to be in the middle of New Mexico to not have broadband access. I'm only 40 miles from the White House and don't have DSL, Cable, WISP or EVDO. There is a WISP system being build that I may have access to in a couple of years, but their current rates/FAP/cost is about equal to WildBlue. All I would gain would be an improvement in latency.
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Anik F2 | WildBlue Pro Pak | Beam 37 | Laredo NOC | Since Nov 2005 |
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odreian615
join:2006-01-18
Chicago, IL
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to Tails
Re: Eh
said by Tails :I've only heard bad things about this company. How do they stay in business? I heard the FAP
god my head is in the gutter |
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EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | reply to karlmarx
Re: 100% coverage
The megacorps fleecing the public? Hughes Communications and Wildblue Communications are hardly megacorps... |
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Ugly
Fishy Cool Bird
join:2001-12-12
The Meadow
·Comcast
| WildBlue+DISH=Success?
OK, I'm just finding myself in a broadband free zone for the first time. 
While researching the choices, my first thought is to prefer simplicity.
If the DirectTV antenna and account can combine with HughesNet in one dish on the roof and one monthly billing account, then that would be better.
Now, if DISH and WildBlue could get together too, THAT would be real competition!
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Oh, I love the smell of fish. Guts, rotten, it's all good. |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| reply to tobicat
Re: 100% coverage
said by tobicat :said by patcat88 :DSLreports needs to close up shp. 100% of americans not living in an apartment or with restrictive covenants already have broadband internet access. You sir have never been to Arizona, New Mexico or Nevada for sure. I live 15 miles of dirt road from the closest town. There ain't no broadband there or here except satelite.  |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
2 edits | Is the author stupid?
"However, it's notable that HughesNet offers a nominal maximum download speed of 1 Mbps which is significantly faster than the speeds offered by WildBlue so people seeking faster service may still lean in favor of HughesNet."
Um Wild Blue has 512 Kbps, 1 Mbps and 1.5 Mbps packages. Also Wild Blue's caps while ridiculously low are better than Hughesnet.
In either case they aren't going to get more customers until the start giving out the dish for free and free installation like directTv does. And lower thier prices. My area just got EVDO service by Verison. So my friend that lvies out of town and whose only choice for broadband up until now was sateltie now has a choice. Sure the caps are low and it costs as much as satelite, but the speed is about the same, connection charge is only $35 instead of $400-$600 and no one has to come out and install a dish.
Satelite blew this and should have tried to get customers years ago. One of the main axioms of business "It's easier to keep a customer than to get a new one to replace him"
Here's map of Verizon in my state. The blue is where broadband available. A month ago at least 85% of that blue didn't exist. Considering most of the state is rual the satelite lost a monopoloy on potentially hundreds of thousands of customers. Too bad they didn't try seriously to get them.
»vzwmap.verizonwireless.com/outpu···PG?pelee |
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Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | FAP means that have severe capacity problems
I don't give a crap what their PR departments says |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
·Qwest.net
·magicjack.com
·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to Island Jeff
Re: Dial-up is better, faster...
Could be, but keep in mind that I'm going from the whole city's records on speedtest.net, and AFAIK they measure non-latency-based stats. I've seen upload vary greatly on the connection in fine weather at the dish location..dunno, but it seems like sat is very, very YMMV'y. Better than dialup, yes. Better than anything else (but maybe 2\2.5G cellular)? Probably not. |
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