george357
@untd.com
|  Is Hughsnet worth it?
Hello
I am currently on a dial-up connection, the absolute best connection I can manage is 28kps with a download average of 2.5kps when I am lucky.
My question:
Is there any real difference in HN or Wildblue?
I understand the whole FAP and the "heavy traffic" situation, but from what I see even the most restricted connection on either of theses satellite options are still better than my level of dial-up.
Any Comments/suggestions? |
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MatthewAlan
join:2007-09-01
united state
| Well..Is HN better then dialup? Yes. Is HN worth the price? Most likely not, if you're getting the speeds of 100kbps from the prime time slowdown.
I mean, just getting 1mbps at night, makes it better than dialup, but is it worth the price? To me personally, it isn't but that will vary by person.
If you can deal with "possible" random slowdowns, but pretty much advertised speed 8-10hours a day, then yes its worth it.
Also keep in mind, most people here are having problems..or they expected something like cable/DSL.
However, make SURE cable/dsl/wireless is not available, or would be available in the next few months. If you believe it may be, don't sign up.
28kbps dialup? Where I live the most you can get is 16kbps, somethings it would connect at 7 and 14kbps. |
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george357
@untd.com | Thanks for your answer, sorry to hear about your dial-up problem I guess I just thought mine was bad.
George |
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RickT
Premium
join:2008-06-09
Clovis, CA
| reply to george357
Similar situation here, best dial-up was 12kbps and no other alternative but satellite when Sprint Broadband shut down. Researched both WB and HN, long story short, decided on HN because of the new Spaceway 3 satellite and HN9000 modem. Frankly, it has been very reliable with speeds consistent with my plan, both down and up. Bottom line, with a good install, it's pretty decent if you don't have any other high-speed alternative and watch your FAP limits closely.
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HN9000 Spaceway III Home Plan, iMac PPC G5 10.4.11, Trendnet wireless |
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One more too
@direcway.com
| said by RickT  :Similar situation here, best dial-up was 12kbps and no other alternative but satellite when Sprint Broadband shut down. Researched both WB and HN, long story short, decided on HN because of the new Spaceway 3 satellite and HN9000 modem. Frankly, it has been very reliable with speeds consistent with my plan, both down and up. Bottom line, with a good install, it's pretty decent if you don't have any other high-speed alternative and watch your FAP limits closely. Likewise, I've had an excellent experience with my Spaceway system. I had a Ku system for several years. During that time, I had service on two different satellites and multiple transponders on each of those two satellites. At best, the service with the Ku system was spotty. Drastic evening slowdowns were typical, even with a small office plan, and there were occasional outages. On one of the satellites, complete outages became the norm.
I've now had my Spaceway/Ka system for over a year. Service has been excellent. I get advertised plan maximum speeds virtually 24/7, and there have only been a handful of NOC-related outages during that time, and those have lasted only a few minutes.
I think that most of the complaints of poor service, throttling, etc. that you see here and elsewhere come from people with Ku systems. There are very few complaints from people with the Spaceway systems. A large number of the complaints from people on the Ku systems clearly come as a result of Hughes overselling available bandwidth. While I can't guarantee that Hughes won't eventually oversell the bandwidth on Spaceway, at this point, it is not oversold, and I'd guess it is a long way from being so. Further, there seem to be significantly fewer maintenance issues related to Spaceway that there are with at least a couple of the Ku satellites which seem to constantly have problems. I can't tell you whether it is a problem with those satellites themselves or whether Hughes is placing a higher priority on maintaining the infrastructure with Spaceway, which is their own satellite, as opposed to the Ku satellites on which Hughes leases transponders.
So, for me, the bottom line would be that I would not hesitate to get service from Hughes, but I would make certain that I was going to be able to get a 9000/Spaceway system. In any case, the Hughes service is expensive. You have to deal with latency, and you have to learn to live with FAP limits, but, if I had no other alternative to dial-up, my Spaceway service has been leagues better than dial up in every possible way. |
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zvolts
Premium
join:2005-02-04
Mikado, MI
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
 ·Charter Pipeline
| reply to george357
Same boat here. Lived with dial up for a year. Signed up with HN about 4 or 5 months ago and am on their HN9000/Spaceway 3 system. I've had great luck, with a solid connection and decent speeds. I've not experienced any of the prolonged slow speeds that some here have mentioned. Beats the hell out of dial-up. |
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DoctorDoom
Troll hunter
Premium
join:2006-09-19
Becket, MA
| reply to george357
Re: Is Hughesnet worth it?
I was on dial-up (26.4 Kb/s max) from March 1998 to Sept 2006. Since the likelihood of anything faster here is on a par with the probability of a Martian invasion, I bit the bullet and went with HN. It's not DSL/cable/FIOS, but it beats the hell out of POTS.
I was fapped once when my son decided to watch everything on YouTube, but other than that, I've had few significant issues with it. If it's the only choice other than dial-up, go for it.
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HN7000S, Pro & PowerPak, G25 93.1°W 1278 |
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george357
@untd.com | Want to thank all you that have replied. Very informative, I will look into the Spaceway/9000 system and see how it goes.
George |
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yolarry
join:2007-12-29
Creston, WV | reply to george357
Re: Is Hughsnet worth it?
This would really help keep your computer up to date tho.
If your a night owl then take it! |
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Arion
join:2006-07-09
Marquette, MI
·HughesNet Satellit..
| reply to george357
Re: Is Hughesnet worth it?
said by george357 :
Want to thank all you that have replied. Very informative, I will look into the Spaceway/9000 system and see how it goes.
George
The spaceway system is the default system you will get now. They will only consider a KU system if your line of sight prohibitions won't allow you to get spaceway.
Go for it...you'll be glad you did. I went from lousy dialup 28.8 as well a few years back and I would never go back to dial up. The outages are very minimal for me. A few times a year during moderate/heavy rain and then only lasts for a bit. You 'might' be slowed down to less than 100 kbps occasionally during peak time. It happens pretty rarely for me. During the few hours of peak time I'm usually down to around 300 kbps and then a few hours later back to my 1.5mb plan speeds.
In addition in the middle of the night there is a several hour window you can download that doesn't count against your fap. Use a download manager for the big files and they are waiting for you in the morning.
A lot of the complaints come from people that have had cable internet or quick wireless in the past and of course they pay more and get less service on a satellite system. For those of us in the boonies I wouldn't be without it.
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HN7000S IA-8 1070 / 8-PSK 3/4 (14) / Router:67.142.140.83 /.74 1 watt / Pro plus/ Pentium 3.2ghz, 2gb ram / WinXP Pro / Opera 9.6 / www.bigbaywx.com |
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Qoiz
join:2005-06-26 | reply to george357
Re: Is Hughsnet worth it?
HELL NO
DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO THROW AWAY A THOUSAND DOLLARS OR TWO |
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Leo
|  reply to george357
Absolutely not. Trust me, stick with dial up. HughesNet actually stuck FAP on me for looking at photobucket albums. Not worth the price at all.
And FYI, if you call to cancel, they will attempt to give you 2 weeks, then a month free service if you agree to keep their service.
They tried to get me to keep hughesnet over cable. I laughed at them and told them there was no way I was going to keep HughesNet. |
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Argus P
join:2004-08-31
Lake Cormorant, MS
| reply to george357
Been with HughesNet off and on for about 5 years. First time was OK until about 2 years ago, overselling bandwidth to the point that from 3pm til midnite it was worse than dailup. A little over a year ago I went with the plan for 2 meg speeds and 500 meg bucket on Spaceway with the 9000 modem, with service agreement about $160/mo. So far it's been problem free, a little rain fade, but rarely, been faped a couple of times. I really don't come around much anymore because it's been pretty much invisible, no complaints at all. I get these speeds day in and out:
 |
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kabunoki
join:2008-11-19
Locust Dale, VA
| YES - as long as Satellite is your only option for broadband. If you can get cellphone or any other option, then stay away from Satellite. There is no real difference in Satellite providers, just get the best deal pricewise - because either way they are VERY expensive for what you get.
Also please don't believe their commercials or listen to anyone about Satellite being broadband. It is great for email, web browsing, research, etc. But it is not great for music or video downloads and be careful of Youtube. The problem is that Satellite has DAILY download limits instead of monthly. AND, instead of just charging you for excess downloads like other providers, Satellite basically shuts you off (FAP) when you hit the daily limit.
But also don't believe anyone about reliability. I've been on satellite for 10 yrs and the uptime is probably 99.9%. Sure you lose it in electrical storms, but my internet stays up more often than my dish TV signal !! It is "Always ON" and doesn't interfere with phone lines and is pretty fast for basic browsing. |
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Pesimist
join:2007-07-09
Valley, AL | reply to george357
Re: Is Hughsnet worth it?
NOT worth it, would not recommend them to anyone.
Even slow/intermittent dial up was more reliable. |
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tobicat
join:2005-04-18
Tombstone, AZ | Sigh if I responded to this SeaGreen would only delete it.
I'm sorry sir you are simply wrong.
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9000 spaceway III, 7000S SatMex 5 990, Dlink wirless |
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theGhostPony
@direcpc.com
| reply to george357
If you can get a new Ka system I'd say yes. Poor slobs like me stuck with an old Ku rig (HN7000S / 91W) are doomed to whatever crappy service Hughes feels like dishing out on a particular day and there are times I'd like to throw the whole thing out the window (down today for 30mins a while ago - NOC weather?). When my contract is up, I'm going back to cellular service. And speaking of service... hope you can understand India english. Their phony accents are atrocious. I don't think US based techs exist any more. |
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yolarry
join:2007-12-29
Creston, WV
·HughesNet Satellit..
| reply to george357
Some people here just whine too much here. well seriously the only issue I have is
-Slow downs just a little during the day
-you can only send attach e-mails during the night (biggest e-mail I send was 10MB, that would take dial up a hour or 2)
-bad weather
-FAP
Thats pretty much it
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HN7000S - 99 West 1370 MHz - Pro - installed October 2007 - Linksys WRT160N V2 & WRT54G V6 DD-WRT - Xbox 360, PSP-1001 CFW - 4 Vista Desktops - 2 XP Desktops - 1 XP Acer Aspire 3680 laptop |
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theGhostPony
join:2009-07-31
Lexington, KY | What. You think those who are having trouble with their service are just making this sh!t up?
"Some people here just whine too much here" |
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