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Lou
@128.62.46.x

Lou

Anon

go with Skybeam, HughesNet, or Wireless n' Wifi?

We've just moved to a rural area just outside of Austin, Texas (Manor/Webberville)-- seems like our only options are Hughes Net or Skybeam. From reading the reviews, it looks like both those services are hit or miss. People say, if you have ANY other options than satellite, go with it. But people also say that if you have ANY other options than Skybeam, go with that. So I'm not sure what's the lesser of the two evils. We're fairly heavy internet users-- streaming video, etc. I also work from home, so am trying to choose the most reliable internet. Anyone have any thoughts? Wireless n' Wifi seems to be a possibility as well.

xrayman
join:2008-12-09
Kansas City

xrayman

Member

Have you looked at Exede satellite or Verizon HomeFusion/LTE Internet (Installed)? Do you have a local WISP?

Lou
@128.62.46.x

Lou

Anon

the only WISP that covers my specific area is Skybeam. Verizon HomeFusion is much more expensive than we're willing to do- we could get a T1 line installed for around the same cost, actually slightly less.

Exede seems to be available, but the cap is way too small. We don't use internet from midnight-5a, so couldn't take advantage of the free zones.
brainpattern
join:2014-01-28
Wausau, WI

brainpattern

Member

I also work from home (as does my wife) and Wireless N Wifi has been good overall. We're going into our 3rd (or 4th?) month with them. Sprint's LTE in our area leaves a little to be desired as far as speeds are concerned, but it's not awful at around 5Mbps.

If you want absolute reliability and don't need a ton of speed, T1 is the way to go. You'll be paying more, but should have 99.9% uptime. If anything changes with Wireless N Wifi's offering, I'll most likely go that route.

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT to Lou

Member

to Lou
LiveAir Networks to the southeast of Austin
830-379-0660

Ranch Wireless to the southwest, east of I-35.
877-360-4273

Lou
@66.90.216.x

Lou

Anon

Ranch already came to do a site survey- their towers don't cover my area. And my address doesn't seem to be in LiveAir's coverage map.

Any thoughts about installing an ethernet line with MegaPath?
Lou

Lou to brainpattern

Anon

to brainpattern
brainpattern, Wireless n' Wifi relies on Sprint's LTE, right? If so, that wouldn't work-- we have a friend with Sprint cell coverage and he has no coverage when he's at our home- despite their coverage map showing my area to have 'good' coverage.
alancurry
join:2006-10-02
Cedar Park, TX

alancurry to Lou

Member

to Lou
A coworker is with Western Broadband. He likes them.

»www.westernbroadband.com

xrayman
join:2008-12-09
Kansas City

xrayman to Lou

Member

to Lou
You may need to use an outside antenna with the Sprint device to receive a good signal at your location. As I recall the Wireless n' Wifi LTE device has two antenna ports.

Lou
@128.62.34.x

Lou

Anon

Thanks all. Western Broadband doesn't serve our area.

so, our options are... $240/month for Ethernet with Megapath, unlimited, 1.5 mbps up/down; Wireless n' Wifi, 60gb/month for $90, or Skybeam- $60-110/month, depending on if we go with residential or small business plan, up to 15/3 mbps up/down. Cap seems to be 150 gb/month for Skybeam.

Right now we're leaning towards skybeam... any feedback?

Ibeg4ram
@72.19.168.x

Ibeg4ram to Lou

Anon

to Lou
Well for me it didn't matter what WISP I signed with over the last 10 years they all ended up bought by Skybeam. I too am doing software support from home office so uptime means more than bandwidth to me.
Skybeam has improved somewhat over the years, customer support is still lacking as the only reason I call them is to let them know they have a network outage. I use VOIP with their cannopy broadband which works ok. It supports multiple company VPNs which sattellite does not.

I pay a lot for their maximum residentual bandwidth, on good days I'll end up with close to 5mb and on average 2mb. They've had some bandwidth problems this week and gets frustrating when you try to call them. First thing I'm told each call is- "your to far from the tower', I always say- I don't think you moved your tower, and I know I didn't move my house in the last 10 years.

BTW- I dumped their solid reflector and purchased on-line a larger 39" wire mesh dish type and improved my signal strength greatly.

Overall- it's good enough to avoid driving 45 miles one way into Denver every day.

WHT
join:2010-03-26
Rosston, TX

WHT

Member

said by Ibeg4ram :

they all ended up bought by Skybeam

And JAB bought SkyBeam around three years ago.
»www.jabbroadband.com/com ··· mpanies/
alancurry
join:2006-10-02
Cedar Park, TX

alancurry to Lou

Member

to Lou
said by Lou :

Right now we're leaning towards skybeam... any feedback?

The only good thing about Skybeam is they do not have contracts. I was a customer of theirs in Weatherford, TX. They bought out the local WISP prior to me being a customer and I understand the WISP was very good.

My view of them is completely different. I wouldn't use their service unless it was the last thing. I used to keep a log of all my support calls along with supporting speedtest values. Many times I was getting 0.3 down in the evenings. I worked from home then and I had a dial up account for backup.

I jumped from Skybeam to a new WISP the first chance I got. The new WISP was made up employees and such from the original WISP. I guess their no compete clause had expired.

I'm not saying that you would have the same experience as me. I would just be wary of them.

Alan