Satelite internet?

[S.Crum]

Now that the wife has left, the TV is rarely on, maybe 1 or 2 hours a week. I have Dish network that is nailing me $50+ a month. I have to use dial up internet because Verizon refuses high speed in our area unless I want to pay them $12,000 to bring it 1/4 mile up the road. Dial up is costing $22 a month. Last I checked Hughesnet was about $70 a month. For what TV I care to watch, I can get the weather off the web. Is Hughesnet worth $70 a month? Are there better providers out there? I'm in northern central Pennsylvania.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Stay away from Hughesnet at all cost. I had Hughesnet with many problems I called to put it on vacation got billed anyway and in order to get my money back was to cancel, so i did. Do you have cell phone sevice if so go with Verizon VZAccess Manager. this is a modem that plugs into your usb port. it costs about the same as Hughesnet.

 

[S.Crum]

Talked with "Haji" (not his real name) at Hughesnet for about 10 minutes and could only understand 1/2 of what he was saying. After several attempts to get clarification of different statements I gave up and told him to have a good day. Speaka' my language! I then drove down to the Verizon store and talked with a knowledgable fellow. He told me that unless I had 3 bars on my Verizon cell phone, it would not connect to the internet. Lucky me I have 1 bar (most of the time) So much for their "most reliable 3G network". I'd probably get more done if I didn't have the internet!

 

[tomNE]

stay away from hughesnet, i had it. I have a wireless internet connection from verison. It works as good as anything. still like $70 a month but works most of the time and i travel all over the western states with my laptop.

 

[Cliff(VA)]

We had Hughesnet a work for a short time. We were pretty unsatisfied with it.

Sometimes it would take up to 1/4 sec to respond to a mouse click (travel time out to the satelite and back at the speed of light). It would not function at all with a VPN.

On the otherhand, on something like a download once it got going it was fast. It is overall faster than dialup.

I would use it only as a last resort.

Cliff(VA)

 

[JDemaris]

I've had Hughesnet for two years and it's been fine. I also have two neighbors with the same. I've got the slowest-lowest setup and it costs $60 per month.

Much faster then dial-up with data coming TO you. Not much faster then dial-up though when you send data. It uses different electronics to transmit then it does to receive.

It's never going to be as fast as a good DSL or cable hookup - but that is moot since I can't get those and never will unless I move.

Nicest thing about the Hugesnet is that I can now download big files - like tech manuals in PDF. I never could with dial-up. Just downloaded a 150 MB diesel manual this morning. Took around 10-15 minutes. If I'd tried it with dial-up, it would of taken an entire night - if able at all.

It's also nice to have it on all day and hooked to a wireless router. This way we have Internet access for all five computers here (two desktops and three laptops).

Dial-up here only cost $9 per month and I still have it. Just haven't used it in two-years. We hung on to it for "backup", but Hughesnet has been reliable enough that we'll probably dump the dial-up soon.

 

[ericlb]

for what its worth, we have wildblue, my wife needs certain features on it to hook into her computer at her work, 4 years no problems other than when it doesnt work due to storm activity, out here its that or dial up, and our phone dont work real good in clear weather, [another good story or skilled workers]

 

[Kruse]

We used to have Wild Blue (a different satellite provider) and it was a real PITA. It was better than dialup, but also cost a lot more and wouldn't work with any blue clouds in the sky. If you need faster speeds and that's your only choice, take it. If you have any other choice, walk away from satellite internet.

 

[buickanddeere]

3G or 4G wireless coverage in the area?

 

[MarkB_MI]

The best thing you can say about satellite internet is it's better than dialup. Barely.

If you can get 3G wireless service in your area, that is definitely a better way to go.

 

[bob featherstone]

dial up here only ( boonies ) so went to internet stick ( cell technoligy ) works great, fast & cost"s about $40 a month never been down or kicked me off yet ( 5 months )
this is canada though, got rogers, bell & telus to choose from
bob

 

[Dick2]

There have been a couple of local/regional companies set up and offer satellite internet. After awhile they seem to take on too many subscribers for their equipment and it slows down so bad that dial-up is better. Then another company starts up and does the same thing. Are dial-up isn't great, but we're sticking with it for $10 a month.

 

[dixon boy]

been using hughnet for little over year now an am satisfied as you don't have many options in rural areas. I run busineess at this location also so on it daily for parts lookup and so on. only time i have had trouble is when totally snow whiteouts or really reaaly foggy times.Much better than dial up which i still have as option yet. i recommend it mine was thru Iowa telecom

 

[Ken Thies]

I believe dish net has a sat internet service.

 

[mmidlam]

Those that live in Michigan can use the free dailup as backup when the the satellite goes down.
free dial in

 

[Kevin2]

I had decent luck with 550 access before I went to Roadrunner a couple years ago. Something like 150 hours a month of dialup for $5.50. I was prepared to put up with a lot of dropped connections to save 10-15 a month, but it was pretty reliable. Do NOT use their email or browser though, get a Yahoo account or something.

 

[Justin-PA]

We had hughesnet for 2 years. It was better than dialup, but was pretty fickle with the weather and way too expensive.

One thing to keep in mind...in PA you CAN get DSL if you can get enough neighbors to sign up. Verizon HAS to, by law, install DSL if enough people in a given area sign up thru the BFRR process (Bona fide retail request). It sounds like a pain, but we did it in our area and now we have DSL which is 10x better and half the cost.

This is the website...Verizon does NOT advertise this process!!



www22.verizon.com/ForYourHome/BFRR

 

[JimDRIl]

I just signed a new cellphone contract with US Cellular and they now offer cellphone internet 3g service for about 60 bucks a month. It has a modem that plugs into the usb port. We are in the middle of a 30 day free trial. We're gonna signup for sure and say goodby and good riddance to Wild Blue, which has been horrible of late. When I called and complained about their service I learned that they are oversubscribed in my area and havn't taken any new customers for the last three months. When I connect now I feel like I've died and gone to heaven it's so fast.