Questions for Satellite Internet users

[suzanne]

My buddy lives on South East Coast of Oregon and has Dial up internet service. DSL is not available where they live. They have Directv and can get Internet via Satellite, with a two year contract. They were told by someone that it was expensive and did not work very well. Can some one give me some good advice to pass on to them regarding this? How well does it work, typicaL cost, etc?

thanks,

Suzanne

 

[vacationdoc]

I have talked with several RVers who use www.hughesnet.com/ and seem happy with it.

 

[caribbean]

We used to have Hughes net which is also what you get with DirecTV. Had it for about 5-6 years. It did OK, not great. Better than dial up which at that time was our only option. If you are just surfing on non-secure sites it is pretty good. But if you need to access any secure sites (https) you might as well be on dial-up. The problem was explained to me and made sence, but no way can I explain it to you. The upload speeds are very slow. Just don't expect it to be like wired service you may have at work.

Basically if it is the ONLY option other than dial up, then go for it. But if you have other access, by all means go another direction. About 3-4 years ago we began getting Verizon wireless acces out here in the sticks. We switched over and it has been great. One really good thing about is that you take it with you when you travel. We started out with the USB card, but switched to the MiFi card right after that came out. Have the card centrally located in the house and works great. Also no more arguing over using the USB which meant only one of us could be online at a time. The MiFi supports up to 5 computers. For those of us without any kind of wired TV or computer access, this has been the best thing since I finally got a dial-up provider with a local phone number. Remember those days?

 

[brigechols]

I'm very satisfied with HughesNet. It is way faster than dialup and my only option to DSL which is unavailable in my rural area. Your friend will experience outages as often as he loses satellite service.

 

[Passepartout]

They may also be able to get 3G service from their (or another) cell provider. It just takes a dongle and an unlimited data plan ($30/mo with AT&T others similar)

Jim Ricks

 

[Sea Six]

Oregon has a southeast coast???

 

[bryanphunter]

I recommend WildBlue Satellite internet. I have been using Wildblue for three years in rural Minnesota and I am extremely satisfied with the service. They have three different packages to choose from ($39, $59, or $79 per month).

The drawback to hughesnet, is it utilizes your phone line to upload, which slows down the overall speed. Wildblue to strictly satellite transmission.

 

[chellej]

I recommend WildBlue Satellite internet. I have been using Wildblue for three years in rural Minnesota and I am extremely satisfied with the service. They have three different packages to choose from ($39, $59, or $79 per month).

The drawback to hughesnet, is it utilizes your phone line to upload, which slows down the overall speed. Wildblue to strictly satellite transmission.

When we had hughesnet it was not connected to our phoneline. The problem we had was my DS played online games and had alot of large downloads. They limit your usage and if you exceed it you are reduced to mega slow speed for the rest of the use period.

 

[sdbrier]

I recommend WildBlue Satellite internet. I have been using Wildblue for three years in rural Minnesota and I am extremely satisfied with the service. They have three different packages to choose from ($39, $59, or $79 per month).

The drawback to hughesnet, is it utilizes your phone line to upload, which slows down the overall speed. Wildblue to strictly satellite transmission.

There is no phone line for my hughes HN 7000, you must have had very old technology from their inception.

The largest drawback is the fair access threshhold policy. It allows only 200 MB of downloads per day until your speed is greatly reduced. That is on thier 59.99 plan. For 10.00 more you can get 375MB per day and for another 10.00 Still more ,but I can't remember how much more.

Wild Blue has the same policy except it is per month not per day and you pay a lease equipment fee, so it is basically the same price as hughes.

 

[suzanne]

Thanks everyone, I will pass this on to my friend. Sorry about the South East error. We live in South East Florida now, so I got a minor brain Fog.

Suzanne