Anybody using Hughes net?

[Peter Epperson]

My server, Coconut Wireless, is hopeless. I can barely connect to the web anymore and when I do it's slower than dial up. There is no dsl or Road Runner where I live and so options are limited. I'm about to sign up with Hughes Net for satellite service but have heard that the uploads are slow.

Anyone with experience out there?

[808blogger]

Latency is more of the issue...
1000ms latency ATLEAST (i am not a customer just knowledgeable)

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter Epperson

My server, Coconut Wireless, is hopeless. I can barely connect to the web anymore and when I do it's slower than dial up. There is no dsl or Road Runner where I live and so options are limited. I'm about to sign up with Hughes Net for satellite service but have heard that the uploads are slow.

Anyone with experience out there?

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[Wao nahele kane]

Peter,
We use Hughes Net and we're down here in Waa Waa. Most people are abandoning ship on Coconut wireless. We have the 1.5mbs download package I believe uploads are only 256kbs.
We typically have to shrink down our files (Photos) etc to upload them but the upload is ok and not much different than broadband (even broadband is typically slow on the upload). File uploads at night are much faster so transfering large data files is best done on the off peak hours. As per latency... it doesn't support VOIP (Skype)or video confrencing - that's the only sort of stuff that is noticably effected by latency anyhow, so if your not using video confrencing or VOIP then latency is irrelevant. I would not recomend anything less than the 1.5mbs download package and test it after you get it, if it doesn't meet up to par then call the tech department and make them tweak your modem up to speed. I noticed them trying to sneak a fast Eddy in on us that way as it would appear they don't really give you what you order speed wise and assume most people are ignorant to it and will never check. So check your bandwidth weekly.
It certainly isn't what I was using the past 12 years (broadband cable in Washington state) but it's reliable and faster than a damn dial-up or coconut wireless.


E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.

[kani-lehua]

WNK: what was the cost(s) for installation and the monthly fee? directv uses hughes net. did you buy the service through them or separately?



"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

w. james

[force]

I have a starband satellite internet modem and dish for sale. Used less than a year. cost like 1600 new...looking for 800 obo. There is a starband licensed dealer in hawaiian acres that would help with the install and such. It's not a hughes dish, but when I was looking around for sat net a year ago starband was the better service IMO.

Sat internet, especially in hawaii cause all the carriers seem to require a more expensive dish than the mainland, has a high upfront cost.

Sat net works pretty well for downloading files and surfing and such, but if you play any fast paced games online, forget about it. The latency or lag is so bad that you'd be seeing stuff happening 1.5-5 seconds later than they happened.

All sat net carriers also have bandwidth caps. meaning you can download only so many gb a month. When I was looking for a provider, they were at the time the biggest download cap. Starband also has a daily 4 or 5 hour window where all your downloads don't count towards your bandwidth caps.

It's also expensive, although starband just released a more consumer friendly price point a few months back. Not sure about hughes, but iirc it was comparable when I was looking around.

One thing I was really impressed about with the starband sat net was the service was rarely interrupted by rain. In my past expereinces, satellite (tv and net) go out quite frequently.

If you're interested shoot me a private message or email or something.

[Peter Epperson]

Can those of you that are using Hughes Net get internet radio to work?

[Wao nahele kane]

Kani,
The service is directly through Hughes and was installed by the gents at Big Island Satellite. We also had Dish T.V. installed the same day. The Hughes setup was $600.00 with a $100 rebate. I believe our service is $49.00 a month for the first year and we have the 3rd package up from the basic package. You own the equipment and there is no contract to fufill, it's strictly month to month on the service. The dish that is used out here is the 1 meter dish to avoid rain fade.

Our data cap is prime time daily only and it's around 485mb if memory serves me and they only throttle your speed down should you meet the cap during peak hours BUT after like 9pm or 10pm or so... there's no limit and if you were throttled down it's lifted and you've unlimited until 2am or something like that. So... there's no data tranfer limit off peak hours and on peak hours it works out to about 14.5gb a month limit. We've yet to hit 485mb during peak hours yet. I even downlaoded a 350mb service manual file the other evening during peak hours and didn't get throttled back.

Peter,
Though I never use intenet radio... I just linked up on a Big Bands station and it's playing just fine as I'm posting this. Seemed a little slow loading the page (compared to cable broadband) but; it's playing String of Pearls now.

E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.

[mdd7000]

The real cost of the dish is minuscule. The dish is like $10. You are really paying for the receiver/transmitter which are way overpriced. Shop around. Get the biggest dish they will sell you to avoid issues like rainfade. If I recall, Starband and others actually all use the HughesNet satellites. Some of the resellers make you run "special software" in order to use the service. In most cases, it isn't needed and only slows down your computer. I think that Direct TV's is one that lets you connect and go.