Who or what are you using for Internet access?

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

Thanks for the info Paul and Id10t

No worries...like many things, I seem to have gotten complacent with the whole ISP thing. I am very interested to see how this plays out for you.

The speed posted here would be amazing...but again, no cable here.

I looked up Knology and that seem to be a southern outfit.

Anyone know of a like capability in the DC area?

[Head416]

I recently switched to TimeWarner cable high speed internet... $30/month for "up to 10 Mbps". My speedtest.net results are usually 20 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up. They have faster plans too, for more cost. They also offer internet/cable/phone bundles but I'm not interested.

And most importantly.... I don't have to deal with Verizon anymore! With Verizon I was paying $45/month for "7 Mbps" that tested out at 4 Mbps.

[Jim Richards]

Paul, and you other rural guys, have you looked at satellite internet offered by Wildblue or Starband? High-Speed Internet Service | WildBlue | Official Website Satellite Internet from StarBand - Broadband, High-Speed Internet for Home, Small Office and Rural Communities | StarBand.com

I used to have a commercial grade of satellite service from Starband's parent company. It was pretty good except for heavy rain days when the signal would be attenuated/scattered by the rain drops.

[Seahawk]

Thanks, Jim. I will take a look.

I did a bit of searching and Cricket was listed as available in my area.

Again, it seems I lapsed into a bit of internet ISP ennui

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

Paul, and you other rural guys, have you looked at satellite internet offered by Wildblue or Starband? High-Speed Internet Service | WildBlue | Official Website Satellite Internet from StarBand - Broadband, High-Speed Internet for Home, Small Office and Rural Communities | StarBand.com

I used to have a commercial grade of satellite service from Starband's parent company. It was pretty good except for heavy rain days when the signal would be attenuated/scattered by the rain drops.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Again, it seems I lapsed into a bit of internet ISP ennui

That happens to us all, regardless of what internet service we have.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Head416

I recently switched to TimeWarner cable high speed internet... $30/month for "up to 10 Mbps". My speedtest.net results are usually 20 Mbps down / 1 Mbps up. They have faster plans too, for more cost. They also offer internet/cable/phone bundles but I'm not interested.

And most importantly.... I don't have to deal with Verizon anymore! With Verizon I was paying $45/month for "7 Mbps" that tested out at 4 Mbps.

We have TW in our area.. thanks, I will check that out!

[Head416]

They offer "wireless access" for an extra $5/month. You don't need to pay that. It just means they'll support your wireless setup. You can just buy your own wireless router and plug into your cable modem and you're good to go.

[Zeke]

Verizon FIOS here with phone and TV. No problems except for the 180/ mo cost. Cell phones with Sprint and that's another hundred. Always looking for something as good but cheaper.

[Jim Richards]

$180/mo? Yikes!

[Rusty Heap]

Hughes sucks major big time. Been with them for 10+ years as it's my only option. don't have a choice but would leave in a heartbeat if I could.

I'd KILL for your posted speeds of 10-15-20 meg a second.

doen't take deep digging on google to find thousands and thousands of pisssed off customers.

you have a cap download of 500-750 meg a day download, called a FAP, "fair access policy"

Non-consistant speeds, decent in morning hours at 800k-1.2M down, but goes to dead dog slow evening hours where just openning email can be a pain. I'm talking 80k-150k a second down.


I just can't stand Hughes sometimes, read these other rants, and all these have valid points:

hughes net | Ripoff Report Directory | Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported

HughesNet Satellite Broadband : All reviews | DSLReports.com, ISP Information


Here's my speed test, at 1:30 pm USA West Coast time. As this is 4:30 on the east coast, people will soon be getting home and taking the bandwidth with them. My speed will just get worse the rest of the day as we enter "peak hours".

super slow 1.3 second ping time, 230K down, 140k up, which is pretty much average speed. And I pay $80 a month for that. Fastest you'll ever see is 1.5 - 2 meg second down.

YouTube Videos, chunk chunk chunk. Unless you get on Hughes at midnight or 1-2 a.m, no way you can stream them at high resolution in real time.

[Rusty Heap]

welcome to my early mid day internet speeds...........thanks Hughes..............I'm honestly thinking of getting a 3G (we dont' have 4G coverage) Cell Phone solely for home internet.

You just have to learn and understand the FAULTS of Hughes that they're snake oil salespeope selling cure all elixer. Basically they're blatent liars on their ads saying you can do on-line gaming and stream videos. Oh and there is the 2 year contract and $400 penatly if you cancel before........bastagess.......honestly I hate hate hate the India Tech support with a PASSION........but hey, you get to talk to the Philippines for Finance and accounting. It takes an act of God to get elevated to Tech level 3 or 4 support which finally you get to talk to Florida and english speaking people, but to get there, you've spent 4-6-8 hours getting through the India Hughes idiots...........

are you getting a sense of my passion for hughes yet?

[Rusty Heap]

3 hours since my last post. So 4:45 pm Seattle Time. That's 7:45 East coast time and everyone over there is downloading Jersey Shore and Pookie Lonely Housewife photos of their MILF neighbors. Bandwidth gets sucked up and this just is what it is.

60K a second download. and no use calling tech support, this is what it is, with a brand new Hughes 9000 modem (they replaced the last one after months/years of my whining), and awesome signal strength. (no trees or anything blocking sat dish path)

Thank you oh Thank you Hughesnet, for your $80 a month internet service at peak East coast time and dead dog slow interweb service.

60 Kbps down. Geez, thanks for the dial up speed. As I said, I have no other option for ISP. WildBlu is another Sat provider, but I hear they're no better.

[jyl]

Dave, can't you even get 3G cellphone?

On Verizon 3G, using a MiFi wireless modem, then WiFi to my work laptop, I'm getting 1/17Mbps down and 0.79Mbps up. Costs $40/month. There are some data limits, I never run into them as it isn't my primary Internet access (I carry this to not pay $15/day to hotels for Internet), so you should look into it - I think if you're not streaming video it will be fine. This is unimpressive speed by today's standards, but still lots better than you seem to be getting through Hughes. If the 3G signal is weak, might check if there are directional antennas that can be aimed at the closest tower and improve your 3G signal. If you have no 3G . . . dunno, feed the pigeons amphetamine?



At home - Comcast cable, usually 17.0Mbps down or better.

[Rusty Heap]

Yes I really need to check into 3G, last time I was at Verizon I think it was the data limit caps that steered me away. If Microsoft or Adobe pushes a security update on you, it can eat up 100meg quickly in the middle of the night.

A 3G cell tower is only about a mile from my place, so I assume a cell provider has an atnenna up there.


Just to test my "max speed" when I was awake at 2:30 a.m. I ran a quick speed test, sigh:





So for those others considering Hughes, just go into it with open open eyes and read the fine fine print........they guaruntee no minimum speeds/performance and they're not the cheapest out there..