HughesNet or WildBlue

[berck]

Hello satellite ISP users,

My in-laws live in an area where they only option is dial-up or satellite ISP. As far as I can tell those options are HughesNet or WildBlue. I've seen the service plan options, but I was wondering what others think about the service that is provided. Also, I'd like to know if a home network can be installed (IE: is the equipment provided have a builtin router, etc)

Any help would be great, thanks

[giveuspurehd]

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my experience with wildblue was horrible.once you sign for service all they want is paid.if your service works thats great , if it does not well then you are screwed!!i was with hughes net back in the day of 56k modem uplink, and they were ok but hit the fap way to quick.look for a wisp in the area.dslreports is a place to start.

[Claude Greiner]

Hughesnet is the best and you can order through Dishstore

[Stargazer]

Hughesnet will cut your speed down for 24 hours once you hit the FAP limits. WildBlue may appear a little cheaper but wait until you hit the FAP limit with them! It is ONE MONTH of cuts in your speed if you hit your limit with them. I've switched people off of WildBlue service to our wireless service because of this. Hughesnet would be the better of the two if you think you will hit your FAP limits often but if you think that you might need a larger amount of bandwidth in which would equal several days of usage in a short period of time but will only need that much bandwidth once in a great while then WildBlue might be your best bet. Personally I would choose Hughesnet.

[Claude Greiner]

Hughes does have that thing between 3 and 6am EST where its unlimited bandwith that does not count towards your FAP!

[grohgreg]

If latency is a consideration, HughesNet wins hands down. Not by design, but by default. Their connections suffer the same lag as most other satellite providers, about 700-800ms or so. It's a speed of light thing. But since Wildblue fiddled with their front end back in late 2006, I doubt there are any Wildblue customers who have seen a PING under 1100ms. Their average since, is probably closer to 1400ms or so.

//greg//

[pacuff]

Since I previously posted a negative response to a HughesNet question a few months back, I thought I'd follow up. HughesNet has improved and have fixed some of their speed problems they were having, with the usual caveat that you will not ever see the "up to" speeds they post. Expect to get 60% of the peak speed, at best.

You asked about using the modem as a router. The HughesNet HN7000 and HN9000 series modems are also routers. All you need to do is take the output from the modem to a switch (aka hub) and you're good to go. The modem will automatically assign internal IP addresses and route the TCP/IP traffic to the correct computer connected to the switch.

I also have a laptop with a VerizonWireless broadband modem, and it is just as fast as the Satellite, and sometime faster. If you can get a 3g connection, that may be a better option.
-p

[phpinfo]

Do not go with Wildblue. Their service is horrible and their customer service is worse.

I have not used Hughes, but have heard good things.

Starband is another option. I use Starband and it is pretty solid. For me personally, their customer service has been great. - But you want to make sure you get on cluster 80 and not 51. On 51 it would go out a lot of the time, and have lower signal quality. But on 80 it has not gone out once, even in heavy snow and rain.

However, right now there are periods of slowness and issues with DNS errors. They are working to fix it, but overall Starband kills Wildblue and I have been happy with it.

So I would look at Hughes and Starband.

[PALL MALL]

I also have a laptop with a VerizonWireless broadband modem, and it is just as fast as the Satellite, and sometime faster. If you can get a 3g connection, that may be a better option.
-p

My current ISP is at&t wireless, I use my phone as a modem and it only cost $15 a month. I am on the EDGE network, my speed are usually 200-240kb/s down and 100-170kb/s up. 3G will get you DSL or faster speeds, at&t is testing 20mb/s 3G. My plan for $15 is limited to 5GB's a month but I never use over 3. If you plan on using more than 5GB the price will be about $60 month.

Also check your area for WISP's. They use long range wifi networks and usally have speeds around 1mb/s for about the cost of cable.

[PALL MALL]

Did a connection speed test on my at&t egde connection. Anyone else with satellite or wireless want to share there results? I used speedtest.net .