hughesnet or wildblue?

[jhall2005]

which is better?

[grohgreg]

You may as well ask the same question about "miracle whip or mayonnaise". Why not start by checking the Wildblue site, to see if it's even available in your ZIP code? For some folks, that takes Wildblue right off the table from the git-go.

//greg//

[damjr]

If you're going to use the internet daily you will want Hughes.
Their FAP is much more lenient. Wildblue limits your usage and will shut you down when you hit your limit. Hit your limit frequently and they can terminate your service all together.

This is the biggest complaint I get regarding WildBlue customers who switch to Hughes.

[Stargazer]

Hughes = daily limit (only have to wait a day to be able to use your service as usual after your bandwidth usage is up).

WildBlue = monthly lmit (have to wait the rest of the month once you use up the amount of bandwith usage allowed for the month). This is good if you have large downloads just once in a while that would put you over the daily limit but do not use it much beyond that on a limited basis.

I also know of several that have switches from WildBlue to Hughes due to this. Another reason I prefer Hughes is due to the fact that you have unlimited bandwidth usage between 2 am and 7 am that does not count towards your daily limit. This daily limit is refered to as FAP (Fair Access Policy).

[jhall2005]

Hughes = daily limit (only have to wait a day to be able to use your service as usual after your bandwidth usage is up).

WildBlue = monthly lmit (have to wait the rest of the month once you use up the amount of bandwith usage allowed for the month). This is good if you have large downloads just once in a while that would put you over the daily limit but do not use it much beyond that on a limited basis.

I also know of several that have switches from WildBlue to Hughes due to this. Another reason I prefer Hughes is due to the fact that you have unlimited bandwidth usage between 2 am and 7 am that does not count towards your daily limit. This daily limit is refered to as FAP (Fair Access Policy).

ok thanks for the info.

[Chuck35]

If theres a cell tower anywhere near you, you may want to consider mobile broadband.
Millenicom and other resellers have unlimited plans in many areas that have no fap.

[jhall2005]

If theres a cell tower anywhere near you, you may want to consider mobile broadband.
Millenicom and other resellers have unlimited plans in many areas that have no fap.

the only thing i can get is wireless internet and its not from a cell tower its some other kind of wireless. the antenna outside looks like an off air analog antenna but its small and it points towards a tower. thats what i have now but its not very reliable it cuts off all the time

[Stargazer]

If you can get service through a wireless internet service provider off of a water tank / tower in your area then that is way better than satellite broadband.

[bradleys]

I agree with Stargazer. I've had Xplornet satellite (Canada) and I currently have HughesNet. Anything but dialup is better than satellite. The latency drives me crazy. Many web pages nowadays have a dozen or so locations where they load various pieces of the page. Each of those requires a visit to the satellite for DNS and element fetch. It takes forever. They have speed-up technology which does deep packet inspection, and it does help. I know that because I also use a VPN in some situations, and that's even slower since they can't look inside my packets. But, even with speed-up, it's still slow.

If there's anything you can do to get your wireless to work, I'd heartily recommend that you at least try it. There are many, many antennas available to improve wireless signals. Maybe your wireless company has an option? If not, if you can figure out what frequencies they use, you might be able to buy your own antenna.

As far as your original question, I've never used Wildblue, so I can't specifically comment on them. HughesNet and Xplornet are exactly the same, as far as "the user experience" (namely, how it feels to surf the web).

[sundude90]

the only thing i can get is wireless internet and its not from a cell tower its some other kind of wireless. the antenna outside looks like an off air analog antenna but its small and it points towards a tower. thats what i have now but its not very reliable it cuts off all the time

Your wireless Internet should be a lot more reliable than that. I work for a wireless broadband internet company & that is not how it should work. I would would contact that company.

Josh