Satellite internet

Hi all,

I got tired of waiting for CenturyLink to get me service above 3 mbps in my neck of the woods and have decided to go with satellite internet from Hughes. I have ordered a connection with 10 mbps which is cheaper than what I'm paying for my dsl with only 3mbps.

Does anyone use Satellite internet service and, if so, how satisfied are you with it?

I have avoided it because of the data caps. My internet speed is horrible, but I do have a 25 GB data cap. What kind of data cap do you have?

I shied away for the same reason but now they have opened up quite a bit. I have a plan with 60 GB per month and a bonus of 50 GB between 2 AM and 8 AM.

I selected Prime Plus

Man, that sounds good. Nowhere do they say anything about throttling which I have also been told is a problem as it is with my service. Any info about that?

Well from what I've read a lot of ISP's do that but I'm sure they wouldn't admit it even if they are guilty of it.

I asked my present provider, CenturyLink, a while back if they did that and they denied it but I have noticed that there are times when it slows down for no apparent reason.

Right now I have what can be compared to dial up back in the days when you downloaded MG rather than the GB one now has to download. So I am anxious to see how much improvement I'll get with 10 versus my existing 3.

Well, please let me know how your new service goes. I'm really chafing under my limits right now!Q

Well I've had it installed for the better part of the day and, so far, I am really happy. I downloaded a couple of games that I had in my libraries from Steam and GOG and it was so much faster. My streaming is a lot better as well.

Let's hope that all stays well. I'm a night owl anyway so I'll probably take advantage of my bonus GB to download after 2 am.

I just checked where my SIL lives. Sent a link to her daughter to look at it and then tell her about it.

Thanks John.

So far so good. My speed is so improved I'm afraid to be happy. I just keep waiting for some problem to appear but none yet and my speeds are really great.

oldman, this is really tempting me. I'm just dreading downloading Windows 10 at 65 Kb/second after I'm throttled.

On the other hand, my internet blipped out for an hour or so night before last and then did it again yesterday afternoon. About 5:30, someone called and said my access point was not functioning correctly and walked me through a bunch of stuff to move me to a different access point and reboot my little dish (I have wireless broadband - the only other option out here in the country). I didn't call them - they called me. My local ISP has the best customer service ever.

Well after jumping in with both feet and committing myself to Hughesnet I'm sitting here with big buyers remorse. I didn't realize how much data was used on just normal things and 10GB goes by really fast with just normal streaming like watching trailers etc. I don't advise getting this period. I thought 10GB anytime and 50 bonus GB would be more than enough and boy was I mistaken.

I'm now locked in for 2 years and it will cost $400 to break my contract. I have a solution which is only good for me but I ordered DSL internet only (no phone) to use in conjunction with the high speed Satellite and got a switch to enable me to rotate between the two isp's. Not the most reasonable thing to do but hey I have the Satellite for big downloads and the dsl for normal browsing. Actually my total cost is about the same as I was paying previously and I just sacrificed my land line phone but I have a cell anyway that I can use for all phone calls so I won't miss the regular phone.

Oh well, leave it to me to leap before I look.

Well, I have been dying to know how it worked out! Now I know I will suffer along with my slow, slow wireless broadband. After my issues above continued, they sent a guy out who climbed on top of my 2 1/2 story old farmhouse and replaced an old part. My internet is much faster and although I am still throttled at 65 MB, speed is more in the range of 1.5 Mbps down instead of 65 Kbps. It's still slow, but I can live with it.

Thank you for letting us know!

Drac, you say that you are throttled after only 65 MB? That's hard to believe. We have slow DSL as well but get 1 mpps with no throttling. We got 70 KB for many years till they installed a new framework and bumped to 1 mbps. Then we lost our great long time ISP and dropped back to 70 KB. We called the new service and told them we were getting 1 mbps before and they sent someone out and he found a better wire (we are limited because our wires are not that great). With that change we were back to the faster speed. I would love to have a faster speed but at least we have no throttling. Others with the same service and better wires get 50% faster speed.

I couldn't live with the 10 G data limit for satellite service. Many games are 25 G and getting bigger.

My local ISP - not some big company - provides customer service all providers should strive for. I also have a generous 25 GB download data cap. Not unreasonable as long as I don't stream - but then I CAN'T stream because of the throttling. I have said to them, "Who in the world only downloads 65 MB?" My video card driver updates are more than that! Witcher 3 was over 22 GB without all the extras!

This is all wireless broadband coming from towers they have built and the limitations are hardware related. They have old hardware and have not invested in modern wireless broadcast systems. It's out there, but we are stuck on hardware from 2004.

I've offered to pay more and suggested they at least offer no throttling between say midnight and 6:00 am. It's very frustrating, but other than oldman's satellite, they are my only option out here in the country.

That's too bad. You would think that they could come up with something more reasonable. They probably have a small subscriber base. I tried to find a wireless company for my sister and there just wasn't anything. I think that trees were in the way for the one we thought might work.

Line-of-sight is required for wireless broadband with a distance from the tower limit of 7 miles. The have 3 towers in this area, one down at Lake of the Ozarks - a huge recreation area and another one in southern Missouri. I have a feeling they have quite a huge customer base. But they are going to need to move off their current position eventually. The internet is not like it was when they first started the wireless broadband service 11 years ago. They are just stuck back there - their website even reflects it - they still have stuff on there for Windows 98!

I get 65Kbps on a good day.. it generally fluctuates between 65---45. But at least I have internet.

I know, Winfrey, and that makes me feel grateful for what I have!

My son and his wife just built a house in a rural area close to here and were preparing themselves for a 4G hot spot with about 5 GB of data! He is an IT guy in a big marketing company in St. Louis and my DIL works from home vetting marketing contracts with the likes of Ford etc. They really needed high speed internet and were NOT looking forward to that part of their "dream house." Then they found out that the guy my son did a computer repair business paid internship with had just moved out there a few months before. The guy who owned the business purchased some of the new wireless broadband technology and had set it up out there with some of the other residents in this little development with 5 acre lots. One guy is a retired pilot who was able to help him with all the azimuths and setup and they are getting as much as 120 MB down! My son was a little low in elevation to get than, but is getting around 20 GB down! I told him I would sell my firstborn for that kind of speed. Oh, wait. YOU are my firstborn!

"I told him I would sell my firstborn for that kind of speed. Oh, wait. YOU are my firstborn!"

Draclvr !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!