Opinions on the Best Satellite Internet Provider

[Bosco]

I am in need of a higher speed internet service other than dail-up. Since we are in a rural area, cable and DSL are not available. Appears that satellite is the only option. I'm not needing this service for just residental entertainment. It is required for a business out of the home.

My wife basically got a sweet deal from her employer. They are willing to set her up with satellite service by paying the installation cost, hardware and monthly service charges. The job does requires transfer of files that are quite large. Most of these will be Autocad files and PDF's.

We presently have Dish Network as a provider for TV programming. While checking out their website I saw that they provide Wildblue for internet satellite service. I read several pros and cons about this service, but since the company is paying the bills I want the best service available for fast transfers and of course reliable service.

Any ideas on who could provide the best service..?

Thanks..

 

[dirkleearm]

I would use HughesNet small business. Make sure your not trying to access a vpn at her office.

 

[Bosco]

My wife has been looking into HughsNet. Why do you consider that the best choice..? Can you explain the acoronym "vpn"..?

Thanks...

 

[dirkleearm]

Just do a "VPN" search on this site, lots of info

 

[Jared Twomey]

another service you may look into is if there are any cellular broadband services available in your area.
In the area I live I have no dsl, or cable available.
I install and was considering a satellite system... but the latency drives me crazy. I live in an area where I can get Sprint EVDO and the speeds are amazing in my opinion.

 

[eliang]

Prospeed

Hi Bosco,
Don't know if you,ve given up or found what you wanted yet,
but i've heard of a very good satelite internet provider called Prospeed from the Florida area.They are sold out of a place called Prosat.com.
I only used the voip from this system and was trilled by its clarity
its a little pricey right now...
Try them out and see....

eliang:up

 

[Bosco]

Well we checked and Highesnet is the only provider for our area. Was hoping that Wildblue would at least be available, but no luck. The wife went ahead and ordered the small business package from Hughesnet and we're scheduled for installation Monday (tomorrow). Hopefully, the install will go well.

I am abit concerned (but that's just me) about the installation of their dish. I understand that it weighes in at about 60 lbs. Sure hope the installer does a good job on supporting the thing. It ought to be interesting when he gets here, because DishNetwork has scheduled an upgrade to the dish1000 the same day.

If any of ya'll have their service I would like to hear from you. Any feedback as to the pos and cons. Do you like their service..? Guess anything is better than dialup, right.

Thanks....

 

[dbirdman]

I am abit concerned (but that's just me) about the installation of their dish. I understand that it weighes in at about 60 lbs. Sure hope the installer does a good job on supporting the thing.

I hope you are going with a pole mount? I prefer those even on a .74 meter, but for a .98 I wouldn't consider anything else (except my mobile mount, which is a different story).

I have the plan that is one-above your small office plan, and it certainly works adequately. Latency is no fun, but you do get used to it. Prime time slow-downs are common, and for a business account that tends to be weekday mornings. Home users complain about evenings, but that's when mine is at its best.

 

[sandman6921]

Well you asked for it, ( both hughsnet and opinion)
I've had the dw7000 package for a year now, and it $ucks, plain and simple. No its not anything is better than dial-up either. Have a perfect view of southern sky also. Any , and I mean any amount of precipitation slows/shuts system down. I use it for business, (try to) and as others have stated, if you try to use a VPN connection, you'll wish for a dial-up line. Actually I have a phone line, and use the dial-up pretty regularly. Just pain surfing is tolerable, but anything else, gaming, business NO WAY. I'll never recommend this to anyone, wireless is a better deal if avail. Service rep's been out twice to "peak" dish. Very little improvement. Wait till you have to call customer support, pakistan or india, neither language I speak!! Enjoy

 

[Bosco]

I hope you are going with a pole mount? I prefer those even on a .74 meter, but for a .98 I wouldn't consider anything else (except my mobile mount, which is a different story).

I have the plan that is one-above your small office plan, and it certainly works adequately. Latency is no fun, but you do get used to it. Prime time slow-downs are common, and for a business account that tends to be weekday mornings. Home users complain about evenings, but that's when mine is at its best.

The installation went well today. They did mount the dish on a pole close to the back of the house. Doesn't look to bad, considering the size of the dish. The wife was at home when the installers arrived and said one of them was outside in pouring rain putting up the dish. They spent a little time finding the bird, but once it was locked in it was a go. Once everything was running, the wife later uploaded a 6 meg file in about 2 minutes (not possiby with dailup). She hasn't yet tried to DL any files at this time. The wife seems very please with the service, but as with everything time will tell.

I appreciate your feedback sandman and sorry to hear you were are satisfied with the sevice you have. The modem that is installed with the business package is the HN7000S model. Now I will admit I am a novice at this stuff and couldn't tell you the difference between the HN and DW models. We do not have a clear view of the southern sky because of a tree that is inline of the dish (tree to be cut down in a few weeks). And as I stated above it was raining when they did the installation and signal is great :up .

So far so good fingers crossed.

 

[meitedlce]

Oh man, all the SAT internets are not great for Uploading files... granted still better then dial up by any means.. but even with WB the highest upload they tell you is 256k upload.. I've seen with their platinum pushing over 320k up.. but still not greatest for delivering larrrrrggge files. Download is decent with a 1500k or 1.5 meg with the platinum pack.
(right at 90 dollars per month) I dont know much about the Hughes Net other then everything I hear except for a few posts.. is that its bad! Must not be too good because Direct TV is also installing Wild Blue
lol, funny funny

 

[rv1pop]

Question, Bosco,
Is it still working? How well? any issues? I am looking, I have T-Mobile dial up and go a new moden card the other day and is much better, butis still v-e-r-y slow.

 

[altecwireless]

How is wild blue better?

 

[Stargazer]

The best alternative is wireless internet if it is available in your area. Some wireless internet providers offer speed and latency just as good or better than DSL/cable and is very affordable and sometimes very competitive in their prices.

 

[syi]

I dont know if you are still looking, but If you are working from home I would not recommend a residential service. You should look at a commercial grade service for both reliability and service after the sale. Your shared bandwidth and allotted bandwith will be more agreable to you also. However you will pay more for the extra service you receive.

 

[Stargazer]

You get what you pay for. If you use satellite broadband service they will throttle you down to dialup speeds if you download too much bandwidth within a certain amount of time. I know this is true for residentual service for satellite but am not sure on the commercial packages that they offer.

 

[HCI]

You should never hit the FAP unless you are a real bandwidth hog. I have used Hughes for 2 years at one point got cable moved and have had it now for over a year and have NEVER hit FAP. I have watched youtube movies for 2 to 3 hours straight and downloaded 15 to 20 songs from i tunes withing 2 hours and have not had a problem.

 

[themorg]

Don't know if the OP ever found service, but I hope Hughes doesn't end up being his only choice. We have been customers for over 5 1/2 years because we have no other choice but dialup. Their customer service is lousy, and the internet service sucks for the most part.

Some history: when we first signed up in 2002, with a DW4000 modem, there were times we got 3MB download speeds! Then we got a DW6000 because we wanted to set up a home network. Still sometimes got over 1 MB. Now comes Hughes and I'm throttled back to under 700k!! Due to changing circumstances, decide to try to HN7000S and upgrade to the ProPlus plan. What a CROC! I am now lucky to get 300-400k download speeds!!!! I got a 1.2MB download once in the last 3 days, and the customer service reps say - your speed is not guaranteed! He refused to pass the ticket to engineering to see if there might be an issue with their setup.

Stay away from Hughes if at all possible! The FAQ on their own web site indicates that the ProPlus plan should receive 750-800k during "peak" times on average. Well, I get half of that, and they don't care!

I cannot wait to see if we can ever get DSL or cable in this area. We will be dropping Hughes like a hot potato if it ever happens.

 

[dirkleearm]

I as a HughesNet installer must agree with "the
customer service is BS".
I am wondering as you "upgraded" through the years, did they ever move you to a different sat or at least different transponder? If not, I know it sucks dealing with them but try to get them to change you to the default sat for "new" customers. They seam to have gotten better about changing commissioning sat so it doesn't get so loaded up.

Here is something that might help someone in the future:
I put in a system, commissioned and had acceptable speeds at ~800 down on the basic plan.
The customer wanted the ProPlus plan..
I called tech support and asked to change...no problem..."just wait ~20 min and recommission" (SHOULD Have been my first clue)
Recommissioned and speeds went to ~300 down They had changed me to a different transponder (not the default for new customers).
I called and was told that NOTHING could be done, that even if I changed back to basic plan I would remain on that POS transponder)... real
Called again, hoping for someone with brains.. NO LUCK

Called again and got this lady who looked into "what she COULD DO". She was able to put the customer back into the system as a NEW CUSTOMER, I reran registration and was put back to the default TX on the Pro Plus plan.
Speeds were just under 1.5 down as expected. It took all day but it is possible if you can get some cooperation.

 

[themorg]

So I should ask to be placed back into the system as a "new Customer" on the default sat? I have never changed transponders as far as I know, or had anyone come out to change the dish setup. Is that something they can do from there end with no change here? All outdoor equipment is still the same from 5 years ago. The only changes have been the modems. I have heard about a different xmitter on the dish (2 watt), could that be an issue as well?

Edit: Just checked in the System Info section. I am on 117W Transponder 1050. I have a 1 watt xmitter. Is that OK, or should I get it changed? Thanks for any help with this.