Hughes Net

[W3LBS]

Any one using Hughes Net as an ISP? I would be interested in hearing about your experiences with Hughes Net, speed, satellites used and etc..

[KE5NWT]

Another sat. internet provider is WildBlue for about $50 a month. Our Emergency Operation's Center has it on a command trailer(not an in-motion type). It works OK, but other than that, I dont know much about it. I know HughesNet is more than $50 per month. There are probably more systems out there to shop around.

[N7OQ]

I camped next to someone who had Hughes.net and they had it on a WIFI hub. They told us to feel free to use it. I was impressed, My Son and I were on it cruising the net while they were on it too and it was plenty fast. The dish was not much bigger than a TV dish like Dish network except it had a longer feed horn. I had looked into getting it and I think it was close to $50 a month for 2 years then you own the equipment and the price goes down. This is the way to go if you are a full timer or camp in places with no internet access, like I do.

[W3LBS]

I'm already using Hughes Net and have been for about 3 1/2 years. I am using mine with a netgear router and can open or close the router to other campers as I see fit, I also can see where everyone connected to the router go and do their surfing, when it is some place I don't like ( xxx, etc)I cut them off or close the router to all. Without going into detail I have a lot of control over the router. When I first got the system I thought it was cool to let it open and usable to those who could connect. I don't let it open much anymore, and one of the reasons is because it has gotten so slow during peak hours, and I have just gone to the next level of service for more speed, the $69.99/mo plan, didn't happen, I'm about to go back a plan or up a plan, I'm not getting $10.00 more in service or speed!! ??? More Later

[wa8yxm]

I use hughesnet when I'm on the road, AT&T DSL here at home. Speeds are comparable (low end ADSL) with download around 700K and upload in the 120-200 range for the most part. That said however Hughes is making changes, The system I have is Ku band. the new customers are being positioned on Ka band satellites. Thus there are improvements.

Of course. the more you pay, the more you play (You can pay more and get higher speeds)

The major issues with ALL 2-way sat providers are the chance of signal interference, IE: Solar outages, which normally are short and not too often, or storm outages, which may or may not be a problem (I've been on line during some fairly strong storms, and I've had storms take me off line) and PING TIME, Your fastest ping time is over 1/2 second, Can't beat the speed of light and it's 22,500 miles up, 22,500 miles down and 89,000 miles round trip, that's 1/2 second at light speed.

Hughes does use a pre-fetch proxy to attempt to speed this up a bit, and it is fairly good, however if you are doing HTTPS instead of HTTP, it can mess you up making on-line financial stuff a serious pain in the browser... That said, i've always been able to pay my bills electronically using Hughes when I'm on the road again.

That said. I'm concerned about the new Ka sats.

All the above applies equally to Hughes and to Starband, another nation wide service, Both use ConUS beams (Continental US) Hughes new customers though are being put on Ka band.. I truly don't know much about Kz band yet save for Wild Blue

Wild Blue uses Ka Band, as noted above this has some interesting features, however Wild Blue is not using ConUS beams, they are using spot beams, Over a dozen of them, What this means is if you are a mobile user, and we are nothing if not mobile, you get too far from home you have to re-comission on a different beam. Where as with Hughes or Starband Ku service, you are good to go from Maine to California and beyond

Thus I'd recommend either Hughes or Starband.

Also you have your choice of a roof-top automatic mount or a ground-tripod mount

Neither Hughes nor Starband officially supports tripod users (Your installer/dealer does) this can, on occasion be a pain.. I had one problem took me 8 hours on the phone with Cuss-some-more non-service and then I gave up, Mailed the defective part back to my installer, he has better support folks, got it approved and it was another hour on the phone to fix the resulting mix up at Hughes and get the new modem comissioned. (I should have called Ron up front)

Roof top mounts are made by http://www.motosat.com They cost in the 5000-6000 range to install, and start at I think 60/month (or 70) 10 bucks more than I pay when I'm active, You can suspend service up to six months a year if you park the motor home

Advantage of a ground mount... lower price, and work around for the signal eating tree

Advantage of a Datastorm Roof Mount.. .push button, wait (normally) 2-minutes or less, On line

If you are interested in Hughesnet I can refer you to an installer, he's mobile so if you are not in a hurry he can come to you IN fact I have 2 or 3 of them I can refer to.

[Dizzy-Dick]

I opted for the nationwide plan that Verizon offers. So far, I have been well pleased. I load the appropriet software and plug a small receiving divice with an antenna into a USB jack. Also got an optional exterior antenna, but have not had to use it as yet.

Sure beats trying to find a hotspot that may or maynot be secure to use. Cost is $56.00 per month.

Happy camping

[N7OQ]

I opted for the nationwide plan that Verizon offers. So far, I have been well pleased. I load the appropriet software and plug a small receiving divice with an antenna into a USB jack. Also got an optional exterior antenna, but have not had to use it as yet.

Sure beats trying to find a hotspot that may or maynot be secure to use. Cost is $56.00 per month.

Happy camping
Don't think this would work for me, where I camp there is no cell service at all.

[wa8yxm]

The nation wide Sprint and Verizon plans are also interesting, AT&T and T-Mobile also have plans, Different speeds, and different coverage maps, however like N7OQ I park in places where the cell phones don't work that well. The park manager insists that the only way the park will get Wi-Fi is over his dead body (Can be arranged by his boss in a manner of speaking, or as Donald Trump would say "You're Fired") But I had my Hughes Tripod up and running in 20 minutes or less.

Now the guy next to me, He and a lovely Alpha See-Ya with a Datastorm mount. He could not connect (One lonely tree, just a little thing, in EXACTLY the wrong spot) but with my Tripod... No problem. (We shared my link while I was there)

The one negative on Hughes is that some services Do not work, or at least did not work

Vonage VoIP used to work, but it has been blocked, I do not know if this was intentional or accidental (Sometimes when you upgrade something you break something else) Skype still works though and I'm told intel-phone works (Contact me for Intel-phone, I market it and can point you to a web page)

At one time TiVo would not update via Hughes, Neither would ReplayTV. Though there was a work-around for Replay (I have the work-around but have yet to try it) I'm told TiVo now updates via Hughes... I'm going to test Replay in a couple of months.

Now: these "Works/don't" are specific to Hughes. I do not know about Starband as I have no input from Starband users on these issues. I will likely test Replay on a Starband unit, just for the heck of it, but not till Jan 2009 at the earliest, possibly later

All in all, I'm very pleased with Hughes when I'm on the road, It works, most everywhere it works.