Wild Blue vs Hughes Net???

[BLACKJACK]

Where we live our only access to internet is dial-up, DSL is not available, getting tired of the painfully slow speed so we're seriously looking at getting a dish for internet.

The big two seem to be Wild Blue and Hughes Net. Pricing and install options seem to be similar, if you have either can you give me your experience on reliability, service, speed, etc? How does cloudy, rainy weather affect it? Can you work from home??!

Thanks!!

[Ryan_V]

I'm in the same boat....dial up only and it really, really stinks. I did the same research you are doing, and what I came up with was this....satelite is only slightly better than dial up, if even that. it costs 3X or more as much as dial up, and you're locked into a long contract with expensive installation and really expensive equipment rental/purchase. I decided to wait it out. i don't want to sign up for 2 years if the service is that bad only to have high speed suddenly become available. I talked to many, many people that completely regretted their switch to satellite internet. Maybe you'll find something different!! good luck!

[pulsar_nx]

I can't recommend wild blue. My folks have it and they may have been better off with dialup.

Have you checked out clearwire or MVTV? They both have some coverage around Willmar.

[Skeeter21i]

Both are a drag to use but are a step up from dial up at least. I have Hughesnet and have their Pro Plus plan. Regardless of plan, you are lucky to hit half of what they tell you will get for speeds. Evenings are slow when the satellites are overloaded. I'm in an area where I get no cell signal in the house, no DSL and no line of site for the wireless options so am stuck with satellite. I have to have it being I work from home so have no choice. One thing to look at is their Fair Access Policy. Each plan Hughesnet offers has a maximum usage for 24 hour period. The more expensive the plan, the more they let you use each day. My $80/month plan gets me 400 mb of downloads every 24 hours. If I go over that they throttle speeds back to slower than dial up for 24 more hours. Recently they created "tokens" to buy your way out of the penalty box if you don't want to wait out the 24 hours. You get one free pass each month but every one after that is $8 or so. Needless to say, 400mb of data in a day isn't much and its easy to go over so add another $20+/month to your bill. Wildblue has a Fair Access Policy that runs on a 30 day cycle rather than daily. I've used both and neither is better, they both are miserable to use and are barely better than dial up at times.

[BLACKJACK]

Yikes!!! You guys don't paint a very rosy picture!!!!

Skeeter, when you say you work from home, do you use a VPN? Some day I'd like to be able to work from home but for now I'd like to be able to connect occasionally if I get a trouble call. Then the rest of our use will be email and surfing the web. Right now with dial up that's so painfully slow, I don't even try in the evenings. And it depends on the HSOforum, when I check the national weather service for wind direction before bowhunting, thats ok, but forget about the Star Tribune, with all their ads, you better have book to read when surfing.

I'll check on that Clearwire also.

[S.D. Ice Angular]

I don't think I could recommend either one.

I would look to something else also.

I was in a simular situation a while back I use Frontier now.

It gets me by but still is not great.

[MN Mike]

I know several people that have had the satellite internet in the past, as soon as something else had become available, they bailed on the satellite system right away.

If you can get something local with wireless I would take a look at it, otherwise a cellular data plan from one of the big carriers is what I would look at next, if your cell phone reception is fairly good, you could get a 1mb connection or better.

Mike

[upnorth]

No experience with hughes net, but wild blue is not a good way to go unless you are desperate. Only slightly better than dial up.

[Skeeter21i]

Blackjack, it would be impossible to paint a rosy picture of satellite internet! If you want to read alot of bad reviews go to dslreports dot com. Alot of other broadband subjects are covered on there as well. I've had Hughesnet for about nine years now, it was called Direcway back then. I hate it and if there was an alternative I would be gone by now. The frustrating thing is Qwest ran DSL out in the area three years ago but stopped at the box about 1/4 mile from me. Beyond that point they say there isn't enough homes out here to justify them adding the equipment to expand their DSL network. I don't use a VPN but am online all day. I need to connect mainly for emails and log in to my main websites for work.I just ran a speed test, I'm connecting at 250 right now is all and that is after the few second lag time. Gotta like paying high monthly for that kind of service:) Just keep in mind satellite internet is a last resort, is usually better than dial up (but sometimes not by much) and there may be other alternatives based on your location. But, it enables me to have a home based business so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

[delcecchi]

I was just talking with a friend of mine in Rochester. He just got a cell phone with built in wireless hotspot to enable him to connect his laptop to internet. That might be an alternative. Also in some places there are small companies that provide internet by RF link, ie Accessmn in virginia mn.

[BLACKJACK]

A couple of you have recommended hooking up via cell phone but thats not really an option either because reception if very poor where I live (NW of Willmar) And both Wild Blue and Hughes require a two year commitment, its not like you can try it for three months and ditch it.

Right now dial up costs us $20 a month, Wild Blues cheapest plan (512 kb) would cost $56 a month with equipement rental - plus a $99 one time fee. Is it worth an extra $36 a month???!

[S.D. Ice Angular]

BlackJack, When I was shopping around for Internet service ALL The services had a 30 day money back type of offer if I was not happy.

I did not contact Hughes net though. When I spoke with Wild Blue they told me it was $79.99 / Month for the fastest and $200 Install Fee, And to cancell a 24 month contract early. The cancellation fees was going to be the monthly rate times the number of months remaining. (Crazy!!!!)

Why can't you get DSL through the phone line??

Good Luck

[Flooringuy]

Blackjack I live NW of Willmar also and am using Hughes net not all that great IMO but it was either that or dial up.

The dish and modem where left by the previous owner so I didn't have that expense.$60 a month for what I've got and it's not a whole lot better than dial up. There just isn't alot of options in this area.

[Skeeter21i]

Blackjack, for what you are spending and what the fee is monthly to satellite I feel its worth it. As bad as satellite is, it is still an improvement over dial up. You will get rain and snow fade but with the proper dish location that can be minimized. I just found out my neighbors down the road recently had Wildblue installed. They leaned on them pretty hard and said they were also shopping Hughesnet. Sounds like they got a deal on install. Can't hurt to try, I'm guessing people aren't lining up for new service right now.

[opsirc]

we have wildblue, it is not the best but far better than the dial-up we had. we just upgraded a faster package, but not sure it made a difference. the rain will cause a loss of signal from time to time.

[upnorth]

Most of the major Cell companies have a some sort of an air card option. If you have cell phone coverage at all they may work. I have one that I use for work and even with 2 bars I can get close to 512 MB downloads. That is versizon. Or you can tether a blackberry and from what I hear soon to be the same with the iPhone.

[BLACKJACK]

Why can't you get DSL through the phone line??

I've called the phone company, DSL isn't available to me. But I know some people less than 10 miles away that can get DSL Hopefully some day when the phone company replaces their equipment they'll include the DSL upgrade.

[BLACKJACK]

As bad as satellite is, it is still an improvement over dial up.

[Dave S]

Depending on how much use you plan to get out of it would dictate which plan you take. I have the Wild Blue dish and we had to upgrade to get the extra bandwidth. Kids and online gaming burned up what we had so we were forced to upgrade.

The Mrs. used to telecommute with very few issues. It took a good amount of cloud cover before the service was affected. Pretty much to the point of needing to be severe weather to inhibit our service to the point of no signal.

For the most part, I'm pleased with it. But with kids home and out of school, it's become even more of a challenge to have useable bandwidth. The limitations really bite.

[BLACKJACK]

Lep,

How about downloading music, how many do you have to download before it becomes a problem?? Thats one of the things that the wife wants to do....

[Dave S]

you can look at the size of the files and do the math (I'm not too good with the computer mathematics) . I have the top plan with Wild Blue which I think is 17GB of download and 12GB of upload. I ahven't called lately to see where we're at as far as our allowable usage.

We've downloaded several tunes over the course of the month. What kills us is the kids constantly surfing and online gaming. Most people probably wouldn't use that much.

[thatoneguy]

I can not stress this enough: AVOID WILDBLUE LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!! I had service with them for about one miserable year, and let me tell you, it was the worst experience. Service was interrupted anytime it rained, snowed, was windy etc...HORRIBLE customer service...

STAY AWAY!!!!!!!

[Skeeter21i]

Blackjack, you just have to monitor usage while downloading music and/or streaming music. It all comes down to that Fair Access Policy I mentioned in an earlier post and also mentioned by LEP7MM. The more you want to spend the more they will allow you to download. Hughesnet is a 24 hour running for usage monitoring and I believe Wildblue is still at 30 days for usage monitoring. I buy alot of music online but can't stream much through Pandora. Youtube will eat up your bandwidth rather quick as well. Hughesnets basic package allows you 200mb of downloads in 24 hours. Saying average MP3 is 5mb it doesn't take long to put a dent in your allowed usage if you buy a bunch of songs at one time. Throw another adult and a couple of kids in the mix and it takes even less time to use up your allowed bandwidth. Rain and snow fade is an issue. Dish location and install is key to minimize it.

[Dave S]

Right on Skeeter. The install can make the service better. I have no issues during an average rainfall with Wild Blue. It's just the severe weather that we have issues with.

That is one downfall of living in an area without DSL lines.

I really wish more telecomm providers would start installing the FTTX.