Despite their commercials what Hughes offers is hardly “broadband”, more like “slowband”. Take if from one who knows, you will not be happy. Hughes has oversold their bandwitdth to the point you would will be much better off with a dial-up connection.
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February 26, 2007 at 10:05 pm
My thoughts for prospective HughesNet subscribers, and what you can expect. Feel free to compare what I have to say with that of the pretty red head. Until moving quite rural I had Charter cable as my ISP as well as TV. Speeds were so acceptability good I never had speed issues. I don’t remember if I did speed tests or not, having nothing on record. In Jan. 06 we had Hughes Home plan professionally installed. From the get-go I noticed evening speeds in the lo hundreds; while earlier morning speeds are in the higher hundreds. Home Plan speeds advertised as up to 700bps. I didn’t do much checking on it during the summer months, until August 06 when I started doing regular checks and realized something wasn’t right. I can’t tell you the endless minutes I’ve spent on tele support centers to India or Aruba troubleshooting what I thought they would be concerned about. The first time you hear the call center tell you that, “naturally speeds will decrease as more people come online,” is something you don’t expect to hear. And, should I mention to them that I am running Mac OS X, then I hear, “Sir, we’ll have to have transfer you to another specialists, to talk to you.” They will shuttle you through setup after setup, power down, wait, power up, do this, do that, all at slow speed if you are calling in the evening; then should you get a little up set and raise your voice, well, you’ll be disconnected. Yes, all of a sudden you realize there is no one on the other end, I call that disconnected.
On the positive side I do want to say: Aside from speed which is at issue, when you are getting acceptable speeds consistently in the upper hundreds, depending on your package, I have no complaints. During storms Sat TV will fail while the internet is still available. During severe storms Sat internet will be disrupted too. This I can accept.
All satellite providers I have noticed advertise speeds up-to, dot dot dot.
The significant words here are (up to). No other business that I can think of works on an up-to basis. Imagine your power company giving you up to 200 amps, with 25 amps in the evening as customers pile on; or purchasing up-to a quart of milk or up-to a loaf of bread. This is absurd and a calculated rip-off, they darn well know it up front, I say.
My guess, and this is a guess, is that most satellite users are rural and so spread out as to eliminate organization. This is at least part of the demographic. A blog such as this could be a good start, even a solution. I hope this blog continues, keep it honest, keep a personal speed log and pass the word.
I recently heard Bill Moyers on Link-TV in support of independent media; and paraphrased he said. “One person can be beaten, two people you can reassure one another, three people you can have a open discussion, four people you have a committee, five people …. eventually you can accomplish your objective.
June 19, 2008 at 11:38 am
Yes, hughes sucks!!! Tried the 30 day free trial,, what a joke, ended up costing me over 300 bucks for their free trial. Never got speeds even close to what they said, had best pro package- tried to download a large file, their modem failed, tried again, called tech support, they walked me through installing again, tried file again, modem failed, then got FAP’d because of their modem fail- only non english speaking tech support (whats new there?)and when you try to explain you cant understand them,,, they get pissy (sorry)- I’ve had it with hughes and got alltell, wow blazing speeds and no up or download limits- goodby hughes, and if anyone is thinking of using them,,, forget it!
September 3, 2008 at 9:06 am
Me again,, sent equipment back, called yesterday- 2 months later- haven’t rec’d money back ($200.00) and they said,, oh- it will be in the mail in 2 weeks and not to worry- I asked for email confirmation of the conversation- of course they said they did not have email capabilities- ha ha- then asked how long it usually takes to get money back, they said 2 weeks- I said it has been 2 months- asked if I had called a month from now, would it still be 2 weeks- they had no answer– will be intresting to see if I ever get any money back– and oh yes,,, NON SPEAKING SUPPORT- wow what a joke, hughes net!!!!