BTW WildBlue is available everywhere in the US depending on how your trees look :P

As far as cleaning the dish..... Its on your house. Put a garbage bag around the dish carefully. Tighten it so that there is no arc for snow to rest between the LNB(tip) and dish. Voila! Youre done.

It is being lied to that pisses off most hughes customers. They promise better speeds with an upgrade, but you have to agree to a 15 month or 24 month contract, and the results are nowhere near what they promised.Hughes continues to advertise that They have a fast reliable service. The fact is that recently(several months),they have more customers than available bandwith. Those who were getting what they paid for in the beginning are now starting to see poorer service. Hughes does admit that speeds will be reduced during peak hours. They even go as far as telling you what numbers to expect during peak hours. For my Proplus plan $89 download/upload speeds are up to 1.5mbs/200kbps, but during peak hours hughes claims 700-800kbps/100kbps Well if you read the BBS websites for hughes you'll see that a lot of people, myself included, get only about half the download and a tenth of the upload of what hughes claims. 100-450/7-20 22 out of 24 hours. With uploads at the reduced speeds I'd be better off with dialup. couple the slow upload with a huge satelite latency and you time out with most games and sending pics to family can take hours. And no you idiot I'm not moving just to get fast internet. Hughes should live up to their promises.

@Mr. Gunn:

Yup, lots of things are subsidized, and it bugs me. I don't demand that rural folks subsidize my lifestyle, so it annoys me when they demand I subsidize theirs. And yes, I include rural telephony and electrification in that.

I personally have wildblue and have been a very pleased customer for over a year. I also procured a kyocera 650 card and wifi router as a backup thru alltel. I only pay 75 for sat access and 25 on my exsisiting alltel plan. I live in the country so cable is not option.

Can you get cellular service out there? If so, do it, and let all your neighbors know, too.

@thomasrz:

Sure, it's a choice to live in rural areas; last I checked, serfdom was abolished quite a while ago.

I'm sure you do find it reasonable to force ISPs to provide service to rural areas at comparable rates to urban areas, regardless of the cost to provide that service - that would benefit you. It hurts me, though, because I pay higher prices to subsidize you. I choose to live in an urban area - that comes with pluses (like lower cost for broadband provision) and minuses (congestion, higher rent, etc.). As soon as you're willing to force parking garages in Manhattan to let me park for nothing, as you can in your driveway, I'm happy to force ISPs to provide you discounted broadband.

Not everyone who lives in rural areas does so by choice; I'm sure we're all intelligent enough to understand why. I don't find it unreasonable for ISPs to provide service to rural areas at a comparable rate to what is charged for urban areas with greater infrastructure. Not only for the benefit of people who want to watch videos on Youtube, but also for rural economic development, education, both of which are important enough alone to advocate broadband access, but also access to information by a sector of the American public that's long been held hostage by the whims of big business.

Unless you have something that is legitimately forcing you to live in a rural area (such as working in agriculture), then you should consider moving to civilization. If you choose to stay rural for the benefits that you may perceive, then you have to understand that those benefits come at a cost. The lack of a good ISP is one of them. The fact that the ISPs available to you are bandwidth constrained themselves (hence the FAPs) also enters into this formula.

In short, HughesNet is simply putting an appropriate price on the very difficult task of providing you with internet service.

Even my crapy Wildblue service gives me better than that. They FAP you on a "running 30 day cumulative" (in my case 12 Gb of data) I have busted that twice (pr0n addiction) and it takes about 5 to 7 days of sub dialup speeds to get back to regular (usually about 300 to 500 kb/s on their "up to" 750 kb/s service).

Went to Alltel that day and signed up for their Wireless internet and even though it's slightly better than dial-up, it's 1000x better than this rip-off HughesNet offers. They need to do something with making it known on their commercials that restrictions apply (there is no fine print whatsoever on their TV ads)

@Gstein: So this image pretty much sums things up?

[smg.photobucket.com]

@Scuba Steve:

If you want to spend tax dollars to expand broadband services, that's a different argument. Personally, I'm opposed to any additional rural subsidies for broadband - living in cities and living in the sticks both have pluses and minuses, and I'm tired of subsidizing people who live in rural areas (universal service fund, for example) when they seem disinclined to subsidize _my_ choice to live in an urban area.

For some of us that choose to live in areas outside of the "connected" world we have few options.... Someone mentioned cell service, yeah thanks for the brilliant idea, you don't think he and many others have tried that? Plus the idea is to have a home network where more than one pc can connect to. Point is you and mnay other missed the point entirely...

We pay for "broadband" that is so limited that we can barely browse the internet before getting cut off, for 24 hours, that are slower than a 33.6bps modem....its sad. FAP is a bunch of BULLSH*T.

What is Fair about it? This is just worse than what Comcast is doing to its customers. As the customer we should have the right to do what we want with our service. Many of you criticize the topic when we are paying $80/month for sub-par service anc performance. Whats the point of broadband that has such small limits.

It feels like you bought a Ferrari with a 1-gallon tank, just when its starts to get fun you are cut off....

My company uses this service for some of our employees way out who don't have the option of broadband. Let me tell you, I have yet to hear any one of them sing praises about this service. Hell, dialup is only slightly slower, and would be a better (and cheaper!) alternative.

The "Angled perfectly to collect snow" part made me chuckle - We had a guy who could watch his dish swing in the wind as it wasn't bolted on right. It took Hughes a fucking WEEK just to show up because they had him try all of this other B.S., even as he was telling him the dish was swaying in the wind. You're a satellite company, wouldn't you realize that it's not catching a signal if it's not pointed and locked on in the direction of the satellite?

@Scuba Steve:

Complain about what, exactly? Do you also contact the Department of Transportation to complain that Honda Accords don't have 500 horsepower?

Here is the email

executivecustomercare@hughes.net

Hughes net was back a while ago. It was last year or so they cut the download cap from every 4 hours to every 24 hours. Really made it go to shit. Got my last client off it a few months ago when I was able to hit a cell tower with an evdo card. Guy can't beleive how much better it is. I would personaly take dial-up over hughesnet given the choice. It is that bad.

I'd say write the FCC and complain, but fat lot of good that would do.

You are downloading off a freaking satellite. They can't just send up another bird into geosynchronus orbit 'cause you can't get your youtube fast enough ....

They have to ration what they have among their customers ... sending up another bird is a multi-million dollar last resort.

I would suggest trying the following:
Get rid of adobe flash, real player, and any other browser "helper apps". If you want to download and look at a video, budget your bandwidthn for it.

Get a software firewall, like zone alarm, and disallow any internet access to any software, including your OS, and only punch pinholes through for your browser and email.

Uncheck autoload images ... only look at images you choose to click on ... you don't really want to pay for ad downloads ... get aggressive with adblock.

And if you have wireless, take your wireless router out and shoot it. Replace it with a simple wired router, or just use one PC.

Believe it or not, I am one of the (apparently few) satisfied customers of HughesNet. When my wife and I were looking for a new home last year, one of my top priorities was speedy internet access. I work for a large (fruit-themed) computer company and need to be online as much as possible. Occasionally I need fairly large files for work, so broadband was something I looked for right away.

Well, we found the house of our dreams, but it had absolutely NO broadband access whatsoever. Ultimately, I decided that the stability and overall happiness of my family was far more valuable to me than the internet as a tool. (Family and relationship over work should always win, right?)

Before I signed up for the service, I did a lot of research online and found out about the FAP. I was a bit bummed, but figured that there must be a workaround. Sure enough, there is. On top of that, I KNEW that this policy was in place and STILL ordered the service. At no point do they hide this fact... it's right out in the open. I personally have the "home" plan with a 375MB FAP cap. This works fine for me. So what about bigger files and downloads?

If you had actually referenced HughesNet's website or looked at any posting out there about this, then you would also see that they allow untethered access (ie, download size does not count towards your FAP) between the hours of 3am and 6am. This was done SPECIFICALLY to address the concerns of users that may (from time to time) need access to large files or downloads. It took me all of 30 minutes to find out how to schedule my mac to download certain files, podcasts and updates starting at 3am. It wasn't that hard. I am sure that Windows can do this as well. I have been using this system for almost a year now with no problems. I download anywhere between 300 and 1GB a night and have not gone over my FAP in months.

Let's face the facts here.

Yes, HughesNet is expensive. You knew that when you gave them your credit card.

Yes, HughesNet is NOT fast. I get a solid 120KB/s download speed at any point in the day. Is that blazing? No. Is it bearable? Heck yes. It's actually not all that bad. I am actually amazed that they get the performance that they do... ALL of the internet traffic that they generate from the US goes through TWO pieces of equipment 24/7 that are about the size of a car in FREAKING SPACE. (No local rewires and patches possible here, folks.)

As far as you referencing them as being "criminal" - well, I think that about sums it up. They can charge $600.00 a month if they want. Isn't that called "supply and demand?" You signed up for it because you needed their service, didn't you? They didn't force you.

For the record, I had absolutely no issues with the equipment. They came out and installed it for free on a pole outside of my house. I own the equipment - not them. This means I can sell it as well whenever I feel like it. The installer lady was actually pretty smart and nice as well. She was amazed how quickly my Mac picked up the router (just plugged it in to my Airport and chose DHCP. Done.) My dish does get snow from time to time (3 times in over a year to be exact) but it never really lasted very long.

Would I get a different provider as soon as they came in to town? YES. ONLY because it would save me a ton of money and I would still like to have faster access to the internet. BUT, in no way do I think this company needs to be dogged on so heavily. In my personal experience, they have provided a service that has met and exceeded my expectations. Reporting them to the BBB will truly only get you laughed at. How have they provided a disservice to you? By giving you the level and amount of connectivity you paid for? Have you called them to complain? Have you kept records of outages or overages? Are you working with them at all? I am sure that it is frustrating to you, but please understand that they MUST insist on the FAP in order to keep the satellite alive for the rest of us. We both know someone who downloads torrents 24 hours a day for no other reason than boredom.... they have to protect their service.

You say that you pay the bill, so you should be able to use the service how YOU want. HUH? No other services provider would agree with you here. They all have caps - sometimes they won't even tell you what they are *coughComcastcough*. I know - I pay my dish network bill every month so I want all of the channels, damnit! It's my service! I'm not doing anything illegal like stealing service, so why shouldn't I be rewarded and get as much as I can? Yeah.

I am sure that people are going to think that I work for them or something, but I do not. I am not affiliated with them in any way - I just want to share my honest opinion about this company.

Sorry for the long rant, I just think that this post was unnecessary for the front page of the (usually great) reputation and service that The Consumerist provides to us.

The thing you have to realize is that the satellite ISPs are sharing an incredibly limited resource; if there wasn't a FAP, the first person to launch Bittorrent would make life absolutely miserable for everybody else. In order to make sure everybody gets what they've paid for, you wind up with something like the FAP. It sucks, but I really don't think there's anything they can do. If you want better service, pay more money for a larger cap and more bandwidth.

We had to deal with that issue years back in an area with no service for a business. They were on a Verizon ISDN (which wasnt bad really) But Covad had a 350-450$ per month T-1 deal.
If Sat is 800-999 to install and 99 or more per month and my business/life relies on it Im getting a t-1

As I had to work from home for a couple of years along with my on-site time I got Verizon Business DSL and its been good to me.

@vdragonmpc:
I don't know where you live but to my knowledge, a T1 will cost you between $400-$1200 per month depending on the loop length and how much the LEC decides to charge for the bandwidth. A fractional T is almost always a bad idea because the loop charge is usually half or more of the total bill. So you save about 12% for a 50% reduction in bandwidth.

If this guy lives far enough out that satellite is his only option then I can just about guarantee that a T1 is going to cost closer to $1200 than it will to $400.

That's the only way they installed them from where I'm from.

For that cost I would have simply installed a t-1 connection. There are always alternatives. A fractional T wouldnt be that bad nor would ISDN.

I had a tool of a Operations manager that kept raving that we needed a backup connection in case the cable or DSL went out. He kept pushing for that damned Hughesnet... I hated meetings on disaster recovery with him. We had Business cable, Business DSL and ISDN failover.... WTF did we need a flippin dish on the roof for?

The best way you can complain is with your wallet. He says he can do without it, but seriously, get a Verizon card or something. an "I hate your service, but I'm still going to use it" gets a giant shrug from anyone on their side who bothers to listen.

@PEEPYTWEEP While I understand your point, the fact is that this is a normal business expense that should be calculated as part of the monthly budget. If you want to turn your home into a home office, then there are certain expenses that should be expected.

.

WOW,HOW COOL IS THAT??????????????

Tools.

@BrianH: :-) <---- for the humor/sarcasm impaired

Smart move, right there. Some folks 'round these parts might try to take your legs out otherwise.

I second that...our firm has a Verizon card that works almost anywhere and gets reasonably good speeds with no data cap. Alternately, a Verizon Blackberry can be connected with USB to do the same thing.

well give em a break they are still trying to pay off that big ass plane that howard built and only flew once

Is WildBlue not available in 95% of the country?

I believe that it is...But I would explore every other altenative to them for these reasons :
(quoted verbatim from the Terms and conditions on their website)

"Termination Fees. If you cancel the Service before completion of the Minimum Service Term or Extension Term, you will be charged a Termination Fee as follows:

1. For plans with a 24 Month Minimum Service Term or a Renewal Program Term: Fee is equal to the number of months left in your Minimum Service Term multiplied by $30.00.

2. For plans with a 12-Month Minimum Service Term: Fee is equal to the number of months left in your Minimum Service Term multiplied by your base monthly fee."

Their early termination fee is legal plunder. Also, this little nugget;

" Any such controversy or claim shall be settled exclusively by arbitration, and administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. Any such arbitration will be held in Denver, Colorado or the location of the residence where the WildBlue Equipment was installed. The arbitrator will be an expert in the field of Internet services or other appropriate subject matter of the dispute. The arbitrator's award shall be final and binding and judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction. There shall be no class action arbitration"

Also, they do not support VOIP...Help me here, does that not mean that you can't use Skype or Vonage with them ?

Wireless ISP's are a cure that is almost worse than the disease...

He might want to check and see if he can get 3G coverage in his area. It might be worth dumping Hughesnet and hooking up a 3G modem on his computer and sharing the internet connection for $60 tethered access.

Jeff definitely doesn't like the cap on his "Pro" service. Why, though, when Jeff subscribed, was he willing to pay more for his "Pro" service than the basic cost of "Home" service? Maybe he wanted the additional speed and/or higher cap that "Pro" provided. Yet Jeff isn't willing to go the next step for the "ProPlus" or "Small Office" or higher service plans, with their still higher caps?

Maybe Jeff just wants a good deal more than his wallet is willing to pay for.

I have that problem too.

(and I don't doubt that HughesNet sux, either.)

Not to cast aspersions on the technical prowess of the OP, but a couple of thoughts, assuming they really aren't generating the traffic themselves: 1) If your computer has a virus, worm, or trojan it could be part of a botnet that is running up your numbers. 2) If you have a wireless home network that isn't secured someone else could be using your connection. My (cheap) router has a built-in IP logging function, so if you have something similar you can easily check for addresses you and your guests aren't visiting.

All that said, you can burn through 375mb a lot quicker than you think. Some Flash graphics, a little streaming audio/video, download a few tracks from iTunes, plus 25-50K per page browsing typical news or shopping sites and you're well on your way.

Seems to me that if one were working from home then they could write-off the cost of their internet connection and get the small office or business level of service, rather than cheap-out and go w/the second least expensive plan, which has a download threshold of less than half a CD of lossless music.

@Tyr_Anasazi:

It's not that the company doesn't have plans in place (listen to their conference calls, they clearly do), but the question is how much to charge for service? Want unlimited access? No problem. You'll have to pay about $4k/month for every guaranteed 1Mbps of capacity you want, and that's just for the satellite component.

Jeff chose to live somewhere without other broadband options, which necessitates the use of very expensive satellite capacity to deliver service (his "slice" of the satellite probably costs on the order of $20/month before salaries ground transport, his equipment, etc.). If they didn't cap usage, it'd either (a) come to a complete stop, as a very small number of users swamp the entire system, (b) have to raise prices incredibly, or (c) go out of business. If he's writing his congressman to complain about his broadband service and costs, I hope he also includes a demand that we increase his taxes in order to fund my urban rent.

Hmm... Will this be what Time Warner see's in the future?

Eh? Is WildBlue not available in 95% of the country?

wow you got away with only paying 600
mine ran me a wopping 800
i'm SO glad i no longer have these boobs