[Joel]

OK I've had enough! 10 years of dial up, I might be near the edge! We live in the woods in a rather large hollow. (my says big ditch - oops can I say that here?) No Verizon high speed, no cable/road runner, no hope in the near future. Been seeing the ads for Hughes net. A bit pricey but what is an hour of our lives worth.

I wonder if anyone else is using Hugesnet or is there any other satellite providers out there. What's the service like? is it really 60 bucks a month or is like satellite TV that started out being 24 bucks a month and now it's 75? Is it high speed like roadrunner or is high speed like Juno speed band.

Please answer soon, I've tied a knot in the end of my ethernet but can't hold on much longer!

 

[standman]

We have Hughes net, for the same reasons that you give. I call our local phone provider, and they said that they have the planned schedule for installing high speed cable for the next three years, and we were not even on the list.
HN is offered in three speeds; we have the middle one. It works well for us. If we run three or more computers on it as once, we get some slowing. But it sure beats dial up.
BTW, it does not cut down on the amount of time I spend on Beesource.

 

[d.presson]

If you get good cell phone reception, another option is broadband thru one of the cell carriers.
I was in your situation, til last month. I bought an antenna from radio shack, that improves cell reception also works for wi fi.($300.00)
signed up with verizon,($59.00) month, they sent what looks like a large thumbdrive, plugs into computer. Wi fi card for computer. works great, cheaper than Hughes, etc. look into this, before you decide on Hughes.

David

 

[Countryboy]

I have Hughes.net satellite. Yes, it really is $60 a month, after the $600 install.

It is nowhere near as fast as cable, but is better than dialup. The difference between clicking page to page isn't real noticeable compare to dialup (it is a little faster). This is due to the lag from the moment your modem sends info to the satellite in the sky, back down to the Hughes main terminal which connects to the net - and then the info backtracks to you. Hughes tells people up front that they are not good for gaming (if you get into that) due to this lag.

I notice the big difference when loading large webpages or pictures. I do quite a bit of eBaying - my brother on dialup can barely load an eBay page.

It is nice to be able to watch youtube clips with satellite (impossible with dialup) but be aware Hughes has a fair access policy. Watch more than 45 minutes of video clips in a day and your service gets put into slow motion - far slower than dialup for 24 hours.

My cousin's wife got the Verizon air card and loves it. I think the monthly price is comparable to Hughes satellite, (except no $600 install) but she can take the air card with her whereever she goes and she has internet. She can use it with the tower PC at the house, or she can use the air card with her laptop.

If I had it to do over again, I would probably go with the Verizon air card.