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View Full Version : Anyone with Wild Blue satellite?



John Miliunas
11-09-2006, 12:05 AM
I'm still on the old Hughes Network system, with copper (modem to ISP) upload and the Hughes Network (Used to be DirecPC) satellite downlink. Been considering an upgrade to the 2-way satellite (NO, we do NOT have cable or DSL out here!:mad: ) for faster uploads, as well as faster downlink. Anybody out there using this system and, if so, what do you think of it? Any and all input, negative or positive, would be appreciated! TIA! :) :cool:

Curt Harms
11-09-2006, 10:31 AM
here it is anyway. I don't think it'll violate any TOS terms
http://www.broadbandreports.com/comment/2554/58512.
It's user reviews of various broadband vendors.

HTH

Curt

John Miliunas
11-09-2006, 11:21 AM
here it is anyway. I don't think it'll violate any TOS terms
http://www.broadbandreports.com/comment/2554/58512.
It's user reviews of various broadband vendors.

HTH

Curt

Thanks, Curt! Pretty enlightening! :eek: One of our neighbors down the road has it so, I think I'll go check their installation out. OTOH, when I go out to the WB site and plug in our Zip code, NO installers show up! Now, I know that our neighbors got their unit installed @6-8 months ago and, at the time, there were at least two area installers available. Can't help but wonder if the installers didn't get "the shaft", too! :rolleyes: The search and research continues.... Thanks again! :) :cool:

Jim King
11-09-2006, 3:32 PM
Can anyone tell me what I have in simple terms that a woodman can understand. I now am operating at 100 mbps supposedly whatever that is..

The info below is a new dish that just arrived. Can anyone tell me if the dish is that much better than what I have.

1.8m General Dynamics composite dish(Dish size is 1.8m)
1 4 watt transmitter/LNB(Ser# 59886 )
1 Linkstar Commercial Satellite Internet Data modem(Ser# AG11102500).
1 Configured ATA Sipura box (425 area code) for US nation-wide calling plan
1 Digital Spectrum Analyzer( Ser# 37655) with memory storage and communications port
1 back-up data system (external USB 2.0 DVD-R, DVD-Ram, and CD-R read/write)
1 box of Twinned RG6 cable(500 Ft in Length), cable stripper, compression tool, RG6 compression ends.

John Miliunas
11-09-2006, 5:07 PM
Can anyone tell me what I have in simple terms that a woodman can understand. I now am operating at 100 mbps supposedly whatever that is..

The info below is a new dish that just arrived. Can anyone tell me if the dish is that much better than what I have.

1.8m General Dynamics composite dish(Dish size is 1.8m)
1 4 watt transmitter/LNB(Ser# 59886 )
1 Linkstar Commercial Satellite Internet Data modem(Ser# AG11102500).
1 Configured ATA Sipura box (425 area code) for US nation-wide calling plan
1 Digital Spectrum Analyzer( Ser# 37655) with memory storage and communications port
1 back-up data system (external USB 2.0 DVD-R, DVD-Ram, and CD-R read/write)
1 box of Twinned RG6 cable(500 Ft in Length), cable stripper, compression tool, RG6 compression ends.

Jim, who is the provider for that system? Is it Hughes Network or similar? To me, it looks like a commercial setup but, I'm not up enough on that stuff. If I knew who the provider was, I might be able to dig up some more stuff on it, as a buddy of mine has some knowledge of satellite stuff in other countries. :) :cool:

Jim King
11-09-2006, 8:14 PM
John: I beleive the server is SatMex. Obviously Mexican covering this area.
I think the dish is commercial , it cost $11,000 so it should be something.

Jim

Joe Mioux
11-09-2006, 9:28 PM
John, I think a shave is needed!

lol

Joe

Curt Harms
11-10-2006, 8:19 AM
Thanks, Curt! Pretty enlightening! :eek: One of our neighbors down the road has it so, I think I'll go check their installation out. OTOH, when I go out to the WB site and plug in our Zip code, NO installers show up! Now, I know that our neighbors got their unit installed @6-8 months ago and, at the time, there were at least two area installers available. Can't help but wonder if the installers didn't get "the shaft", too! :rolleyes: The search and research continues.... Thanks again! :) :cool:

I read the posts after I posted the link (I have DSL so don't pay much attention to others) and it looks like the installer is the key to happiness. Most users that got the service through their Coop seemed happy, installs by DSI, well:mad:

Jim Becker
11-10-2006, 9:19 AM
Jim I will tell you one thing...it will be totally AMAZING that you will be able to effectively use that Sipura voice gateway via sat services given the massive latency (delay) that such connections exhibit. (No choice...you can't go faster than the speed of light...) VoIP gets pretty antsy when you get over 300 miliseconds of delay and sat signals generally are the 500-600 miliseconds or greater due to the "bounce" from the surface to the bird and back to the surface. It's a LOT of miles!

Unfortunately, I can't help you on evaluating what you have outside of the Sipura gateway...which is a very good product.

Raymond Eade
11-10-2006, 11:55 AM
I have personal experience with Wildblue and I would advise you to run do not walk away from this company. I had the service only work for just over 30 days and not very good at that. Then it stopped and WB could not get a tech to come out and repair it. They contract the work out to a company called DSI. After 45+ days without service we canceled our contract and then filed a complaint with the BBS. I will say that they did resolve our complaint to our satisfaction. I am now back on dial up that is just about as fast as WildBlue was. All I can say is beware of this company. My $.02.

John Miliunas
11-10-2006, 2:43 PM
I have personal experience with Wildblue and I would advise you to run do not walk away from this company. I had the service only work for just over 30 days and not very good at that. Then it stopped and WB could not get a tech to come out and repair it. They contract the work out to a company called DSI. After 45+ days without service we canceled our contract and then filed a complaint with the BBS. I will say that they did resolve our complaint to our satisfaction. I am now back on dial up that is just about as fast as WildBlue was. All I can say is beware of this company. My $.02.

Hmmmm...Sounds like you weren't too happy with WB, heh? :rolleyes: Sadly, that appears to be an all too common response from current/previous users. It's either that or people are almost 100% happy with it, albeit I find more negative than positive on them. Thanks much for your 1st-hand experience/input. I'll keep lookin', I guess! :) :cool:

Matt Meiser
11-10-2006, 3:18 PM
Overall, I'd have to say I'm happy with Direcway/Hughesnet as it has generally been reliable. Given the chance, I'd switch to something with less latency, but right now that's not an option. It does look like I will soon have an option from Sprint that is wireless. Check at http://www.sprint.com/power2connect to see if they have coverage in your area.

John Miliunas
11-10-2006, 10:07 PM
Overall, I'd have to say I'm happy with Direcway/Hughesnet as it has generally been reliable. Given the chance, I'd switch to something with less latency, but right now that's not an option. It does look like I will soon have an option from Sprint that is wireless. Check at http://www.sprint.com/power2connect to see if they have coverage in your area.

Thanks for your input, Matt. Yeah, Hughes has been OK but, I'm really looking for a bit better up-link than my modem. I've looked at their 2-way system and that's what brought me to WB>>>It's up front costs were more manageable. Plus, with having my own ISP on copper, if the dish goes down, I still have some redundancy. However, like I said, I'm looking for better uploads so, the redundancy is no longer a deal breaker. Guess I'll check into Hughes a bit closer. :)

As for the more generally accepted forms of high-speed, out here, we are in a "Broadband Black Hole"! :mad: Heck, sometimes I feel lucky to not have to climb the dang pole to make a phone call! Even cell service out here is spotty, at best! :mad: Got a cell phone for the LOML (mainly for emergencies). As for myself, I go down to the Kwik-Trip and get a calling card! Cheaper than any of the long distance plans, especially for how little I use it. :) Thanks again for the info! :) :cool:

Jeff Kerr
11-11-2006, 8:38 AM
I don't know how far out of "town" you are, but take a look to see if there are any carriers in your area that are using "Motorola Canopy" high speed wireless. I think the Motorola US site has a search function to find carriers. This technology is used for small towns where the large telcos will never pay to run cables. I found it by accident when a neighbor ended up with a sign in his yard after he had it installed.

I live about 5 miles out of a small town and there is a carrier that put up a receiver on the water tower. They then put all small antenna on your house and bingo you know if 2meg high speed with a static IP address. It is much faster than satellite.

The cost in my area was about $150 to install and $50 a month. It works really well.

If that is not an option, take a look at the cell phone type modem cards. All the major cell carriers have them. You can buy a wireless AP/router from kyocera that will turn that card into a wireless access point for all the PC's in your house. I was doing that for the last year and was getting 400kbps speed. Still faster than the satellite. My card thru verizon was 65/month and the router cost $300. You can get the router online from Kyocera (use google for their website) or you can also get more info from evdo-info.com.

good luck