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Hal Peeler
04-09-2008, 9:35 AM
I'm looking into Satellite internet service through Hughes. That and cellular are my only options other than dialup. I am currently trying a cellular card and am only getting downloads speeds of about 300K thanks to being in a fringe area. What kind of actual speeds can I expect from the satellite? I know what's advertised but is that pretty close to actual? Thanks in advance.
Hal

Bob Moyer
04-09-2008, 9:52 AM
Our comapny had satellite service for 2 years before we finally got DSL; there were times that our upload and download speeds were worse than dialup, :(.

Do a search google search - epionions hughes satellite and see the results.:eek:

Don Abele
04-09-2008, 9:57 AM
Hal, I can't give you any info on actual performance, but wanted to point something out. When I lived in Washington I looked at satellite internet because there was nothing else (except dialup). The thing that swayed me away from it was the time lag. The data has to go up to the satellite then back down. The lag can be lengthy at times (near a minute). That has a significant impact on anything which requires a constant connection (like online gaming, or in my case, online video teleconferencing).

It's been a while since I looked into it, but I doubt they've found a way to overcome the lag.

Be well,

Doc

Oh, BTW, I ended up with ADSL in Washington. I'm glad I'm where I have cable now.

Matt Meiser
04-09-2008, 10:44 AM
Hal, don't do it! I had Hughes, now have EV-DO through Sprint. There's no way I'd go back. There are some steps you can probably take with the cell card.

I have a PCMCIA card which is installed in a Linksys router. By mounting it in the router, we can easily share with 3 PCs. I also purchased an external antenna which is mounted on our TV Antenna tower high enough up that the house doesn't obstruct it. Since the card is in the router, I was able to mount the router just inside in the basement to minimize the antenna cable length. That helped my performance from OK, to great. Not wired great, but from better than satellite to WAY better than satellite.

300K isn't bad. You will get higher speeds from satellite, but its deceiving. Satellite has a significant delay due to time it takes the signal to be transmitted from your house to the satellite, back to their ground station, across the internet, back to their ground station, back to the satellite, and finally back to you. To somewhat account for this, they compress the data, so the larger your requests, the faster it goes. But things like live video, that Don mentioned don't work well with compression because what's happening now needs to be sent now. Also, they can't compress HTTPS requests so they get VERY slow. Without compression, their speed is comparable to dialup. I found that many VPN products didn't work because the standard home package didn't include a public IP address--that was a significant additional cost. Pretty much anything real-time was unusable. Another issue with Hughes is their Fair Access Policy. If you download too much, too fast, you get cut back to about 1/2 dialup speed. I could not, for example, download a CD image from Microsoft which I occassionally need to do for work. About 200MB in, I would hit the FAP. Despite their slick advertising, I suspect you could easily hit it downloading music or video from somewhere like iTunes too. Finally, the upload speed is terrible. When we had satellite, it could take me minute or more to attach 4 pictures to a post here. Using an online photo service to print digital pictures was out of the question. Oh, and thunderstorms or heavy rain knocked out our reception. This won't be a problem for you, but we also lost reception when it snowed until the sun melted the snow off the dish a few hours after the sun came out after a snowstorm.

Hal Peeler
04-09-2008, 11:42 AM
Thanks all.
Matt, I sent you a PM
Thanks again
Hal

Reed Wells
04-09-2008, 3:27 PM
I'm using Hughs right now as we speak $**^#)(&^@@!@!!!!!!!!!!! Does that answer your Question? HA

john dennis
04-10-2008, 12:17 AM
I live in a place called Fiery Gizzard Cove in TN. I can't get cable. I can't get cell phone. I can't get pizza delivery. I do get on line on a good at at 19k. I'm still thinking of going with Hughes.
Pops

Matt Meiser
04-10-2008, 8:05 AM
John, in your case satellite is still better than dialup. I always told people that should be their marketing slogan -- "Hughes--its better than dailup!" But if available, I think EV-DO is a better option.

You can get good deals on used Hughes equipment. Just make sure you contact Hughes with the model and serial number before you buy to make sure that it is still usable and isn't under contract. Unfortunately for me the generation of equipment I had (DW6000) was no longer allowed for new installs so couldn't sell mine.