Satellite Internet Forum

[Hghs]

Hughes.net is great if ....

you are strictly a residential customer.
do not require any technical assistance in a timely manner.
do not mind high latency.

and lastly have NO other option.

Let me justify the statements with my own experiences.

I have Hughes.net as my ISP. I currently have their Business Professional plan with static ip address. As a business customer there are times that I require access to the machines at my location this is possible over satellite but there is a latency in communication from the work station that i am working from...usualy 6-27 seconds from the time the keystroke occurred to when i see the letter appear on my screen. this is called latency and usually ranges from 600ms to 2700ms. I have also played online games like WOW from this satellite connection but only as a solo character...it is not recommended to join a group due to the latency and will reduce the quality of your game play.

If you require any technincal help you need to be warned that Hughes.net outsources their level 1 technical support. This support is adequate is you require limited help with email password resets and direction on how to turn the power on and off on your modem. If you require any advanced technical support...plan on having several phone calls that are over 1 hour long with just this level 1 support group BEFORE you get to a more advanced support group and then you can have longer calls with them with major support in the hardware at your location but very little support for DNS, VPN, or any other software issue. DO NOT use this type of service for starting up a business that requires the use of SOHO mail servers that require rDNS entries you will get blacklisted. Even though they advertise that you can have this type of service with static ip addresses they DO NOT support the required DNS entries necessary to prevent this from happening.

As a residential service Hughes.net is very adequate for web serfing and recieving email. Online gaming and streaming viseo can be done. Voip and VPN links are not recommended, and If you have to download alot of data be forwarned that they do have a FAP policy. what this means is that you can download X amount of data at one time before Hughes.net cuts your download speed in half. If you continue to download they will cut it in half agasin and continue to do so untill you reach dial-up speeds. If at this point you continue to download they will temporarily end transmission to your modem for a short period of time. after this pause in service they will resume your connection. In my current plan I can download 350M before I enter a FAP state. Normal surfing rarely reaches this level of data trransfere but, if I require large files to be downloaded ...FORGET IT. The amount of data download does regenerate but at a rediculously slow rete of 56K

I am currently trying to start an online business and hughes.net is not an adequate ISP for this type of activity, I am currently looking for alternative methods of connecting to the internet up to and including paying my local cable company $10000.00 to run cable out to my location.

If all you need to do is surf the web and get email, and there is no other alternative besides dial-up and you want faster acccess to these services then Hughes.net is a good solution. They ARE faster than dial-up in regards to these types of service.

Oh one more thing Hughes.net is only a good weather ISP. If it rains the you will have to use dial-up. Or you cuold spend the extra $400 to get the bigger 2 watt transmitter and continue to have service unless it really pours down of course...

[ouloko]

Though I am not currently a customer of theirs, I have heard some decent things about it. Granted, nughesNet is considerably slower than DSL or cable and the 500ms delay in going to and from the satellite makes gaming impossible, but if you live out in the country or in the mountains like me, it sure beats dial-up. The cost is a little steep but I have heard that they will work with you on that and spread it out.

I currently live in a town and thus have access to cable high-speed but I will be moving out onto a mountain in about a year when we finish our house and there is currently not any high speed available there. Satellite is a nice alternative to dial-up if you can stomach the price.

[ozyy]

I am thinking about going to HughesNet and I have been reading all the negative stuff about it on here and I am just wondering if there is anybody out there that has anything positive to say about the satellite internet service. I am not looking for negative answers, just positive answers. Thanks - OZY

[2KOOL2]

I am thinking about going to HughesNet and I have been reading all the negative stuff about it on here and I am just wondering if there is anybody out there that has anything positive to say about the satellite internet service. I am not looking for negative answers, just positive answers. Thanks - OZY

Yeah me two,I live out in the country and dial-up is my only op.I am in to first person shooter games and do play WOW.Would the satellite be better than dial-up? Thank's for any help.

[ninosat]

Yeah me two,I live out in the country and dial-up is my only op.I am in to first person shooter games and do play WOW.Would the satellite be better than dial-up? Thank's for any help.

Satellite is not better than dial-up for “shooter” games. Certain applications such as Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and certain online interactive games (particularly “shooter” games that depend on split-second responsiveness for the “survival” of the player), and applications that use non-TCP/IP protocols (e.g. IPX/SPX), do not function properly via satellite. VPN client software bypasses TCP Acceleration and Web Page Acceleration and, as a result, speeds are similar to that of a dial-up connection. Real-time gaming applications rely on instantaneous feedback, and the latency over satellite link is often too much for satisfactory performance.

In a network, latency, a synonym for delay, is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. The main culprit causing satellite service latency is the 46,000 mile round trip the Internet signals must travel from Earth to geosynchronous orbiting satellites and back.

Internet users have heard about latency (almost always in the context of gaming) but don't really understand much about it. Latency is the delay in a single bit (or packet - on fast circuits there's not much queuing delay so there's not much difference) getting from one place to another and back. Latency is almost always the result of path selection and limitations of the speed of light. For example, if my best path to your server goes from NYC to London and back, then I will have a *minimum* latency of around 60ms and likely more like 80. Not terrible but not great.
Large latencies impact all kinds of uses of the Net, including connection set-up, interactive typing or screen-refresh and throughput.

[2KOOL2]

Thank's, I guss I will stick with dial-up then.