Need Wild Blue info

[TCFAN]

Any one here use Wild blue satellite internet.I would like to have some feed back good or bad. This or Hughes Net is my only option. Wild blue wants about 80.00 dollars a month plus a couple hundred for other expenses for their best package.1.5 MBPS down load speed.
DSL looks like it is years away and we are to far down in a hollow to use a air card.Cell phones won't even work here.Dial up is the pits.........................Terry

[PatMarlin]

I've been running Hughes for years.

While early on they had problems, now their service is pretty solid, and they offer more bandwidth then any of the others for $70.

They are still slow compared to any DLS or cable, and forget playing movies, and lousy on youtube videos most of the time, but by far better than dial up.

I run a lot of online radio and pod casts. I get 250 megs download a day. Exceed 250 megs, and they put you on a snail crawl unless you want to pay for what they call a "Token" at $5 per 250 more megs. You get a free one every few weeks or so, and that usually gets me out of jail for the moment.

Still more than Wild Blue.

I keep looking and shopping, but I for now Hughes has the most to offer in my area.

[Reg]

Used it for the last couple of years. Can be a bit owley on a rare occation but a whole lot better than what the local supplyer used to offer. We have the bottom line package and get along well with it.

:drinks:

[1911sw45]

I have been running Wildblue since about the first of the year. When it's running right it very good. But much of the time it is not running right. I have no trees so line of sight is great but still have issues with signal. When it is very cloudy I lose signal, raining I lose signal, heavy fog I lose signal. There is days when it's blue bird skies I still lose signal. Every time I call customer support they check it on their end and they say it has great signal. I have had techs out twice they can't find any thing wrong.

I am in the same boat as you, not DSL or cable. I download to much for an air card. So, it was Hughesnet or Wildblue. For the package I got the middle one on Wildblue it runs 76.26. Hughes wanted more than that for the bandwidth. So, Wildblue is my only option.

The lag on up load is very slow. Download speed is great when it running right. Have not problems running YouTube or movies. Like I said any kind of weather I am offline till it clears. Some times on the bluebird skies I still offline. You have to pay for service calls after 90 days, which sucks. It has ran a slow as dial-up at times. I hope this helps.

Adam

[TCFAN]

Thanks everyone for the info.Still thinking what I want to do.I will have to sit down and look at HughesNet and Wild Blue side by side.

Going to call CenturyLink the people that are running DSL in this area and see for sure what the time line is for it getting to me. I don't want to get caught in a 2 year contract with a satellite provider and the DSL comes through. That would just be my luck..........Terry

[PatMarlin]

I have been running Wildblue since about the first of the year. When it's running right it very good. But much of the time it is not running right. I have no trees so line of sight is great but still have issues with signal. When it is very cloudy I lose signal, raining I lose signal, heavy fog I lose signal. There is days when it's blue bird skies I still lose signal. Every time I call customer support they check it on their end and they say it has great signal. I have had techs out twice they can't find any thing wrong.


Adam

That describes how Hughes WAS, until I got the gear to point the thing myself. The installers did a LOUSY job, and any rain, snow, or wind seemed to knock it out.

As soon as I remounted and aligned it, nothing will stop it not snow rain or anything. The only thing that does is snow built up on the dish.

A lot of installers are lame and lazy idiots.

[jameslovesjammie]

Does your telephone provider offer DSL? In our area we have either DSL through our phone company or Cable through our cable provider.

Our internet package options are:

$16.95 Dialup
$24.88 1 mb/s broadband
$29.88 6 mb/s broadband
$39.88 16 mb/s broadband
$62.88 30 mb/s broadband
$129.88 55 mb/s broadband

Very reasonable options and very GOOD broadband. In the past 7 years we have had their service, we have probably been without internet for a TOTAL of 2 days.

Something to check out.

[DLCTEX]

I have Wild Blue and use the cheaper package as we don't download excessively. I had a problem with overuse until I put access encryption on my wireless router. People were stopping outside and using my bandwidth for their laptops. We are too far from town for DSL to work (12 mi.) I only lose signal in heavy rain, but heavy clouds can slow it some. People with Hughes Net here have reported lousy repair service (weeks of waiting).

[Olevern]

Wildblue for me (thru dishnetwork). Everytime it rains, is cloudy, or snows,,,,it's out.
runs at a snails pace. Costs fifty dollars (lowest bandwidth, packaged with their overpriced television) a month ($149.00 a month for tv and internet).

This ($50.00 a month) is the same as I was paying for Comcast with its great speed and unlimited access before I moved to the mountains.

If I download videos from Youtube or others several days a month, I'm over limit and my hands get slapped (slows down my internet so much that most sites time out).

You have to download youtube videos then play them as the speed is so slow the videos "stutter" and stop frequently, even downloaded music occasionally stutters (radio stations)

When I requested they come and pick up the hard drive device we never used to save tv programs (don't even know what they call it, but it was costing us six or seven dollars a month), they said they would, but any change to our package meant we started our two year contract obligation all over again.

Only option out here at present, but the very day I am aware of an alternative, I will no longer be a subscriber.

[UtopiaTexasG19]

My answer to your question about Wild Blue pretty well mimmicks everyone elses answer. It will work ok for months at a time and then act slow or drops out when a cloud rolls over the area or it starts to rain. When I've needed it the most during 2 Hurricanes it went out until the weather cleared up. I am stuck with it in my area as I am too far from the phone companies local switching station to get DSL. What is absurd is that all the new subdivisions in my area have DSL cable installed to all the lots before the houses are even built. Unfortunately my older subdivision has houses on 5 acre lots and the population here does not justify adding DSL cable. Wild Blue is better than my old dial up but worlds slower than and type of DSL.

[TCFAN]

Thanks again for the comments. The phone company is the DSL provider in this area and DSL is about 1 mile from the house. They show no interest in running it on down here.
Dial up is getting worse for just about any web site. They all seem to be geared to hi speed internet now. Even the local news on TV wants you to pull up their web site to get the rest of the story on what ever they are reporting on.That won't happen on dial up.
So it looks like it is going to be some kind of satellite hook up...........Terry

[PatMarlin]

I had a problem with overuse until I put access encryption on my wireless router. People were stopping outside and using my bandwidth for their laptops.

I just caught some tree squirrels doing that the other day. Everybody's got a laptop now.. :mrgreen:

Programmers have gotten lazy with high speed. No body programs a website that works well with dialup any more. That took some work.

[firefly1957]

I looked at both and liked the hughes better because of the download rules it is daily instead of monthly so rather than getting charged more for the month if I download to much my speed just slows down for 24 hours. I have not had any issues most slowdowns I have had are with the sight I am downloading not from my service. When I am in slowdown mode it is still faster than dial-up.

[PatMarlin]

You do know you get a restore token with Hughesnet?

Cause I didn't.

It's pouring down rain right now, and not a hiccup.

[firefly1957]

Yes and I rarely use them but when learning how everything works and when I bought a piece of **** acer computer which had a bad hard drive from the start and used all my usage trying to register! I also have a verision air card the wife uses at our other home it works well but if we over use for the month charges go up and up.

[medalguy]

I've used Wild Blue for about three years at a second home. My experience has mostly been good. Keep in mind it's NOT DSL and won't approach the speed of DSL.

We had the dish installed by two guys who took most of the day to do the work which was my first suspicion. The computer worked pretty well when they got the dish aligned, and off they went. We used it a couple of weeks and were mildly satisfied with the speed. Heck, there wasn't really any alternative.

Then one day we got a call from the area manager who said they had been watching our usage and speeds, and didn't think they were quite what they should be. He said he'd like to come out and check the setup. Great.

He arrived the next morning and did some tests on the computer, then climbed up on the roof to look at the wiring. He said a pair of coax connectors weren't properly crimped, and replaced them. Then he looked at the dish which was mounted on the end of the house with a slight roof overhang. This, he said, was unacceptable. He proceeded to dig a hole about 4 feet away from the house, mixed up a coupoe of bags of quick set cement, and set in place a new post. Then he moved the dish to the post. Finally he came inside and tweaked their download computer program a little bit, and we ran some speed tests. We were now getting about 30% more speed than before.

We do have problems with snow blocking the feed, but I waxed the dish several times and that does help. I still need to go out in heavy, wet snow and hit the post to dislodge the snow. But simple clouds aren't a problem, although really heavy rain does disrupt the signal.

All in all, I can't complain too much about the service. It's lots better than dialup, and I haven't used Hughes although our neighbors do, and they complain too. Seems one is not a lot better than another service. Good luck in whichever one you get.

Check also on a special rate offered for areas not serviced by DSL. One thing good is I believe you can get cheaper service with a shorter, or no contract. I think on the Wild Blue site they have info on that.

[starbits]

I tried wildblue and after 2 weeks they shut it down for the rest of the month because I had used too much bandwidth. I told them to come pick it back up. One thing I did when I signed the contract though was write on it that their 7 days to back out was unacceptable it would be 30 days to check it out or the contract would be void. So when I canceled they said I still owed for the contract I told them my contract had been amended and suggested they go look at it again. Never heard from them again.

Starbits

[PatMarlin]

Another good thing about Hughes- when you run over bandwidth, they slow it down for just 24 hours. If you are behind on the bill, they let you run 30 days. If you go over, they stop it but will fire it right back up when you pay it.

You can also temporarily stop service, for no charge, and restart at a later date, at no charge.

I wish there was more bandwidth available for sat, but all and all- Hughes has a good and fair program.

[Fishman]

Any one here use Wild blue satellite internet.I would like to have some feed back good or bad. This or Hughes Net is my only option. Wild blue wants about 80.00 dollars a month plus a couple hundred for other expenses for their best package.1.5 MBPS down load speed.
DSL looks like it is years away and we are to far down in a hollow to use a air card.Cell phones won't even work here.Dial up is the pits.........................Terry

I got wildblie because my phone company had dsl down the road a ways but told me twice they'd never run it down to my neighborhood. So I signed a two year contract with wildblue and three months later dsl was run past my house. Wildblue was on average slightly better than dial up and three times as expensive. I got the lowest entry level package with dsl when we finally got rid of wildblue and it was blistering fast in comparison, about half the speed of the cable I have at work.

I'm pretty sure my iPhone 3G download rate is at least two times faster than wildblue was on it's best day. An aircard might be an option for you.

[TCFAN]

Fishman
That is what I am afraid will happen to me.A 2 year contract and then DSL come through. I am going to do something after the first of the year.
Sounds like Pat is having good luck with Hughes so I may go that way. Got to get off dial up.I want to be able to see some of the pictures that are posted and watch some of the videos.

Thanks again for everyone's input on this................Terry

[Ranch Dog]

When I moved to the ranch, I had a ISDN line put in. That is two phone lines, send and receive, dedicated to data. It worked okay but I started having signal degradation after about 5 years and could not get Southwestern Bell (ATT) to do anything about it.

I tried WB, they where positive there was service in my area so I signed up. Zip, awful. Hugh issue getting it down and a refund. One sorry a$$ outfit in my opinion. Hughes was honest, they told me they couldn't help me as I was in a marginal service area. Use a Verizon broadband card without issue.