Anyone had any experience with Hughes Net at home or on the road?
Satellite Internet February 19, 2012, 07:41:52 pm Anyone had any experience with Hughes Net at home or on the road? Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #1 – February 19, 2012, 08:28:36 pm QuoteAnyone had any experience with Hughes Net at home or on the road?Bruce:We had Hughes Net on the coach (via Motosat) for 4 years. We had frequent issues, the majority of which occurred when we stopped using it for three weeks or more. If you are full-timers it might not be as much of a problem, but anytime there are periods of inactivity Hughes Net deactivates your receiver and it took progressively more time working through Motosat for them to get Hughes Net to re-activate. That coupled with periodic downtimes due to satellite problems prompted us to abandon our $5,000 investment and switch over to Verizon's MiFi 2200 (~$200). We haven't regretted the switch for a minute. Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #2 – February 20, 2012, 08:33:32 am Bruce, We also Had Hughes net at home, when Donna retired and kept it for close to 5 years. We lived in the country and that was all we could do at the time. Periodic problems with them cutting our usage back and rising cost we finally gave up! We switched to the air card and have been all over the country and home with no problems, and so convenient to use. We use a Cradlepoint MBR1000 wireless both at home and on the road and usually have three computers up and running all the time, combination works well for us.We were lucky and started with Alltel and the unlimited plan and were able to keep it when Verizon took over!Best of Luck!Barry & Donna Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #3 – February 20, 2012, 04:16:37 pm Quote from: bbeane – February 19, 2012, 07:41:52 pmAnyone had any experience with Hughes Net at home or on the road? I've heard that as with a satellite TV, trees can be a problem too. Never had one though. Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #4 – February 20, 2012, 07:10:54 pm Thanks all for the replies, that is what is suspected increasing rates and decreasing service. Looks like it will be an air card. Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #5 – February 20, 2012, 07:30:30 pm We used HughesNet for many years before switching to a Verizon MiFi card. We found none of Don's problems, but we dealt directly with HughesNet, not through MotoSat. The big difference between the two(except for size, of course) is that HughesNet limits daily download volume, while cell-based systems these days have monthly limits. HughesNet has periods of time without limits if you're prepared to schedule them for the middle of the night. They also allow you to exceed limits one at a time, and accumulate download capacity. Verizon has a 5GB plan for $60 and an 8GB plan for $80. Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #6 – February 20, 2012, 08:35:21 pm Use Apple Iphone as my WiFi hotspot in conjunction with AT&T $60 per month data plan. If I wasn't on corporate pay, would probably do same on a VZ plan Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #7 – February 20, 2012, 08:41:45 pm If considering an aircard, I'd look seriously at Millenicom Millenicom | High Speed Wireless Broadband and their advanced plan. It uses Verizon's network, and $59.99 per month, no contract, for 20G of data is sweet With a Cradlepoint router (appropriately secured), you can share the connection with multiple computers (the security keeping the sharing to only those you permit).Michelle Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #8 – March 05, 2012, 03:41:09 pm Thanks for the information Michelle,I've been trying to verify the pro's and con's of the various companies offering internet data service and yes, this one looks very good. They do have 7 plans, one for up to 5 devices and 10gigs 4G+10 more if 3G needed and states it is usable wiht a VPN.(virtual private network) Now offered as early bird special @ $69/mo.I set this VPN on all my computers while in Central America and will keep it, so wondering if you know if the slightly cheaper plan you suggest $59/mo., with the router you mentioned is VPN compliant?It would offer all the gigs--- at $120/yr. less than their big plan, if it and VPN would work through the router.ron Quote Selected
Re: Verizon air cards Reply #9 – March 05, 2012, 04:37:22 pm If one doesn't watch movies online, and not a full timer Verizon does have a use-as-you-go pre-paid plan for their air cards. It does cost $35 to turn the card on after a deactivation though. Plans - Verizon WirelessAlso, the 3Gstore.com, 3G/4G Routers, Antennas, Amplifiers, WiFi, Extended Batteries, has new routers that will turn themselves off at a preset band width limit to avoid going over whatever your limit is. Pretty cool Here's a Youtube video: Cradlepoint NetBSD Monitoring Data Usage Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #10 – March 05, 2012, 05:14:41 pm Broadband just became available in our neighborhood so we dropped Hughes Network and have been enjoying fast internet for the last 3 months. Hughes was a huge improvement over dial-up and with the new HN9000 modem, latency was not as bad as before and we did not experience the slow traffic during peak hours complaints seen on forums. It worked well unless we had a snowstorm and with the meter on the monitor, it's easy to tell what percent of the daily allowance is remaining. If you go over the 200mb limit, you can use a once a month free tolken (or buy one for $5) to reset the daily allowance (11pm to 5am EST is free unlimited). Cost was dropped to $49/mo. Uploads are only about 10% of the download speed.The only drawback for an RV is the size of the dish/arm/LNB. About 3 times the size and weight of a satellite TV dish, it's very clumsy to carry and setup and needs a hefty pole. How does it compare to DSL or wireless? It does not, but if you are frequently in areas with no cell service, this may be the ticket for internet access. Account may be re-activated for a $25 charge. Pierce Quote Selected
Re: Satellite Internet Reply #11 – March 06, 2012, 06:08:40 am Thanks all, sounds like an air card is the way to go for the motorhome. Quote Selected
Topic: Satellite Internet