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10/02/07, 07:39 PM
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Wild Blue Internet question
Does anyone have Wild Blue internet service? It seems to be the most reasonable satellite service out there. Is it reliable? Does anyone have any other satellite service they could recommend. My dialup is horrible.
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10/02/07, 08:25 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: far north Idaho
Posts: 11,134
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We have WildBlue. It is pretty reliable...MUCH better than Hughes which we used to have.
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10/02/07, 08:33 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Live in Tennessee but born and raised and forever an Okie!
Posts: 1,478
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We have it. Its pretty good most of teh time. Usually every Sunday or that night we have problems getting service. Haven't figured that out yet. They have been pretty good as far as tech support.
__________________
"Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village tho...."
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10/02/07, 08:44 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Dyersville, Iowa
Posts: 2,828
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I have HughesNet and like it. I tried getting Wild Blue first but the Installation Techs in my area are arrogant folks who didn't show up when they had been the ones who arranged the appointment times-not once but three times and never called any of the three times to tell me they weren't coming! 
That's how I ended up with HughesNet. 
I am pleased with satellite internet & the fact that I can get internet service that is faster than my 26.4 kbp dialup. 
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10/03/07, 08:15 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Evergreen, CO
Posts: 1,187
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If you have good cellular phone service in your area you might want to consider going with wireless internet.
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10/03/07, 08:19 AM
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Food Not Lawns :p
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: NW IN
Posts: 587
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We have it, I like it and it's pretty fast. It always goes out about 3-5 minutes before it rains and if it's windy. Also, they have a bandwidth restriction and if you go over it they'll slow your speed down for a month. It's something like 1.5-2.0 gb per month- really huge so it shouldn't be a problem unless your downloading a lot of youtube videos and podcasts.
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10/03/07, 08:29 AM
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farmer11
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 36
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Wild Blue is faster than the land line, but it does seem to be affected by the weather. It will go out in the rain if it is very hard. Also high wind seems to knock it out once in a while.
Tech service is good in this area.
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farmer11
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10/03/07, 08:30 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: The Ozarks
Posts: 5,201
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We have HughesNet (formerly DirecWay) and have it had for over 5 years now. It's always been reliable for us, we move our dish around on a tripod wherever we go. It works everywhere!
We keep the modem in the RV basement plugged into a wireless router, so our laptops, XBox and my sewing machines can all get online, works great.
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10/03/07, 10:09 AM
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 135
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used wild blue for couple of years at work. Much faster than dial up, not as fast as DSL; but it was very sensitive to weather.
Last edited by crobar; 10/03/07 at 10:09 AM.
Reason: added word
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10/03/07, 01:22 PM
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..where do YOU look?
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: northcentral WI
Posts: 3,918
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a vote for HughesNet here. The Wildblue FAP ("fair" access policy) has you locked down to dialup speeds for a full billing cycle if you violate it. Hughes alaso has a FAP, but locks you down for 24 hours... MUCH more reasonable (neither are "fair", but hey, they've got me over a barrel)
R
__________________
When faced with issues in life, where do you look for the problem; out the window, or in the mirror?
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10/03/07, 01:35 PM
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Nohoa Homestead
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: SW Missouri near Branson (Cape Fair)
Posts: 5,398
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After a lot of research and consideration I have decided to go with Hugesnet rather than WildBlue. First of all, I do not like their policy that you have to pay for EVERYTHING up front (before it is even installed), I had a really BAD experience with a local WildBlue distributor so I will NEVER do that again. Secondly, Hughesnet has more satellites so you have redundant systems in case of problems, and finally you can move it around as CJ said, which is a nice feature.
I would check into agristar.com if I were you. It is a hugesnet "sister" company (they use hugesnet satilltes), but it is agriculture-oriented and their customer service is all US based (no India), which is nice.
donsgal
__________________
Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)
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10/03/07, 06:00 PM
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by WindowOrMirror
a vote for HughesNet here. The Wildblue FAP ("fair" access policy) has you locked down to dialup speeds for a full billing cycle if you violate it. Hughes alaso has a FAP, but locks you down for 24 hours... MUCH more reasonable (neither are "fair", but hey, they've got me over a barrel)
R
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What is a FAP? Does it limit you as to how much you are online? Thanks
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10/03/07, 06:18 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: NW OR
Posts: 2,314
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Many companies have download usage limits. You get what you pay for, and wild blue has a varying number of plans based on how much you plan to use.
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10/03/07, 07:28 PM
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Nohoa Homestead
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: SW Missouri near Branson (Cape Fair)
Posts: 5,398
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by poppy
What is a FAP? Does it limit you as to how much you are online? Thanks
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How many bytes (megabyes, gigabytes) you can upload and download in a given period of time. Not just downloading files and stuff. Your computer uploads and downloads files all the time as you surf. Basically, they just want you to surf, not download big files. If you go over their figure (which varies depending on which plan you choose), they slow your internet down to a crawl to punish you for using more than your fair share of bandwidth.
The way around this is to upload and download big files at internet cafes and other free wireless places and just keep your home computer for surfing the net.
donsgal
__________________
Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)
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10/03/07, 07:36 PM
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Thanks everyone. I don't like the idea of limits on usage. I would likely never exceed the limit, but my grand daughter wants to download music.
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10/03/07, 07:40 PM
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Member of the mod squad
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: FLW, MO
Posts: 7,178
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I would like to note two things.
First, a minor disagreement (which segues into my second point). They don't lock you into this or that for the entire next billing cycle EVERYWHERE if you violate their fair use agreement - I've violated it a few times in the last year with nary a mention.
And that is my second point. I REALLY think it has to do with your local people. The guys in Missouri seem to be taking their directions from the Keystone Kops. In AR, it's quite a bit better.
__________________
"I pursue my faith with a lack of remorse; I stand resolute to embrace the cause." -- Project 86
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10/03/07, 07:48 PM
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Nohoa Homestead
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: SW Missouri near Branson (Cape Fair)
Posts: 5,398
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by poppy
Thanks everyone. I don't like the idea of limits on usage. I would likely never exceed the limit, but my grand daughter wants to download music.
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You might want to check out the internet access that you can get through some cell phone companies. I think I will be getting the Alltel service when we do finally move out to the homestead instead of the satellite due to the FAP issues. My work requires that I upload HUGE photographs and I'm sure it would become a constant issue. With cell phone internet I am told (hopefully they know what they are talking about), speeds approximates DSL and the price for alltel is just $24.95 per month (you must have a phone that will work with the system though, which fortunately, I do).
If you think you might be interested in this all I can say is get EVERYTHING IN WRITING that the sales person tells you because it has been my experience that most of them don't have a clue what they are talking about. Just a word to the wise.
Donsgal
__________________
Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)
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10/03/07, 07:50 PM
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Knitting Rocks!
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: North East Texas
Posts: 5,783
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by poppy
What is a FAP? Does it limit you as to how much you are online? Thanks
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Poppy,
I had wildblue for 3 years, only changed when DSL was available. (in fact I have the dish for sale on the barter board) The FAP at times was an issue for us. BUT - we build websites (lots of uploading) and have 2-4 computers online. I used the middle service, $69.95 a month. They have a way to keep an eye on your fap level, and a tech told me once how to keep it down. Just by turning off the modem when not in use, it would take the level down. It seems it would keep a tally of time online and data bits used and do an average. So, by turning off the modem you were not exchanging information, and lowering the time your online, and the data exchanged. Lots of programs will run in the background (especially on windows) and constantly send/receive information online. Anyway, We were still able to do lots of stuff online by using that method. If DSL were suddenly unavailable I would FOR SURE go back to wildblue. The Hughes service here is very very bad. Guess it depends on your area.
Good luck to you!
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10/03/07, 07:58 PM
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by donsgal
You might want to check out the internet access that you can get through some cell phone companies. I think I will be getting the Alltel service when we do finally move out to the homestead instead of the satellite due to the FAP issues. My work requires that I upload HUGE photographs and I'm sure it would become a constant issue. With cell phone internet I am told (hopefully they know what they are talking about), speeds approximates DSL and the price for alltel is just $24.95 per month (you must have a phone that will work with the system though, which fortunately, I do).
If you think you might be interested in this all I can say is get EVERYTHING IN WRITING that the sales person tells you because it has been my experience that most of them don't have a clue what they are talking about. Just a word to the wise.
Donsgal
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That sounds neat, but unfortunately we only have one cell phone company in our area and they don't offer it. Our county and 2 or 3 others surrounding ours had no cell phone providers, so the government gave one company exclusive rights to our counties on the condition they would supply service. Not sure how long that was for.
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10/03/07, 08:06 PM
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East Central MN
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: MN
Posts: 607
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Had HugesNet for 4 years, terrible tech support very poor service and it was down all the time. Most of the time you couldn't retrieve your email so I had to pay for another service to get email. Went to Wildblue, much better service, better technology so it stays up better with bad weather. The lack of satellites is an issue, whenever there's a storm at their gateway which is in WY then the entire system is down. I work from home full time and use two computers, download and upload tons of data, I have Wildblue's top plan and I've never even come close to violating the FAP.
If DSL was available I'd switch in a heart beat.
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