Hey all!
I have been a member of this site since buying my '06 Quad CTD and have learned mega information from you all. Many thanks to the site and each member!
I thought I would tap into this resource and explore internet access beyond dial-up. Looking forward to retirement (315 days!), and new retirement home will need faster access. Cable high-speed is not available. Does anyone here have a Hughes dish? If so, were/are you satisfied with it? Price is much more than my current dial-up (for basic), or still more than cable high speed, so I might consider using this. I don't look forward to the long distance call and then waiting for the sloooooowww response.
Thanks in advance for any opinions.
Regards,
dangier

 

Daniger,

Retirement time, good for you, I have been retired for 2 years now.

Before I retired, my job was mostly working on Hughes sattelites. It works very well, but you have to have a clear line of sight to the sattilite. There are several that are used for the internet, they are in stationary orbit over the equator. With a good line of sight to the "bird" very good hight speed internet. The same dish can also be set up for TV. So you have the best of both worlds.

It is possible that you will lose internet in really heave rain. Snow in the dish will also block the signal. There may be a few minuits that the signal fades during the spring and fall equinox. The sun behined the bird overpowers the signal.
The anntenna should have a solid mount on a building, or a pole. Some communites say that sattilte anntennas connot be on a building. Not so, a federal manday says the can.
The indoor equipment is small and reliable. It has to have the same clean AC power as the computer.
The inhome equipment is the same as the commerical equiipment used in stores gasstations and other places. Usuall the home equipment has a smaller dish.
If the installer does a good job on pointing the dish, and gets a strong signal you will have very good internet.
There should be a ground run from the dish. All the connectors should be weather proofed.
Most installers are paid by the job, so they try to shortcut and get in and out as fast as they can.

I am sure the equipement has improved since I retired.
Any questions or concerns feel freee to PM me.

 

Is DSL an option at your location? It is faster that Hughsnet but not as fast as cable. I am well pleased with it though.

 

rlyons,
The only thing that is accessible now is Direct Tv or Dish Network. We are in a valley between two mountains (local tv antenna has one snowy channel), and cable is 20 to 25 miles away....
dangier

 

I have Hughes Net and it is faster than dial-up or the system that uses the little card that slides into the side of a laptop using cell phone signals, but not as fast as DSL or Cable. I don't have DSL or Cable in my area so this was the best option and it works good for browsing and such. Hughes Net will not give you very fast upload speeds so if your uploading photos or big files.....sit back and relax a while. There are some systems avail. in some areas that use a tower that will serve a few miles in a circle around the tower. These types of services work, but only if you have direct line of site from your location to the tower. My friend has this service and he says it seems to work about as well as my Hughes Net system. The Tower system seems to cost less per month than the Hughes Net system though....at least in my area.

 

I have Hughes Net at home.

A good resource before you buy can be found here.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I will definitly check out the information.
dangier

 

Try to find one of the old large dishes used for sat. tv , 10'-14' , the bigger dish will help with the signal , weather issues ect .
This will require a inground concrete mount , then tell the installer what is to be done before they come .
I am going back to gold mining and that will be my only internet connection , what I do not like , is the high cost & the upload is slow .