[Hidden-tech] Does anybody have HughesNet or DirecTV satellite webaccess?

[RA Cohen]

I have been a HughesNet (formerly Direcway) subscriber for 6+ years. My 
business is tech and I have no alternative. I did set two of my 
neighbors up with a Sprintcard and amplifier/antenna, and they may be 
better off than if on HughesNet. We have been thru many ups and downs 
with HN, including one month of hell when we had no service at all.

I will definitively say the quality of installation is most important, 
and the second is that you be on a less-traveled transponder/gateway. 
You can read all the horror stories at 
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/sat . Also, I do believe that if you now 
pay less than $100 per month with HN you are getting their "consumer 
grade" service which is qualitatively different than the business-class. 
My current cost is $100+ $20 for a static ip / month for satellite 
service I would qualify as "decent enough" but cannot really be compared 
to any of the wired (DSL, cable) connections. Ping times on my bird are 
between 600-700 msec with no lost packets - this is pretty much nirvana 
if you can achieve it (except with their newest satellite which 
supposedly pings in at 300-400 msec).

Finally, since December, I have had to fiddle with my modem (software 
fiddling) once per day to restore decent connectivity. I've been thru it 
with the gurus on dslreports.com (broadbandreports.com) and the 
conclusion is there is a subtle HughesNet problem (which they will 
rarely admit to) all I can do is wait for them to fix it or pay someone 
to come out and put me on a different bird. Given that service is pretty 
good except when I have to mess with the modem, I'm not going to get off 
this bird/transponder right now.

So I hope I've given y'all an idea of what HughesNet satellite adventure 
is about. Regardless, it beats dial-up by a mile for most activities and 
I couldn't be without it now.

-- 
Roy A Cohen
Network Advantage LLC
413.330.9568
www.net-vantage.com