how-to block ads
|
 Review by caribconsult 
UPDATED: 214 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 702 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Mayaguez,Mayaguez,PR
 Contract price not specified.
 "None, really"
 "Slows down ridiculously during busy times (PM-early evening stateside), too damn much tinkering required."
 "¡Adios y gracias!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I bought DW/CE. The best part was the ordering and installation. The local vendor gave me all the details accurately, the installers showed up on time and did a fine job and it worked right off the bat. Two days later it went down and the company sent out the installers a day later and they replaced the feedhorn on the antennae and it worked again and continues to work.
I don't like the fact that when it rains, which it does frequently here in Puerto Rico, the service just drops out alltogether, but I have no other broadband options right now. DSL and cable are both here on the island but not where we live up in the mountains. I do have dialup as a backup but when cable/dsl comes here I'd switch in a NY second. I use internet to connect to all my clients stateside and reliability is key. Prior to this I had cable internet here and DSL in California and both were cheaper and superior to DW.
Clearly, the tech support at DW is useless for the most part, but the DSLR forums (thanks a ton to PetDude, Seagreen & Grohgreg) are invaluable. I think I would not have bought DW if this forum didn't exist.
The fact that they make you pay for the dish is an outrage, but I think the real problem is lack of competition. It's kind of like the old Lily Tomlin routine: "We're the phone company...we don't have to care!" Here in Puerto Rico there are two choices for satelliteTV - DirecTV and DishNetwork - and so they are constantly battling to get customers, and the prices and service continue to improve from the customer's point of view. This is what DW needs--someone to push them.
It's now nearly two years since I have my DW4000 and I would have to say I'm liking it better. It has been REALLY reliable, going down only after a severe lightning storm. The local vendor I purchased it from replaced both modems under warranty and repointed the dish, all for free! I would say performance has improved by I can not quantify this...it's more a feeling arising from a combination of overall performance boost and some speed testing as well. My previous statement that I would switch to DSL or cable in a heartbeat still applies, but I am definitely liking the DW a lot more than before. I've even used it periodically for PCAnywhere and Terminal Service access to stateside clients and while it's not 'smooth as a baby's butt' 'all the time, it has improved. What would be the single biggest improvement to me would be a boost in upload speed, say to around ISDN levels -128k or so. I frequently have to upload large files to clients and this is where I really miss DSL or cable. I've heard that DW7000 offers this but I've also heard about widespread customer dissatisfaction with DW7000 and I'm not ready to jump.
FALL 2006: Service on the 4000 just falls apart, especially late afternoon to late night. After much 'round and round' with TIer4 TechSupt, I bite the bullet Feb 07, and get a 7000 home upgrade. It was expensive as hell - we don't have the same deal here in Puerto Rico that you statesiders get. New dish, new 2w. transmitter, kept the cables but put in new connectors. The installer was totally knowledgeable and did a fine job. It runs very decently. I've done some speed checking using FTP transfers to my website and it consistently runs faster than the advertised speeds, by some 20-25% Uploads at 170kbps, down at just under 1mbps. Not bad. I'm told the 2w transmitter will keep me connected thru heavier weather than the old 1w. unit so that's a real plus here in the tropics where it rains a lot. Let's see how long this love affair lasts!
DECEMBER 2007: I decided to upgrade my plan to PRO, since I had been FAP'd twice recently by two ill-behaved websites that were pushing music at me and burned my FAP. After the upgrade, my POP3 mail from my website no longer worked!! I could access it via a dialup connection, but not with HN. I spent hours on the phone with various techies, some knowledgeable, others not, but no resolution. I downgraded back to HOME plan, same problems, even though it had worked for 5.5 years! I called back to HN and insisted on speaking to advanced support, who elevated me to Tier4 Engineering, and they finally isolated the problem to their router and specific frequencies, and they promised to resolve this within 48 hours. Let's hope. I'll post the results here.
Here's a tip for circumventing India: call BILLING and ask to be transferred to advanced support. It worked several times for me.
DEC 18: Still no resolution to my above stated issues, I have yet to hear from Tier4, and further testing reveals that both my FTP and telnet services no longer work with the new HN setup, whereas they work fine with dialup. HN is sinking fast in my estimation, and they didn't have very far to drop in the first place. One techie at advanced support was able to get me to access some secure sites like my brokerage and banking accounts, using proxy settings for ALL protocols, something I've not had to do with 7K before, but I can't complain - at least I can access these things now. I'm rapidly becoming OPOC (One P*ssed-Off Customer).
DEC 19: Wonder of wonders. I finally called corporate and got to speak to a rep from the President's office!!!! A stunning turn of events! He immediately connected me to his top technician who got my situation straightened out in a matter of 30 minutes or less and explained it all although I must say I didn't really 'grok' every part of it, since a lot of this stuff is way beyond my technical ability. (My specialties are LANS, accounting and business apps, etc, not satellite systems.)
Anyhow, this fellow was able to not only restore all my service but he upgraded me immediately from HOME to PRO plan, then he stood by while I tested every aspect of the connection and made sure all was well before ending the call. No more proxy settings, speeds are within spec. What can I say? This was far and away the most efficient and knowledgeable tech support I have EVER seen from HN. Would that all their techies had his ability.
Beginning 2008. Wonder of wonders again , there is now an alternative to HN where I live. Sprint offers wireless internet, I live in a well-covered area according to them, and user-friends tell me it works really well, downloads never below 450-500, usually up to 800 even during busy hours, and one guy witnessed 1.2Mbs while at the San Juan Airport Uploads in the 450 zone.
NO FAP!!! No download limit, same price as HN Home, and the hardware can be as little as $29. A Sierra Aircard595 is $100
I am seriously thinking of trying this out and bagging HN. Even though I upgraded to Pro, and have a big (..98m) dish, the speeds fall down to the 200 down 40 up range from about 2pm till way past midnight here in PR. We are one hour later than Eastern Time. I had tried SPRINT service almost two years ago and it was too slow, but obviously there have been advances made. More on this later
JAN 2008. The end may be in sight! HN tried unsuccessfully to move me to another bird and gateway, and upon failure, they agreed to let me out of the contract without penalty. Great news. I took advantage of Sprint's 30 day no questions asked trial period and am evaluating the system as I write. I have the Sierra AirCard595 plugged into my laptop
Although advertised speeds (ha ha!) are up to 1.2Mbps, I generally get 450-750kbps, but this is faster than HN most of the time, even my Pro plan, especially during the afternoons and evenings. NO FAP! Uploads are zippy - 300-500kbps not uncommon.
It functions like dialup networking using a cell phone instead of a modem and phone line. I've tested streaming video and if you use the low settings on the medial player it is quite viewable and smooth. It's also portable. On trips to the states I just take the device and plug it right into my laptop.
I believe I will be ordering the Millenicom USB wireless device and router after reading some favorable reviews here about MC (a SPRINT reseller), and I like their hardware setup, plus they are cheaper than SPRINT, still no FAP, easy to reach when their phones are working right ( I've had several conversations with the company prez and tech support) and don't add taxes to your bill!! It works out to about $20 less than either sprint or HN Pro.
THE LAST WORD: I'm pulling the plug on HN and going wireless, probably with Millenicom. I'm waiting to receive their gear, but I've been experimenting with a Sprint setup using a Sierra Aircard PCM unit and it's a big improvement over HN. No FAP, more consistent speeds, and an overall feeling of more zip, and I live right at the edge of the reception area. One poster on BBR reported using a coffee can (!!) as a sort of non-parabolic reflector and that really boosted performance. I'm going to give that a try as well, but at this point, it's ADIOS HN.
LAST UPDATE: The very helpful HN guy at Executive Customer Care agreed to let me out of the contract with no penalty, and he offered a $400 refund on the dish for which I had paid $700 a year ago. I took about no seconds to decide to accept this. ¡ADIOS y GRACIAS!
Followup comments: 
caribconsult
Premium
join:2003-03-19
Mayaguez, PR
 ·Millenicom
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
| Recent upgrade Hi, Dunhill, long time no speak!
I finally bagged the 4K system, bit the bullet and upgraded to a HOME edition of HN7000S, 2w xmitter, .98 dish (already had that) and new connectors on exiting cables. It works as advertised. Download speeds have exceeded advertised speeds frequently, the upload is way better and overall it runs smoothly. Yes, the 4K was faster AT TIMES, but it became pretty obvious that HN was phasing it out and service would continue to deteriorate, not improve.
I still contend the price is way too high, especially here in PR where we don't get the generous discount upgrades offered stateside. Do you get these? If we had received the same deal as a stateside 4K user, it would have cost around $50, instead of $700.
Jeff
--
HN7000S-hme G16 1370Hz-Hz RSL86-88, .98m dish w/2w. radio, W2KPro & XPPro clients via LnkSys Rtr & WAP, cabled & WX NICs & USB adapt, Mozilla everywhere. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of HughesNet Satellite Broadband |
|
|
(61)
(25)
(16)
(28)