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 Review by vobguy 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 5.7 years, 1201 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Mineral,Louisa,VA
 Contract price not specified.
 "More bandwidth than dial up.. even snappy browsing sometimes"
 "Lots of latency, spotty in bad weather, lousy DNS, some poor installers"
 "Might be better than dialup for some folks - and learn about NEW FAP"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update 6/21/07 - hanging in there, but it can be painful. ALWAYS check for a WISP in your area before you lock yourself into satellite service.
Many users are having FAP problems, but I have actually seen slightly improved performance at peak times, but many times my downloads at peak time are in the low dialup range.
When it is working well, it is fine. Bottom line as always, it is fine if you don't have high expectations, and slow dialup is your only alternative.
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Update 11/1/2005 - with a better PC as the Direcway host, my DW4000 system is doing just fine. Still has DNS issues from time to time, and also that does not excuse the initial installer and billing issues... but I am changing my review to "mixed"
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Update - 3/24/2005 - after redoing my tweaks - my client laptop that connects to my desktop ICS host that connects to the Dway adapter is now doing VERY well, speed wise. Also few DNS problems lately, so I upgraded my rating slightly. I am on Satellite Galaxy4R /1250 and speed tests have averaged around 1250 kbits per second down; though only like 5 kbps up. Still - quite snappy browsing. But VPN continues to be dog slow, as are secure https connections.
That can be the problem with Direcway - the satellite /transponder lotto - if you get on an oversubscribed one, you will not get good performance. Now if they keep their DNS servers up...
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Update - 12/02/2004 - DNS Problems recently - I have found over the past few months numerous problems with DNS. it just plain has been bad or even not working at all. yes I know I can choose other DNS servers but DNS is a BASIC network support function that Direcway has problems providing. **
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** Note - I use DW4000 **
Not much to say here that has not already been said. I have some success using my VPN client to connect to work using the consumer edition, but in the pat had problems trying to connect to a different VPN concentrator. So as always, YMMV with the VPN deal.
If you want to do real time FPS games over the net , your ping times are actually likely to be much longer (worse) than with dialup. Sure, you can download the stuff through a much wider pipe, but the pipe is thousands of miles longer 
And of course, read up on the FAP before you sign on the dotted line. I have never been FAP'ed that I know of, though considering the number of times the connection basically sort of dies on me, how would I know the difference anyhow?
Ohh, and the installation was a nightmare... the guy didn't have proper equipment, and I seriously doubt he was FCC licensed. Heck, he had to borrow my drill to complete the install.
Followup comments:  
HuggiesUNSUB
@direcpc.com
| HughesNet = LIARS Hello potential HughesNet Customers
HughsNet = LIARS
a) DNS fails at least 20 hours per week (cannot use Internet without it)
b) You are limited to 150 MB download per day. If you exceed that your connection with be throttled to 1.8 - 2.8 KB per second until 24 hours have elapsed after exceeding the previous day's threshold.
i) This means you MUST turn off any auto-updates for software (Windows Update, Apple Update, Java Update, & on & on)
ii) This means don't don't exchange or post personal pictures with family, friends or post to Flickr or similar services
iii) This means forget watching YouTube or any other videos.
iv) This means forget iTunes or iPodcasts or MP3
v) This means except for reading webpages Hughesnet is useless. Even only reading news pages it often fails:
1) DNS fails: therefore your computer cannot find site
2) If you go to a page that has video embedded (advertising stuff for example) since these ads take alot of bandwidth sometimes you use the 150 MB limit just reading news pages!
3) Latency: loooong and often pages must be reloaded because the latency is too long.
c) Service is not 'spotty' during rain: it flat out FAILS during any rain other than a light shower.
d) EXPENSIVE: you MUST sign up for at least 15 months at at least 60 dollars per month PLUS pay for EXPENSIVE equipment ($600 total) that can never be used again once you cancel HughesNet (and you will ASAP).
e) Satellite Dish is HUGE. No joke, I didn't realize satellite dishes were made so big.
f) The MAXIMUM speed sustained by my connection with HughesNet = 100KB (actually 94.5KB/sec) per second * 15 minutes = 150 MB after 150 download is reached: 1.8KB - 2.8 KB per second (& often slower or 0KB/sec) for the next 24 hours). You do realize 100KB is only twice as fast as a dial-up connection and then for only 15 minutes. After that 15 minutes is used then for the rest of the day the dial-up connection is 25 times to 50 times faster that HughesNet. Therefore DIAL-UP is on AVERAGE 25x FASTER than
HughesNet. Just make sure to schedule software auto updates for the midnight hours. Same thing goes for YouTube videos, posting pictures, and the like. Learn about the tools to schedule these things. And the next morning your Dial-up won't be throttled to 1KB per second.
SOLUTION: buy a second dedicated phone-line for dial-up and forget HughesNet. You can even buy 2 more dedicated phone-lines, combine their connection and it will be fast as HughesNet at HughesNet PEAK AVERAGE of 100KB/second over 15 minutes but it will at HughesNet PEAK AVERAGE of 100KB/second for 24/7/365 for about the same price as HughesNet's cheapest package. It will be cheaper and faster and easier to cancel.
So it should be clear to you I have been a HughesNet customer and that I know what I am talking about. AVOID HUGHESNET like the PLAGUE! | |
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Zenoncondufus
@direcpc.com
| HughesNet is getting better Actually the amount you can download depends on your service plan. I can download 425MB in a 4 hour period. And for those of you who think the download speed is still capped at 1MB, try using a different browser to run the speed test. I have used Internet Explorer for all my tests and it would range from 985 to about 1006. Still had me confused to because I have the Pro Plus plan which advertises 1.5MB downloads. One day I ran the speed test and I knew it was downloading faster but the speed test still showed 1005 to 1006. I tried Mozilla Firefox and it showed 1261 to 1265 and sometimes over 1300. So I think it must be the browser. Thanks for reading. BRAD | |
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