Talk to me about satellite internet access

[Yankee]

Hughes Net or Wild Blue are my only options for broadband access.  I have spoken with a few people who have satellite and are not at all happy with it.  I'm on the fence.  It is very expensive to have installed between $300 and $400 and I gather that it is not as fast as promised.  But, it has to be faster than my dial up.  Right?  Anyone out there with any satellite broadband access experience?   

[roadrnnr]

Where do you live in Fairfax?

I would hold out if you can. It is way to expensive and I have heard nothing but nightmares especially with outages and Customer service.


I almost pulled the trigger and got it a couple times in the past year and so but stopped and researched it more and then decided against it.

About the only thing you can seem to believe from there web sites is nothing.

In all fairness My neighbor has Wild Blue and likes it. I also have two friends who have Hughesnet and say it works good.

Maby in VT it works better.

If I was going to get it I would probably go with Wild Blue.

Here's an message board that deals with both services. Do alot of reading here before you decide.

http://www.dslreports.com/forums/56

Did you try calling Surf Global to see if their Wireless is available in your part of town?

That would be your best bet and alot cheaper.

If you do get it let me know what it is like. I am curious still.

[gpdvt]

We had Wildblue and it was horrible. Not sure what was worse the connection or the customer service..finally found Surfglobal and absolutely love it. It is as fast as cable, customer service(basically have only interfaced with installer) was above expectations. One drawback is you have to be in direct line with their antenna. We are up near reservoir and were lucky enough to have the access.

[roadrnnr]

Count yourself as one of the chosen few in Fairfax!

[Henry]

There is an article in this morning's Burlington Free Press regarding High Speed Internet - I kept reading, hoping to see some ray of light and a response, but didn't really see anything encouraging for those with dial-up.  You can read the article if you wish by clicking on the following link:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080114/NEWS02/801140320/1007

[roadrnnr]

I saw that also.

It is time for everyone in Fairfax who is fed up with Dial up to get our planning commission and select board a push to get us in on this regional network the surrounding towns are proposing.

There is grant money available to us, we need to get it.

Contact them and let them know we need to get going on this.

I talked to Comcast last week and they have no plans on expanding here this year.

It's up to us to do it ourselves!

[DrewCrash]

Hughes Net or Wild Blue are my only options for broadband access.  I have spoken with a few people who have satellite and are not at all happy with it.  I'm on the fence.  It is very expensive to have installed between $300 and $400 and I gather that it is not as fast as promised.  But, it has to be faster than my dial up.  Right?  Anyone out there with any satellite broadband access experience?   

I have been using HughesNet for a year now and I love it. In no means is it like the traditional high speed services offered by Comcast or Verizon; but its a 100x better than dial-up.

[Yankee]

Yea, I took the plunge and got WildBlue at the beginning of the week.  It is faster than dial up but not as fast as DSL.  I like it a lot better than dial up.  I also hooked up a wireless router which is very nice. 

[roadrnnr]

What did it end up costing you for start up, per month and how long of a commitment?

What speeds are you seeing?

[PotterFXFD]

I took the plunge and got Wildblue hooked up yesterday. To early to really tell but so far I am very happy. Way faster then my dial up was.

[Mike Raburn]

www.speedtest.net to test your upload / download / and latency.

Nice to check and see you are getting what you are paying for.

[PotterFXFD]

Neat site I ran the test 3 times got  a avg. of 518 kb/s download and 45 kb/s upload.

Beat my dial up hands down.

[mmillette]

Here is another site to test your internet speed.

http://www.burlingtontelecom.com/

go to the bottom of the page and click on the speed icon and the test will begin. no download of a program to your computer.

MM

[Mike Raburn]

From Anchorage I hit that Burlington speed test with 1.4 meg down and 284 kbs up.

I have cable here in Anchorage and get 3meg down and 512k up almost everywhere. $40. 00 month with no bandwidth restrictions.

If your computer has a medium graphics card, Netflix streams movies and tv shows for the basic membership fee.
I hooked my cpu up to tp my tv and it looks just as good as cable tv.

Also, ABC streams some shows in HD and it is in HD, for free. (HD video card and tv required, not free)
NBC too.

Once you get good speed, the skys the limit.