Before I left for Wondercon, I spent a glorious afternoon with Hughesnet tech support being told there was nothing wrong with my internet access when there was clearly something wrong with my internet access.
I wrote of my previous trials with Hughenset here.
As soon as I got home from California, I checked out my access again, which was worse than ever. Unable to reach FTP site, unable to web surf. Unable to even reach yahoo.com.
The problem is Hughesnet’s overloaded satellites and latency packs, something their lower level tech support won’t cop to.
After some hours and three phones going as late as 11 PM (as if I weren’t tired enough from travel, I gotta stay up and yap at some tech on the phone who has obviously been informed by his boss that they are not supposed to admit they have a latency pack problem,) Hughesnet promised to send a signal to reprogram my modem during the night.
So far so good, as of this AM, things are fast and smooth.
But then, things are fast and smooth every morning. The test will be if things are fast and smooth at 2 PM, when their service is overloaded with people bit torrenting.
And the uber test will be if things are fast and smooth a month from now.
I have not had consistent service with Hughesnet since I paid nearly $1000 to install the damned thing four years ago.
I would chuck it if there were any decent alternative.
At this point, dial up may actually be the better option. We will see.
Sorry about the light posting, but now you know why.
For more customer complaints about Hughesnet, enjoy this thread.
I mean it when I say that except for dial up there are not any alternatives in this area. We expect other providers to enter the area in about two years, though.
Update: problem has returned, just like I predicted. Hughesnet has too many customers on its satellites, and service degrades during the day.
I think I will just go ahead and order a dial up service as a back up for sending files in the afternoon. Most of my art is only about 2 MB, and that is do-able for dial up.
Ugh, that IS horrible, I’m sorry…
…It seems worth it to get the dial up.. .and even use it in leu of the main internet when the main internet turns crap. (A friend of mine lives pretty far from town, so she has a similar choice, and that was her solution. I always found it a little pathetic, though, when she said something along the lines of ‘hold on, my internet is messing up, I need to switch to dial up.’)
Sigh. Well, that is the situation I am in! Pretty pathetic.
For some months last year, I could not use my Apple mail program for about 12 hours a day.
Right now, my status shows BAD Status, Transport, BAD Overall.
And not a cloud in the sky. This is typical for Hughesnet.
Ugh, I double checked with her, and sure enough it was a company owned by Hughesnet.
I remember at the time her family wondering if someone had been stealing bandwidth, because they couldn’t imagine reaching their limit. (I wouldn’t be at all surprised if their limit hadn’t been changed without their knowledge as well. >.>;; )
And this is why monopolies are bad–I went back and read some of what you said in the first post, and some of the consumer problems in your link… and half of them end with ‘but I don’t really have a choice because where I live.’
And that’s why they’re getting away with it–they know you’re stuck and can’t leave, and so they’re just screwing people over, royally, repeatedly. >.>;;
Even if its not technically illegal, its definitely morally objectionable.
I’m so sorry you have to deal with that BS. I’ve seen it through my friend to know how ungodly awful it can be. >_<
The thought suddenly came to me, I wonder how the services would go if you started out by saying ‘I’m legally obliged to tell you this call is being recorded….’