I saw the add for High Speed Internet on the TV and thougth that would be a great deal because nothing but Dial up is abailable in Rhodes, So I call them and I am asking the lady question Like will I still be able to use my FTP site to be able to retreive my home files form anywhere that I am at. The Lady tells me most certainly. But I will have to go with the pro Plus plan to be able to do it (Great, 1.5 meg download) and I would be all set. I then ask well my other ISP used to block ports so I couldn't use my FTP will that happen here. NO, she says, we do not block ports you can run as many servers as you wish but you only have a certain amout of bandwidth to deal with. So I tell her to sigh me up and ask when they will be over.
I have had Direcway/Hughes for four months now and have had nothing but problems with then since it was first installed. It all started when the man came out to the house to hook up the dish and told me that I couldn't put it on the side of the house or on the roof because it is a mobile home. Fair enough, then he tells me that he will have to put it on a pole in the yard, that is fine also, he tells me it is going to cost $225 bucks for this pole. I told him to hold on one second. I thought that this was supposed to be a FREE installation. He then informs me it is, it don't cover the cost of the pole though, That is fine, so I go out back and get him a 12' treated 4x4 to put it on. Well that is not good enough, it has to be round, so I find him a 14', treated fence pole, that is not strong enough, it has to be steal. Sort of cutting the top off one of the Close poles I don't have nothing like that so I have to shell out the doe. Now, the thing is on the pole and everything is all hooked up. The very first day that I Use this modem it is running dog slow and I keep getting site not found, Satelite outages, Page not availble (This is Microsoft.com) Okay, so I keep hitting the refresh button and finally after about the 20th time the page comes up.
I am on microsofts site trying to download Service Patch 2 for my computer and every time I get 30% done (at 34.8KBS) it pukes out and I get a recent satelite outage message on the page. Boy was I ticked off about that. But I just ignore it and decide to install my FTP site and get that running while I wait till later at night when nobody will be one. So I get my site up and everything ready and I am on yahoo with another networking buddy of mine and we just can't figure out why nobody can get into this site. So, we log onto the System Info page of the modem and there it was as big as life (NAT) Network Address Translation. Which means that no, Hughes don't block ports but NAT don't let nothing by. So, I give tech support a call and see if there is a way around NAT (which I already know the answer too was not with out a static IP) and they tell me to try a router and that should put me outside of NAT. Okay so Now I am hooking up a router and getting that all configured and it still don't work so I get back on the phone with Tech support and They give me this song and dance crap about how they don't block ports and I must be doing something wrong. So I tell them to try and Ping my port 20 or 21 or any port for that matter and see what they think. So they tell me that they wouldn't be able to ping nothing with my router hooked up. So I Unhook the router and told them to try (I even shut of my firewalls and any intruter alert programs I was using. And they couldn't ping nothing. I told them that is because THEY LIE and they do block ports. And I asked them what I could do about it. And of course it is back to a Static IP.
I call billing up to find out how much it will cost me for this Static IP and they tell me $20.00 a month (when they are advertising it for $10.00) so I tell them no thanks. I go out and get a portable hard drive (&128.00) at best buy so I can take my files with me if I go to see my kids or plan on online gameing over the network or something.
In the mean time I am still having all these problems with satelite outages (On a clear blue day, not a cloud in site) and problems sending e-mail out (still using my charter account) and very very slow, dog slow download speeds, and upload speeds that are not much better. They tell me to download the LCCU and install that and it would take care of my problem. WRONG answer, didn't do a thing. I delete my temps and cookies and everything after I am done browsing the net and nothing helps. As far as the E-mail crap goes they just want me to us the web based e-mail that comes with the account that I can't seem to get onto even set up an account. So, I still with my old account which has never failed me so far and I have had it for 4 years.
So, I finally got fed up and demanded they do some thing or give my money back. They told me I was under contract and there is nothing wrong with the equipment or the service (ha ha ah) what a laugh, I told them they don't know nothing and do nothing to help you out. All they do is make up excuses and point the blame at something else. Like the latest excuse was tht FAP was interfering with my web browser. FAP? Want does that have to do with not being able to see a stupid page? FAP my FANNY. I told them I have been keeping all the transcripts of all the chat sessions with these tech support people and they are not going to screw me like this and get away with it. I am very displeased and something has to give. I have even thought about stopping payment on them. I belong to a CCU and they do stop payment for you if you are being treated unfairly.
I want in on that class action law suite also.
Jeffery
Rhodes, Michigan
U.S.A.
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