Hughesnet is ok for people who just want to browse the internet at decent speeds... Sometimes. Thats when your connection is actually working. I have to have my equipment checked every 3 months or so and they usually find a problem, which after the warrantee is out can be very expensive, $175 a visit. I really dont think that their faulty equipment should be my problem.
I figured after 15 months with the equipment having been worked on, realigned, and parts replaced that it should be in good shape but it wasnt. I have had to call their technical suppoert line constantly, which has only been able to resolve my problem maybe once out of probably 100 times that I reported a problem. Most of the time it required a technician to come to my house and replace a part, usually the radio transmitter on the dish itself.
Anyhow worse come to even worse I am having problems again and I call tech support. They have me run speed test which usually work well 90% of the time so they dont see a problem. All of my lights are on on my modem, so then again they see no problem. They have me delete temporary files, check certain settings, and diagnostic codes, yet they still dont see a problem. It gets tiring going over his script read runaround time and time again just to be told that they will call me back withn 48 hours, which they never have done within the 48 hours that I recall. I usually end up calling them back.
About the speeds: I have rareky recieved the speeds advertised when I purchased the system except maybe between the hours of 2AM-7AM CST when I am usually in bed. All other times of the day it is hit and miss at whether I will get good speeds or not. After 7PM on weeknights up to 10-11PM is when I get my worst connection speeds, usually about half of what dailup can offer at times.
I get webpage errors and blank pages that wont load, cant access my email at times, sometimes the latency is so bad that it takes minutes to load websites where it should only take seconds.
Down to the nitty gritty now. They do advertise their FAP on their website under Terms and Conditions. I see a lot of people complain about not being informed that the connection is limited and sujected to this policy. I read and understood the policy completely before purchasing, but what they failed to add in the terms and conditions at the time that I purchased their product was that their server was setup to throttle speeds in the case that it was receiving high traffic. This is what most people find as a problem including myself.
Their servers and satelites are overloaded yet they still continue to sell their product which is the reason for most of the latency problems people are experiencing. Why should we have to pay the price for them them overselling their product?
I pay $64 a month for the regular home plan antivirus, which I asked them to remove the antivirus charge from my bill multiple times because I discontinued the use of it years ago. Its still there every month even after discussing it with the billing department on more than one occasion.
I like to play games, and I currently play World of Warcraft on a daily basis. I know that they say specifically that they dont recommend to use their service for gaming, but I pay for it, I can do as I wish as long as I dont exceed their FAP policy. I actually get a decent connection throughout the day when everything is working right considering the expected latecy of a satelite connection isnt too bad as long as the connection is actually working right, but lately I can hardly play a full hour without being diconnected, and sometimes I am disconnected from the game server as soon as I log on.
The upload and dowload requirement really arent that high with the game set at minimal settings. 22-24 kbps most of time during regular gameplay and still well below what is supposed to be my minimum bandwidth expectancy even running 25 man dungeons, yet I still have problems continuously with connection and high latency spikes.
They could atleast try listening to their customers and add some new servers or put a rush on the new satelite they plan on launching in whichever will actually fix the problem, both if required. Also if they really want to satisfy their customers they might want to start to work on even more servers and satelites as soon as they get those up and going. The way they keep selling the new satelite will be full before it ever gets launched.
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