anyone with WildBlue Internet?

[OHChick]

hi all, i'm trying to find someone who has WildBlue internet and likes it. i have hughes net and without going into a rant, lets just say that the last 9 months have been nightmarish! i work at home and need reliable internet and suffice it to say, hughes is not it! we are in a very rural area so our only option is dial up (not feasible due to my usage), wireless offered by a local phone company (only up to 500 kbps/down), Hughes or WildBlue.

anyone have input?

TIA.

 

[DawnSuiter]

I'm sorry, but ....

ARE YOU ME???

this is so odd.. I could've TOTALLY written that post, and would've if I thought anyone at BYC cared. I guess I was wrong, cuz you were out there.

I had DirecWay for 3 years and it worked wonderfully, Hughes takes over what.. just about 9 months ago and it's been a nightmare.

I've upgraded everything, modem, router, computer, os and the list goes on. I've spent hours on the phone, upped my bandwith, and yesterday after finally getting back online after a 24 hour FAP infraction, I get an excessive LAN traffic message.

I seem to always have an open case.

What do you do from home?

And.. WildBlue.. a friend of my daughter has it... her bandwith limitations are even worse

 

[Wildsky]

I tried wildblue about a year ago I had it about a day before I told them TAKE IT AWAY! (I had to fight and argue to get my money back)

I also work from home and need to connect to a VPN - so I need it to be fast - and wildblue could not get me up to speed fast enough to connect. I now use a DSL connection.

 

[Smoky73]

I have two stories. My boss has WildBlue and hates it. However, he bought his equipment several years ago, about 3, and so because he bought his equipment, he has to pay every time they come out to do anything with the system which is at least once a year and it usually costs him several hundred dollars at a time. He goes through a phone company locally for the service, which, the company is bad to say the least.
Now the other side of that is my neighbor just got WildBlue a few months ago and hers is great. She went through a different person for service and her equipment is leased, which doesnt cost any extra a month. So if anything is wrong, they fix it, no charge.

I called the guy who put hers in and talked to him at length about my bosses problems and what I have heard.
He told me this, the first systems they put in a few years ago, had a lot slower and weaker system running it, some place out of Canada was the main point. Since then, since the demand for the service, they have installed a much better system to run it, and so the system and signal is a lot stronger. I do not recall exactly the terms he used, but I am guessing it is kinda like computers, the systems we had a few years ago, were good then, but compared to what we have now, it is terrible. So same here withe the Wild Blue.
Anyway, he also said that sometimes when your service goes through a third party, like my bosses, thecustomer service and help, isn't great because, they do not know a heck of a lot about it. The man who put in my neighbors, that is all he does, WildBlue. He said he has put in hundreds and he can count on one had how many he has had problems with. For me, all the equipment would cost $199. Anything goes wrong and it doesnt cost me a dime and your signal is Guaranteed to work. If on a cloudy day, the signal will amplify itself to get past the storm to continue the signal. She never has less than 100%.

I currently have a local company that until this year, never had a problem with but now, nothing but issues. Right now, my signal is ranging between good, and non existant. I hope this post goes through because often times, just because it shows a signal, I do not have a thing. Mine goes through a dish to a TOWER, and not a satellite in space. Not a good set up.
I am just having to wait till I cannot take it anymore before I switch to Wild Blue. I just had my internet people down here a few weeks ago again and I was going to tell them I quit again but then we found out the problem was ours and not theirs LOL. We accidently unplugged something that needed plugged in. Ooops. But if things do not improve, hubby will get tired of it enough to get me the WildBlue.

So I think that it matters a lot on who does the installation and what company it runs through (like a third party).

 

[OHChick]

Quote:
I have only been FAP'd once. But since we upgraded (in Feb) its been horrible. I have kept a log (which I didn't start until 7/24, wish I'd done it sooner!), but basically since July 24, I have had to reboot the modem at least once daily to keep it online. They keep saying the problem is on my end (yes, clearly, that's why a reboot of YOUR equipment fixes it!!)

I work at home and run 2 VPNS.... they (Hughes) always say VPN is the issue, but it worked fine from 2004 until 2008. So methinks they are full o' boloney!! In addition we are running our farm so I have to keep our website up, etc.

I am at my wits end. Dial up just won't work. The cellular air cards have too much of a limitation, plus won't run my entire home network, so that leaves me with Hughes, WildBlue or this local yokel place that has a wireless solution. The local yokel's I am told are pretty good but its 50% of the download speed that I allegedly get with Hughes and I am told they are not overly reliable. Like they are down nearly every weekend. But I'm thinking....well if its weekends its down thats better than this which is down weekdays when I need to work.

 

[vicki2x2]

We also only have dial up here and I had heard bad things about Hughes so that is not an option. I now have alltel and it is not bad. It is better than dial up, not as good as cable. I know sprint also have it and others. I have a small thing I plug into my usb port and connect with that. It is nice because I can use it on my dial up and my laptop.

 

[OHChick]

Quote:
I called Wild Blue last week during one of the 450000 outages of my Hughes and told them I was a business and what solutions do they have. I talked to a man who runs an installation company who said he switched to WB from Hughes and he was very knowledgeable. We discussed the fact that I use a VPN and he explained that it needed to be of a certain protocol (which my company is large enough, we have mutliple varieties of VPN), etc. But the gist of it was, he seemed to understand and seemed to indicate he did not think I would have any issues.

BUT all that being said... he is technically a sales guy, and we all know sales people tend to fib.

 

[MandyH]

I have NO option but Hughes, WildBlue, or the wireless air card thing. I am too broke to be signing a contract for some crap so I am just still stuck. Wild Blue has a special offer until August 31st and my FIL next door is fixing to try it. Maybe it will be great and THEN I will invest. I am waiting to see what happens with his.

 

[azelgin]

We've had WB for about three years now. Overall, we're pretty satisfied. We have no cell service here and our phone lines are so poor, our dial up speed was 2kbps, so we have no other options. The ranch I used to work for had Hughes, so I decided anything had to be better than them. So far, Wildblue has been a good choice. Our only down time seems to be weather related, either on our end, or the uplink in Wyoming.

 

[mistylady]

We have Wildblue and its bad. Very bad. When it works well it is GREAT but if there is a cloud in the sky, rain, snow or fog ... you might as well get out a book to read! I was without internet for over an hour earlier today due to high clouds in the sky. AVOID IT!!!!!!