Electronics

[Marp]

Anyone have experience with either Hughsnet gen5 satellite internet or Excede satellite internet?  If so, please share your thoughts about service and any caveats you may have.

[Moonchilde]

Our house is in a rural, shallow "canyon" surrounded by hills and it is fairly densely wooded in many areas. The ONLY service we could get was HughesNet. We currently have Gen4 and I want to inquire what's involved to switch to Gen5, because others in my area have said they noted improvement in speed between 4 and 5.

The main disadvantage to satellite internet is that, if you live in an area like I do, it takes forever for the signal to bounce back and forth, because it's a satellite, and...interference/no direct cable connection. 

Two examples: Many times I'll go to a website and it will "time out" because it takes so long to "ping" and I'll get a "You Are Not Connected to the Internet" message, when I AM connected. It takes me a very long time to update on my iPad/phone and once I update, it won't "verify" to install unless I go to McDonald's or Starbucks, but not here at the house. I have difficulty streaming wth lots of buffering. And data is capped - no unlimited data.

Keep in mind that this is my experience with Gen4. Others are happy with Gen5, but they might live on flatter, clearer ground than we do. If you DO live on flat, clear ground with line(s) of sight, it would probably be fine.

[Kachina624]

I looked into it once years ago and found it to be prohibitively expensive compared to cable or satellite.

[Marp]

Thank you @Moonchilde.   I especially appreciate the Gen4/Gen5 information.

I have satellite TV and rarely have problems with reception and I think the internet dish can be located adjacent to the TV dish.

I've read that on average the ping rate is about 600ms for satellite internet which is very slow but since I don't stream a lot or play games it should be of little consequence to me.

I'm impressed with what I've read about Gen5 and your input about what others in your area have to say about it is encouraging.

One thing I am concerned about is customer service/technical support and service. I understand that unlike satellite TV and cable it can be quite costly if there is a problem and is usually provided by a third party.

If you think of anything else, positive or negative, please post. I'm not in a hurry to make a decision and want as much information to evaluate as I can get.

[Moonchilde]

@Marp, I personally have only done one CS call with them. I reached India and a CS rep who had a heavy accent and spit out words like a machine gun. They work from a script, the first two lines of which are "Reboot" and "We'll send you a new modem." Neither helped. But I said fine, thank you" because I couldn't understand whatever else she was reading ;-(

I think that if you call a sales line, vs CS for existing customers, M-F during the day, you'll get someone based in the US. You can at least get clear info on the benefits, prices and install.