Satellite internet

brushape

WKR
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
881
Location
rohnert park, Ca
Anyone using satellite internet at their homes or cabins? With this current lockdown I’m looking to spend more time at my families ranch which is pretty far from town in rural Mendocino county. Only Hangup is that my daughter is now in a “distance learning” program from school and needs internet every morning. Obviously libraries and coffee shops which normally have free WiFi are out of the question besides the fact that the nearest town is 45 minute drive


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chama350

FNG
Joined
Sep 4, 2018
Messages
13
Location
New Mexico
We use satellite internet (Hughes) at home. It has worked just fine for us. At times, it seems like it slows down abit during peak usage maybe? My wife has been using alot lately for work....educator doing alot of online teaching and video conferencing. Havent had any issues at all.
 

OXN939

WKR
Joined
Jun 28, 2018
Messages
1,790
Location
VA
Ordered a package with Hughesnet last week. The guy who showed up to install it was pretty eccentric and drove a beaten up pickup that showed no affiliation with the company and was filled with random trash and detritus- a third party contractor they use, I'm sure. Anyway, he fiddled around for probably fifteen minutes looking at tree limbs and consulting an app on his phone to determine the best place to put the dish. When he suggested placing it right in front of the kitchen window, I told him I'd rather have it on the roof, only ten or so feet higher with the exact same line of sight. He refused to install it there, despite that being one of the options their website lists and the roof material being perfectly amenable to installation. He finally got flustered and said "I'll get them to send someone else this afternoon." They eventually (read: after three days) called me back and told me he was the only installer in the area.

Canceled my order. Set one up with Viasat. Hopefully that sucks less.
 
Joined
May 25, 2018
Messages
488
I had Hughesnet for several years. It was OK - kind of expensive, slow at times, and some interruptions. Could not do steaming TV. Dropped it 2 years ago when some sort of tower-based service became available. Very happy now, but at the time Hughes was the best available so I didn’t complain.


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Terrapin

WKR
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
347
We had it 5 years ago. It sucked worse than no internet. The kids would use up the allotment in about two days, and then we would be intermittent dial up speed for the next 28 days.

We went tower based and have been pretty happy. I would hotspot a Verizon phone way before I did satellite.


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Joined
Apr 4, 2020
Messages
325
I use my phone to hotspot for work all the time depending on your cell service,, works surprisingly well.
 
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brushape

WKR
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
881
Location
rohnert park, Ca
We had it 5 years ago. It sucked worse than no internet. The kids would use up the allotment in about two days, and then we would be intermittent dial up speed for the next 28 days.

We went tower based and have been pretty happy. I would hotspot a Verizon phone way before I did satellite.


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Goddamn that sounds worthless



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brushape

WKR
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
881
Location
rohnert park, Ca
I use my phone to hotspot for work all the time depending on your cell service,, works surprisingly well.

Ya there’s no cell reception, I can get 2 bars if I hike to the very top ridge on our property but usually won’t let me send pics just text I’ve never tried internet


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Okhotnik

WKR
Joined
Dec 8, 2018
Messages
2,196
Location
N ID
I had Hughes satellite for internet 15 years when I lived off the grid. Very unreliable. I paid more for the upgraded plan too. Absolutely horrible customer service. I ended up buying a booster ($500) and used phone as a hot spot. Worked much better
 
Joined
Dec 4, 2018
Messages
87
Location
Port Orchard, Wa
We had Hughes net at our home. It was terrible. You get 50GB with their largest package. It still isn’t enough to stream. Couldn’t even use FaceTime while i was on shift with the kids. After you burn through 50GB you’re lucky to get dial up speed. Better then no internet but you won’t be impressed.

I get centurylink now at 10mbps and am significantly better off.
 

Broomd

WKR
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
4,210
Location
North Idaho
We've had Hughes for many years, it's our only option as we have no cell service or cable available.

We're self-employed and it's pretty bad, but we're thankful for the option and embrace the suck.
 

ODB

WKR
Joined
Mar 24, 2016
Messages
3,735
Location
N.F.D.
We had Hughes net at our home. It was terrible. You get 50GB with their largest package. It still isn’t enough to stream. Couldn’t even use FaceTime while i was on shift with the kids. After you burn through 50GB you’re lucky to get dial up speed. Better then no internet but you won’t be impressed.

I get centurylink now at 10mbps and am significantly better off.

Wow. I require at least 100mb download to even be productive. There’s days I download 50-60gb from my work severs via the VPN.
 

Sled

WKR
Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
2,148
Location
Utah
all west services my area near the kamas in the uintas. it is broadband but they require bloated phone service before you can get internet. i tried other providers at my house in the past but it was all worthless and unreliable. if something comes out soon like reliable satellite or 5g, that would be preferred. unfortunately i'd need a booster.
 

RichP

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Aug 16, 2019
Messages
203
I have Dish at my cabin. It was the only option.
Terribly slow and expensive
 
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brushape

WKR
Joined
Nov 13, 2013
Messages
881
Location
rohnert park, Ca
How about cell repeaters? It’s there something I could put up on the ridge that will bounce the signal down into the canyon where our house is?


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TripleJ

WKR
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
Messages
1,810
Location
OR
We had zero options besides dish internet the 1st 5 years we lived here. $80/month for 50 gigs of their version of high speed. After our kids blew through the 50 gigs in 1 or 2 days every month it would slow down to basically nothing. It was horrible. We ended up figuring out the art of cell phone hot spots and found a couple places in our house we could place our phones that had enough cell coverage to accomplish that task. Spectrum ended up running lines into our neighborhood about 6 months ago and now we have super fast unlimited coverage for less money then we were paying before.
 

gbflyer

WKR
Joined
Feb 20, 2017
Messages
1,577
Had Hughes. Sucks. The latency kills so many applications. We do better with the Cricket Wireless data plan and it also sucks. Cost of doing bidness here in the weeds.
 
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
3,711
Ya there’s no cell reception, I can get 2 bars if I hike to the very top ridge on our property but usually won’t let me send pics just text I’ve never tried internet


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It sounds like I often hunt a ranch close to your families.
 
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