• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Satellite Internet

Help Support Ranchers.net:

T

Tap

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2006
Messages
1,258
Reaction score
0
Location
anyplace you find me
I have been considering upgrading my internet service. My dialup service it 26.4 Kbps (whatever that means). Wildblue is the cheapest satellite internet service that I have found. They have an offer where you can get free installation, but still need to buy the equipment.

Here is a link:

http://www.wildblue.com

Do any of you use any other services that you like, and what kind of luck have you had if you use Wildblue?
 
WE have Hughes net, the former Direcway.. To answer your question, yes, it is afected be weather, I would say even worse than sat TV but it is not a huge deal.. It is very fast but very expensive. I know with ours we were able to pay for the modem over a 12 month period by tagging it on to our bill. Of course, they have a new modem now that is faster so who knows.. I would not go back to dial up..
 
Is the WildBlue service affected by weather?


The WildBlue service is only minimally affected by weather, and only under extreme conditions. The WildBlue service will offer availability equal to that of satellite TV. Like satellite TV services, during a very heavy rainstorm, you may notice slower WildBlue speeds, but this should normally only last a few minutes.

I looked at Hughes, but it seemed to be a touch more expensive. The 500-700 Hbps service was around 10$/mo. higher for comparable service. What do you know about that IL Rancher?
 
They have two settings.. The modem I have isn't even as fast as the new "slow" speed/ One setting is for professionals/ folks who will have two computers hooked up to at the same time. Very rarely have I thought to myself, "Man, this thing is just crawling".. If you do lots of downloading you might have it slow down on you just because of Quotas and such.. I don't know how Wildblue works, I had not heard about it until after we got Direcway(Hughes).. I mgiht have looked into it otherwise.. My only problem now is I have the money invested in the current modem and don't see myself switching for at least another year or three.
 
Tap,
we have wildblue, you pay by the speed and we went for i think the medium package. It was cheaper than adding an additional phone line that would have still been at 26 K which is slower than molasses. This has been well worth it, we have had three computers online at a time. The only time that we have trouble is when the dish fills up with snow or in the afternoon, about 2 oclock, the sun spots screw up the signal for about 5 minutes, but still way faster than sitting waiting for dial up to download something and screw it up half way through.
 
We went with Xplornet. I think the equip installed cost about $800. $54 a month for service. Again wehave three computers on at a time pretty fast and we haven't had any real weather related problems as of yet but only been on it about a month. E-Mails come in real quick now. We like it and where we live no other service looked to be coming our way.
I we have the cheap package for speed but it's still really fast compared to the dial up we had.
 
Big Muddy-- Too bad Nemont doesn't go a few miles further north--they've got ADSL for most of northeast Montana now-will have everything in NE Montana covered soon....

Tap -- our local telephone internet provider goes with Wildblue- altho I don't have it- just the ADSL at home...My son is on the road a lot (SE Montana, and ND) and does a lot of long distance calling- so he has a phone and internet connection thru Verizon that he likes....I think the plan he is under gives him unlimited minutes...
 
Tap:

We have WildBlue through the Cheyenne River Tribe. We've been very happy with it, and when we try to use dial up somewhere it's like being in the dinosaur age!!!

We've even consider moving up to a higher package, but don't know if we'll get that extravagant!!!

It's really been pretty good in bad weather-better than the satellite TV...and we live on a hill where we get direct impact of wind from all directions.

One thing I check is where your service would come out of. The tribe's been pretty good for the stuff we've needed.

Tap, I'd say go for it. Once you have it, you'll wonder why you didn't get it sooner.

Cheers---

TTB :wink:
 
Oldtimer said:
Big Muddy-- Too bad Nemont doesn't go a few miles further north--they've got ADSL for most of northeast Montana now-will have everything in NE Montana covered soon....

Tap -- our local telephone internet provider goes with Wildblue- altho I don't have it- just the ADSL at home...My son is on the road a lot (SE Montana, and ND) and does a lot of long distance calling- so he has a phone and internet connection thru Verizon that he likes....I think the plan he is under gives him unlimited minutes...
Click to expand...

I did have cell service while driving up the lane to the house but it is hard to pick up going out the lane. Just falls in over the hills i guess. I bet my in laws can't get service because they are to close to the hills on the south side of the valley.
 
Tap,

We too got the Wildblue service thru the tribe. I was leery at first but we had it installed in the fall of 05 and have had no trouble. Of course are still waiting for that first big rainstorm to test it out. It cost us $80 installation fee for a roof mount.

We wouldn't go back. The only trouble I've ever had is sometimes sending emails you might have to send a couple times. But is really a nice step up from dial up. Something that is worthwhile. Will really help with the downloading of those good pictures!
 
[/b]I have WildBlue, and it's been very good. It has no more problems than Dish Network for the t.v. If ya get snow in it..just go sweep it out and you're back on. We've only had about 2 bad rainstorms that disrupted service, but it was lighting out so we didnt' have computers on anyway. In the 2yrs we've had it, I only had to call for tech support once and they talked me through it on the phone no problem. I would highly recommend WildBlue. Dial up...is pretty much over with I think. We too got the router, so we can run up to 4 computers at once...I know to many for one family...but in the summer the haycrew kids had their laptops running too! Good luck in your decision.
 
I've got Xplornet (which is the same as Hughes in the US). I think its terrible service for the money you pay for it. Not really affected by weather, however the Hughes equipment in the US is often down and the local hardware (I have the 6000) isn't the best, often requiring restarts. Their front line support staff is poor, and the second line support takes a minimum of 48 hours to respond to requests. I'm on one of the business packages, so its close to $140/mo with taxes in. As soon as SlackTel gets wireless internet into the area, I'll be dumping this dish as quick as possible.

Rod
 
We have good service with Wild Blue. Have to scrape snow off the dish once in awhile, but doesn't bother as much as dish TV.
If we have trouble a call to the company will usually take care of it, as they can usually talk us through it.
 

Latest posts

Top