Internet in the country

[Wampuscat]

We don't have any cable TV or phone service internet access at home. We tried Dishnet from Dish Network but the minuscule amount of data (10 gig) was used up in one iPhone update. We paid the early termination fee and got Skynet Internet Service, which is an antenna type with one of their towers only a mile away and not even a tree in between us. The problem with them is reliability. We are constantly having to use our phone data to access the web because Skynet shows it's there but all we get is the little "I'm busy icon" swirling away on the screen.

Now I'm looking into dropping them too. We've seen that HughesNet has their highest data plan at 50gig/month for $99 plus a one time $350 to buy or a $15/month lease fee for the equipment. I know that's a lot of cash for internet. But when there's no U-verse or Xfinity available, you start reaching. I have my 2 older in-laws living here and I stream DVR TV when I'm away from home, so data will need to be fairly reliable.

Have any of you on the Green Screen tried HughesNet? Any pros or cons besides the price. Right now I'm throwing good money after bad with Skynet Internet and I'm paying them $79/month.

[Outback77]

You won't be able to stream with Hughes net

[Hoyt Man]

We don't have any cable TV or phone service internet access at home. We tried Dishnet from Dish Network but the minuscule amount of data (10 gig) was used up in one iPhone update. We paid the early termination fee and got Skynet Internet Service, which is an antenna type with one of their towers only a mile away and not even a tree in between us. The problem with them is reliability. We are constantly having to use our phone data to access the web because Skynet shows it's there but all we get is the little "I'm busy icon" swirling away on the screen.

Now I'm looking into dropping them too. We've seen that HughesNet has their highest data plan at 50gig/month for $99 plus a one time $350 to buy or a $15/month lease fee for the equipment. I know that's a lot of cash for internet. But when there's no U-verse or Xfinity available, you start reaching. I have my 2 older in-laws living here and I stream DVR TV when I'm away from home, so data will need to be fairly reliable.

Have any of you on the Green Screen tried HughesNet? Any pros or cons besides the price. Right now I'm throwing good money after bad with Skynet Internet and I'm paying them $79/month.

We have Hughes net gen 5. The pros, it works in rural areas where we have no other option. The cons, on the 50gigs a month 25gigs is from 2am-8am and when you run out of gigs during regular hrs it’s slow slow slow. When recording movies in HD it uses 3-4 times more data. As far as using it on our phones and laptops it works great.

[MadHatter]

I've worked for Skynet. They have most likely, way oversold the data available to your area. They used to offer a dedicated feed, but at about twice the price.
Satellite sucks, due to the horrible latency, especially for gaming.
If there is a smaller point to point service in your area, you might talk to them.
I've worked for some good and some bad, just depends on how greedy they are.

[Sika]

The ONLY two things I miss about living in the city...city tap water and good internet.

[stickbowcoop]

Moving from PA where everybody had cable I was really surprised when we couldn't get cable here. Hughesnet gets bad reviews by the locals here. We ended up going with Nextlink. We tried Rise, they couldn't get a signal, then Cirra and they were super slow (11-12 down). So we went to Nextlink, it has been great. We have their highest tier and regularly get over 60 down. But it's expensive. My wife works from home and her company reimburses us for it though so we got lucky there.

[chopsknives]

We ran the gamut on this and when we went with Hughesnet this time our life went back to normal again!! When we had dish it kept getting worse and worse until we finally had to upload pics by 10 AM or no bueno until the next morn!! We had Hughes before and it was worse! Now that they have the gen 5 the only issue is videos have to buffer but only every now and then. Plus the gen 5 will still work good after your data is gone. We were just talking yesterday about how our life is sooooo much better because of this - especially trying to run a bus. on it!
On DVR recordings works great for that too!

[CWaller30]

We use the AT&T home phone and internet. The internet operates off cell signal. Not sure on overall cost, but I work in IT and work from home twice a week. Has worked great for a year now.

[miket]

We have wildblue satellite which sounds just like the way hughesnet is. Slow response time and once the data is gone it goes down to super slow almost dialup speeds. Not sure of any better options

[tps7742]

We have had Hughes net for the last couple of years since moving back to the country. About six months ago things improved dramatically but we don't stream movies etc. I don't like the slow during peak times and switch over to att wireless so we split the difference on data usage. Definitely not uverse and it took some time getting use to it.

[175gr7.62]

We have Hughesnet Gen5 and don't really have any complaints. We have the 50Gig plan and get 50 additional Gigs between 2am-8am. We have never come close to using it all up but we also don't have a bunch of teenagers at home burning through data.

[tsnksmith]

Can you get ANY phone service at all at your place? We don't have phone service at our lease either but was able to get a Wilson booster installed at our camp. It was able to find a signal that allowed our phones to work well enough to have communication to the outside world. We also have HughsNet but when connected it is slower than slow trying to do ANYTHING!

[2B4Him]

We dumped HughesNet a while back due to how slow and expensive it was. We added a TMobile hotspot (all our phones are on AT&T) and use that now. Much faster and less expensive - you can stream lots of stuff without it counting toward your monthly data (Netflix, etc.).

[Deer716]

Not sure if they are in your area but my friend has used them all then switched to Ranch Wireless a few years ago and has been extremely happy with them.

http://ranchwireless.com/residential-internet-plans/