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Rural internet... specifically Hughs Net? yeah or nay?

Around The Farm
#1

So we can’t get reliable internet at our farm. Frontier is the closest cable/internet provider we have access to, and well they stop at the neighbors house, which is 1/8th of a mile away. I literally can see the spot the broadband/DSL stops.
Its extremely frustrating.
Currently I have an Impact wireless hotspot set up. Which has been fine but recently connecting to the T mobile tower has been less than good.
We don’t have satellite TV anymore. And we would just like to be able to stream Netflix, etc. as that’s pretty much all we need. But we would also like to be able to check in on the security cameras we have started to install on the farm.

Anyone have success with Hughs Net for internet. They talk a good game and we have a clear shot of the southern sky, but I’m just not sure if they are going to be any better than the crappy WiFi hit spot we already have. I pay $80 a month for 50 Gigabits. Which we go they usually in a month. But I honestly think it’s because it’s constantly searching for the cell tower signal. So I know it’s not going to be cheap, but I just want to get something of quality if paying that much.

#2

I’m not sure this will solve the problem of checking security cameras in the barn… but have you called T-Mobile to ask about the connection? When I told them I was only able to get data in the middle of my pasture, they sent me a signal booster. Now I can stream whatever I like in my living room, and don’t have to pay $$ for slow satellite internet. :slight_smile:

Good luck!

1 Like
#3

@purisnponies unfortunately we have to go thru Impact wireless. We aren’t suppose to go directly to T mobile. Impact says we are at the edge of coverage and the only other internet wireless company gets blocked by a tree so we can use them. Very frustrating.

#4

We had Hughes Net and really hated it. We couldn’t even install ADT because the internet connection was so slow/spotty. We switched to Verizon as soon as they opened access to our area and WHEN it works, it is much faster. The problem is that it goes in and out constantly. However, our cell service is much improved since switching. Hughes net was so slow our cell phone booster didn’t even work.
I’m sorry, not a great review.

1 Like
#5

I feel your pain. I’m in BFE and we have no cable, no DSL, no fiber and the cell tower is nearly 5 miles away. I’m on an AT&T hotspot - unlimited package with two cell phones, it’s $30 a month for the hotspot. It’s not ideal, but the signal strength is decent 95% of the time.

As for Hughes, I worked down the road for a woman for a number of years that had it for her business (nothing taxing on internet usage, mind you - just three people in a farm house, with rarely one person using the internet at a time). This was 10 years ago, and things may have changed, but it was grossly expensive, had fairly regular outages and the customer service sucked. For that reason, I never installed it at our farm.

#6

Hughes net stunk. My daughter had to drive to Starbucks to do homework. It would not run cameras at all.

#7

We also changed to Verizon and have not looked back.
We get excellent service thru them.

Give them a try.

#8

Ugh thanks everyone for the input looks like my sucky hotspot is just as good if not better. I just really wish Frontier would come farther down the street. They could have several more customers. But clearly we are not worth it.

#9

Where I moved in 2010, DSL stopped a mile away, and was never extended. The city cable company was in the midst of improving and extending their network, and wasn’t that great for cable or internet (4 years later I dumped satellite, and got their service, and it was good then), so I had a choice of HughesNet or nothing.

I had two satellites in my back yard, Directv (I liked them), and HughesNet. HughesNet was expensive, very slow, unreliable, and had data caps that didn’t even allow me to update my iTunes without buying extra capacity. I didn’t get the base tier, but the one up from that, and it was almost $100 a month, for bad service. Both services have two or three year contracts (at least they did then), and contract breaking fees were big. Both dishes would also lose service when it rained, and both had outages constantly. I was so happy when I dumped both services for the city cable (it had improved a lot). I saved a lot over the cost of both satellite services, when I went local. The satellites were only a little under $200 a month, and the city cable after the first year was $150 total even after all of the incentives were over.

#10

Look into Viasat instead. I’m 22 miles from downtown Minneapolis and the ONLY internet I can get in my little rural pocket is either my Verizon hot spot or satellite. I did some research and Viasat seemed way better than Hughes. Costs me about $100 a month, but I can stream anything and it’s unlimited data. I do still use my Verizon hot spot for work stuff most of the time just because it’s faster, but Viasat still works for internet.

#11

One other thing. Comcast is about 1/4 mile from my house and they told me they would run the line to my house for that, for the bargain price of $22,000!!!

#12

:eek:

#13

Running DSL cable isn’t cheap as you found out.

Satellite… download speeds (like when you’re watching movies/TV on DirecTV or Dish) are not bad. It’s the uplink speed that it pretty slow :frowning: Does not surprise me that stuff like ADT is slow because that potentially is uplink video… not a satellite’s strong suit.

#14

Ah, I see. (I hadn’t heard of Impact, so assumed it was a type of router, oops!) That’s a major bummer… If Impact doesn’t provide signal boosters, I wonder if you could purchase a 3rd party one? Not sure how all that works. :confused:

1 Like
#15

Absolutely would not recommend Hughs Net. Slow speed. When I called them it was explained if I downloaded too much I was “put to the back of the queue” and had even slower speed! I have yet to speak to anyone who has it and likes it.

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#16

Are you good friends with these people? If so have the cable line dropped to their house then use a booster to send to your house 1/8 mile is only 660 feet, there are wifi boosters that easily push it 2,000 feet

3 Likes
#17

We were quoted 10k for the distance from the road to the house, about 500 feet. However, if you have a business they do it for free. :wink:

#18

We had HughesNet for about 3 days. Awful, awful, awful. I also live in the country. I feel your pain.

#19

Fixed wireless, if it is available in your area, can be a very good connection. Ideally, there’s a local provider who is doing this already.

If not, and you are line of sight to someone with good internet, you can do a fixed wireless connection to your neighbor and possibly get better service. This may be a bit of a DIY project and then there’s the question of whether or not you’d be violating any service agreements with the neighbor’s provider. In our area, which has a lot of terrain, people have set a lot of these up with their ISP’s cooperation, but then we have local passionate internet providers here.

https://broadbandnow.com/Fixed-Wireless
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/how-a-group-of-neighbors-created-their-own-internet-service/
https://swifthighspeed.com/line-of-sight/

#20

We got the same bargain price! We are just outside of town, we can literally see the last Comcast hub. 22 grand. HAHAHA

Right now we are using a verizon hot spot for the computer and my tablet. It’s unlimited but it throttles after a certain amount of gigs, I do not know any hot spot that doesn’t. When I hit my limit it takes 5 minutes to load FB or COTH although I can still stream on my tablet (but not the tv or computer) We also have a tablet that has a separate hot spot that we use to watch netflix and hulu by casting it to the tv using chromecast.

I got an outdoor antenna on Amazon for $30 that we attached to our roof and it gives us about 30 channels.

Honestly, with all the farm chores we don’t watch tv as much anymore!

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