I sure would attempt to resolve the television dish concern before signing on for HN. There might be a technical or topographical reason for the unreliability. It more than likely would be extremely difficult to get out of a contract with HN.

Has your dish always been unreliable?

What does the provider have to say about it?

Does it go out only during storm conditions?

What is your signal stength?

Are your transponders showing near equal strength?

I ask these questions as a long time ago I had reoccurring signal problems with my dish. I told DirecTv to come out and fix it or it would be out at the ditch waiting for trash day. They came out put all new connections on the cabling and re-aimed the dish. No more concerns after that.

DA

I totally agree you should not under normal conditions have that type of outages on your dish tv. I have been on Direct Tv for years at various houses and only experience outages in severe rain storms when the rain is so heavy it blocks the satellite transmissions to the dish. If you are in a heavily treed area the dish needs to be located so it is not blocked by trees or blowing branches. If you live in snow areas snow can also block the dish so it has to be kept clean. Other than that you should never have the kind of black out situations you are describing. The only other time I started having problems it was my direct tv box that was going bad and had to be replaced.
Contact them and tell them you need someone out there right away to either fix or replace your system so that you get proper service. Do not get internet with them till it is fixed right.

I recommended in your other thread that you contact your DSL company and ask them to send someone out to test your lines, bad lines are very often the source of bad DSL. I had that happen back when I was on DSL and once they came out and found the bad lines between me and the CO and fixed it my speed was back to the norm. I also had them add a whole house DSL filter to the outside box rather than use the individual dongles for each phone outlet which is much better and they will do it free you just have to ask for it when they are out there.

Here is a link to the BBR forums dedicated to Hughesnet so you can read up and see some of the problems etc being discussed there.
HughesNet Satellite

I've had Dish for several years and any time they told me the problem required a home visit I was charged around $100. When I complained, I was told I could purchase a plan in which I paid a monthly fee and then, if they had to come out, it would cost me only $XX. I feel very strongly that because my reception is so much poorer than my neighbor's (his dish is about 300 feet away and we both built on previous farmland so there are no trees anywhere near our houses) there has to be a problem somewhere in their equipment. A while ago I raised enough hell that they did send someone without charging me and the technician told me I had the wrong dish! He installed a different one and my problems did diminish for a while. It was quite a session with a poor guy with a wicked accent that I could hardly understand that got me any help. I kept telling the man on the phone that their service had been substandard from day one and I refused to pay for anyone to come out, but I did expect to have the problem resolved. I didn't abuse the poor man but after every scripted apology he gave me I repeated that I wanted to talk to his supervisor. He put me on hold three or four times and each time he returned and read me the responses the company uses to stonewall customers. I persisted and he finally returned and said an exception would be made and indeed, a tech person would arrive at my house the next day. That is when the man changed the dish and the reception improved for a while. I became too angry to use this technique last night and I just decided to end the conversation. I can't remember the last time I have become so angry. Besides considering their service to be extremely poor, I refuse to pay them to come and correct a problem I did not create. There is no foliage blocking the signal, there is no ice buildup on the dish, there is no snow on the dish. The weather (I checked local radar) was light snow. Because the signal was gone for at least 7 hours I believe something really was wrong with their signal. Still, I recall that in the past and very occasionally, when my phone service went out, the telephone company credited my bill for time lost. My biggest beef with Dish is that they expect me to pay for repairs that I have done nothing to cause.

I havenÂt called TDS regarding the slow DSL service because I want to get someone out here, and I will pay him, to go over my computer and make sure the PC isnÂt the reason for the loss in speed.

Thanks for the responses and suggestions.

Nancy

I had assumed you were with Direct Tv sorry, I have never had to pay for anyone to come out and do repairs to my Direct tv, you might try telling them you will just change over to direct tv if they can not be bothered to take care of their good customers and see if that gets them moving.
I also urge asking for a supervisor and keep going up, often if they will escalate the call you can get someone who can do something for you.

We have Dish Network and have not had too many problems with service. Do what Raven suggested and threaten to change to the other service (Direct). That usually gets some action because they do not want to lose customers.

I have had satellite internet, and it will lose signal faster than the TV because it is two-way---both receive and send, whereas your TV is only receive. Try to get your DSL provider to improve that for you before considering satellite. I cannot get either DSL or cable, so not many choices. I do have a good cellular signal, so I now have that internet service, but I'm limited to 5GB per month. So far no problem with that, but it could be for a family of computer users.

I've had DirecTV since 1997. The expressed concern was under their warranty program.

A year ago I began having distortion on my TV and contacted DTV. They informed me that it would cost me $75.00 plus parts for them to come out. Or, I could sign up for their monthly maintenance program for a year at $5.00 a month, and any repairs would be free.

I signed up, had the repairs completeted, had another room added, and had a remote replaced. All for free except for the monthly additional fee for the extra box. The pre-cancellation fee was the balance of the annual $5.00 a month. Next month I am cancelling the program as my year is over. This might be the way to go.

And of course their is always DISH.

DA

Here are reviews for Hughsnet. I would not get tied up in an expensive equipment purchase/installation and 1 year or more usage contract with them.

reviews for Wildblue which was one of my worst nightmares.

I haven�t called TDS regarding the slow DSL service because I want to get someone out here, and I will pay him, to go over my computer and make sure the PC isn�t the reason for the loss in speed.
Here is a cheap and inexpensive thought...sign up for Transworld Dial-up service. There is no monthly contract or charges to get it installed with a tech person over the phone. They can/will walk you through the installation.

I have Transworld dial-up in addition to my local (and sometimes unreliable) broadband wireless. When my wireless gets to just creeping, I disconnect it and check to see what the speed is when using Transworld dial-up. If I find that my dial-up is faster than my broadband wireless, I can pretty well assume the problem is not with my computer. I then call my broadband folks and tell them my speed is super slow and even slower than the dial-up I have kept. They have me 'recycle the radio and router and that seldom does anything. They never see any problem between their equipment and don't know why I would be slow. They tell me they will have someone come and check my equipment here, and then magically the speed gets back to normal. I suspect a problem is found somewhere, but no one shows up here or ever calls to let me know they found a problem and fixed it.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Transworld/epowerc.net

Hi Mudlady
I too live in a rural area and went with Wild Blue Satellite over a year ago. I have been delighted with it and do not regret the expense. I rarely loose connection even during heavy rain. I have direct tv and have no problems with them or the dish except during heavy rain. Then i just watch DVR until the rain subsides.
I had my Wild Blue installed by a local company and they have been great. I couldn't get on line one day and called. They explained that sometimes the "dishnetwork" goes out but I am still connected. I tried a different website and voila I was online again. Another time after a power surge/outage the lights on the satellite box under my computer went out and another call to the local company and I was up and running.
My suggestion would be to do a google search for wild blue. They have a website and a forum for people to discuss and ask questions about the satellite type of internet. I learned a great deal from reading those discussions and asking questions before I called for installation. I also did a google search for installers in my area and made the call.
With all due respect to Sue who had a nightmare with Wild Blue, I gathered from my research that most problems are with the installers not the satellite. It would be worth it to check it out,
Good luck. I just wanted to give you my experience as another reference point.
Murphy

I had Wild Blue for about two years, and for satellite it was okay. I believe with any satellite system, the key is a good installer. I had some problems related to a long cable run between the dish and my house, but we managed to work around the problems that posed. I did lose connection in a heavy mist or a downpour, but less so with our TV satellite. Remember that internet is a two way hookup, whereas the TV is one way only.

When I found out that I had cellular broadband available in my area, I switched to that and have been very happy. The tower that serves me is less than 3 miles away, so I have a fairly strong signal.

Us country folks don't have a lot of choices, and city/suburban people don't understand why we don't just sign up for DSL or cable. LOL!

Amen Bobbie. They truly don't understand how limited we country folks can be. I pay $44.85 a quarter for unlimited dial-up which I may use 30-60 minutes a day. A satellite feed would cost me $60.00+ a month. Admittedly if I had higher speed I may be on the Internet more. However, as you know I still work and my job may place unscheduled demands on my time. Plus, I take care of my home and have a life.

I think it's a perfect trade-off though. Minimum traffic here, no boom boxes, no 40/60 foot lots where your neighbor is in your living room , no pollution, sweet sounds, views and colors of nature, and people have more manners.

I've been gone from the city for 15 years now and could never move back.

DA