[COLUG] OT: HughesNet Satellite Internet

[Mark Erbaugh]

Is anyone on the list using HughesNet (formerly Direcway) for internet
access?

I signed up in December of 2006.  I'm signed up for the service that
offers a nominal 768 kB/s download speed.

Since this past summer, I've noticed that my connection speed during
evening hours has dropped to basically dial-up speed. According to their
own satellite speed test it is 40 - 60 kB/s.  The speed is much better
during the morning and starts to drop off in the afternoon. It starts
picking up again around midnight.  At 3:00am, I'm getting speeds in the
600 kB/s range.

This is repeatable every evening.

When I first started using the service, I had good connection speed
round the clock.

I contacted Hughes and they've basically said that my connection speed
is not guaranteed (which is true), and the speed drop of is due to
network usage and that there is nothing that can be done.

I'm annoyed that I paid $600 for the initial hardware setup and am
paying $64 a month for essentially dialup access speed.

I'd like to hear from someone else who is using the service. If you're
getting good connection speeds in the evening, then there is probably a
problem with my hardware.

Mark