Satellite Internet Service

FastEddieB

FastEddieB

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Oct 14, 2013
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Lenoir City, TN/Mineral Bluff, GA
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Fast Eddie B
It appears that may be the only option at our new home in suburban/rural Tennessee.

The providers are HughesNet and ViaSat, at 15 and 25 mbps respectively. About $50/month for the latter.

Anyone use these or similar services? If so, how’s it working out?

Up to now, and right now, we’re using cellular via AT&T on our phones and iPads. But it would be nice to have a home network for our Apple TV and Mac Mini to tap into.

Open to any suggestions, and as usual, thank in advance!
 
One thing I learned about most satellite internet services is...... they only serve densely populated areas....o_O :nonod:

HughesNet is the only reliable sat service in my little rural area. I ended up with a Verizon jetpack. Really good for browsing, email, music, but probably not ideal for Apple Tv and things similar.
 
I ended up with a 3rd-party HughesNet business account for a very rural area with no alternatives. What started out three years ago as "awful" in terms of bandwidth (available, not advertised) and uptime has improved significantly to "barely acceptable."
I've got 10Mbps down/3 up and 6ms latency right now, which should be a low-usage time in the area. 6ms is *outstanding*, it's typically much higher.

Nauga,
trying to shove a cow through a soda straw
 
A friend has Hughes net, it is terrible, much faster to use your phone as a hotspot
 
nauga said:
I ended up with a 3rd-party HughesNet business account for a very rural area with no alternatives. What started out three years ago as "awful" in terms of bandwidth (available, not advertised) and uptime has improved significantly to "barely acceptable."
I've got 10Mbps down/3 up and 6ms latency right now, which should be a low-usage time in the area. 6ms is *outstanding*, it's typically much higher.

Nauga,
trying to shove a cow through a soda straw
Click to expand...

The typical problem is latency (delay). It is probably fine for streaming video, but two way audio or video is going to suffer. I have never seen anything even close to 6 ms on satellite (it has been a while, but just the logistics of it suggests it should be much higher). You must be pretty special. Honestly, I have never seen satellite sub 100 ms.
 
We are in the same boat as you. Satellite internet is expensive, slow, and their packages generally suck. We too used our cell phone data and would hot spot. Well then we got cameras and our garage door has Wi-Fi so I needed something better, a network.

We are with verizon so we got the mifi hotspot. It gave us a landline if you want that (or dont hook a phone to it) and it is also a router. I hooked it up to my wireless router and ran a cat 5 to a switch in the attic. Then ran out to all TV's. Now my network has its own cellualr data network separte from my phones.
 
nauga said:
I ended up with a 3rd-party HughesNet business account for a very rural area with no alternatives. What started out three years ago as "awful" in terms of bandwidth (available, not advertised) and uptime has improved significantly to "barely acceptable."
I've got 10Mbps down/3 up and 6ms latency right now, which should be a low-usage time in the area. 6ms is *outstanding*, it's typically much higher.

Nauga,
trying to shove a cow through a soda straw
Click to expand...
You are achieving 6ms latency to the internet via a satalite that is 22,000 miles away? 44,000 miles for a single packet in one direction...

Very impressive. Any idea how they’ve overcame the speed of light?
 
jesse said:
You are achieving 6ms latency to the internet via a satalite that is 22,000 miles away? 44,000 miles for a single packet in one direction...
Click to expand...
Post in haste, repent in leisure. :rolleyes: 500-600ms. Much less impressive.

jesse said:
Any idea how they’ve overcame the speed of light?
Click to expand...
Magnets. Always magnets.

Nauga,
who usually checks his work o_O
 
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If you have LTE coverage at the barn, it's going to be better than non-commercial sattelite. I used to have a 3G PCMIA card that went into a linksys router. Made a wired/WiFi network wherever I needed. Since then upgraded to a little USB 'stick' that runs off AT&Ts network. If you need to download something big like a foreflight update, just do what every other rural dweller does and squat in front of a McDonalds late at night to leech their free WiFi.
 
I have HughesNet and it is horrible. I’m so rural that we do not have cell service either.

20gb plan is the highest. Additional 50gb can be used between 0200 and 0800. This is when I do updates, download apps, etc.

Streaming video is an exercise in futility. When it storms, internet goes down. Would only recommend if its your only option. It is mine.
 
I use verizon celluer at my house. Even with only a couple on and not much streaming we use 200-300gb a month. Make sure whatever you get doesnt limit or add on extra charges for too many Gigs
 
1TB on a Verizon puck and we have a cell extender thingie on the roof. We don’t do “cable” any more. We have yet to hit the rev limiter on it, and it’s pretty much all we use for “TV”.

Life in the country!
 
Never heard anyone with satellite internet being happy with it. Another option if you have it in your area and aren’t down in a hole or have trees blocking line of site is line of site wireless service to a grain elevator or tower.
We’re surrounded by trees so I got a grandfathered truly unlimited Verizon line from a vendor I found through being a member of rvmobileinternet.com. I put the SIM in a Verizon Jetpack I bought online.
Wasn’t cheap and I keep my usage under 100GB/month, which is sometimes hard but with 2 bars of 4G it’s good for streaming. I’m just waiting for Verizon to finally kill the old plans off so that might be a good solution going forward but you take what you can get in the country.
The rvmobileinternet group, despite the, catering to the RV’ing folks, has been a good source of information on all the data plans the wireless carriers come out with and their details/gotchas like throttling your connection after so many GBs.
 
I use a local microwave internet provider because there are no hardwired services available. It’s not good due to all the trees but it works OK for work. We looked at Highesnet but the company I work for uses VPN and Hughesnet specifically says it work work with VPN or live action video games. The latency inherent to the signal going to and from the satellite are too long for VPN to work.
Gary
 
jesse said:
You are achieving 6ms latency to the internet via a satalite that is 22,000 miles away? 44,000 miles for a single packet in one direction...

Very impressive. Any idea how they’ve overcame the speed of light?
Click to expand...
Municipal regulation. How else?
 
FastEddieB said:
Up to now, and right now, we’re using cellular via AT&T on our phones and iPads. But it would be nice to have a home network for our Apple TV and Mac Mini to tap into.
Click to expand...

If you are getting internet on your phone then it will be reasonably straightforward to improve it sufficiently to use all your devices on it.

The problem will be the Data Usage Charges however I imagine that they will be less than any satellite charges. Where I am charges vary widely between suppliers.

You can use an iPhone or any smartphone as a WiFi hotspot (I guess ipad too?). This is called tethering. Some providers have additional tethering charges but perhaps these can be worked round.

You can buy a MiFi device and use that as your hotspot. If the signal is poor you can put the MiFi device in the roof. If it is too far away you can use a WiFi repeater/booster. You can use an external antenna on the Mifi device. Many antennas on the market seem to be useless but there is some good kit around.

Here is an article about someone who uses fancier means to get a good signal on a boat under difficult circumstances. You wont need all of the tools used here but it may give you some ideas.

https://sailbits.com/best-lte-antenna-booster-boat/?cn-reloaded=1

The guy mentions articles by RV users who of course face similar problems.

His is a top grade solution using

Fancy Antenna mounted outside and high up
Mast Head amplifier
Phone Signal repeater to re-broadcast the phone signal into the boat
Fancy MiFi device/router with Two SIM slots, Ethernet Port, ...


You can likely use something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Huawei-E5885Ls-93a-Router-Hotspot-Mobile/dp/B074XKDB4G
This has an ethernet port too. There are many cheaper ones available too.

Depending on your circumstances and signal strength you might not need anything else.

Someone earlier mentioned buying an old unlimited Data plan advertised on an RV forum and using that while discipling themselves to 100G a month to avoid attracting attention. I do something very like that too. I am on a theoretically unlimited plan but I take care not to go too mad.
 
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GaryV said:
I use a local microwave internet provider because there are no hardwired services available. It’s not good due to all the trees but it works OK for work. We looked at Highesnet but the company I work for uses VPN and Hughesnet specifically says it work work with VPN or live action video games. The latency inherent to the signal going to and from the satellite are too long for VPN to work.
Gary
Click to expand...
This.

See if there is a WISP that serves your area. There is a directory on the WISPA.org site.
 
Spring Ford said:
If you are getting internet on your phone then it will be reasonably straightforward to improve it sufficiently to use all your devices on it.

The problem will be the Data Usage Charges however I imagine that they will be less than any satellite charges. Where I am charges vary widely between suppliers.

You can use an iPhone or any smartphone as a WiFi hotspot (I guess ipad too?). This is called tethering. Some providers have additional tethering charges but perhaps these can be worked round.

You can buy a MiFi device and use that as your hotspot. If the signal is poor you can put the MiFi device in the roof. If it is too far away you can use a WiFi repeater/booster. You can use an external antenna on the Mifi device. Many antennas on the market seem to be useless but there is some good kit around.

Here is an article about someone who uses fancier means to get a good signal on a boat under difficult circumstances. You wont need all of the tools used here but it may give you some ideas.

https://sailbits.com/best-lte-antenna-booster-boat/?cn-reloaded=1

The guy mentions articles by RV users who of course face similar problems.

His is a top grade solution using

Fancy Antenna mounted outside and high up
Mast Head amplifier
Phone Signal repeater to re-broadcast the phone signal into the boat
Fancy MiFi device/router with Two SIM slots, Ethernet Port, ...


You can likely use something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Huawei-E5885Ls-93a-Router-Hotspot-Mobile/dp/B074XKDB4G
This has an ethernet port too. There are many cheaper ones available too.

Depending on your circumstances and signal strength you might not need anything else.

Someone earlier mentioned buying an old unlimited Data plan advertised on an RV forum and using that while discipling themselves to 100G a month to avoid attracting attention. I do something very like that too. I am on a theoretically unlimited plan but I take care not to go too mad.
Click to expand...
A number of years ago (5+?) there was a lawsuit and the tethering charges were dropped. Verizon used to charge $20 a month. I know, because I enable it for all of my engineers/technicians. With 4G, you can do concurrent voice and data on a phone. Most plans limit data now, but the unlimited plans are making a comeback (they throttle your speed after a certain amount). The Mifi pucks are great, but all the major carriers also offer 4G routers. We often use them for failover backup circuits for our clients.
 
Check this out:

https://www.ubifi.net/

I have zero experience with it, and there are some risks. Most notably, they piggyback on major carriers like an MVNO, so there's no guarantee that the primary carriers will renew the contracts in the future.

On the other hand, they're very up-front about that when you call, there's no contract, and there's a 30-day return period on the equipment.

If it delivers even half what it claims to, it will be better than HughesNet.

As an aside, I installed similar setups as UbiFi's many years ago, back when 3G was bleeding-edge. It worked better back then than HughesNet does now. But I have no experience with this particular company. If you try it, I'd appreciate any feedback.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
Check this out:
https://www.ubifi.net/
Click to expand...

Wow! That looks great.

You can get them to tell you exactly what kind of hardware you are going to need[1], although I guess they wont tell you which provider(s) they will use, if they are competitive on Data charges use them, otherwise you can perhaps roll your own if you can find a data plan that suits you better.

[1]
In terms of external vs built in antenna
Signal booster or not
Possibly multiple internal WiFi hotspots
 
Spring Ford said:
Wow! That looks great.

You can get them to tell you exactly what kind of hardware you are going to need[1], although I guess they wont tell you which provider(s) they will use, if they are competitive on Data charges use them, otherwise you can perhaps roll your own if you can find a data plan that suits you better.

[1]
In terms of external vs built in antenna
Signal booster or not
Possibly multiple internal WiFi hotspots
Click to expand...

They do tell you who the provider will be if you call them. They suggest one based on their signal strength maps and databases; but in the event that their information is wrong due to local topography, they'll defer to the customer once they're confident that the customer knows what they're talking about -- especially if the customer already has experience with the various providers.

Basically, they just want to know that the customer is correct before they override their system's recommended carrier and provision the equipment and account. If their information shows no signal from the customer's preferred carrier for a hundred miles, they'll be skeptical. If it shows that two providers have acceptable signal, but the customer advises them that the one that seems weaker is actually stronger because of local topography, they'll defer to the customer.

They seem like a good outfit and I'm tempted to give them a try. But my local telco actually provides excellent Internet service most of the time, with relatively few outages, so I've been on the fence about it for a while.

Rich
 
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As an update...

To date we still have no internet, per se´, at our new E TN home.

For TV, we installed a $50 OTA antenna, which gets us 27 OTA channels including the major networks:

32035853848_d628c33066.jpg


No DVR yet, so we've reverted to "appointment television", which feels kinda weird. But works.

When we want to watch Hulu or Netflix, we've been doing it on Karen's iPad Pro using cellular playing over a bluetooth speaker. Plenty big screen and decent sound for satisfactory viewing experience. We can also tune into CNN or Fox News or MSNBC via an Xfinity app on our iDevices.

For computer, we had an extra Apple keyboard and were given an LCD monitor, and I've been traveling back and forth with our Mac Mini and trackpad:

45057273194_4c81322194.jpg


Many things we need to do online we can do on our iPads or phones, or I can get the data I need that way and enter it into the Mac Mini. My important files are in Dropbox, and whatever I enter while offline in TN updates to the cloud when I hook up again in N GA.

Eventually we will still probably find an economical internet solution. But this is working well enough for now.
 
You can also just tether your Mac Mini through your cell phone (get a USB WiFi adapter for it and turn on hot spot on your phone). The Jetpack idea above is decent and they also make 4G routers.
 
baboss said:
Verizon recently came out with a new unlimited plan for Jetpacks that isn't half bad, if you have good Verizon signal at your place
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ve...ntroducing-unlimited-data-plans-for-jetpacks/
Connect the jetpack to a tethering capable wireless router and you're golden!

I'd be looking at this if I didn't already have a grandfathered unlimited plan.
Click to expand...

I have this and it meets my needs. I don't run a Tv with it or have 24 hour security cameras. The most we do is up load pictures and it works just fine for that.
 
I am curious what you end up doing for the DVR. I am about to get rid of direct tv. I put up an outdoor antenna and I am satisfied with the channels I get. I am going to miss the DVR for a few things.
 
I am thinking about the Amazon Fire TV Recast for the DVR, but I would need to switch from Apple TV to fire sticks to make it work.
 
We're ready to cut the cord, our cable provider just sent another notice, going up $9/month. "Increased costs of programming" blal blah blah.

I think we're going Hulu so I can get the ESPN channels for college FB and hoops, and augment with an antenna for local channels.
 
Bill Jennings said:
We're ready to cut the cord, our cable provider just sent another notice, going up $9/month. "Increased costs of programming" blal blah blah.

I think we're going Hulu so I can get the ESPN channels for college FB and hoops, and augment with an antenna for local channels.
Click to expand...
We switched from Comcast (who had the worst customer service imaginable) to EPBfi a few years ago. We’ve got the Silver bundle with TV and internet for ~$150 a month. We came to the realization that the number of channels that are included compared to the ones we actually watch is like a 10:350. Called EPB to find out if we could downgrade to basic and just a la carte a few channels but of course you can’t do that. It’s either $150/monthly for 300+ channels that go unusable or $80/monthly for basic. Gotta love it. They know they’ve got you in a crux.
 
Ryanb said:
Called EPB to find out if we could downgrade to basic and just a la carte a few channels but of course you can’t do that. It’s either $150/monthly for 300+ channels that go unusable or $80/monthly for basic. Gotta love it. They know they’ve got you in a crux.
Click to expand...

Why I'm cutting EPB. Hulu has all the EPSN and Fox Sports channels as well as a bunch of others for $39.99 a month. Add an antenna for local channels and call it done.
 
Bill Jennings said:
Why I'm cutting EPB. Hulu has all the EPSN and Fox Sports channels as well as a bunch of others for $39.99 a month. Add an antenna for local channels and call it done.
Click to expand...
Can’t say that I blame you!
 
baboss said:
Verizon recently came out with a new unlimited plan for Jetpacks that isn't half bad, if you have good Verizon signal at your place
https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/ve...ntroducing-unlimited-data-plans-for-jetpacks/
Connect the jetpack to a tethering capable wireless router and you're golden!

I'd be looking at this if I didn't already have a grandfathered unlimited plan.
Click to expand...

I signed up for this today as a failover solution. It's a bit cumbersome because there's no Ethernet, but that's not a huge problem. I can either manually switch during an outage or do some sort of WiFi-to-WAN deal. There may also be software-based failover solutions.

Rich
 
Necro thread, I know, but I thought I’d update.

For a year or so we’ve done OK with OTA for network content and using out iPhones or iPads for internet via cellular, sending it to our big screen TV via a Lightning to HDMI connector. Serviceable, if a little clunky - Apple TV+ content didn’t play all that well with the setup.

Anyway, we have decent cell service and a tech-savvy friend set us up with one of these:

49237905767_4726fe1cb5.jpg


(He found an online source for about $80 less.)

Seems to work well enough. About $35/month. Just now I’m getting about 40 mbps, though it varies and I’ve seen less than 10 mbps on occasion. Regardless, it’s fast enough to send signal to our Apple TV for streaming content. My MacMini seems just as fast browsing as it does in GA with 40 mbps via cable there. The WiFi signal gets weak or nonexistent in certain corners of the downstairs, but we’re working on a solution for that.

Anyway, until 5G becomes a thing, we’re pretty happy with this setup.
 
I will confirm that in at least one sketchy cellular data area, my iPad mini 2 had much better data service than the iPhone XS, and I have tethered my computer off it for work a couple of times when necessary. I figure with more space, it likely has a better optimized antenna.
 
My sister in law lives in baja Ohio where there is NOTHING (I thought being stuck with a 10M DSL was bad). Hughes was awful for her. She now has some AT&T cellular hotspot thingy that they installed on the roof of her house.
 
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