Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Speaking Of Cool Things
Over the years I’ve used dial up, DSL and cable to access the internet. Every single one of those gave me problems and I was getting fed up with some of the companies I had to deal with. About 3-4 years ago, I started to see commercials for satellite internet, specifically, Hughes Net. Knowing how much I liked my satellite t.v., I decided to look them up on the internet and see what they offered.
First of all, you have two options. You can lease the equipment or you can outright pay for it. If you outright pay for it, you own that equipment forever. You take it with you when you move, there is no abandon the dish at one address and have the tech come out with a new dish at the new address. It follows you wherever you go. Once you’ve decided if you want to lease or own, it’s time to decide how fast you want to cruise down the information highway.
Kids, I have the second strongest which is 35 times faster than dial up. I use the internet a lot. I’m extremely impatient. So far, 35 times faster than dial up has been all I needed. As I get older and more impatient, I may upgrade to 50 times faster than dial up which is only $10 a month more. But you can start slower, if you don’t really use the internet that much or you can go for lightning speed, all the way up to 70 times faster than dial up.
Now, you want to hear something really interesting? I pay LESS for HUGHES NET than I did for my DSL and cable services. And it’s eleventy thousand times better. It’s WAY more reliable, I have never had a modem issue like I did with cable, I never had an issue with the phone line like I did DSL, it’s been one, sweet enjoyable time since I signed up almost two years ago.
Basically, how Hughesnet works is that you have a satellite dish and a modem. (If you do not own your home, you need to check with the landlord to make sure you can have this dish installed on their building. If not, ask about installing it somewhere on the property. I currently have mine installed on a pole outside.) Information gets sent to and from a satellite in the sky so you have to have clear access to the SW sky. (Trim the trees if you don’t.) Everything sent and received is processed through the modem. Yes, there is a modem but you don’t have those pesky cable issues that are connected to the modem from a telephone pole in someone elses yard to contend with. (True story. Four months of agony. I still can’t talk about it.)
A lot of people will ask, “What about when there’s bad weather? Won’t it go out? Won’t you lose your signal?” You know what? Just this morning it was thundering, lightning and raining. Guess what? I still had service. My internet still worked. Again, I’ve had this service for almost two years and I think only twice has the service hiccuped and it was for a whopping two whole minutes before everything was back to normal. This works in boiling hot weather, (when I lived in TX, the cable would always go out if it was really hot outside, I kid you not), rain, storms, high winds, it works through everything.
As of yet, I’ve not had to test it through a hurricane but unless it’s a Cat 4 or 5, I’m sure it won’t get ripped out of the pole and go flying down the street. (Actually, if we do get a high powered hurricane, I’ll just take it down to protect it since I own it.) If it’s a Cat 1 or 2, if it does go out, I just have a tech come out and readjust it for me. If it’s a stronger hurricane, like I said, I’ll take it down and when all is over, have them come over and readjust it. Small price to pay for having such quality service all this time.
You know what I got with dial up, DSL and cable? Headaches. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times those things would knock me off line. Used to drive me insane. To add insult to injury, my pocket book was gouged for those headaches from DSL and cable. Dial up just gave me heart failure because it was sooooo slow! AND! I got the run around from the companies I used.
In all of my dealings with my satellite internet provider, I’ve had nothing but enjoyable experiences. I’m serious. These people have some quality customer service skills. They are very polite on the phone, they get the address correct the first time you say it, (BIG pet peeve of mine), they were ON TIME with each installation and they are, again, cheaper than the other services except dial up. I’ve never had a problem.
OH! And you know what else is cool? Certain cell phone companies will let you use your satellite internet as your cell tower so you can get great reception. Considering I live in the Everglades, this is a must have.
Anyway, if you’re tired of being taken advantage of by those other companies and you CAN put a satellite dish on your property, (and you don’t live in Alaska or Hawaii, (not available there...yet)), try out this satellite company. Seriously. So far, I’ve convinced two of my neighbors to look in to it and also my boss uses it at his place of business.
Hughes Net totally rocks. I love them and I’m NEVER using another provider again, EVER.
