Satellite Internet Service

We live in a remote area and tried Sat internet as there is no cable or DSL here. We paid $80 for the highest speed and to put it bluntly, it was awful. The speed was sporadic and the latency was very irritating. I was So happy when 4g was available here. Sat is expensive and not as reliable or fast as 4g, and requires line of sight (no trees or cloud cover) in my experience. Also, on a MH I imagine unless you full time and are sitting in the same spot it will be very difficult. It does not use your dish for TV. It requires a dedicated dish as it aims to a different position in the sky. The variance on the target is also smaller so it has to be perfectly aimed as opposed to tv Sat which can be close and still get your signal. It also requires a dedicated set of cables (2 - one for sending and one for receiving) that would have to be run. I would advise strongly against it and look at 3 or 4g options (wifi etc). More reliable and much easier to work with.

Dick, there are 2 distinct systems. Hughes is owned by Echo Star, the parent company of Dish, which is why you see the Dish Net system advertised as a package with Dish. The RV system is great, in that it gives you internet almost anywhere in North America, with the proper satellite. HOWEVER, the RV system and the home system are NOT compatible, in that the home system uses a very narrow spot beam, while the mobile system uses a broad beam. The Gen 4 home system is relatively fast, while the mobile system has a very long latent time lag and can be relatively slow. We have a motosat system on our RV and use it when we are working the patch or traveling in Mexico. Otherwise we use a hotspot, as it is much faster.

Internet and TV can be received on the same "internet" dish, if you are assigned to the correct satellite. Our system uses the same dish, as we are assigned to a Satmex satellite and use the BOW for the TV channels.

The Hughes GEN4 satellite Internet system (also marketed as DishNet) is a spot beamed service that requires a separate dish and very precise aiming. It is not compatible with any TV satellite service dishes. Also, since it is regionally spot beamed, and neither Hughes nor Dish support frequent beam area changes, as we can do with the Dish local TV channel spot beams, the Internet service is not practical for most RV'ers. The service is expensive for the bandwidth allowed, and the high latency makes it impractical for many online games, if that's of interest. The high latency also makes it a poor choice for audio/video streaming and VOIP phone service use.

Effy is correct X 100 save money buy 2 cans and a string you will be much happier and save money..The sat internet is worse than worthless.

I think it's an option for homes that have no other options. Not practical for a MH. Can it be done? Sure. Are there better options? Yes. I use a 4g mifi/jetpack for our sole source of internet. I work from home a lot so have a double encypted VPN and a VOIP phone and it works fine. Also, the mifi can fit in your shirt pocket, can get 3 or 4 g where available and also acts as a router for up to 5 devices. It's small, portable and wireless and does not require line of sight. The only requirement is that there be a signal, not a problem anywhere I have been on the east coast. I understand some parts of the west/mid west have dead zones. Some new phones do the same thing although I hear it's a bit more limited. The only downside is you are limited to a certain amount of data per month based on your plan. But I don't know of any mobile ISP that does not have this constraint. (Would love to find one)You can thank our guvmint for that. Darn net neutrality.

Some people do NOT understand that cell service, of any kind, is NOT available in over 20% of the United States. Sure a hot spot is great, IF you have cell service, but not worth the box it came in, if you are somewhere in that 20%+ area.

The "new" Gen 4 system is MUCH faster than the older systems and unless you have used it, do NOT lump the 2 together. We have a satellite system at the ranch in NV, because there is NO updated cell service or cable internet for us to use. We had the older Hughes Net system and now have the latest Gen 4, so I do know the difference. I would have no problem using Gen 4 here at our mountain home, if we wanted to, as the speed with it is very fast.

Read through the website www.rv-dreams.com.

They have used a sat internet system for years as fulltimers with a successful RV Blog & forum.

Recently they removed the system because they found between the WiFi offered at most RV Resorts and using cell phone based internet they no longer needed the sat internet setup.

OK, thanks for the info. It wasn't a serious consideration but this info helps me move in the correct direction. My Verizon hot spot on the phone is my mainstay for the MH so I reckon I'll just continue with that since I still have the unlimited data.

For the house, I'll worry about it later when we get back from our summer trip.

Thanks again.

Go read thru the web site:

Www.mobileinternetsatellite.com

I have used them for several years and dont really have any problems.

You really need to consider where you are and what options are available. Most of our travels put us in locations where cell service is spotty if at all. The satellite service may be a little slower at times (50k miles for a web page query), but it always works.

At least give it a look. You can also call Barb at the number in the web site, she is real helpful.

Good Luck.

Satallite

yes it can be done and look here.