Hughesnet Gen4

[danglo]

I am thinking of upgrading my Hughesnet service to their newer Gen4 service.

I understand for $59.99 monthly, I will get much faster service and up to 10 GB of data.

Will I've able to use streaming services like Netflix?

WillI be able to use VOIP for phone,etc?

Any unpleasant surprises I should expect?

Just looking for input from more objective sources than Hughesnet.

By the way, we Don't have access to cell or cable or DSS or fiber, and we don,'t intend to use it when traveling.

Thanks for any help.

danglo

[The_Texan]

Gen4 is fast, the latency is much better than the older system, BUT it is for a FIXED location only. We have it at the ranch, due to our location and it is in the 3G range for speed and yes VoIP will work but you will have the lag. Again, this is NOT an RV system, but a FIXED location system only.

[MrWizard]

netflix is live streaming... not down loading
you can watch during those free hours or any hours
but No down loads for watching later

[danglo]

louiskathy wrote:
HughesNet Satellite forum

We don't use Hughesnet anymore... do you know about this forum??
Maybe you can get some info here.

10GB isn't all that much when you start downloading movies or streaming YouTube video's hours at a time.

It would be smart to gauge your useage by keeping track of how much you watch in a 24 hr time frame but it isn't always that easy to know when they are going to "whack you back", slow you down and give you a 24 hour time out. Hughesnet doesn't use a midnight to midnight time frame when it comes to useage.

I don't know if they still have a 3 hour "free" time but if they still do, try to auto download then for later viewing.

Can I "download" from Netflix during the Hughesnet free hours?

Thanks, danglo

[louiskathy]

HughesNet Satellite forum

We don't use Hughesnet anymore... do you know about this forum??
Maybe you can get some info here.

10GB isn't all that much when you start downloading movies or streaming YouTube video's hours at a time.

It would be smart to gauge your useage by keeping track of how much you watch in a 24 hr time frame but it isn't always that easy to know when they are going to "whack you back", slow you down and give you a 24 hour time out. Hughesnet doesn't use a midnight to midnight time frame when it comes to useage.

I don't know if they still have a 3 hour "free" time but if they still do, try to auto download then for later viewing.

[docj]

The latency of a satellite system will never be real good simply because of speed of light issues. The satellite sits over the equator at ~23,000 miles above the earth. That makes the distance to the satellite from the ground on the order of 40,000 miles including the slant distance. So the total path from you to the ground station is ~80,000 miles. At 186,000 miles per second it takes your mouse click roughly 0.4 sec to get to the ground station. If there was no delay in its response the ground station's return signal to you will take another 0.4 sec. That's why the latency of Hughesnet varies between 0.75-1.0 sec. It is virtually unusable for any real-time application.

[jjwms]

When we were fulltimers we used Hughesnet all the time. there were a few places here and there we couldn't get it but it generally was when we were in a canyon or such and couldn't zero in with the satellite dish. But when satellite dishes improved friends who had Hughesnet said they had better luck. We used it for a while after we came off the road and are now in Stix & Bricks but eventually changed providers due to cost.

[sh410]

The upload speed will detemine if VOIP will work satisfactorly. There is still latency but but not as bad as the old system. That will also degrade VOIP. Netflix will run on the G4

[donn0128]

As i understand it is not rv friendly. It is spot beamed to one location.