Need opinion(s) on satellite internet

[jepalmer]

I'll be spending the summer in SW Montana (yea!) without cell service (boo!).

I need internet. If TV can be bundled with it, great. Right now I have land line verizon FIOS, but after the summer I will be converting to a satellite system for the house,e.g. DirecTV, if that makes a difference.

Looking for suggestions on
(1) Provider
(2) Antenna - automatic is nice, but is it worth 2x price?
(3) If I go with a tripod antenna vs a 'tailgater' what is the difference in storage space? Can the tripod antenna be relatively easily broken down for storage? I know there is a difference in set up time, but that is immaterial to me. Comfortable shooting azimuth/direction, etc.
(4) How far from the RV can the antenna be and still transmit signal (don't think this will be a problem, but curious)
(5) What did I forget to ask?

Don't need on-the-go service

Thanks!

[2112]

I was on Wildblue through Dish Net for years. My modem finally failed so I was upgraded to the new system. There wasn't a spot beam available through Wildblue so they moved me to Exede.net. The difference is night and day. The new system (Gen4?) is ssssoooo much faster and stable.

As mentioned before, sat internet isn't something you can easily move from location to location.

[Roman_Duck]

we have Hughes net and the service is good, speed is satisfactory, but they limit you on bandwidth We never had a problem until recently, we our running out before our refresh date, if you used your bandwidth up, then at 1 time HN would refresh it after 24 hrs of down time, but now instead(they recently changed their policy as far as refresh of bandwidth) they give you your bandwidth on a monthly basis now, meaning we are running out of bandwidth before the refresh date. They do allow you to buy more bandwidth, but at additional cost We recommend looking for other providers, that does not limit bandwidth good luck, after having HN since 2008 we are looking at other options

[Ed_Gee]

Check Wild Blue before committing to something else.

[kregli]

I had a Hughes/Motosat setup for a long time. It worked fine for email and such. Now there are better solutions. Take a look at the Motosat Users site. While Motosat is no more, there is lots of information there including links to lots of dealers. I've noticed a lot of people in Montana seem to use Shaw.

[1mtnman]

I have been researching ways to get rid of DirectTV and instead stream the type of program I enjoy without have to pay for all the garbage that goes along with satellite packages. If a person has a good internet connection and one of the smart TV's I find there are streaming packages available that provide many of the programs I enjoy without having to subscribe to a satellite package. There are ways to get local channels if you use them for local news or weather and then you can choose a streaming package of your choice.
I recently found one which provides many of the sports channels I like. It is called "Sling TV" at this location; Sling
Have others been looking at this method of satisfying your TV needs?

[rv2go]

Bad, slow or what ever, Hughes Net Internet is better than no internet. I have had my auto dish for 10 years. Being fulltime and liking to explore some remote places, I am glad that I have Hughes Net. I have had campers to come by and ask if they can check their email or send a text message. Makes me feel good to oblige.

Hughesnet Gen4 is different. I don't think that you can use it with a portable tri-pod systen.

[RoyB]

Back in my traveling working years with SPAWAR Charleston Shore Installations Electronics the SAT INTERNET sucked big time... We always went back to VERIZON INTERNET but not sure if that works in your Montana location or not... VERIZON certainly has the best coverage across the US.

Recently the HUGHESNET Gen4 is being advertised as excellent internet coverage. I have never checked with anyone if it is truly a high speed reliable connection or not. Definitely worth checking into.

All I remember is that just a few years back SATELLITE INTERNET was not a reliable system to use.

Roy Ken

[The_Texan]

Dish TV parent company, Echo Star, owns Hughes Net and their "bundled" internet/TV satellite is via HN. We used Hughes Net for 5 years, while full timing and it worked fine for us. However, the current system is NOT user friendly and MUST be setup by a HN tech and can not be moved by the user, as it is a spot beam system. We have it at the ranch and it is much better than the old HN system, but is still satellite and has the latent time lag problem.

[sh410]

Worse than satellite internet is no internet if you do not have phone or cable available.

It does work and it is slow but better than nothing or dial-up

[DutchmenSport]

Satellite Dish TV offers an Internet package. BUT!!!!!!!!! Their Internet is NOT Satellite. It's offered over a phone line, it's offered via cable, or it's offered via Hughes Net..... and believe me .... Hughes Net sucks!...

So if you are in the middle of nowhere, I don't think you'll have a phone line or a cable line. And did I say .... Hughes Net sucks! ..... They just don't have enough speed and their service .... well ... did I say ... Hughes Net sucks!

Stay away from Hughes Net and Dish TV (internet) is not Satellite at all. Did I give my opinion of Hughes Net yet?.....

Edit: Why am I so "down" on Hughes.net? It's very costly ... over $100 a month for basic bandwidth. Their customer service and phone system is an unbelievable nightmare. There is too much lag time from the time you push a key on your keyboard to the time you get a response from the system. And if you cancel.... well ... good luck.... if you have to return equipment ... they will convienently loose it for you and then you end up having to pay full price for it! (Oh we fought that one hard!).... took 3 months of battling them to get our money back and then another 2 or 3 months to get the check after that!

[hershey]

A friend of ours has the Hughes Net satellite internet system. It works very well for him. He uses a really nice tripod for the dish.
As I understand, you can't just use it for a few months. There is a contract length of much longer than that, plus the purchase investment is very large. You don't rent that dish and components.
But if you can justify using the system long term, it might fit your needs.