Need help choosing a reasonable satellite internet provider

[Corbin3]

I live in a rural area so our only option for internet is a satellite provider. I have heard the the internet through Dish is not that great. I currently have Speednet which worked great for a long time. However the past year has been terrible and is now slower than dial-up! Anyone else use a satellite internet that works really well? I am a designer and need to send large files for work so I need something fast and reliable. I don't want to pay a fortune but at this point even that is becoming secondary to finding one that works!

 

[daemom]

I'm interested in this too. We used to use HughesNet. It was okay.....better than dial-up but not lightning fast. They have a "fair use" system where they cap the downloads and if you exceed that, your speed is greatly reduced for 24 hours. Normally we probably wouldn't go over it, but the kids would download a game or a large file for school and it would put us over our limit and slow it down. Someone else will probably come along and be able to explain it better!

 

[timmac]

If your primary use-case is sending files, then it's doubtful that any satellite based internet is likely going to give you much advantage over dialup, unfortunately. The bandwidth just isn't there.

I've used HughesNet briefly (a friend had it for a while, cable internet didn't reach his location) and found it was all right for downstream.

 

[stm61]

I had a choice between Hughes Net and Wildblue. That was it unless I went with dial up, which required another phone line so we could actually use the phone when the kids were home. We went with Wildblue because Hughes had such horrible customer service reviews and it was slightly higher in price. I don't have many complaints about Wildblue: it does slow down when the band width use hits about 60%, we lose it during storms, and the price is ridiculous. However, dial up was even worse, even if it was cheaper. I'm praying for the day they finally run DSL out here.

 

[left210]

We use Verizon Mifi but it is $60 per month for 5GB. It is great though and you can even take it with you and use in car, hotel, etc. We have only gone over the limit twice in 2 years and that was because we accidentally left it on for 3 days non stop.