Does anyone have experience with satellite internet?

[stevew]

I had both Skybeam and Directlink when I lived out that way 2 or 3 years ago. Sky beam seemed better, Directlink over sold by way too much. I knew people that had it and they sold them "up to" 4mbits or 10mbits and they only had 50mbits total to sell at the time according to their installer Skybeam was a larger company and they ended up saying they didn't provide service in my area when I tried getting something higher from them that would stream something like NetFlix so not sure if they were selling out or what. They were already selling me about a megabit but just a bit slow for Netflix. My company actually makes a bandwidth manager product for higher bandwidth needs than home users so you can imagine that I was used to having high speed Internet and pretty much found out what was available and got the best at that time along with a backup. Qwest told me they would get me a T1 installed but then told me it would be $80,000 for the build out fee. They wanted me to pay to install the fiber for 10 miles None of the satellite ones would do things like iP phones or let me work remotely on our computers at a test site or anything else so they were out. Problem with satellite is the distance that your beam has to go, there is no way to speed up the time it takes to hit a satellite and then come back.

[th3w01f]

Rather that start a new thread I'll jump on this one.

It looks like there are two main options for Internet in Elizabeth.

Skybeam
Kellin

Any others that people have used successfully. We'd be about 2.5 miles due north of town.

[th3w01f]

Looks like I'll bump my own bump. We've found a place that is a few miles south east of Castle Rock. They currently have HughesNet but I'd prefer to do something else. I called Skybeam and they said their tower in the area is full so they can't help. I haven't gotten a response from Kellin yet and there is no Comcast.

Any other ideas or recent experience with HughesNet?

[asmo]

Looks like I'll bump my own bump. We've found a place that is a few miles south east of Castle Rock. They currently have HughesNet but I'd prefer to do something else. I called Skybeam and they said their tower in the area is full so they can't help. I haven't gotten a response from Kellin yet and there is no Comcast.

Any other ideas or recent experience with HughesNet?

You can always go w/ http://www.wildblue.com/

[th3w01f]

You can always go w/ http://www.wildblue.com/

Thanks but we're still looking, this is for the whole zip code of 80104.
Service not available.

Due to strong demand, new installations in your area have been suspended.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

The HughsNet plans suck too, 15Mbps with a 70GB cap for $130 a month. On top of that $30 a month for phone with a 24 month commitment, since there is almost no cell reception. This is literally 5 miles from castle rock, maybe this is why they want to move. ;-)

[GilpinGuy]

I have Exede up here, but I think they are the same as WildBlue. I'd give them a call though.

HughesNet sucked pretty bad. Exede is much better so far. Had it for several months now.

[Gman]

I have never inquired myself, but if you're looking at Hughes, maybe you can bundle with Dish and get a better deal?

[th3w01f]

Looks like the problem with Wild Blue is their web site, it said they didn't provide service in 80104 but when I looked up Exede they said they did and led me back to Wild Blue. I spoke with them and they do have service in the area. Their data caps are pretty low (30GB on their $160/mo plan) but at least there's another option.

I may have gotten lucky though, I found out the seller switched from HughesNet to Skybeam a while back and Skybeam said I would be able to take over the sellers equipment and get an account set up as soon as they cancel. They have a 5Mbps, 150GB plan for $~50 a month.

Thanks for the advice, I never realized what a PITA it is to get internet outside of the city.

[cmailliard]

Have you looked at MHO (Mile High Online). I used them when I lived in the Rock and had great success for years with them. They have some coverage in Elbert County on the north side of 86. As long as you have line of sight to their tower you are usually good.

[Aloha_Shooter]

For what it's worth, check out this story: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015...der-the-radar/

I don't know how much (if any) of it is true but Ars is usually pretty good on the technical stuff (not so much on politically charged items as they definitely have a left-of-center bias).