On Sept 8-2008 I had HughesNet installed. The installer left no paper work or instructions. I can live with that. I noticed my computer was running a little slow 2 days later. I sent an email to HughesNet advising them of this but I found out what was the problem. This FAP crap!!! All I did was watch about 8 short videos on youtube.com and I was spanked on the ass for it. I didn't know it at the time why my pc was running so slow until I went to their website and started reading about their FAP and I looked up my usage. It stated that I was going to be penalized for 24hours because I went over 200MB or close to it. I tried clicking on a link and I swear I could get up and take a shower before the site would load up. I didn't know anything about this Fair Access Policy before I subscribed to HughesNet. This is a money scam. They want you to get mad so you will pay more for more MB's!!! I thought I could surf the net as long as I wanted to and go to websites that I wanted to. I've never heard of this mess in my life!!! What is it that we can do??? They need to be sued because I never was told anything about any FAP nor was I told that I was only going to be able to download up to 200MB in a 24hour period or I would be punished for 24hours by restricting my ability to surf the net. If this isn't a fraud and a scam I don't know what is. All of this because of watching short little videos on youtube. I've been a customer for 5 days but after only 2 I saw what a fraud and scam these people are. DONT SUBSCRIBE TO HUGHESNET!!!

Not Faster Than Dial-Up, Fair Use Policy is a Scam

Hughesnet is not faster than dial-up. But that is not the worst part of doing business with them. They will subject you to a FAP "Fair Access Policy" which limits your daily downloads. However, the page they have set up for you to monitor you usage as per their records has a 4-hour lag time!! So there is no way to monitor your usage.

I am a computer professional who lives in the middle of nowhere. Hughesnet is my only option. I tried dial-up, but I was connecting at 20k. With Hughesnet I get closer to 56k and in the middle of the night, more like 100k. I regularly get suspend. I get suspend as much as once per week. At this point, I let it dictate my days off, or I do not internet dependant parts of my work.

It in inconvenient, expensive and I have lost money on deadline deals when they suspended me. They are the worst company I have ever dealt with. Can't get them on the phone--ever. I sent them over 50 emails complaining, every single response from them was either written by a robot, a drone, or someone who had never used a computer or the English language.

Finally, they offered me a download manager when I signed up, this would help my suspension problem, they told me having a MAC would be no problem.

But now they tell me they have nothing to offer MAC users and I can cancel my account with them for $480.00!!

Not MAC friendly--do not even bother if you use MAC.

If you have any other choice--any at all--DO NOT GO WITH HUGHESNET

S.S.

Internet connectivity is about 25% successful... sometimes days (sunny, clear ones!) go by without success. Numerous error codes, but mostly Web acceleration Client Error #515.2 New Deli Tech ends up with same remedies... unplug everything or... get new model!

Here in the outback, very limited alternatives, but even slow dial-up beats non existant service. Hughes billing service is excellent, however, hits that credit card on time every month!

My complaint to hughes is they fail to let the customer know about f.a.p until the service is installed. I had hughes installed, unaware that I was limited to the amount of downloading I could do in a 24 hr. period. When my computer started to not function thats when I was told about f.a.p, since I do alot of downloading, hughes is not for me. I called to discontinue the service and speaking with a supervisor I explained this to him, and that I thought hughes should have told me about f.a.p before they ever sent the contractor to install the dish. The supervisor told me I should have asked, why would I ask about something I, ve never heard of? If I would have known about f.a.p hughes would have never been to my house! Instead I get a pole that cost me $100.00 because the contrator wants to drill holes in my roof he can, t guarntee won, t leak! And hughes wants to charge me a $400 installation fee if I stop service in the 30 days grace period, the supervisor said hughes would return $200 if I sent back certain items. I think hughes is misleading and decietful by not letting the public know very clearly about f.a.p up front. I, m an honest man an I feel hughes has took my money deceitfully

Hughesnet---Don't Do It! I've been a customer of this satellite internet provider for five years. Like you probably, I have no other internet access choices other than dial up. Rather than restate what the good people have taken the time to say here let me just add that every complaint is 100% valid and true. Congratulate yourself on taking the time to do some research before making the same mistake we did. I would just like to add some specific examples of what you will not be able to do on the internet using Hughesnet. Take your time. There are better satellite services out there and Howard Hughes would have nothing to do with this company today.

First, the Fair Access Policy is nothing more than a scam to get more money from you. It has nothing to do with making sure the light downloader has the same amount of access as the heavy downloader. There is no shortage. Obviously if there was you would not be able to increase your download threshold by simply paying more money per month. It bleeds the people who rely on the internet to make a living, as a single source for entertainment or as a main source for communication... no exemptions for emergency use included.

Second, even when limits have not been exceeded Hughesnet speed is marginal at best and of course it's always your fault. The results of my "speed test" say my download speed is somewhere between 700 and 750 kb/sec. In reality I've never topped 120 kb/sec and that number spirals downward each second. If it's not your fault it's the weather or something else beyond their control. They try to convince you that a signal strength of 65 out of a possible 100 is good reception. But how does all this relate to the user? All versions of Windows have crucial service packs provided at a later date by Microsoft. But, for example, you can't download SP2 for Windows XP without exceeding the Fair Access Policy's (or FAP) threshold and then discovering it's going to take 50+ hours or so to download the rest at a speed less than half that of dialup! All satellite providers use an FAP but Hughes' is by far the most restrictive.

You want to download movies from Netflix or anywhere? You can't do it. You want to buy and download a game for your computer or Xbox? You can't do it. You want to play a game online against others on the internet? Forget it. The latency is even worse that of dial up. To be concise, with Hughesnet you miss out on half of what the internet offers.

As a teaser they give you the hours between 12 and 3 a.m. eastern time as "recess" when you can gorge on downloading without penalty. But still, the slow service does not allow you to finish downloading in 3 hours and the final 1/4 of the program will come at a speed that will take days to complete. One more thing, streaming videos will also put you over the threshold. You must limit your You Tube browsing to just one or two at a time. You also will not be able to catch up on any of your favorite TV show episodes now offered on the net for free. Even at full speed they start/stop at a rate that will have you tearing your fingernails out one by one. Hit 'em where it hurts. Don't subscribe to terrible service with non-understandable support and drop them if you did.

This is what I get for a "premium" subscription costing $80 per month.

Stephen Johnson
Johnson Valley, Ca.
Praying for cable or DSL soon.