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#4371375 - 07/28/17 05:05 AM Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T  
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MarkG Offline
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As of today I'm getting with the 21st century, had DirecTV swap out our old dish and 2 boxes for something called Genie HD DVR, plus 3 "clients", one in parent's living room and both master bedrooms. If not for my parents, I believe I could have convinced my wife to just ditch it all and save the expense, we do fine without a TV service (mostly only weekend DVD watchers). And now I have more than ever! I have to admit that the picture is much nicer in HD, the new recording and favorites features are neato, and I do love getting back picture-in-picture (had it in Jax).

Anyway, the technician was telling me that AT&T was testing a new satellite ISP service in Mississippi, and it would probably become available here in about a year. Guaranteed 10 mbps, which is blazingly fast for satellite service. Showed me the dish it uses, very weird looking and supposedly dangerous to stand in front of while it's sending. Also, like the new remotes with this new Genie system which don't have to pointed at the box, this dish doesn't have to be pointed at a satellite, I think it uses cell towers. So at least there's hope for improvement!

He also referred to this...
Feds Give AT&T $428M for Rural Broadband Expansion




The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4371385 - 07/28/17 08:08 AM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
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Brit44 'Aldo' Offline
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Good luck with that.

My home has has ATT land line since Mah Bell in the 60's. I live in the suburbs of the greater Detroit area. I live next to a not small airfield (OPK), but because I live on a two block dead end street, my only choice for wired internet is Comcast or ATT's slowest connection. After 15+ years with Comcast, I became frustrated with there billing practices and gave them the heave ho. It has been 3 years and though ATT claims my connection should be max 256K bps, I have never seen an upload or download speed faster then 30k bps. It takes an hour to download a 10 minute youtube link. LOL and I have yet to see this forum display a hot link to youtube. If I did not hate Comcast and there BS billing I would drop ATT internet in a second.

Funny thing is, two blocks away from this dead end street, you can get any ATT internet packages. Here, you can only buy there slowest package.


TPA who TWI
"The 10th Amendment simply says that any powers that aren’t mentioned in the Constitution as belonging to the government belong to the states themselves."
#4371389 - 07/28/17 09:22 AM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
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VF9_Longbow Offline
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Brit 44 why not start a cooperative internet service provider with your neighbors?

People in Washington state living on underserviced islands did this and it has been working well.
If you're living that close to a main ISP's cables it's likely that you could lease a line from them and complete the link to your own land then set up a series of wireless repeaters fairly cheaply. If you could get around 10 subscribers that would most likely be more than enough to cover line leasing costs.

#4371421 - 07/28/17 01:19 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
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Thanks terrible, Brit44 'Aldo'! frown

I'm confused, because I keep remembering the really crappy numbers from my old HughesNet service, not the newer Gen4 I have now.

Just got in a couple of speed tests (from different sources and they pretty much match) before being throttled at 8AM (first 2 pics). Now I'm being throttled (from 8AM to 2AM) because I used up all my daily bandwidth (10GB/mth) downloading software and watching YT software tutorials. I did a throttled check (next 2 pics), and I'm still a good bit faster than my old HughesNet when it *wasn't* being throttled, still watching YT videos at 360p. So I got nothing to complain about, really.

Note: I could have avoided using up my bandwidth by downloading between 2AM and 8AM, but it hardly matters anymore, I'm fast enough even throttled (for my needs).




Attached Files Before_8AM.jpgHN_Not_Throttled.jpgAfter_8AM.jpgHN_Throttled.jpg
Last edited by MarkG; 07/28/17 01:26 PM.


The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4371602 - 07/29/17 04:32 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 19,581
Raw Kryptonite Offline
Beat the Kobayashi Maru
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The problem with satellite internet isn't just the bandwidth but the latency. It simply takes a really long time to send a packet up to a satellite and back down, then getting routed as usual. That's why gaming is next to impossible (depending on the type of game of course).
Still, it's about time they advanced that tech some. Not everyone games online. wink
Haven't heard about it here though, but maybe it's in less populated areas to test?

We have that DVR setup and love it. Rarely do we watch a show live, and we backlog some instead of watching right away to have between seasons like now. You'll get good at the :30 time advance, hit it 5-6 times to get through the usual long commercial breaks. LOL
Really convenient to watch in either room, but the client boxes are annoyingly slow compared to the server box.


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#4371748 - 07/30/17 01:19 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
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Agree with RK,

You won't be able to game with it, the latency is way too high. Your ping times will be around 1 second to most servers, but for any net activities that do not require low latency it is just fine. You might notice a little lag when chatting, but phone calls / skype calls are going to be a bit of a chore - you'll have to get used to the delay or just avoid it all together.

#4371755 - 07/30/17 03:41 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
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Correct about the online gaming (or so I've read, never had interest in it, even with cable broadband) but Skyping [usually] seems to be alright (mom and my siblings Skype).

The only issue important to me is that my wife cannot feasibly work remotely with her office desktop, too much lag. For example, when selecting a cell in Excel, there's a slight pause (latency) before you can enter a value and even a 1 or 2 second delay becomes irritating over time. The solution is to bring home an office laptop on those rare occasions she needs to work from home.

++++++++++

I've been geeking out all weekend, like trying Linux Live CD distros (some being really small) on my old PCs. Just pop in a USB wireless Ethernet (looks like a flash drive) and the old PC becomes a pretty slick Firefox 'net browser. smile I freggin' love this OS! thumbsup

Last edited by MarkG; 07/30/17 03:47 PM.


The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4371792 - 07/30/17 08:12 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 5,555
VF9_Longbow Offline
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She could open her excel documents in google spreadsheets software. The lag does not show up there except when using certain functions that haven't been loaded by javascript into the browser already.

It's pretty good.

#4372457 - 08/03/17 01:45 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: VF9_Longbow]  
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MarkG Offline
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Things are looking up!

My HughesNet ISP service went down a couple of days ago, was getting an error message about a bad cable. Bah. So this morning I ran my own coaxial from my laundry room where my modem and router sit on a shelf (cracked open the window) to the dish on the other side of the wall, just a few feet away. Service technician was to come on Saturday to run it properly (my Gen4 is new and still under warranty, otherwise I'd do it myself).

HughesNet tells me that instead of having my cable fixed on Saturday, why not upgrade to the new Gen5 at no charge? Actually, I would be saving money with the same plan but with faster speeds, or I could keep the same monthly charge and double my data usage (which I did). I'm very pleased with what I have now (Gen4 is so much better than my previous HughesNet service), I just didn't expect for my brand new modem and dish to be replaced so quickly by something even newer (Gen5 came out this year). The new Gen5 modem doesn't even require a router, has one already built in.

I'll let the board know how it goes.

++++++++++

Originally Posted by VF9_Longbow
She could open her excel documents in google spreadsheets software. The lag does not show up there except when using certain functions that haven't been loaded by javascript into the browser already.

It's pretty good.


I believe they load massive spreadsheets in a highly modified Excel, she probably wouldn't want to use something else. She's liking LibreOffice for home use though (Linux Mint), a little slicker looking than OpenOffice but probably the same functionality.



The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4372466 - 08/03/17 02:20 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: Raw Kryptonite]  
Joined: Dec 2003
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MarkG Offline
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The Bayou
Originally Posted by Raw Kryptonite
We have that DVR setup and love it. Rarely do we watch a show live, and we backlog some instead of watching right away to have between seasons like now. You'll get good at the :30 time advance, hit it 5-6 times to get through the usual long commercial breaks. LOL
Really convenient to watch in either room, but the client boxes are annoyingly slow compared to the server box.


I see what you mean. We have the master server in our living room, it's not only faster than the three clients, it's the only one with picture-in-picture. I don't care so much for the fact that everything we set to record is visible to my parents and vice-versa. Not that we record anything that racy, it just seems like a lack of privacy (I know all recording is done on the server box, but maybe there's a way to localize viewing).

Our box is setup to record "Archer" for me and "The Middle" for my wife, while mom records "Star Trek" and Saturday evening British senior comedies. Wife is getting good at the 30 sec. commercial jog you mentioned, I'm too lazy to bother (read the laptop during commercials).



The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4372498 - 08/03/17 03:56 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
MarkG Offline
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Been doing some reading on the new Gen5 from HughesNet. Since my dish is new, I shouldn't require a completely new dish and pole (not that it matters), just a new feed head(?) and a repoint a few degrees west to the new satellite.

People who have upgraded from Gen4 seemed to be very pleased with Gen5, it's more reliable during bad weather and it's not uncommon for them to exceed 50mbps even during prime time congestion. The most important thing to me is that throttling is hardly noticeable, thus some are saying that Gen5 can be considered the first unlimited data usage from HughesNet.

The way it works is that you get so much data usage a month at full speed, and then you're throttled until a 30-day reset. My original system and plan was 1GB/day with 2AM to 7AM [local time] unlimited. Now it's 10GB/mth with 50GB/mth "bonus" from 2AM to 8AM (an extra hour), no unlimited. So when I exceed my 10GB/mth data cap, my speed is throttled until a reset.

On paper my current plan looks worse than my original plan (less daily average bandwidth and no unlimited anymore), but it's actually much better because my throttled speed with Gen4 is actually faster than my full speed use to be! smile My throttled speed use to be truly dialup, mostly unusable except with older/sparse webpages, whereas my throttled speed today (as it is now, for another 6 days) is very usable. I can even watch YT videos at 360p throttled most times of the day, sometimes even 720p, again throttled.

This new one, apparently, is even less affected by throttling, and I'll be getting 20GB/mth vs. 10GB anyway at full speed, with the same 50GB from 2AM to 8AM. It just doesn't seem as important to ration data as it use to be, because throttling is no longer such a big degradation in speed. Of course, satellite doesn't match a physical connection, but in the rurals, this is what you have.

For affordable satellite ISP (total of $74.88/mth including equipment leasing), this is outstanding IMO. I'm actually happy with Gen4 (my needs are minimal) and getting the faster Gen5 for the same $ sounds good to me. smile



The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4373270 - 08/08/17 12:20 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
MarkG Offline
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MarkG  Offline
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The Bayou
New HughesNet Gen 5 installed yesterday after a delay (installer was waiting for new shipment of modems [w/built-in router]). He didn't have to change out the dish at all, he just repointed it to the new satellite.

I'm now hitting speeds over 70Mbps on satellite!...

Attached Files Gen5.jpg


The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4373288 - 08/08/17 02:40 PM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 19,581
Raw Kryptonite Offline
Beat the Kobayashi Maru
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Nice upgrade!


·Steam: Raw Kryptonite ·MWO & Elite Dangerous: Defcon Won ·Meager youtube channel
·Intel i5-9600K ·EVGA GTX1070 FTW 8GB ·EVGA CLC 120 Cooler
·16 GB Patriot Memory VIPER 4 3000MHz ·GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO WiFi Mobo
· CORSAIR CARBIDE AIR 540 case ·BenQ BL3200PT monitor
#4373456 - 08/09/17 10:58 AM Re: Good news for people in the rurals, from AT&T [Re: MarkG]  
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MarkG Offline
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I did more speed testing this morning, first at 4:30AM...

[Linked Image]

...and then a different test, about an hour later...

[Linked Image]

I suspect the first test is a little more lenient, although I had a couple of over 50Mbps on the Ookla test (should have kept those).

In any case, I get a B- for my ISP! woot

Compare with what I use to get...

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]


I can't find my last Ookla test, I believe it was a direct link, but I know my grade was an F. And now I bet a B-. smile


Attached Files Gen5b.jpgGen5c.jpgIspeed.jpgBandwidth.png


The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run

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