high speed internet

Which service is better Dish network or Wild Blue?

Hi... .Can't comment on your two options mentioned. Have mine through my cable (comcast)... generally great.

Randy

I have a Broadband Card in the laptop. I even workes in the barn, so I can take the Laptop out there, tinker and get on line when I need to look for something. I also use the IM to tell the wife to bring me a drink.

Ssomething that a 12 year old kids can't use. My son just crashed the laptop with spyware again.
It's been out of the shop only eight days since the last total wipe and reload.

I've been on My Clear Wave for 3 yrs. now and it has worked great. For best reception you should have a clear line of site to a tower, but will work pretty good without a line of site. Costs $35 per month.

Dish Network is for TV. Wild Blue is for high speed (unless there's something new I don't know about). I have friends at DirecTV and they now install Wild Blue. I've heard that there are so many on it now that it's gotten really slow. Bandwidth is all taken up now. The speed is about halfway between true high speed cable and an old dial up modem from what they've told me.

We have had wildblue for 2 years now, works really good compared to dial-up and that line-of-site system we had. The only time it doesn't work is during heavy rains and when there is snow stuck to the dish. You will need a line of site to the south-south west at a angle of 30-40 degrees. Our dish is on a 8 foot pole, 100 feet from the house. It is more expensive per month.
I believe that the DISH system now offers internet.
Brian(MN)

I have had Wildblue for over three years. Got the second package up to get extra band width and speed. I send a lot of pictures and large documents and Grandson plays cames on computer. Have three computers on one dish. son can log into work computer from home. On the low priced package if you get sending a lot they slow you down to limit. You do get a notice that this will happen. A severe thunderstorm can knock you off of the air. This package costs about $69.00 a month but is well worth that amount.

I've had both and there was no difference in performance. Pretty quick in downlink mode (when downloading, viewing websites, etc.) and horribly slow in the uplink mode (when you're trying to send out files). I'm using HughesNet right now.

One thing that's a bit odd. There are often websites that won't work at certain times of the day via the satellite link - yet work fine when I revert to dial-up.

Dish Net resells Wildblue service. The cost and packages are identical. The only difference is that Dish will combine billing on the tv and internet services.

We have STE Wireless. We've never had a problem. And it's noticeably faster than the DSL I have at work.

I'm thinking about getting wireless internet on my computer and was wondering how that works,do you actually have to install a card in your computer or just plug it into the usb port and not have to install a card inside the computer?I have an older computer,8 yrs old, and don't know if it has a slot for wireless card.

For TV make sure you can get RFDTV!

B&D, you should go out and buy the software Norton 360. I have the Version 2 premier edition. I had downloaded stuff from Limewire, it was supposedly a bit from Paul Harvey from the 60's but it was loaded with bad stuff. It screwed my laptop up bad, wouldn't shut off for a week or so. I bought the Norton back on Black Friday for $20 and it has removed and fixed all the security issues. If you are having that many issues it would be worth trying.

Newer laptops have it built in. Some desktops do. You likely will need a card or a USB dongle. What operating system do you have, 8 years is ancient in computers, see that your OS is compatable with the USB dongle you get....

--->Paul

I'm using Panada and the top of the line AVG.
Problem is the kid gets on under my full administrator rights. Clicks on an icon and ends up down loading then opening an executable file. In goes the maleware.
His excuse. "I was just trying to download the trailer for Terminator 4". He was told, "do not ever, never touch the computer again".
His mother was purchasing him his own machine to wreck for Christmas. I think she should drop the idea.
This maleware is so smart if re-writes the virus protection software to run but bypass's it's self.
The computer took a real pout when the lan cable was unplugged and it could no longer talk to it's other corrupted buddies.

Hi B&D,

You need too use "user accounts" on your puters, both XP & Vista has this option and very easy to set-up.

I"m the only user of my puter and I use user accounts.

Types of user accounts:

#1 Admin has all rights too make any system changes. My admin account never goes on-line and is password protected.

#2 User with "limited rights" is not allowed to make system changes and is very close too like having a separate puter system. If there"s too many mistakes made then you can just delete the user account and create a new user limited account. This user can be password protected. Admin has too approve all system changes by entering admin"s password.

So I use a admin account that never goes on-line, A limited user account for banking and stocks, A limited user account for general websurfing, with all accounts having there own password. This will stop 99% of the problems your son is creating.

You also need to buy a puter system with a OEM OS install disk. If everything fails then you use the OEM disk to put the puter back to just like it was when it was new or out of the box state. Takes about 4hrs to reload the OEM OS system but is very user friendly. This wipes out all problems of any thing that was downloaded.

I really like Vista using a Toshiba notebook. As long as you don"t do any MS updates, Vista is a smoking fast system compared too XP. Toshiba does not like MS updates. Vista is also more user friendly than XP.

T_Bone

Hi Dave,

According to external_link, one of his goals is for every household to have highspeed internet so I sure wouldn't sign a long term contract.

T_Bone

They both suck. Satellite Internet is expensive and unreliable, and based on personal experience with WildBlue internet and DirecTV television, Customer Service is expensive and slow. 2 to 3 weeks to resolve a problem is not unusual.

If your only other option is dialup, then satellite (when it works) is better, but not by much.

When DSL came to town, I dumped satellite so fast I nearly got windburned. As it happened, my 1 year obligation was up, but even if I'd have had to forfeit my deposit I'd have still dumped it in favor of DSL.

Had Wild Blue for a few months and it sucked. Went to Hughes second level and its not much better. Big problem is the amount you are allowed to download a day. Exceed the limit and its worse than dial-up. Supposed to get 1Mg speed and never have seen above 400K. We use a fair amount of bandwidth because we use internet radio. We don't like the modern crap they call country guess we grew up to long ago. Its rock and roll to me. Only three radio stations in area.

I've got Wild Blue, what a pain. It is better than dial up, and I like it better than DSL but its sure not like a cable modem. Course, here, I cant get cable so that settles that. I had to go to the mid range package as I kept maxing out and getting slowed down on the regular one. As soon as I can get cable internet (Time Warner) Im getting it.

That's one of the reason's why I'm so cranky about the entire situation. My son was in under my account instead of his own limited account.

ahhh, I see said the blind man...lol

Sounds like it would be a tuff sell in the B&D house hold this year

T_Bone