WildBlue Satellite Broadband Installation

Yesterday was spent in the company of a North Arkansas Telephone Company tech installing and configuring WildBlue Satellite Broadband in our home.  The installation went smoothly, although it was a long process that took nearly the entire day.  So far, the service is as I had expected, with download speeds testing to be in the 1.5-1.6 Mbps range.  The latency of satellite transmissions is evident, but not intolerable.  Once packets begin to arrive however, downloads proceed rapidly.  I will post my observations and experiences with WildBlue as they occur.

 Now that I have broadband, I decided that it is time to network our home computers.  I have just finished installing Linksys WRT54G Wireless G Broadband router, and it appears to work fine with my main computer (Gateway 820GM Media Center) and the satellite modem.  My upstairs computer (Gateway Select K7-950), which I use as my digital imaging studio, is another story however.  I installed a Linksys PCI Wireless G card, installed and configured the driver software, and voila – NOTHING.  I’ll try to troubleshoot it in the next day or so.

12 thoughts on “WildBlue Satellite Broadband Installation

  1. When we purchased our home in the hills, we were worried about being able to obtain fast-enough broadband. We were informed that the former owner had DSL, and it turned out to be 256k download. Being in the tech field, that hardly fit the bill, so I started pricing a T1 line (which I had previously setup for a client, so had good connections). Unfortunately, that was out of the question price-wise.

    I stumbled after a while upon a wireless provider. While they have occasional downtimes, my speeds are min 1.5mbps up/down and typically burst to 4-5mbps. And with latencies 10 hops out of only 8-10ms, I’m pretty happy!

  2. One of the great disadvantages of being located in our part of the Ozarks is that the topography of the area inhibits effective wireless coverage. We keep a cell phone in the truck for emergencies, but you never know how far up the road you’ll have to hike to get any kind of usable signal on it. At home, it is useless.

    I think the prospect of new towers being constructed in the area is pretty slim, considering that the entire population of the county (which is the size of the San Fernando Valley) is only about 20,000.

    As for DSL, the nearest phone company sub-station switch is about 10 line-miles away. It is sparsely populated between here and the switch, so I doubt another will be installed anytime soon. Likewise with cable.

    Which is why I jumped on satellite when it became available in our region. It is probably the best I’ll be able to do living out here. I can see, however, that emerging technologies are converging on some sort of “multi-purposed, mobile wireless connectivity” that will allow for some amazing things to happen. The question I have is, will I get left behind by virtue of my geographic isolation? Time will tell.

  3. I’m only moving 20 miles north of Springfield, which you know is still fairly populated. So far I’ve had no luck tracking down broadband for our little hobby farm other than the sattelite option, and it sure seems expensive.

  4. Everything seems to involve some kind of tradeoff. When I recently traveled to So. California, I was surprised to find DSL advertised for as low as $19.95/mo. And now I see that the city of San Francisco, using the services of Google and Earthlink, will be providing Wi-Fi access throughout the San Francisco area. It will be free (with advertising), or $20/mo (without advertising).

    Being rural, we will probably never get these kinds of deals. I just accept the fact that internet access will be one of the (thankfully) few living expenses that are higher for rural dwellers than they are for city folk.

  5. Pingback: Ranch Ramblins » Blog Archive » Wildblue Satellite Broadband Update

  6. WildBlue No Installation and poor communication!!

    I contacted the BBB and here is my report 🙂 Now it is time to contact My State Attorney General. This worked for me when I had problems with

    Direcway / Hughesnet.

    Filed against :
    Johnston Communications
    320 E. 3rd Street
    Villisca IA 50864
    &
    WildBlue Communications, Inc.
    Greenwood Corporate Plaza, Bldg. 1
    5970 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Suite 300
    Greenwood Village, CO 80111

    WildBlue Communications, Inc
    P.O. Box 4427
    Englewood, CO 80155
    1-866-WildBlue (945-3258)
    Complaint Description:
    I signed up January 5, 2006 and the automatically took the money out of my account for the dish. I have been waiting over a week for an installer. I contacted them on my installtion date which was set for the morning and they later changed it to the afternoon. Then later that day I called in and they said they would not make it due to weather. So they rescheduled me for the following Monday. If it takes this long to get an installer out here how long will it take if I have technical problems!? I later called them and told them I wanted to cancel and they told me they would not refund me the money for the dish which they took out of my account the day I signed up for $299.00 and I would still have to pay for a full year of service which is another $600. I have a problem with a company that takes your money and takes there time installing and telling me that I broke the contact. They never lived up to their end of the agreement. WildBlue is another Directway HughesNet. Now I am stuck with a dish and no service since they will not refund me the money. I would never do business with WildBlue or HughesNet again. I called in yesterday and they said someone would get back to me. I was never called!! I called today January 16th, 2007 and they told me the same thing. I paid for this service and now I am obligated to pay for another 12 months when they never lived up to their end of the deal. I am tired of the run around. They told me when I first signed up that if it is scheduled on a certain date then the company they have doing the job will be out because they hired them to do so!! Thank you,

    Your Desired Resolution:
    Either install or refund the money

  7. I am signing up for WilbBlue service since I am moving to a remote area that does not provide cable service, etc…

    I just learned there are no static IP’s and you can not use a Virtual Private Network. I was looking at setting up a wireless network. Any feedback is greatly appreciated…

  8. I have been selling and installing satellite systems since 1979 ,it’s always the same story you should alway check out the company you buy from and how long they I have been doing it. The same for the tech installing the system. Now a days if you have a ladder and a pickup truck you can call yourself a satellite installer. LOL . I have installed 1,000’s of systems over the 28 years. out of Hughs Net – Starband- Wild blue – Skyway and many more the best is T3 -T2 -T1 cable- DSL – Satellite and dial up last of all! Why dsl over satellite because of the FAP (fair Access Policy) just a way to suck more money out of you policy it should say!Trust me when a say the satellite business isn’t getting better it getting worst with tele-marketing the worst DON”T EVER BUY FROM SOMEONE WHO DOSEN”T HAVE A STORE IN YOUR TOWN FOR YEARS! Wild Blue is the best Satellite one for now but who knows a year from now.

  9. I HATE Wildblue satellite service. We have had it for six months now and it has been a pain from the beginning. I call weekly for assistance. In July, we were out of service for 21 days. I called October 8 and cannot get service this time until October 29 – yes, this is typical for Wildblue service. We moved and Wildblue & Hughes were our only choices. Call other providers weekly to see if the will provide us service. Prior to moving, we had high speed through AT&T and it was a dream. Wildblue is down constantly, you definitely could not work from home with this server and it is often difficult to make purchases and do on-line banking. I can’t wait until our contract run’s out (which they won’t let us out of) Did I mention – I HATE WILDBLUE ……

  10. I have had Wildblue for six months now and it has been one frustrating day after another. I am continually told the problem with slow download speeds is due to problems with my computer as their end checks out fine. They also tell me that speeds will slow down during peak times. This makes it impossible to do a home business as the speed not only slows down, but stops all together. They inform me that what I am getting is better than dialup. In other words, I should just be satisfied and not complain I am paying for the platinum package (1.5mps) and most of the time, I can not even get the minimum download speed (.9mps). Each person I talk to gives me a different story and contradicts what the previous person has advised me to do in trouble shooting. Now they want to send someone out and charge me. Was informed that it was documented I declined to have problem resolved after noting I would not pay more money out for a service call. That ended their help over the phone, and the person stated to call back if further assistance needed. What a joke. Now I have to wait till the end of the 18 month contract. Lesson learned the hard way. If if sounds too good to be true, better believe it. I would not recommend Wildblue to others, unless you want to really take a risk in hopes of getting what they promise. Am waiting to see if a Class Action lawsuit will show up. Extremely disgusted, and taken advantage of, here in rural Texas.

  11. I got Wildblue a bit over two years ago after moving just south of Ocala, fl. The first few weeks sucked ass and then it stoped working all together.
    My wiff called and the installation company called her names, yes called your names! So I made a few calls, notheing. So my self and my two older boys went on up to Ocala, to the insallers location. Just lucky to be able to have a location of a company to go too, somebody to thretin ya know?

    Well being the owner of 21st Century Cabinets I know the game of subcontracting work out well. To put a long story short, it is a game of dog eat dog and if you can come off as the bigger dog you win. The satellite company sent another installer out to my place to switch out some parts and in doing this I picked up speed and dependability.

    My Wildblue satellite service works good now I can count on 54.0 Mbps.
    I know it’s sad when you need to be able to kick the shit out of them to get what you have payed for.

  12. I don’t think Wildblue is around any more. I believe the operate under the Exede brand now. I’ve done a few hundred Exede installs as well as HughesNet installs. I always felt like Exede was a better product overall, but they were both OKAY – just so long as you don’t try to use them for online gaming on HD video streaming!

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