Any user experiences out there? I'm thinking about getting WildBlue and dumping my slow dial-up... provided I can still use FTP to upload any website changes.

Well, I finally got Wildblue in mid October. It is curious tho... 500 kbps doesn't download as fast as I thought it would, at least not always. I was expecting lightning I guess. I'll tell you one thing... it sure beats 28 kbps!! Uploading capablities, however, is about 100.

Curious about my old 28 kbps dailup, Jamie once asked how long it took me to upload one letter in a word. No longer will I hang my head in shame ... I'm bigtime now!!

I have Comcast for my business, and they say "11mbps" Down, and "1mbps" up.

And you will never get near that. You need to look at the actual "Data Transfer Rates" THat is the speed you actually download at.

You can find your rate at: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

When I run the test I get 11322 kbps Download Speed and 698 kbps Upload Speed

Which converts to 1415.3 KB/sec transfer Rate and
87.3 KB/sec transfer rate respectivly.

That's probably why "500 kbps doesn't download as fast as I thought it would,"

Holy smokes!! That's a bunch faster. I checked my speed at the link you provided and I got 508 download and 109 upload.

I should have added that the package I got from Wildblue was the economy one, $53/month, but one can buy faster speeds. In sympathy for my pocketbook, yet still dazzled by the idea of 500 kbps, it seemed plently fast enough for me.

As for being 'bigtime' now... well, at least I am here in the sticks. I feel 'cool' once again... like I used to be in the '50s and '60s.

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 $264. I have a problem with a company that takes your money and takes there time installing and telling me that I broke the contact.

WildBlue is another Directway HughesNet. Now I am stuck with a dish and no service. I would never do business with WildBlue or HughesNet again.

That's strange... when did you sign the contract? In my case, the installer brought it with him (which I signed after the installation). At that point, I then paid him for the equipment ($199), but it was not until 2 weeks later I was billed the $49.95 monthly fee.

The installation was delayed a couple times however... they were about a week late. I think they are short of installers... mine came from nearly 100 miles away. While installation is free, I had to pay for his gas. So, including taxes and gas, the total I paid him was $240.

Further, it is my understanding Wildblue and Verizon are only the carriers for DirectWay, but DirectWay does not own them... although the new CEO of DirectWay does have a 30% share of Wildblue.

I have never signed a contract with WildBlue. I paid them by phone and then they sent me the dish.

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

another speed test site

http://speedtest.net/

cfer

Allen I'm so glad you're joining the rest of the world and replacing that typist you had uploading all of your files letter by letter.

I love doing those speed tests from the HMS data center just to watch them break. lol

I recently did a speed test on my Windows VPS and nearly fell off my chair when I saw the speeds. HostMySites speeds are totally insane

I signed up for service on January 5, 2007 and after waiting one week they called and said they had to reschedule the install appointment.I tried cancelling but they said I owed them for 12 months of service. At that time I had never seen or signed a contract. They said I could cancel but I would still owe them for 12 months even if the dish was never installed. They told me they do not except returns on dishes that I was stuck with the dish. I tried cancelling but they said I was under a contract They rescheduled 5 times and finally they installed my dish January 22, 2007.Right after the guy left the modem would boot me offline. I called them the next day and they told me they would send another guy out to check on the guys installation. They also claimed I used all my bandwith in 3 days when I was on and offline all week the first week. The same guy showed up to check his own work. He called his tech support using my phone and they both agreed that it was the Tria without checking if it was grounded right. So they replaced the Tria. He also told me if he takes the Tria back and they find nothing wrong they usually reuse the parts for service calls. On his way out the door he said to me that you know the company knows when you are on and offline. I told him I know and I know when I was booted off by your equipment. Less than an hour I was having the same problem so I called Wildblue and they setup and appointment with Johnston Communications. So I called Johnston Communications to confirm the appointment time with Jan. Then her supervisor Jennifer jumped in the middle of our conversation and started yelling at the top of her lungs chewing me out for calling the BBB on Johnston Communication for improper installation and charges. She said that know one in her company took a dime from me. I wrote a check to the tech for $125 for parts that I thought came with the dish when I paid WildBlue $299.00. I desided to cancel and WildBlue tried taking the remaining balance the said I owed for the remaining 11 months. My service never installed properly and they told me that I was unable to get out of a contract a day after the dish was delivered to me. I don't believe I should have to pay the remaining balance after spending over $499 for one week of service and at that time I was only online for 1o to 20 minutes at a time. They also calimed that I went over my bandwith in 3 days after my dish was up and running so the knocked me down to dial-up speed for 30 days. Also it is fraud when you try to attempt to take money out of someones account after I verbally told them they did not have my permission to take the money out of my account. This is not the first time this company has done this to there customers.
Contact the National Attorney General if this company has frauded you out of money. http://www.naag.org/