Living in the country, as I do, satellite internet is the only high speed option available. I've been with Hughes for ten years more or less, and when their Gen4 service became available I was upgraded. I found it outstanding . . . for a while. But for the last few months I have been bedeviled by fluctuating speeds. My internet connection goes from an excellent download speed of 20mbps to almost no speed at all, so slow that no pages load and email times out. This happens at various times of the day, can last for two minutes or two hours, and then just as suddenly normal high speeds resume. Sometimes during slow periods I use the hotspot utility on my ipad and get normal service.
Lately another wrinkle has been added. The Hughesnet status meter shows constantly--whether high speed is working or not--that no modem can be detected and/or that I have used up my allotment.
I have been on the phone with Hughesnet for hours, doing tests, eliminating the airport, adding the airport, changing cables, answering their question, etc., etc.. Finally when I threatened to cancel their service an account manager gave me six months of a higher service. She insisted I had exceeded my allotment although I am quite certain I didn't. And of course her solution did nothing to solve the problem.
So I have two questions for the forum--1. has anyone had similar problems with a satellite connection? 2. I've thought of using a Verizon hotspot, since the Ipad hotspot worked so well. Are these hotspots reliable over the long haul?
Thanks in advance for your help.