Why is WildBlue so slow????

[Lilsmoke]

I have the 512 package and my connection has never been anywhere near that fast

but this is the fastest my connection has ever been

:::.. Download Stats ..:::

Download Connection is:: 365 Kbps about 0.4 Mbps (tested with 2992 kB)

Download Speed is:: 45 kB/s

Tested From:: https://testmy.net/ (Main)

Test Time:: 2008/02/01 - 1:42pm

Bottom Line:: 6X faster than 56K 1MB Download in 22.76 sec

Tested from a 2992 kB file and took 67.058 seconds to complete

Download Diagnosis:: May need help : running at only 41.2 % of your hosts average (wildblue.net)

D-Validation Link:: https://testmy.net/stats/id-TX1DBIAO0

User Agent:: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; RCP000.009.00520/6d58346be78684cad642fa67cb5c7c53; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; Media Center PC 4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) [!]

Should i contact wildblue or is this normal to have that slow download speeds?

[doc1evans]

  I just tested my wild blue speed and it was 3x faster than you got.  I have noticed it seems to be faster at different times, perhaps that is due to weather.

  Last November we had a major windstorm and my wildblue service went away.  I finally had the techie come out and repoint my dish, which I reinforced against any further storms. Even after he came, my service was totally rotten: I'd be dropped continuously, I had trouble connecting, and I went back to dialup.  Wildblue said it was my computer, the modem was connected.  I replaced the cables, I replaced the network card, I tried a different computer, I went nuts and I planned to quit wildblue when the contract was up.  Then I tried yet a 3rd computer, a new Dell running Vista home.  The service was then superb, great speed, the connection wasn't dropped.  Then I opened an e-mail with an Adobe attachment.  I had not yet installed Adobe. After I did my connection was dropped, I had trouble reconnecting: right back where I was.  I uninstalled Adobe and the connection is now fine.

  The earlier computer was running Windows XP-Pro64.  I was told the problem might be flash player, so I had upgraded that.  Now I'll put that computer back up and see if it works after I uninstall Adobe.  I will miss Adobe, I need it for a number of things.

  I got an older computer and installed Win98 so I could run older programs.  I guess that will also be where I view Adobe files.

  Anyway, maybe this gives you a couple of things to try.  You can call wildblue and they'll tell you if your modem is getting the full signal: the dish has to be very carefully pointed.

[Nixxy]

I've used the Internet Service Provider (ISP) Wildblue for over a year. I had problems right from the start because of their equipment, the modem, was defective. For 4 months I logged many complaints because of it, and they always blamed the problem on my hardware. Finally after my continued complaining they had a serviceman come out and he quickly pinpointed the problem that their installed modem was defective. He switched it out and all was fine from then on with connectivity issues. They gave me a free month of service ($49) for my troubles, for which I think I should had gotten the whole 4 months the service was a problem. But I let it go.

Next problem, customer support, extremely long waits on the customer support line. The message when you dial in always says your wait will be 10 minutes, but that is never true, this week-end I called them twice and was on hold for over an hour each time. Most of the time when you finally get the tech, these people are not qualified to handle tech issues, and have limited knowledge in that area. Most of the time they will waste your time without solving the problem.

Next problem, a few weeks ago Wildblue sent an email out that they were going to no longer provide email service for their customers (they were going to merge all wildblue email tasks to gmail, which is a free service to anyone already) All ISP's provide email service to their customers as part of the monthly fees. I view this as a cut in their services, or changing the agreement. Yet it looks like the price of $49.00 a month will remain the same. Isn't this bait and switch?

Well, Saturday morning (3-1-08) was when they switched the email part of their service. Now I cannot send email through Wildblue because of some glitch at Wildblue. They blame the problem on Outlook, my email program, which is not the problem because I sent send through webmail with no problem. Once again they put the blame on something else. 

The first tech took me through steps configure email accounts that I completed before I called. When I could still not send, she was stumped. She then admitted Wildblue was having problems with some people that use Outlook. And that I should try my send email in 48 hours.

I called back thinking this tech wasn't very good either hoping to get someone better. This one was worse, and knew less about what she was doing. And said I needed to wait 24 hours and the email again. Two conflicting statements.

Out of frustration I asked for a supervisor. After another long wait she came on, we went through all the previous steps for a third time. Without any change in a thing. She then admitted their was a problem at Wildblue. And that I needed to wait 48 hours too.

Still not working today.

Is it legal for Wildblue to do this to their customers? I mean anyone can use gmail for free, yet Wildblue