# To the Bastards at Hughes Net: **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 11, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350 "2006-09-11T23:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CoBa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@CoBa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoBa)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/1 "2006-09-11T23:04:54Z")
Thank you for your service, up until now, you’ve done a pretty decent job of keeping me connected. However, I regret to inform you that **Y\*\*\*\*OU ARE FUCKING CHEAP BASTARDS**. Thank you for reducing my Internet connection to the lowest transfer rate I have ever seen. Fuck off and die. ``` Sincerely, -CBA ``` For explanation, refer to: ]Here]([http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?pageid=fairaccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity](http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?pageid=fairaccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity)[OID[BD8BE0839F414B4FB7CDDCA10EFA5369) ---
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/2 "2006-09-11T23:11:22Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Battery Acid] Thank you for your service, up until now, you’ve done a pretty decent job of keeping me connected. However, I regret to inform you that **Y\*\*\*\*OU ARE FUCKING CHEAP BASTARDS**. Thank you for reducing my Internet connection to the lowest transfer rate I have ever seen. Fuck off and die. ``` Sincerely, -CBA ``` For explanation, refer to: ]Here]([http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?pageid=fairaccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity](http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?pageid=fairaccess&Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity)[OID[BD8BE0839F414B4FB7CDDCA10EFA5369) [/QUOTE] Are you in the 5% they’re talking about? What is it that makes your bandwidth use so high? ---
**Author:** ![CoBa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@CoBa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoBa)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/3 "2006-09-11T23:15:35Z")
An attempt to patch City of Heroes today sent me over the “limit” This causes me to wonder what the “Intended purpose” of Hughes net is. ---
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/4 "2006-09-11T23:20:39Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Battery Acid] An attempt to patch City of Heroes today sent me over the “limit” This causes me to wonder what the “Intended purpose” of Hughes net is. [/QUOTE] I could see where 169 MB (if that is your threshold) is annoyingly low. Hopefully you won’t need to do such large downloads very often. Maybe if you wrote to them with a good case they’ll revisit their policy. (Okay, maybe if _enough_ people wrote. But you’ve got to start somewhere.) ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/5 "2006-09-11T23:25:04Z")
[QUOTE=ThePCapeman] Are you in the 5% they’re talking about? What is it that makes your bandwidth use so high? [/QUOTE] Did you check out the cap thresholds? They’re _ridiculous_. 170-odd megs in 1-4 hours isn’t excessive use in this day and age; hell, it’s not even moderate use. All well and good ensuring that customers aren’t disadvantaged by the greedy, but those numbers have no place on a service that’s sold as “unlimited”. That’s unlimited like an all-you-can-eat buffet max three fries per customer. I’ve never seen a cap that’s based on such a short-term definition of high use. Pretty much everyone downloads large files from time to time; that’s what the connection is for. You’re supposed to be stopping people who’re maxing out their connection constantly, not occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![CoBa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@CoBa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoBa)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/6 "2006-09-11T23:38:07Z")
Will attempt to write them. Will be ignored, but will still attempt. ---
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/7 "2006-09-11T23:48:52Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] Did you check out the cap thresholds? [/QUOTE] Yes. [QUOTE=Dead Badger] They’re _ridiculous_. 170-odd megs in 1-4 hours isn’t excessive use in this day and age; hell, it’s not even moderate use. [/QUOTE] Perhaps. I would guess that Hughes feels these thresholds represent only the top 5% of users, far from the middle of the bell curve. I sometimes need more than that in an hour or two. Just not very often. YMMV. [QUOTE=Dead Badger] All well and good ensuring that customers aren’t disadvantaged by the greedy, [/QUOTE] Good point. I wonder if the benefit to our OP outweighs this downside. [QUOTE=Dead Badger] but those numbers have no place on a service that’s sold as “unlimited”. That’s unlimited like an all-you-can-eat buffet max three fries per customer. [/QUOTE] Most every “unlimited” service has limits. In fact, I can’t think of any truly unlimited services. ---
**Author:** ![CoBa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@CoBa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoBa)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/8 "2006-09-11T23:53:00Z")
The bit that makes me livid, is not that they just prevent me from going over a certain amount, I’m slowed for the next 12 hours to compensate. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/9 "2006-09-12T00:33:27Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] That’s unlimited like an all-you-can-eat buffet max three fries per customer. [/QUOTE] No, it’s more like an all-you-can-eat buffet that only has bread plates instead of dinner plates. I’d be cheesed off too, if my connection was getting screwed with over downloading one file. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/10 "2006-09-12T00:44:00Z")
[QUOTE=ThePCapeman] I would guess that Hughes feels these thresholds represent only the top 5% of users, far from the middle of the bell curve. [/quote] At 700Kbps, the quoted rate for the home product, 170MB represents half-an-hour’s use. They are therefore effectively saying that if you use between 12.5% and 50% and upwards of your connection’s capacity in any short period, you will be rate capped. There’s something wrong with that, don’t you think? If I download _one_ large file a month, I’m still going to get hit. What’s the point of having a speedy connection if you never get to use it? > [@](#): > > Good point. I wonder if the benefit to our OP outweighs this downside. Well, no. Clearly not. Downloading one 170MB file simply isn’t heavy usage in this day and age. If they really need to force people to use such a tiny fraction of their nominal capacity, over such short periods, then they have massively overloaded their pipe by cramming too many customers on. If they sell a service advertising nominal speeds of 700Kbps, but in fact force you to use it at rates of more like 100Kbps (barely better than dialup), then they’re guilty of chronic false advertising; they should be selling at a rate they can actually sustain for more than half an hour. If a guy downloading a game patch constitutes dangerously high usage, then the problem is not with the users, it’s that there are far too many users for the connection to cope with. After all, it’s not some internet commune where the peons should be grateful for what they’re given; this is a paid product. > [@](#): > > Most every “unlimited” service has limits. In fact, I can’t think of any truly unlimited services. I’m well aware. I’ve never come across one so thoroughly limited, though. The vast majority of fair usage policies examine usage over weeks to establish who the heavy users are; they don’t go around splatting anyone who comes close to using their connection’s full capacity on any given evening. Broadband caps are measured in gigabytes, not megabytes. Really; have you ever seen such a stringent “fair” usage policy? ---
**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/11 "2006-09-12T02:52:26Z")
Allow me to paraphrase: > [@Hughes Net](#): > > We regret to inform you that our service sucks. It’s a terribly unscalable system, and we’ve got far too many customers paying for something that we can’t deliver to all of them. As customer bandwidth expectations rise, as they are guaranteed to do in this day and age, the end-user experience will get increasingly bad. Luckily, only a handful of you monkeys even knows what you should expect in terms of bandwidth, so we can push this for a long time before the shit hits the fan. The truth is, we really have no solution other than holding our breath until our customers can’t take it anymore and then collapsing as they all bail out. There is a small chance that once our user base shrivels to a more managable level, the service will be acceptable again, but hey, let’s face it: we can’t make money on that many users, which is why we oversold in the first place. You’re fucked. Please call the cable or phone company. ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/12 "2006-09-12T04:41:30Z")
That’s fucking ridiculous. That’s nothing with broadband. I like to check out shareware demos, movie trailers, streaming shit like youtube or metacafe, hell, some windows service pack downloads are bigger than that. I can do that in less than an hour. But of course you know that the 5% are running P2P apps. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/13 "2006-09-12T06:11:24Z")
Sure would put a crimp in my [MLB.TV](http://MLB.TV) watching. They stream at 350K/sec. Even 30 minutes of the game would put you over their limit. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/14 "2006-09-12T08:10:57Z")
[QUOTE=Fugazi] Sure would put a crimp in my [MLB.TV](http://MLB.TV) watching. They stream at 350K/sec. Even 30 minutes of the game would put you over their limit. [/QUOTE] Actually, at 350k you’d get just over an hour. But your point still stands. When i saw that the OP was griping about download caps, my first thought was, “Well, he’s probably downloaded 100Gb of music/movies/porn in the past couple of weeks, and is now suffering the consequences.” Never in my wildest imagination did i think that a self-proclaimed broadband provider would throttle download speeds after a measly 170Mb. > [@Galt (paraphrasing)](#): > > You’re fucked. Please call the cable or phone company. It’s possible that the OP doesn’t have that option. I just looked at the HughesNet site, and it seems that it is a satellite broadband company that markets itself mainly to people who are outside the reach of regular DSL and Cable providers. And check out the [prices](http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity%5BOID%5B71A9F5B422ABCE4886D9492F66B5B589%5D%5D)!!! For 700 down/128 up, you pay a $400 Equipment and Installation charge, plus $60 a month! Or you can avoid the equipment charge and pay $100 a month instead. If you are willing to fork over an extra $20 a month, you’ll get 1.5mbps down. It’s highway robbery. The only way anyone would ever use such a service is if there were literally no other options. The download caps just make an awful deal even worse. I’m interested to know where the OP lives, and why s/he ever chose this service in the first place. Surely it was due to complete lack of alternatives? ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/15 "2006-09-12T12:58:25Z")
[QUOTE=ThePCapeman] In fact, I can’t think of any truly unlimited services. [/QUOTE] I have unlimited service. At busy points, my speed goes down to about 150kbs (download) but is normally about 400kbs. I can download all day and all night if I want to without question. This is over an ADSL line too - costs me £18.99 a month (say about $30). ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/16 "2006-09-12T14:17:32Z")
[QUOTE=Martiju] I have unlimited service. At busy points, my speed goes down to about 150kbs (download) but is normally about 400kbs. I can download all day and all night if I want to without question. This is over an ADSL line too - costs me £18.99 a month (say about $30). [/QUOTE] I’ve never had any problem with constant downloading either. But if you look in the contract or agreement you have with your ISP, there’s a good chance you’ll find a clause saying that they reserve the right to restrict or cancel the accounts of particularly heavy users. That clause is generally there (at least in the US) even for companies that rarely or never actually enforce limits. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/17 "2006-09-12T14:35:05Z")
I have 5-Mbit/s cable on Rogers in Toronto and I’m capped at 61 gigabytes total download transfer per month… there’s a web page I can check to see total accumulated transfer. So far as I know, there are no short-term transfer limits apart from my plan’s transfer speed and whatever network congestion I may encounter. But satellite… that’s a different beastie. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/18 "2006-09-12T17:02:12Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] And check out the [prices](http://go.gethughesnet.com/HUGHES/Rooms/DisplayPages/LayoutInitial?Container=com.webridge.entity.Entity%5BOID%5B71A9F5B422ABCE4886D9492F66B5B589%5D%5D)!!! For 700 down/128 up, you pay a $400 Equipment and Installation charge, plus $60 a month! Or you can avoid the equipment charge and pay $100 a month instead. If you are willing to fork over an extra $20 a month, you’ll get 1.5mbps down. It’s highway robbery. The only way anyone would ever use such a service is if there were literally no other options. [/QUOTE] There is an alternative satellite service - [WildBlue](http://www.wildblue.com/index.jsp). CBA might want to look into that but that’s another huge equipment charge plus early termination charges from HN unless he can wait out his current contract. And there are FAP thresholds, but they’re way higher than HughesNet’s. I flirted with getting HughesNet at my cabin but couldn’t get past the cost. The additional speed would be great, but I don’t need it _that_ much. WildBlue looks better and if I don’t get laid off in December I’ll probably go with that. ---
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/19 "2006-09-13T13:42:24Z")
Dang! This is timely. I was looking into this service! Thank goodness for people reporting issues. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350/20 "2006-09-13T15:43:32Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] 170-odd megs in 1-4 hours isn’t excessive use in this day and age; hell, it’s not even moderate use. [/QUOTE] Reinstall Windows or a big app like Adobe CS2 and you’ll use more than that just for service packs and updates. Dang. **Captain Battery Acid** - You should at least ask for some free lubricant if they’re going to screw up the ass. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-bastards-at-hughes-net/372350.md?page=2)