This A Distant Soil cover has never been on the website before.
Long time readers know I have had nothing but problems with Hughesnet Satellite, until recently, the only option where I live for internet service.
For the last month, my internet has been almost useless for most of the day, and it has taken me almost five hours to load this page here. This is beyond ridiculous.
I’m having Hughesnet removed over the next couple of days, and am getting a new service this week. By all accounts, it is not only vastly superior to Hughesnet, it costs a hell of a lot less. Hughesnet cost nearly $800 to install. This new service will cost $50.
I may be unreachable for a day or two, but I expect I’ll be back, entering the 21st century, and even able to do live streaming and enjoy things like Netflix.
My editors are crying with relief at the prospect of my being able to upload art files whenever I need to.
In the over 6 years I’ve had Hughesnet, I have never been able to rely on it, and would easily go over a ridiculously low daily bandwidth limit that didn’t even allow me to watch a video when I wanted. A half hour into a movie, and I’d be over. A download of an audio book, I’d be over.
For the last THREE WEEKS, I have been unable to get a technician out here to attend to the RTT problems with my satellite dish.
Cannot wait to get rid of Hughesnet.
Hooray! Here’s to new internets. Crossing fingers it goes well!
I’ve had similar issues with Telus internet ( >.< )
Paid for supposedly better High Speed Internet but the signal would be <50% in my bedroom from the router in the living room . Finally last week after it crapping out completely on Tuesday, spending 30mins using my data phone to use a broswer to chat with Tech Support (of course only reachable by internet chat but useless if you don't have access to internet) and the connection dropped but I left my mobile # and they called back. Spent another hour JUST doing resets until finally they offered to replace the router. However that requires time off that I don't want to book plus I have a new roomie with an employee discounted bundle with a different company that includes a landline plus cable so I just cut things off with Telus, even without the employee bundle I rather pay more for better service.
Is it wrong of me, that this makes me a little hot and bothered?
I’ve had to deal with Hughesnet whenever I visit my mother. It’s a horrible, terrible service. Supposedly they will inform you that, officially, you shouldn’t be trying to upload images, view websites, or anything else. Oh, no. Officially Hughesnet only exists for email access and does not support things like twitter, facebook, tumblr, livejournal, etc. Terrible, awful, ridiculous company with terrible customer service. They rely on the fact that many of their customers have no real alternative and then take them for all they can with the barest minimum of possible service.
Manteo, you speaketh the truth. It’s just the worst service, along with absolutely awful customer service. I can’t wait to be rid of them.
I hope your new connection is just wonderfully zippy, zippy!
I’ve been suffering with my mobile card connection (very bad, slow connection in my apartment), missing the DSL I had had. But when I’ve thought of what you’ve had to deal with, I stop complaining. I hope the new connection is just super for you!
The thought of watching you create on live streams really excites the process junkie in me! I love to stream when I’m inking, as it shows up on camera very well, and because interacting with my friends, fans and sometimes clients as I work can yeild unexpected ideas and collaborations!
OOF! So glad to know there are others having issues with, and DUMPING, Hughesnet! I CANNOT wait to be rid of them and get a different provider at my place…
Hi Randall. It would be so much fun to do some live stream drawing sessions! I can barely look at Youtube most of the time! I’ve had to drive a three hour round trip at times to do skype interviews. It’s ridiculous.
@Ladyfox: I’ve had clients simply not believe how bad Hughesnet is. Unless you’ve been there, you just can’t understand why the free Wifi you get at McDonald’s in the city is better than this crap service costing me nearly $100 per month. I’ve taken to driving into town just to do things I need to do online, becaus it beats waiting five hours to load one picture on this site.
I called to cancel my service. They gave me such a ridiculous runaround, and then tried to upgrade me to their new, highspeed service for a big dscounted price! What a minute, is that anything like the old high speed service I’ve been paying for that doesn’t work?
So, when I asked for deinstall, they told me it would cost $100. I refused, and told them I not only had a credit on my account, but they owed me for nearly an entire month of down internet. After nearly 20 minutes of wrangling to get them to agree to deinstall for free, even though they owed me money anyway, they then told me I don’t need a deinstall, because my nearly $1000 installation all those years ago was a purchase of all equipment, and since I own it, I don’t need to pay for a deinstall anyway.
Kid you not.
So, they tried to hoodwink me into paying $100 for a deinstallation they knew I didn’t need in the first place.
Oh, and another thing: our iTunes and everything else won’t work or update if your internet doesn’t.
actually I’m finding this picture oddly appropriate, internet connectivity discussion under a picture of Bast shapeshifting to graft herself to the Siovansin…
What’s all this talk about the Internet? I am still in reverie looking at that picture of Bast.
