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Apr 4

HughesNET Gen 5 Evaluation 3 Results

This is my Internet speed test 3rd Evaluation of my HughesNET Gen5 satellite dish.

The results of this latest eval show a rather drastic speed decrease when compared to my previous two HughesNET evaluations, but I think these latest test results are the most realistic.

In my previous two evaluations I used several speed test programs — Speedof.me, TestMy.net, and Bandwidth Place. I thought that averaging the results from three programs would be more accurate than from just a single speed tester.

Now I don’t think so. I noticed wildly different results, and some test programs always seemed to skew high. For example, Ookla’s highly recommended Speedtest application yielded contradictory results: it came up with higher speeds for my HughesNET Gen 5 than for the actually faster campground WiFi (see attached PDF for my raw test results).

After some research, I settled on using just a single Internet speed tester: Speedof.me. To me Speedof.me’s methodolody (see “How It Works”) more accurately predicts actual web browser behavior than other Internet speed testers.

OTHER CRITERIA

While download and upload speeds are very important, there are other considerations. One of those is ease of use.

I’ve been able to set up my .98M dish HughesNET system in about half an hour. It’s actually easier to aim than my DISH satellite TV.

Finally, I can live with my latest download speed findings of about 6 Mbps. It’s dependable and allows me to stream video in the middle of the desert.

Apr 3

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River Island State Park (Parker, AZ)

Park Entrance

Our Site #4

Our first stop. We’re here for several days. Notice that we have our big HughesNET Gen5 dish set up. This is because . . .

AT&T Service: none

Verizon Service: 1x (at best)

Campground WiFi: Download speeds between 5 to 8 Mbps. However, it was only sporadically available.

This campground brings back memories for us. It reminds us of all the Wisconsin state parks we stayed at years ago. Electricy and water. No sewer hookups. So it’s campground shower time as our RV holding tanks would fill up mighty fast if we showered in our Newmar. Doing laundry is out too.

Here’s a description of the campground facilities . . .

OLDER CAMPGROUND BATH & SHOWERS

These are located near the Colorado River beach.

The Older Shower/Bathroom Building

Older Building – Typical Shower Stall

NEWER CAMPGROUND BATH & SHOWERS

These are located near the campground entrance. We tried both old & new showers. The new showers had the best water pressure and hot water. The older showers took forever to warm up.